“Marry, no! Why should Oswald take that which belongeth to another to give thee? Hath he not wealth enow of his own?”
“But didst thou not send the woman to me?” faltered the maiden.
“A likely story,” cried Ælfric the juggler. “Is it the custom for a lord to run after a gleemaiden with his gifts? I trow not!”
A loud guffaw from the Saxons in the hall greeted this remark. Poor Egwina was covered with confusion.
“But truly my lord,” said she, addressing Oswald, “a woman did bring it and give it me.”
“Maiden,” said Oswald sorrowfully, “add not to theft the vice of lying. Of both sins the Scripture doth warn us.”
“But I speak the truth,” cried Egwina, clasping her hands. “I speak the truth, my lord, as I live by bread.”
A look of compassion overspread over the thegn’s face.
“Fair art thou, maiden! Too fair to utter such words. Evil hath been thy surroundings if so innocent looking a maiden shouldst so perjure herself.”
“To think that the jade would say that my lord would give away the harp of his gleeman,” spoke Edwy. “Saw ye not, Ælfric, with what longing eyes she gazed upon it?”