CHAPTER XIII

AWAKE!

Long time they sat, though little they spoke; their hearts were too full for speech. And greatly the maidens wondered. At length Feargus arose, for the day was wearing late; then Torfrida stayed him again and gaily ran and brought a helm, bravely wrought with gold and precious stones in the rich interlaced patterns common amongst the Picts, and a sword and byrny of like richness she also brought. Then she bade Feargus kneel while she put the helm upon him, saying: “It is not seemly that so great a warrior should go uncovered. This helm hath sat on the brow of a chief of my mother’s kinship, and long it hath lain aside, being too large for most men; but see, it fits thee like as though it had been wrought for thee.”

And she put the byrny upon him and set the great two-handed sword hanging at his back. “There, no one will know thee; with thy helm and byrny and sword of wondrous workmanship, thou lookest as thou wert wont in the old days.” She kissed his brow and called him her warrior, and sent him forth. And all was lit up before him and he minded that which had happened in the past time. He saw King Penda and his host overwhelmed, and his fight with Osbert and all things else that had chanced since.

And he threw himself down in his old place, but Torfrida, hearing from her maidens that he still lay at the threshold of her hall, went out and begged him away, for fear lest Osbert or her father should know him. “Nay,” said he, “any other thing that thou biddest must I do, thou maid of my heart, for no desire hast thou that is not better than I am, and no wrong can I do guided by thee, but ever rightly and wisely; but here, Torfrida, thou hast asked me to leave thee and that will I never. We have had long leave of one another already. And even if thou lovedst me not, and had not the love-light in thine eyes pierced the darkness my soul had fallen into since that day thou wottest of, I would not leave thee. Nay, Torfrida, neither Sigmund nor Osbert nor any other shall part us twain more.”