d in a great castle and owned broad lands,
more than one could see from the whole mountain, and his people had
brought him in and asked him many questions of him, and had offered him
gold to bring the letter back, and he had refused the gold, and brought
it without the gold; and some said he had deceived more than one woman.
And Lord Harold went to get ready, and she wept, and moaned, and was
strange. And then Cnut went to her and told her of his own love for her,
and that he was loyal to her, but she waved him from her, and when he
asked her to marry him, for he loved her truly, she said him nay with
violence, so that he came forth into the air looking white as a leper.
And he sat down, and when I came out he was sitting on a stone, and had
his knife in his hand, looking at it with a dangerous gleam in his eyes;
and just then she arose and came out, and, seeing him sitting so with
his knife, she gave a start, and her manner changed, and going to him
she spoke softly to him for the first time, and made him yield her up
the knife; for she knew that the knife hung loose in the sheath. But
then she changed again and all her anger rose against Cnut, that he had
brought Harold the letter which carried him away, and Cnut sat saying
nothing, and his face was like stone. Then Lord Harold came and said
he was ready, and he asked Cnut would he carry his luggage. And Cnut at
first refused, and then suddenly looked him full in his face, and said,
'Yes.' And Harold entered the house to say good-by to her, and I heard
her weeping within, and my heart grew hard against the Englishman, and
Cnut's face was black with anger, and when Harold came forth I heard her
cry out, and he turned in the door and said he would return, and would
write her a letter to let her know when he would return. But he said it
as one speaks to a child to quiet it, not meaning it. And Cnut went in
to speak to her, and I heard her drive him out as if he had been a
dog, and he came forth with his face like a wolf's, and taking up Lord
Harold's luggage, he set out. And so they went over the mountain.

"And all that night she lay awake, and I heard her moaning, and all next
day she sat like stone, and I milked the goats, and her thoughts were on
the letters he would send.

"I spoke to her, but she spoke only of the letters to come, and I kept
silence, for I had seen that Lord Harold would come no more; for I had
seen him burn the little things she had given him, and