"As God gives me wisdom, beloved," answered Karl.
The boy bent and kissed the lips of the gentle dame who had been to him as his own mother; then, sobbing bitterly, he ran from the bower. In his place knelt Rothada, and on either side of her Gerold and Olvir. Already Hildegarde's mild eyes were darkening; but she turned her gaze to the three, and a smile shone on her pallid cheeks.
"Gerold--brother," she whispered, "God has blessed you. Yours shall ever be a life of honor. Rothada--Olvir, my daughter--my son,--love is yours. Be happy, as I have been happy with my dear lord. Karl--come to me--"
Silently the three rose and gave place to the king. He knelt and drew his beloved into his great arms, and she nestled to him with the sigh of a tired child.
Then the others went softly out of the bower, and left the king alone with his dead.
CHAPTER XV
All the field with the blood of the fighters
Flowed, from whence first the great
Sun-star of morning-tide,
Lamp of the Lord God,