ve done these many years, yes,
ever since we were home from the Scottish war, and count the kine
and plough the fields like peasants, while our peers are charging
on the pagan, and the banners wave, and the blood runs red upon
the holy sands of Palestine?"

Now it was Wulf's turn to take fire.

"By our Lady in Heaven, and our lady here!"--and he looked at
Rosamund, who was watching the pair of them with her quiet
thoughtful eyes--"go when you will, Godwin, and I go with you,
and as our birth was one birth, so, if it is decreed, let our
death be one death." And suddenly his hand that had been playing
with the sword-hilt gripped it fast, and tore the long, lean
blade from its scabbard and cast it high into the air, flashing
in the sunlight, to catch it as it fell again, while in a voice
that caused the wild fowl to rise in thunder from the Saltings
beneath, Wulf shouted the old war-cry that had rung on so many a
field--"A D'Arcy! a D'Arcy! Meet D'Arcy, meet Death!" Then he
sheathed his sword again and added in a shamed voice, "Are we
children that we fight where no foe is? Still, brother, may we
find him soon!"

Godwin smiled grimly, but answered nothing; only Rosamund said:

"So, my cousins, you would be away, perhaps to return no more,
and that will part us. But"--and her voice broke
somewhat--"such is the woman's lot, since men like you ever love
the bare sword best of all, nor should I think well of you were
it otherwise. Yet, cousins, I know not why"--and she shivered a
little--"it comes into my heart that Heaven often answers such
prayers swiftly. Oh, Wulf! your sword looked very red in the
sunlight but now: I say that it looked very red in the sunlight.
I am afraid--of I know not what. Well, we must be going, for we
have nine miles to ride, and the dark is not so far away. But
first, my cousins, come with me into this shrine, and let us pray
St. Peter and St. Chad to guard us on our journey home."

"Our journey?" said Wulf anxiously. "What is there for you to fear
in a nine-mile ride along the shores of the Blackwater?"

"I said our journey home Wulf; and home is not in the hall at
Steeple, but yonder," and she pointed to the quiet, brooding sky.

"Well answered," said Godwin, "in this ancient place, whence so
many have journeyed home; all the Romans who are dead, when it
was their fortress, and the Saxons who came after them, and
others without count."

Then they turned and entered the old church--one