[Western] The Ordination of Knighthood [Part Two]

[Charlie Cain / Larkin O'Kane]

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THE ORDINATION OF KNIGHTHOOD (Cont'd)

Then craveth he a leave-to-go
That he may come to his own land.
But the King takes him by the hand
And leads him to his chamber fair
And prayeth him full sweetly there:
"Hugh", saith he, "by the faith ye owe
Unto the God whose law ye know,
Now make me wise: for sore I crave
The right road straight-away to have,
And I have will to learn aright
In what wise one is made a Knight."
"Fair sir," he said, "this may not be,
And wherefore I will tell to thee:
The holy order of Knighthood
In thee will nowise turn to good;
For evil law thou holdest now,
Nor faith nor Baptism has thou.
Great fool is he that undertakes
To clothe and dover o'er a jakes
With silken web, and then to think
That never more the same shall stink;
In nowise one may do the feat,
E'en so to me it were unmeet
To lay such order upon thee,
O'er hardy were such deed to me,
For sore blame thereby should I win."
"Ha Hugh," quothe he, "nought lies herein
This is no evil deed to do,
For in my prison doest thou go
And needs must do the think I will
Howso to thee it seemeth ill."
"Sir, since ye drive me to the thing
And nought avails my nay-saying,
Then riskless I the work shall earn."

THEREWITH he fell the King to learn
In all wise what behoved to do
With face and hair and beard thereto,
And did he cloth himself right well
As to a new-made Knight befel,
And in that bath wash lithe and limb.
Then 'gain the Soudan ask of him
What these same things might signify,
And answered Hugh of Tabarie:
"This bath wherein thy body is
Forsooth it signifieth this.
For e'en as infants born in sin
Stainless from out the font do win,
When they to baptism are brought,
E'en so Sir Soudan, now ye ought
To come forth free from felony,
And be fulfilled of courtesy;
In honesty and in good will
And kindness shouldst thou bath thee still
And grow beloved of all on earth."
"Beginnieth this fight well of worth,
By God the great," spake forth the King.

THEN from that fair bath outgoing
He laid him in a full fair bed
That dearly was apparelled.
"Tell me withtout fail, Hugh," he saith,
"What this same bed betokenneth."
"Sire, betokeneth now the bed
That one by Knighthood should be led
The bed of Paradise to win
Which God gives to his friends therein.
For there a bed of rest there is
Made for no evil man ywis."
So on the bed a while he lay
And did on there full fair array,
Which was of linen white of hue.
Then in his Latin said Sir Hugh:
"Sir, deem not that my word is vain,
The web that next your skin hath lain
All white, would do you this to wit,
That Knights should ever look to it
To hold them clean, if they will well
To come their ways with God to dwell."
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