But she did not move from where she stood, only saying: “You have a very sweet and strong voice for one so wasted with sickness and hunger.”
Then he said to her: “I am the lord Siewert Halewyn. Go to my castle and ask to be taken to my lady mother, and without speaking to any one else, whosoever he be, tell her that her son is hard put to it in the forest with hunger, fever, and weariness, and will die before long if none bring him help.”
The girl went off as he bid her, but coming out of the wood she saw in the Gallows-field the body of the maid hanging, and ran away in a fright. Passing into the territory of Sir Roel de Heurne she craved food and drink at the cottage of one of his peasants. And there she told how she had found Sir Halewyn dying of hunger. But she was told in reply that the said lord was crueller and more wicked than the devil himself, and should be left to be eaten by the wolves and other beasts of the forest.
And the Miserable waited, lying in the leaves in great anguish.
And so passed the fourth day.
And at dawn of the fifth, having seen no more of the girl, he supposed that she had been caught by the priests and taken back to Bruges to be burnt.
Quite disheartened, and chilled with the cold, and saying that he would soon die, he cursed the Prince of the Stones.
Nevertheless, at vespers he sang once more.
And he was then by the side of a forest way.
And he saw coming through the trees a fair maid, who fell on her knees before him.