k for him. He found
her sitting, smiling for pleasure that he should come to her thus; and
he kissed her, and sate beside her for awhile, and they talked a
little of the childish days, for he was still ever a child to her.
Then he rose to leave her, and she asked him, as was her wont, if
there was anything that she could do for him, for it shamed her, she
said, to sit and idle, when she had been so busy once, and when there
was still so much to do. And he said, "No, dear nurse, there is
nothing at this time." And he hesitated for an instant, and then said,
"There is indeed one thing; I have a business to do to-night, that is
hard and difficult; and I do not know what the end will be; will you
say a prayer for your boy to-night, that he may be strong?" She looked
at him quickly and was silent; and then she said, "Yes, dear child,
but I ever do that--and I have no skill to make new prayers--but I
will say my prayer over and over if that will avail." And he said,
smiling at her, though the tears were in his eyes, "Yes, it will
avail," and so he kissed her and went away, while she fell to her
prayers.

Now the day had all this while grown stiller and hotter, till there
was not a breath stirring; and now out to the eastwards there came on
an angry blackness in the sky, with a pale redness beneath it, where
the thunder dwelt. Sir Henry sate down, for he was weary of his
walking, and in a little he fell asleep; his thoughts still ran upon
the sword, for he dreamed that he had it with him in a wood that he
knew not, that was dark with the shade of leaves; and he hung the
sword upon a tree, and went on, to win out of the wood if he could,
for it seemed very close and heavy in the forest; sometimes through
the trees he saw a space of open ground, with ferns glistening in the
sun; but he could not find the end of the wood; so he came back in his
dream to where he had left the sword; and while he stood watching it,
he saw that something dark gathered at the scabbard end, and presently
fell with a little sound among the leaves. Then with a shock of terror
he saw that it was blood; and he feared to take the sword back; but
looking downwards he perceived that where the blood had fallen, there
were red flowers growing among the leaves of a rare beauty, which
seemed to be born of the blood. So he gathered a handful, and wreathed
the sword with them; and then came a gladness into his mind, with
which he awoke, and found it evening; he c