with any other meat or drink; for when it came to the parting,
Cliges said that he was "wholly hers". This word is so sweet and
good to her, that from the tongue it goes to her heart; and she
stores it in her heart as well as in her mouth, that she may be
the surer of it. She dares not hide this treasure behind any
other lock; and she would never be able to store it elsewhere so
well as in her heart. In no wise will she ever take it thence so
much she fears thieves and robbers; but it is without reason that
this fear comes to her; and without reason that she fears birds
of prey, for this possession is immovable; rather is it like a
building which cannot be destroyed by flood or by fire, and which
will never move from its place. But this she knows not, and hence
she gives herself agony and pain to seek out and learn something
on which she can lay hold; for in divers fashions does she
explain it. She holds debate within herself; and makes such
replies as these: "With what intention did Cliges say to me 'I am
wholly yours' if love did not cause him to say it? With what
power of mine can I sway him, that he should esteem me so highly
as to make me his lady? Is he not fairer than I, of much nobler
birth than I? I see nought but his love that can bestow on me
this gift. From my own case, for I cannot evade the scrutiny, I
will prove, that if he had not loved me he would never have
called himself wholly mine; for just as I could not be wholly
his, nor could in honour say so if love had not drawn me to him,
so Cliges, on his side, could not in any wise have said that he
was wholly mine if love has him not in his bonds. For if he loves
me not, he fears me not. Love, which gives me wholly to him,
perhaps , gives him wholly to me; but this thought quite dismays
me, that the phrase is one in common use and I may easily be
deceived; for many a man there is who in flattery says, even to