So they stayed some months at the court of Lothian, and Torfrida had a house set apart for her and maids to wait and do her bidding and had full liberty to walk about freely, but she saw little of Feargus, for he was much away on the king’s business. And Feargus knew not how they might get away from these parts, and wondered much how it fared with Edwy and Sigmund.
And one evening it chanced that Torfrida was walking late in her garden when of a sudden from the hedgerows on either side burst armed men with their faces masked. Torfrida, being surprised, stood still for a moment, when she was seized from behind and a cloth cast about her, then strong hands lifted her and she was borne away till they came to where seemed to be horses waiting. She was then taken up and borne on the saddle before the rider, and they rode for many miles over much uneven ground. She could hear that on either side and behind her were horsemen. At length they drew up, then Torfrida heard the noise of a drawbridge and the tramp of the hoofs of the beasts as they rode across; then it was drawn up behind them and at the sound the heart fell within her. They carried her into the castle, for such she deemed it wherein she was. The cloth was now withdrawn from her head and she saw that she was in a large chamber, handsomely furnished and hung around with rich tapestry, and with her was a stout woman in the dress of a servant.
“Oh, where am I, why have they brought me here?” said she.
“Thou art safe, lady; they have brought thee here because my master, the prince, has loved thee since the day they took thee to the king with yon great man thy squire.”
“Oh, tell me who is thy master? I know him not.”
“Weep not, lady; my master is right comely.”
“What is his comeliness to me?”
“Nay, thou hast seen him, but thou wouldst not look upon him, so he was angered, and he knew that his father, the king, set too much store by thy knight to let him take thee from him, even if he had a wish to fight thy lord, which methinketh few men about the king have. So he cast round for a way to win thee, and none other could he think of but the taking of thee in this wise—but there, I am telling thee too much. It matters little, for I am sent, my lady, to tell thee that my master, prince Siegfried, wills to wed thee to-night—for he fears to lose thee still; even now the priest awaits thy coming, and the feast is spread.”
Torfrida groaned aloud.
“As thou art a woman I beg thee to let me hence. Let me go out into the mountains and the woods that the wild beasts may devour me.”