e away from me, and my heart is dry; I have had
friends and I have wearied of them. I have profited nothing; I have
wasted my strength in foolish dreams of pleasure, and I have not found
it. I am as a weed that cumbers the fair earth."

Then he stayed for a moment, for he was afraid; for it seemed to him as
though somewhat stood near to listen. Then he said again:--

"But, Lord, I do indeed love my fellow men a little; and I would have
the waste of life stayed. It is a pitiful thing that I have to offer,
but it is all that I have left--an empty life, which yet I love. I will
not promise, Lord, to yield my life to the service of men, for I love my
ease too well, and I should not keep my word--so I offer my life freely
into Thy hand, and let it avail that which it may avail."

Then the blackness seemed to gather all about him, and he felt with his
hand in the turf and found the sword; then he drew the scabbard off, and
flung it down beside him, and he raised the sword in his hands.

Then it seemed as though the heavens opened above him, but he saw not
the fire, nor heard the shouting of the thunder that followed; he fell
on his face in the turf without a sound and moved no more.

Now it happened that about the time that he unsheathed the sword, it
came into the heart of the king to send a herald to the barons; for he
saw the host spread out below him on the plain, and he feared to meet
them; and the barons, too, were weary of fighting; and the king bound
himself by a great oath to uphold the law of the realm, and so the land
had peace.

The next day came a troop of men-at-arms along the hill; and they
wondered exceedingly to see a man lie on the mound with a sword in his
hand unsheathed, and partly molten. He lay stiff and cold, but they
could not tell how he came by his death, and they knew not what he had
done for the land; his hand was so tightly clenched upon the sword, that
they took it not out, but they buried him there upon the hill-top, very
near the sky, and passed on; and no man knew what had become of him. But
God, who made him and had need of him, knoweth.

* * * * *

Renatus

Renatus was a Prince of Saxony that was but newly come to his princedom;
his father had died while he was a boy, and the realm had been
administered by his father's brother, a Duke of high courage and
prudence. The Duke was deeply anxious for the fate of the princedom and
his nephe