Did the evil creature hear it too? Did he not strike the faster, that there might be no deliverance; that the deliverance might be too late?
A strange light approached along one of the passages, and all at once One entered the cavern, and dealt a swift blow at the fiend, which made him relax his hold, only to tighten it more painfully. "I have come to deliver those that are appointed to die," said a voice of heavenly sweetness; but the fiend turned on Him with blows, fiercer and deadlier than those he had given the boys, and there ensued such a terrible combat that my very heart failed me.
By-and-by I found that the fiend seemed to grow weaker and weaker, and the Deliverer, though wounded and bleeding, was a Conqueror. The evil creature at last sank down in the mire, motionless, his grasp loosened from the poor boys, and the Conqueror came up to them and raised them from the ground.
Alwin had just sufficient strength left to clasp the feet of his Deliverer with a cry of love, but Edred neither spoke nor moved.
"Edred," said the tender voice, "I have fought, and he who held thee is conquered; wilt thou come with Me?"
Edred groaned.
"Thou wilt not stay here, Edred?" again said the loving tone reproachfully.
"I am not worthy," moaned Edred, "I disobeyed——"
"Nay, nay, thou art not worthy; but I have loved thee, and have done it all for thee. Edred, wilt thou refuse?"
Then I heard a broken cry of grateful acquiescence, and the two lost, hopeless boys were clasped to that bosom of love.