e horse by its bridle and looked up
at her as she talked. Down the green forest way they came in the mellow
shade and sunshine, fair as gods, radiant in their youth and life and
happiness, with eyes for nothing, ears for nothing, save each other.

"It is Wardo!" said Nicanor, in surprise. "Sure I had thought him on the
way to Gaul."

He pressed through the thicket and stepped into the road. Wardo saw him,
and dropped the bridle with an exclamation, and ran forward.

"Thou!" he cried, and fell upon Nicanor in a storm of joy. "Thou great
rascal, I had thought thee dead. Where hast been that thou didst not
seek me? When didst leave the mines? Hast heard of what befell our lord?
Oh, I have hungered for thee, to tell thee the good fortune which is
mine!"

The horse came up to them, with the girl in the crimson mantle sitting
stately on its back. Her eyes were blue and shining; her cheeks were
flushed with the rose of life. Nicanor smiled at her and at his friend.

"So, Sada?" he said, with a note in his voice which neither caught. "All
is then as it should be?"

"Ay, promise you that!" said Wardo, a hand on the girl's knee. She
smiled down into his eyes. "She is mine now. This day did I take the
gold to Chloris, and the cage-door opened, and my bird was free. My bird
now, and no other man's."

"Thine!" she murmured, radiant.

"When our lord departed for Gaul, I was left behind in the confusion."
So Wardo told his tale. "Well, perhaps I need not have been, had not the
gods willed it so. Therefore I was my own man, and could not be held to
account for it, since my lord ran away from me, not I from him. So I
joined those East Saxons who are moving down upon us from the Fens, and
henceforth my lot is cast with them. For some of these I repaired
swords, bucklers, what not, since my old trade is not lost to me, and
for my work they gave me gold--ay, much gold. And with the gold I bought
Sada. Now we go forth to seek our nest; where, we care not. She is mine,
and I am free. Ye holy gods, but it is fine for a man to own himself and
call none other lord! No man ever more shall hold me slave to him.
Henceforth we be rovers, this star of my life and I. Come thou with us,
friend! If thou stay here, thou'lt be held no better than _erro_, a
landless, masterless wanderer, who is fair game for the law and for all
men. Had my lord stayed, thou knowest that I too should have remained
faithful. He being gone, we must fend for ourselve