“Then you really stole his sword?”
“And hid it here, for your sake!” and she drew the weapon from behind the altar.
“Take it. It is yours now. It is magical. Whoever smites with it, need never smite again. Now, quick, you must be gone. But promise one thing before you go.”
“If I leave this land safe, I will do it, be it what it may. Why not come with me, lady, and see it done?”
She laughed. “Vain boy, do you think that I love you well enough for that?”
“I have won you, and why should I not keep you?” said Hereward, sullenly.
“Do you not know that I am betrothed to your kinsman? And—though that you cannot know—that I love your kinsman?”
“So I have all the blows, and none of the spoil.”
“Tush! you have the glory,-and the sword,—and the chance, if you will do my bidding, of being called by all ladies a true and gentle knight, who cared not for his own pleasure, but for deeds of chivalry. Go to my betrothed,—to Waterford over the sea. Take him this ring, and tell him by that token to come and claim me soon, lest he run the danger of losing me a second time, and lose me then forever; for I am in hard case here, and were it not for my father’s sake, perhaps I might be weak enough, in spite of what men might say, to flee with you to your kinsman across the sea.”
“Trust me and come,” said Hereward, whose young blood kindled with a sudden nobleness,—“trust me, and I will treat you like my sister, like my queen. By the holy rood above I will swear to be true to you.”