tle.

CHAPTER V: THEY COME UNTO THE ISLE OF RANSOM

So the sun grew low, and it set; the stars and the moon shone a while and
then it clouded over. Hallblithe still rowed and rested not, though he
was weary; and the big man sat and steered, and held his peace. But when
the night was grown old and it was not far from the dawn, the alien said:
"Youngling of the Ravens, now shalt thou sleep and I will row."

Hallblithe was exceeding weary; so he gave the oars to the alien and lay
down in the stern and slept. And in his sleep he dreamed that he was
lying in the House of the Raven, and his sisters came to him and said,
"Rise up now, Hallblithe! wilt thou be a sluggard on the day of thy
wedding? Come thou with us to the House of the Rose that we may bear
away the Hostage." Then he dreamed that they departed, and he arose and
clad himself: but when he would have gone out of the hall, then was it no
longer daylight, but moonlight, and he dreamed that he had dreamed:
nevertheless he would have gone abroad, but might not find the door; so
he said he would go out by a window; but the wall was high and smooth
(quite other than in the House of the Raven, where were low windows all
along one aisle), nor was there any way to come at them. But he dreamed
that he was so abashed thereat, and had such a weakness on him, that he
wept for pity of himself: and he went to his bed to lie down; and lo!
there was no bed and no hall; nought but a heath, wild and wide, and
empty under the moon. And still he wept in his dream, and his manhood
seemed departed from him, and he heard a voice crying out, "Is this the
Land? Is this the Land?"

Therewithal he awoke, and as his eyes cleared he beheld the big man
rowing and the black sail flapping against the mast; for the wind had
fallen dead and they were faring on over a long smooth swell of the sea.
It was broad daylight, but round about them was a thick mist, which
seemed none the less as if the sun were ready to shine through it.

As Hallblithe caught the red man's eye, he smiled and nodded on him and
said: "Now has the time come for thee first to eat and then to row. But
tell me what is that upon thy cheeks?"

Hallblithe, reddening somewhat, said: "The night dew hath fallen on me."

Quoth the sea-rover, "It is no shame for thee a youngling to remember thy
betrothed in thy sleep, and to weep because thou lackest her. But now
bestir thee, for it is later than thou mayest deem."