"What canst thou advise?"
"Come with us! Up, away! Mount my horse and ride away with Mistress Rauthgundis. I will follow afterwards. Leave those who torture you till the bright drops stand in your eyes; leave them, and all the rubbish of crown and kingdom. It has brought you no happiness. They do not mean well by you. Who would part man and wife for a dead crown? Up and away, I say! And I know a rocky nest where no one can find you but an eagle or a chamois."
"Shall thy master run away from his kingdom, like a bad slave from the mill?"
"Farewell, Witichis. Here, take the locket with the blue ribbon; the ringlet of our boy is in it, and one," she whispered, kissing him on the forehead, and hanging the locket round his neck, "one of Rauthgundis'. Farewell, thou, my heart's life!"
He raised himself to look into her eyes.
She suddenly struck her horse--"Forward, Wallada!"--and galloped away. Wachis followed.
Witichis stood motionless, and looked after her.
She stopped before the road turned into the wood--once more she waved her hand, and the next minute had disappeared.
Witichis listened to the tramp of the horses as if in a dream. When the sound ceased he turned.
But he could not leave the place.