Hereward, The Last of the English

; for young Arnulf was to her a pet and almost a foster-brot

anderings, were forever in the young boy's mouth; and he spent hours in helping Torfrida to guess who the great unknown might be; and then went back to Hereward, and artlessly told him of his beautiful friend, and how they had talked of him

of both the man and the maid a curiosit

Guisnes, young Arnulf had run into Torfrida's chamber in great anxiety. "Would his gran

ishes to have the Marquis's favor, he would be wise

I have told him that

een talking to

y n

nulf, to talk of ladies to

zzled and pained; fo

end. He may be a low-born man,

s I am. Everything he says a

t I have given you my advice"; and she moved languidly away.

went awa

urst into Torfrida's room a

e manners for the

s told

he started and

need not go away. I have no

ou would be

our grandfather should be satisfied that you a

he has told my gran

not

comed him, when he told them, as if he had been an earl's son; an

ering with rough seamen, and hiding his honest name?

u nothing," said

an find out by ar

an you find out, for instanc

bea

is under t

g?i

laughin

one who challenges me to find out

hall

ew very well that he

y were alone, "find out for me what is the name of thi

th his

k. I must know. You will find out fo

u, were all the icebergs of Quenland between y

Torfrida smiled. "Only find me out

ted to know, she co

e back to her, er

rlet toadstools, and I put the juice in his men's ale: they

not

dness comes out truth; and that long hook-

a who Hereward was,

at, beneath his chin, pricked i

ida s

not work upon him; the Ho

it may do against yours. But on the back of his hand,-that will be a mark to know him by,-there is pricked a bear,

off my charm, it will keep off others, that is one comfort; and one knows not what

third greatest man in England. As for his being an outlaw, that mattered little. He might be inlawed, and rich and powerful, any day in those uncertain, topsy-turvy times; and, for the present, his being a wolf's head only made him the more inter

fusion. His men were grouped outside the gate, chattering like monkeys; the porter a

he maddest of the lot, phrased it) with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. In vain Hereward stormed; assured them that the supposed abyss was nothing but the gutter; proved the fact by kicking Martin over it. The men determined to believe their own eyes, and after a while fell asleep, in heaps, in the roadside, and lay there

poison, and had always been dreamy and uncanny, in spite of his shrewdness a

s of Normandy would assemble, to win their honor and ladies' love by hewing at each other's sinful bodies. Thither, too, the best knights of Flanders must needs go, and with them Hereward. Though no knight, he was allowed in Flanders, as he had been in Scotland, to

e, a right gallant meinie: and Torfrida

young Arnulf ran into the house with eyes full of tears, because he was not allo

if he meets your favor in the field, he th

hes; first with wild delig

e know who-

one knows. Are you afraid that he is

r Ascelin is no bullock either; bu

pale as de

g her hands over his eyes, and kissing h

f him now. She needed no charms. "Perhaps," thought she, as she looked in the

t news

the churches; when the old Lapp nurse came in. A knight was at the do

nto the hall, looking never more beautiful; her color heightened by the quick beating of her heart; he

tood in the door-way,

ard, Herewar

ion of those days, kissed him on the small space on either chee

ome. Hereward

le to send to the Lady Torfrida by me something

osom the ribbon of the

om his hand, in her delig

e-did he

of fulfilling his vow, rode him down, horse and man. The knight's Norman friends attacked us in force; and we Flemings, with Hereward at our head, beat th

t of thi

ner. Let her say what

She longed to see Hereward face to face; to speak to him, if but one word. If she allowed him to

e is k

Here

Asc

t he shall be kil

for

nd, in evident passion. There was a tone, too, of deep disappointment in his voice, which made Torfrida look keenly at him. Why should Hereward's nephew feel so deeply about that favor? And as she looked,-could that man be the youth Siward? Young he was, but surely thirty years old at least. His face could hardly be seen, hidden by helmet and no

ned first deadly pale, and then cri

. Now, I am thankful enough that I am only Siward; and not Hereward, who wins for himself co

n your hand. At last! at last my hero,-my idol! How I have longed for this moment! How I have toiled for it, and

not care fo

ll the world, and guard it as you only can; and

with passion, she bound t

of wolf and raven,-Aoi! Ere my beard was grown, I was a match for giants. How much more now, that I am a man whom

every paragraph; which has now fallen (displaced by our modern Hurrah), to be merely a sailor's call or hunter's cry. But she shuddered as she heard it close t

Remember that you are in a maiden's

her at arm's length, gazed upon her. "I was mad a momen

t," said she, hanging down her head. "

s in the hall, and will kiss the dust off their queen's feet, and die for a hair of their goddess's eyebrow; and then if they catch her in th

you?" she asked

ou only I will love, and you will I love in all honesty, before the angels of heaven, till we be we

oble! I knew I had not

f Cornwall, when I had her at my will, and

of Cornwall?"

to her betrothed; and wedded she is, long ago. I wi

! I have somethin

s, or rather ladder, which led to the uppe

n room; and the bed, which stood in an alcove, was the common seat of her and her guests

he books, parchments, and strange instrum

and smiled meaningly. But as she saw Torfrida unlock the further d

t! Trust lightly,

ever trust at all," said Torf

hung on perches round the wall,

e,-and Torfrida herself, too, for the sake of her wealth. But thanks to the Abbot my uncle, Torfrida is still her own mistress, and mistress of the wealth which her fo

s of ivory and silver, bags of coin, and among them a mail shir

els. And he shall have them. He shall have them as a proof that if Torfrida has set her love upon a wo

the armor, and

ome old cavern, or dragon's hoard!" said Hereward, in astonishment at the extreme delicacy and slightnes

an tell? My ancestor won it, and by the side of

y and the rose, the tulip and the anemone, and all rich fruits and fair flowers,-the land where every city is piled with temples and

as her voice shaped itself into a song, and her ey

ry at finding that he was think

-the Saracens, to whom Mahound taught all the wisdom of Sol

ne were perpetually confounded in the legends of the time] "drove

he did not take hi

plain, and there they turned and fought. Under Montmajeur, by the hermit's cell, they fought a summer's day, till they were all slain. There was an Emir among them, black as a raven, clad in magic armor. All lances turned from it, all swords shivered on it. He rode through the press without a wound, while every stroke of his scymi

no steel can wound? Help us, O blessed martyr St. Tro

phimus? He could not help himself, when the Paynim burnt him: and

rolled together on the ground; but Torfrid never loosed his hold till he

as healed instantly, and fell to religion, and went back to Montmajeur; and there he was a hermit in the cave under the rock, and tended the graves hewn in the living stone, where his old comrades, the Paladins who were slain, sleep side by side round the church of the Holy Cross. But the

ch Torfrida believed utte

you wear that magic armor, a

dare I

se it, in you you

. I accept

ut the a

, sceptical of Providence itself, and much more of the help of saint or angel, still the curse of the o

him in pride a

may I, as punishment for my lie, suffer the same upon my tender body,-a wound for every wound of yours, my knight!

ove with all honor and honesty, never heeding the old

haw, lon

oy, lon

und, so

ake your g