CHAPTER 23.
The Leechcraft of the Lady Meanwhile she went to Ralph and stood by him, who now began to stir again; and she knelt down by him and kissed his face gently, and rose up hastily and stood a little aloof again.
Now Ralph sat up and looked about him, and when he saw the Lady he first blushed red, and then turned very pale; for the full life was in him again, and he knew her, and love drew strongly at his heart-strings.

But she looked on him kindly and said to him: "How fares it with thee?
I am sorry of thy hurt which thou hast had for me." He said: "Forsooth, Lady, a chance knock or two is no great matter for a lad of Upmeads.

But oh! I have seen thee before." "Yea," she said, "twice before, fair knight." "How is that ?" he said; "once I saw thee, the fairest thing in the world, and evil men would have led thee to slaughter; but not twice." She smiled on him still more kindly, as if he were a dear friend, and said simply: "I was that lad in the cloak that ye saw in the Flower de Luce; and afterwards when ye, thou and Roger, fled away from the Burg of the Four Friths.

I had come into the Burg with my captain of war at the peril of our lives to deliver four faithful friends of mine who were else doomed to an evil death." He said nought, but gazed at her face, wondering at her valiancy and goodness.

She took him by the hand now, and held it without speaking for a little while, and he sat there still looking up into her face, wondering at her sweetness and his happiness.