did, and as their palms met he felt how her hand loved him,
and a flood of sweetness swept over his heart, and made an end of all
its soreness. But he led her quietly back again to their place. Then she
turned to him and said: "Now art thou the woodland god again, and the
courtier no more; so now will I worship thee." And she knelt down before
him, and embraced his knees and kissed them; but he drew her up to him,
and cast his arms about her, and kissed her face many times, and said:
"Now art thou the poor captive again."

She said: "Now hast thou forgiven me; but I will tell thee that my
wilfulness and folly was not all utterly feigned; though when I was
about it I longed for thee to break it down with the fierceness of a
man, and bid me look to it how helpless I was, and thou how strong and
my only defence. Not utterly feigned it was: for I will say it, that
I was grieved to the heart when I bethought me of Meadhamstead and the
seat of my fathers. What sayest thou then? Shalt thou be ever a woodman
in these thickets, and a follower of Jack of the Tofts? If so thou wilt,
it is well."

He took her by the shoulders and bent her backwards to kiss her, and
held her up above the earth in his arms, waving her this way and that,
till she felt how little and light she was in his grasp, though she was
no puny woman; then he set her on her feet again, and laughed in her
face, and said: "Sweetling, let to-morrow bring counsel. But now let it
all be: thou hast said it, thou art weary; so now will I dight thee a
bed of our mantles, and thou shalt lie thee down, and I shall watch thee
as thou badest me."

Therewith he went about, and plucked armfuls of the young bracken, and
made a bed wide and soft, and spread the mantles thereover.

But she stood awhile looking on him; then she said: "Dost thou think
to punish me for my wilful folly, and to shame me by making me speak to
thee?"

"Nay," he said, "it is not so."

She said: "I am not shamed in that I say to thee: if thou watch this
night, I will watch by thee; and if I lie down to rest this night, thou
shalt lie by me. For my foemen have given me to thee, and now shalt thou
give thyself to me."

So he drew near to her shyly, like unto one who hath been forgiven. And
there was their bridal bed, and nought but the oak boughs betwixt them
and the bare heavens.

CHAPTER XXIII. THEY FALL IN WITH FRIENDS.

Now awoke Goldilind when the morning was young and fresh, and she