"The word."
"Mathias."
"Advance, friend, and give the countersign."
This challenge was replied to, and a woman appeared at the narrow entrance to the mountain pass.
Slowly she walked through, her head drooping and her eyes fixed upon the ground.
They recognised her now.
It was the wife of their chieftain, the bold Mathias.
"I scarcely knew you," said the sentry, apologetically.
She looked up and smiled in a strangely vacant manner.
The other said nothing. Her manner impressed them with ugly feelings.