What hath betid that ye have cast him out, and flee from our House?'
She flushed red beneath her helm and said:
'There is war in the land, and I have seen it coming, and that things
shall change around us. I have looked about me and seen men happy
and women content, and children weary for mere mirth and joy. And I
have thought, in a day, or two days or three, all this shall be
changed, and the women shall be, some anxious and wearied with
waiting, some casting all hope away; and the men, some shall come
back to the garth no more, and some shall come back maimed and
useless, and there shall be loss of friends and fellows, and mirth
departed, and dull days and empty hours, and the children wandering
about marvelling at the sorrow of the house. All this I saw before
me, and grief and pain and wounding and death; and I said: Shall I
be any better than the worst of the folk that loveth me? Nay, this
shall never be; and since I have learned to be deft with mine hands
in all the play of war, and that I am as strong as many a man, and as
hardy-hearted as any, I will give myself to the Warrior and the God
of the Face; and the battle-field shall be my home, and the after-
grief of the fight my banquet and holiday, that I may bear the burden
of my people, in the battle and out of it; and know every sorrow that
the Dale hath; and cast aside as a grievous and ugly thing the bed of
the warrior that the maiden desires, and the toying of lips and hands
and soft words of desire, and all the joy that dwelleth in the Castle
of Love and the Garden thereof; while the world outside is sick and
sorry, and the fields lie waste and the harvest burneth.
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