I
shall do the deed and have my reward. Soon will the spring-tide be
here, and I shall be a young man yet when it comes.'
So came they to the place where he had met the three maidens
yesterday; there they also turned from the highway; and as they went
down the bent, Gold-mane could not but turn his eyes on the beauty of
the Bride and the lovely ways of her body: but presently he
remembered all that had betid, and turned away again as one who is
noting what it behoves him not to note. And he said to himself:
'Where art thou, Gold-mane? Whose art thou? Yea, even if that had
been but a dream that I have dreamed, yet would that this fair woman
were my sister!'
So came they to the Yew-wood, and the brethren fell to work, and the
Bride with them, for she was deft with the axe and strong withal.
But at midday they rested on the green slope without the Yew-wood;
and they ate bread and flesh and onions and apples, and drank red
wine of the Dale. And while they were resting after their meat, the
Bride sang to them, and her song was a lay of time past; and here ye
have somewhat of it:
'Tis over the hill and over the dale
Men ride from the city fast and far,
If they may have a soothfast tale,
True tidings of the host of war.
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