XCVI
Then laugh’d the gay lord and lightly he said:
“I shall hold it all heal’d, the harm that I had; Thou art confessèd so clean, and clear’d of misdeed, And the penance hast paid at the point of mine axe, That I hold thee as surely assoil’d of thy sin As if thou never hadst faulted since first thou wert born. And I give thee, for guerdon, the gold-hemm’d girdle; It is green as my gown, and by it, Sir Gawain, Thou may’st mind on this mellay each morn that thou ridest With princes of price: ’tis thy precious token Of this chance at the chapel, ’mongst chivalrous knights. Now ye shall come this New-Year to my castle again And we’ll revel the remnant of this feast so rich, with joy.”
Then press’d him that gay lord:
“With my fair wife, think I, We shall you well accord, That was your enemy.”