‘Fair son, you now have heard,’ she said,
‘That God hath us to this place led.
It is your father who here doth lie,
Whom this old man slew wrongfully.’
With this she fell dead at her son’s feet; and forthwith he drew the sword from its jewelled scabbard, and with one swift blow smote off the old lord’s head.
Thus did he avenge the wrongs of his parents, whom he vowed to keep in his remembrance while life should last.”
The fruit trees were a-glow with blossom when we reached Normandy, and the pink and white Elves who played hide-and-seek in the boughs were as lovely as Titania. We spent some time at a big farm, where Father had stayed long ago with Mother, and we drove all over the country in the farmer’s gig.
One day I woke quite early, when the birds had only just commenced to twitter, and the sky was still rosy with dawn. I threw open my little casement window as wide as it would go, and the air smelt so sweet, and it was all so beautiful, that I longed to be out-of-doors. In the quiet of the early morning the Elves might be abroad, so I slipped on my things and stole down to the orchard. And there, sure enough, were the Elfin hosts.