ed thine Edith, that all
the schemes of thy life are undone, and yet feel no hate for the man who
hath wronged her and thee?--the man who had never been king if thou hadst
not breathed into him the ambition of rule? Think, and curse!"

"My curse would wither the heart that is entwined within his," answered
Hilda; "and," she added abruptly, as if eager to escape from her own
impulses, "didst thou not tell me, even now, that the wrong would be
redressed, and his betrothed yet be his bride on the appointed day?"

"Ha! home, then!--home! and weave the charmed woof of the banner, broider
it with zimmes and with gold worthy the standard of a king; for I tell
thee, that where that banner is planted, shall Edith clasp with bridal
arms her adored. And the hwata thou hast read by the bautastein, and in
the temple of the Briton's revengeful gods, shall be fulfilled."

"Dark daughter of Hela," said the Prophetess, "whether demon or god hath
inspired thee, I hear in my spirit a voice that tells me thou hast
pierced to a truth that my lore could not reach. Thou art houseless and
poor; I will give wealth to thine age if thou wilt stand with me by the
altar of Thor, and let thy galdra unriddle the secrets that have baffled
mine own. All foreshown to me hath ever come to pass, but in a sense
other than that in which my soul read the rune and the dream, the leaf
and the fount, the star and the Scin-laeca. My husband slain in his
youth; my daughter maddened with woe; her lord murdered on his
hearthstone; Sweyn, whom I loved as my child,"--the Vala paused,
contending against her own emotions,--"I loved them all," she faltered,
clasping her hands, "for them I tasked the future. The future promised
fair; I lured them to their doom, and when the doom came, lo! the promise
was kept! but how?--and now, Edith, the last of my race; Harold, the
pride of my pride!--speak, thing of Horror and Night, canst thou
disentangle the web in which my soul struggles, weak as the fly in the
spider's mesh?"

"On the third night from this, will I stand with thee by the altar of
Thor, and unriddle the rede of my masters, unknown and unguessed, whom
thou hadst duteously served. And ere the sun rise, the greatest mystery
earth knows shall be bare to thy soul!"

As the witch spoke, a cloud passed over the moon; and before the light
broke forth again, the hag had vanished. There was only seen in the dull
pool, the water-rat swimming through the rank sedges