el from a lover's lips,
Lord; such as would scarcely have been given by any of our nobles."

"Aye, Quilla, and it is given because I am not of your people and do not
think as they think, who reject their customs. You are not yet Urco's
wife, and may be rid of him by other paths than that of death, but from
the grave there is no escape."

"And in the grave there is no more fear, Lord. Thither Urco cannot come;
there are neither wars nor plottings; there honour does not beckon
and love hold back. I say that I will die and make an end, as for like
causes many of my blood have done, though not here and now. When I am
about to be delivered to Urco then I will die, and perchance not alone.
Perchance he will accompany me," she added slowly.

"And if this happens, what shall I do?"

"Live on, Lord, and find other women to love you, as a god should. There
are many in this land fairer and wiser than I, and, save myself, you may
take whom you will."

"Listen, Quilla. I have a story to tell you."

Then, as briefly as I could, I set out the tale of Blanche and of her
end, while she hung upon my every word.

"Oh! I grieve for you," she said, when I had finished.

"You grieve for me, and yet, what she did for my sake you would do also,
so that, as it were, both my hands must be dyed with blood. This first
terror I have borne, but if a second falls upon me then I know that I
shall go mad and perish in this way or in that, and you, Quilla, will be
my murderess."

"No, no, not that!" she murmured.

"Then swear to me by your god and by your spirit, that you will do
yourself no harm, whatever chances, and that if die you must, it shall
be with me for company."

"Is your love so great that you would dare this for my sake, Lord?"

"I think so, though not till all else had failed. I think that if you
were taken from me, Quilla, I could not live on here in loneliness and
exile--however great the sin. But do you swear?"

"Aye, Love and Lord, I swear, for your sake. Moreover, I add to the
oath. If perhaps we should escape these perils and come together, I will
be such a wife to you as never man has had. I will wrap you round with
love and lift you up to be a king, that you may live in glory forgetting
your home across the sea, and all the sorrows that befell you there.
Children you shall have also of whom you need not be ashamed, though my
dark blood runs in them, and armies at command and palaces filled with
gold, and all royal