They said the high-born maiden her love did freely own
Unto their master, Hettel, for whom they now had sought her;
They talked with wise old Wâ-te how best to bring her home across the water.
[427]
Then spake the aged Wâ-te: “Were she once outside the gate,
And I the lovely maiden there might only meet,
However hard the struggle that there we had with the foeman,
To cross her father’s threshold none again should see that lovely woman.”
[428]
Their plot, well-laid and crafty, to no one did they break,