"Awake; and come out of the ship, silently--here in the darkness," he
whispered, as I came over the side and let myself drop by my arms to the
sand.

I saw that he was dressed in his armour, and had his great axe in his
hand, as he pulled me into the shadow of the steering-oar, where it
stuck over the stern, its blade of broad silver where it shone to the
moonlight.

"Do you hear the noise up at the castle?" he whispered.

"It is surely Lord Rudolf's brother returned," I answered when I had
listened; for a sound like the grounding of swords and the tramping of
men passing in and out over the drawbridge came to me, faintly, from
where lay the castle beyond the black line of trees: the night was very
still.

"Nay, it is not that," whispered Lord Snore, looming up dim by the
ship's side. "Listen, Witlaf: I love Lord Rudolf's daughter--ah! so thou
knowest?--and this night have I gone up to look at her window where the
light is--nay, listen--and as I was standing there dreaming, I think,
sudden and soft her voice came to me out of the darkness, from just
within the great window that is at the side of the hall, and looking up,
I heard her call to me gently, saying, 'Snore, Snore; come here to the
window-ledge, silently--quick! Back to your ship, Snore--my father is
arming himself in his chamber; I heard the clang of his armour: he is
angry because that I--love thee. The castle is filled with his men, and--I
love thee!'"

And the lord's great hand was raised in the darkness.

"Now, Witlaf," he whispered, and I heard his voice tremble, "the maiden
is safe in the ship; but thou knowest," and his voice grew firm, "that
the half of our men lie drunk on the fore-deck--and 'tis hard to move
ship with so few. Say, Minstrel, wilt thou hold the ship while I, with
the rest, warm my hands at the castle?"

And thus it was that I, the harper of Lord Snore, came to be sitting in
the moonlight inside the ship, with my harp by my knee, and my axe in
my hand, and a pale-faced maiden beside me who listened in silence to
the distancing tread of my lord and his men as they stealthily passed up
the path towards the castle.

So, seemingly for years and years, we sat there, with the water lapping
against the side of the ship, and the sound of the straining of leather
and the shuffling of feet as the men sleepily put on their arms on the
fore-deck. Then, more years passed, and the maiden shivered and crept
closer, and I put my great skin-