"I must trust so, or I should not feel I had really forgiven, and I cannot give my hand where my heart is not; but yet it was such a fight. 'Tis easy to stand in the deadly gap and keep the foe from a beleaguered citadel: men praise the deed, and there is a feeling of conscious pride which sustains one, but the truly great deeds are those which no chronicler records. It requires more bravery to forgive sometimes than to avenge."
"I can well believe that, my lord."
"Well, if my path has been beset with foes, so has it with friends. Such love as yours, Alfgar, I say as yours has been!-- well, few kings share such affections."
"My lord, you first loved me; at least you saved me from a fearful death."
"And you have warded off death from me again and again in the battlefield; nay, deny it not, nor say it was merely your duty, men do not always do such duty."
"My lord, you praise me more than I can feel I deserve."
"Not more than I feel you deserve, and yet were not this your last night as my companion, were not tomorrow's ceremony to separate us, perhaps for ever, I do not think I should thus overwhelm your modesty.
"You blush like a girl," said he, laughingly.
He lingered some time, and seemed loath to undress. At last he said:
"Have you seen the messenger Canute sent me?"