"He has shown little paternal care for me; yet when you seized me I was about to seek his direction. Why not let me go, and let him decide for me?"
"A truce to folly. We know what Wulfnoth of old would have said, when he was our leader. He gave himself heart and soul to the cause—to avenge thy slaughtered kinsfolk. And now that one whom he trusted and loved well is a prisoner in that hell which you have left, can we think that he would hesitate about your duty? Why then waste time in consulting him? I appeal to your conscience. Where is Herwald?"
Osric was silent.
"By the memory of thy grandfather."
Still silence.
"Of thy murdered mother, expiring in the flames which consumed thy brothers and sisters."
Osric gave a loud cry.
"No more," he said, "no more; I will tell thee: Herwald lives."
"Where?"