ds against
the sill o' th' door.

And she stooped down over him, saying, "He hath fainted for lack o'
food," but I knew that there was both wine and bread i' th' cave. And
she called his name, but he was silent. And she called him again and
again. And at last she bade me come to her side, and when we had turned
him upon his side so that his face was towards us, behold, he was dead.
But Mistress Marian saith again, "He hath swooned away." And she put her
hand upon his brow, but no sooner did she touch it than she cried out at
its coldness, and shook the dead man in her frenzy, crying,

"Ernle! Ernle! thou art free! Wake, man! thou art free!"

I said, "Mistress, mistress, for love of God! Dost thou not see that
neither thou nor any other can wake him more?"

Thereat she fell back upon her knees, leaning upon one arm. And she
said, "Dost thou mean--"

I bowed down mine head, for I could not meet her eyes. And she fell upon
his body, and stirred no more, so that when they came to bear the poor
young lord to the castle, they did bear her also. And for some hours we
thought her dead.

Now when my lady saw them how they lay there, and the sunlight red upon
them like to blood, she came and kneeled down in front o' me, and lifted
up her poor fettered hands meekly, like a little child. And she said,
"Nurse, I pray you tell me what it doth mean, for methinks I am waxing
foolish, like poor Marjory i' th' village whose man fell from the
cliff."

I could not answer her for sobbing.

And she said, "Do they sleep?"

And I nodded my head, for I could say no word.

She said, "Pray you, do not wake them. An they sleep till the morrow,
all will be well." Suddenly her wits came back upon her with a rush, as
doth a wind that hath seemed to be gone for aye. And she snapt the
girdle on her wrists like as it had been a thread o' silk, and ran and
laid hold on him with her hands, and dragged him forth upon the grass.
And she saith,

"Ernle! Ernle! Ernle! What! wilt thou not answer me, now that thou art
free? See! thou mayest ride to war. It is not yet too late. What there,
nurse! My lord's charger! Run! run!" Then leaped she to her feet with
one cry that methought would 'a' cracked the welkin in twain above our
heads.

"Dead! Oh God in heaven!"

So for an instant she stood, with her arms reached high above her head,
and her eyes upon him as he lay at her feet, even as a flame doth poise
for a breath ere sinking again upon the c