"Free me! free me, Lord Olvir!" she protested in mock severity. "Am I not the king's daughter? By what right do you hold me in thraldom?"
"See, then, dear heart; I free you," replied Olvir, as he sprang up. "You have but to speak, and I bend to your wish, sweet princess. Yet I have double right to hold you fast,--the will of your father and your own love."
"My love!" murmured the girl, and she blushed. Her eyes sank, and she drew back shyly.
"Your love, dearest one," repeated Olvir, and he held out his arms.
But then a sudden coldness fell upon her. The color faded from her cheeks, and the happy light died out of her eyes.
"Lord Christ forgive me!" she cried. "Oh, I did not mean to give way, Olvir. Truly I do love you,--I am so weak and wicked I cannot but tell it,--I do love you, Olvir, my bright hero! And yet--and yet, what is there for us but grief and parting? Even did my father assent, how could I wed one who will not bend knee to Christ,--a--a heathen?"
Olvir caught up the girl's hand, and, clasping it between his own, gazed steadily into her tearful eyes.
"Listen to me, dear heart," he said. "You have listened to the idle tales of others; you shall now judge for yourself. I render no worship to the heathen gods; but each week, as it passes around, I meditate upon the words and deeds of the White Christ. With my whole heart I strive to worship the almighty, all-good God, His Father and our Father. Answer me, then, little vala; am I to be named among the heathen?"
"Ah, the blessed saints be praised!" cried Rothada. "Then all that they tell of you is false. You do not mock at His Holiness the Pope, nor deride Holy Church?"
"I no longer mock, dear one; yet I bend knee only to the will of God in my own heart. What one among your Christian priests and monks, the most learned of whom can hardly spell out Holy Writ, shall say that I am wicked and heathen? I accept fully the sayings of the White Christ, and strive to live them. Enough, Rothada; I will say no more. Choose whether you will give yourself to me as I am."