“Thou wast ever dutiful.”
“The duty I owe to a dear mistress bringeth me to thee.”
“Thou dost speak of my dear mother whom heaven bless.”
“Then is she blessed in heaven.”
“She—my mother!”
“And when thou shalt next see her, thou shalt be in heaven too.”
“Dead—dead—my mother dead!”
As he spoke Bertram glided from behind one of the tents, but the next moment was lost again. He turned his face angrily away as tears fell from the young knight’s eyes.
“‘Go,’ thy mother said, ‘go, my Alice, to him, and say that, though he has made my heart bleed all his life, I love him heartily; that my last thoughts are for him; that I will pray for him and watch him through his dark hours of temptation. Tell him a terrible power enwraps him, but thou—thou,’ and she laid her hands upon my head, O brother—‘thou shalt be his guardian spirit. I know that I may will it so. The hour must come when between me and the evil I have named my son must make his choice. Be thou near him then, O Alice, be thou near him, that he may pass surely on the narrow way to me!’ Then she lay down, whispering that she would her son were by to close her eyes—and so thy mother died.”
He hung his head and wept for pity and for love of that dear mother.