midnight
Thou art free to seek thy love wheresoever thou wilt in this my realm . Depart in peace ! '' Hallblithe saw that the King was angry , though he smiled upon him ; yet so coldly , that the face of him froze the very marrow of Hallblithe 's bones : and he said within himself : `` This King of lies shall not slay me , though mine anguish be hard to bear : for I am alive , and it may be that my love is in this land , and I may find her here , and how to reach another land I know not . '' So he turned from before the face of the King as the sun was setting , and he went down the land southward betwixt the mountains and the sea , not heeding whether it were night or day ; and he went on till it was long past midnight , and then for mere weariness laid him down under a tree , not knowing where he was , and fell asleep . And in the morning he woke up to the bright sun , and found folk standing round about him , both men and women , and their sheep were anigh them , for they were shepherd folk . So when they saw that he was awake , they greeted him , and were blithe with him and made much of him : and they took him home to their house , and gave him to eat and to drink , and asked him what he would that they might serve him . And they seemed to him to be kind and simple folk , and though he loathed to speak the words , so sick at heart he was , yet he told them how he was seeking his troth-plight maiden , his earthly love , and asked them to say if they had seen any woman like her .