Next came his Love, and clasped the bars, and wept upon them.
"Let him out!" she cried. "We are too young to die, and without him I cannot live."
Last came his mother, for she had a long way to come.
"What is all this ado?" she said. "Let me in to him!" and she broke the bars and entered.
THE THORN
When the youth started, he passed through the Forbidden Wood, and wandered there, plucking and tasting the fruit, smelling the flowers, evil and sweet; and as he plucked and smelled, it chanced that a thorn entered his breast, for it lay open. He took little heed, for he was young, and the life strong in him; so the thorn made its way in, and presently was buried in the flesh; and he forgot it, for it gave him no hurt.