And at vespers the lady Gonde, leaving the great hall to go to the kitchen for the ordering of supper, on opening the door saw Toon before her. He seemed loth to come in, and hung his head as if with shame.
The lady Gonde, going to him, said: “My son, why do you not come into the hall to bid good evening to the lord your father?”
The Silent, without answering, went into the hall, and muttering short and sullen words by way of salutation, went to sit in the darkest corner.
And the lady Gonde said to Sir Roel: “Our son is angry at something, I think, since he goes off into a dark corner far away from us, against his habit.”
Sir Roel said to the Silent: “Son, come hither to the light that we may see thy face.”
He obeyed, and Sir Roel, the lady Gonde, and the sorrowing Magtelt saw that he was bleeding from the head and from the neck, and cast down his eyes, not daring to look them in the face.
The lady Gonde cried out with fright on seeing the blood, and Magtelt came to him, and Sir Roel said: “Who has given my son this shamed countenance, this downcast heart, and these wounds in his body?”
The Silent answered: “Siewert Halewyn.”
“Why,” said Sir Roel, “was my son so presumptuous as to attack the Invincible?”
The Silent answered: “Anne-Mie hanged in the Gallows-field of Siewert Halewyn.”