f; "have I not told thee that she
is the Enemy? And thou askest of what she hath done! of what! Fool, she
is the murderer! she hath slain the Lady that was our Lady, and that made
us; she whom all we worshipped and adored. O impudent fool!"

Therewith he nocked and loosed another arrow, which would have smitten
Walter in the face, but that he lowered his head in the very nick of
time; then with a great shout he rushed up the bent, and was on the Dwarf
before he could get his sword out, and leaping aloft dealt the creature a
stroke amidmost of the crown; and so mightily be smote, that he drave the
heavy sword right through to the teeth, so that he fell dead straightway.

Walter stood over him a minute, and when be saw that he moved not, he
went slowly down to the stream, whereby the Maid yet lay cowering down
and quivering all over, and covering her face with her hands. Then he
took her by the wrist and said: "Up, Maiden, up! and tell me this tale of
the slaying."

But she shrunk away from him, and looked at him with wild eyes, and said:
"What hast thou done with him? Is he gone?"

"He is dead," said Walter; "I have slain him; there lies he with cloven
skull on the bent-side: unless, forsooth, he vanish away like the lion I
slew! or else, perchance, he will come to life again! And art thou a lie
like to the rest of them? let me hear of this slaying."

She rose up, and stood before him trembling, and said: "O, thou art angry
with me, and thine anger I cannot bear. Ah, what have I done? Thou hast
slain one, and I, maybe, the other; and never had we escaped till both
these twain were dead. Ah! thou dost not know! thou dost not know! O
me! what shall I do to appease thy wrath!"

He looked on her, and his heart rose to his mouth at the thought of
sundering from her. Still he looked on her, and her piteous friendly
face melted all his heart; he threw down his sword, and took her by the
shoulders, and kissed her face over and over, and strained her to him, so
that he felt the sweetness of her bosom. Then he lifted her up like a
child, and set her down on the green grass, and went down to the water,
and filled his hat therefrom, and came back to her; then he gave her to
drink, and bathed her face and her hands, so that the colour came aback
to the cheeks and lips of her: and she smiled on him and kissed his
hands, and said: "O now thou art kind to me."

"Yea," said he, "and true it is that if thou hast slain, I