, but halted when the red-cloaked page,
who had been stretched near him on the bench, started up as though
preparing to accompany him. "Stay where you are, lad. These fasts from
sleep will parch your young brains. I go up to the platform because I
would rather walk than rest; but do you remain here by the fire and try
to catch a drowsiness from its heat."

But the page advanced with the old wilful shake of his curly head. "I
also would rather walk, if you please." As he looked at him, compassion
came into the Etheling's face. The hollowness of their sockets made
the boy's large eyes look larger, and his fever-flush trebled their
brightness. Sebert said, with a poor attempt at a smile, "Little did
I think that my hospitality would ever produce such a guest. Poor
youngling! You would better have crept out to your countrymen, as I bade
you."

Again the dark head shook obstinately. "Rather would I starve with you
than feast with them. I go not out till you go."

Something seemed to come into the young man's throat as he was about to
speak, for he swallowed hard and was silent. Putting an arm about the
slender figure, he drew it to his side; and so they left the room and
began to climb the stairs.

As soon as the curtain fell at their heels a stifling mustiness came
to their nostrils, and a chill that was like the flat of a knife-blade
pressed against their cheeks. They drew breath thankfully when they
had come up into the sweet freshness of the night air. Flashing on the
weapons of the pacing sentinels, a glory of silver moonlight lay like
a visible silence over the parapets. In the darkness below, a sea of
forest trees was murmuring and splashing at the passing of a wind. Yet
deeper down in the dark glowed the fires of the Danish camp,--red eyes
of the dragon that would rise ere long and crush them under his iron
claws.

After they had twice made the round without speaking, the page said
gravely, "I heard what Brithwald told you about the bread, lord. What
will overtake us when that is gone? Shall we charge them, so that we
may die fighting?" When the Etheling did not answer immediately, his
companion looked up at him with loving reproach. "You forget that you
need conceal nothing from me, dear lord. I am not as those clowns below.
You have even said that you found pleasure in telling me your mind."

Sebert's hand was lifted from the red cloak to touch the thin cheek
caressingly. "I should be extreme ungrateful were