And turn we to Joanna, left behind
This long while in my writing, from the day
That she to Gerbert dared the love unbind,
Which she for Mano cherishing let prey
Upon her tender heart right wretchedly:
And then had been by Gerbert swept away
Into a secret place of nunnery,
Which hight Beyond Four Rivers: there she stayed,
Pining her tender heart in malady.
Thus Gerbert's first intention was delayed,
To cure her love: could love desert his throne
While expectation still his realm upstayed?
For of the knight though tidings heard she none,
Yet knew she not that Gerbert ne'er had ta'en
Any meet cause or fit occasion
Her trembling heart to Mano to make plain,
The which she hoped, what time she made it known,
And let her sick mind to his ear complain.
Though all was covered now like buried stone,
Yet oft she looked upon that sealed scroll
Which holy Gerbert gave to her alone,
And at the time forbade her to unroll
Ere either from himself commandment came,
Or that she heard of his death-parted soul.
Full oft her sad eyes rested on the same,
And her hands handled it, and pressed it close
Upon her bosom and heart's aching flame
But when no rede she heard, nor yet arose
The sun that set on Gerbert's wondrous doom,
This lingering hope within her slowly froze.
Then paleness gan her gentle youth consume,
And that small scroll was torment, sith she knew
That all that she should know therein had room.
Oh limit of strict fate! was it then heaven's due,
Gerbert, to hold that faithful love concealed,
Which maiden heart trembled to thee to show?
To bid her hold a secret ever sealed,
Which all too late to knowledge came at last,
As that may poison worst that best had healed?
For now, when Mano was in prison fast,
Sentenced to death, and waiting for his end,
Throughout all lands the wondrous rumour passed
How Gerbert from the earth with fiends did wend:
Which awful thing, by all men now averred,
I neither here affirm, nor yet defend:
But this I say, that no man better heard
Than Gerbert of those friends who knew him well,
Albeit that he in Mano greatly erred.
And here most part, methinks, 'twas Fortune's spell
Which him who elsewhere ever nobly dealt,
Evilly to deal in this man did compel.
Full often policy her sway hath felt
To single men destructive and severe;
And public care Love's waxen wings may melt.
But when Joanna heard this rumour clear,
With shaking hand the secret gan she feel,
If still it lay upon her breast of fear.
A moment, and she doth the wax unseal,
And read the writing of the more than dead,
While joy and wonder through her bosom steal.
For to this end was written what she read:
That Mano was of the old Duke Richard son
By one whom he by guile, not ring, had wed,
Hight Harleve: who did henceforth all men shun,
And thence set forth in foreign lands to fare,
Where double fruit from her beheld the sun,
A boy and girl, whom she expired to bear:
That thus much to the old Duke had been known,
Namely, the birth of them, the death of her:
Who, in his penitence, the same had shown
To Gerbert, bidding him the children seek,
That he through them the mother might atone:
That of the girl no tidings were to speak:
But that the boy in low estate was found,
And long time tossed in Fortune's tempest bleak,
Now grown a knight, noble as stood on ground,
Namely, that Mano who in Italy
With Thurold kept the Norman marches round:
That therefore to the young Duke Richard he
Half-brother was, and to the Archbishop,
Robert of Rouen, in the same degree:
Commending him to them, the scroll did stop:
And it was signed with Gerbert's hand and ring,
And to those twain salutem gave atop.
Another writing was there, carrying
Unto Joanna further solacement:
That hitherto Gerbert had kept this thing
Hidden from all, through politic intent
That Mano might with single mind fulfil
Those ends for which his life was to be spent;
And of the sacred vow be mindful still
Whereby he mindful was to dedicate
Who reared him, and for precept did instil
To be of Holy Church a champion great: —
But that henceforth his own will might he use
(Being hence absolved from service high and strait),
What earthly lot he would to take and choose:
And, if he chose that maid who loved him well,
His master there to smile would not refuse.
Which when Joanna read, adown she fell
In a great swoon for joy and fluttered heart:
But rose anon more quicklier than I tell:
And from that house made ready to depart:
To seek the Archbishop and the Duke: and so
To Rouen was she bound, as to the mart
Where she for happiness should barter woe.