stand you," Randalin said wearily, sinking on the grass
and passing her hands over her strained eyes. "When a man looks with
eyes of longing upon another man's property, it is to be expected that
he will do as much evil as luck allows him. Though he has got Baddeby,
Norman was covetous of Avalcomb. When his lord, Edric Jarl, was still
King Edmund's man, he twice beset the castle, and my father twice held
it against him. And his greed was such that he could not stay away even
after Edric had become the man of Canute."

It was the nun's turn for bewilderment. "The man of Canute? Edric of
Mercia, who is married to the King's sister? It cannot be that you know
what you say!"

"Certainly I know what I say," the girl returned a little impatiently.
"All English lords are fraudulent; men can see that by the state of the
country. Though he be thrice kinsman to the English King, Edric Jarl has
joined the host of Canute of Denmark; and all his men have followed him.
But even that agreement could not hold Norman back from Avalcomb. He
lay hidden near the gate till he saw my father come, in the dusk, from
hunting, when he fell upon him and slew him, and forced an entrance--the
nithing! When he had five-and-fifty men and my father but twelve!"

She paused, with set lips and head flung high. The nun got down stiffly
beside her and laid a gentle hand upon her knee.

"Think not of it, my daughter," she urged. "Think of your present need
and of what it behooves us to do. Tell me how you escaped from the
chamber, and why you wear these clothes."

"They were Fridtjof's." She spoke his name very softly. "I found them
hanging on the chamber wall. In the night the men began to entertain
themselves with singing, and it could be heard that they were getting
drunk. It had been in my mind that I would stay where I was until they
forced the door; then, because I would like it better to die than to
marry any of them, I would throw myself out of the window, and the
stones below would cause my death. But now it came to me that if I could
dress so that they would not notice me, there were many good chances
that I might slip past them and get out through the postern. I waited
till they were all still, and then I crept into the women's room, and
found the bondmaids huddled in their beds. They got afraid at the sight
of me, for they thought I was Fridtjof's ghost; and they dared not move.
So I had to go down alone." She shuddered in spite of herself.