I smiled. "Well, friend, I scarcely call this a disadvantage,
moreover what has it to do with the matter in hand?"

How was this in Heaven's name? We had been quite still, resting while
this talk was going on, but we could hear the hawks chattering from
the rocks, we were so close now.

And my heart sunk within me, there was no reason why this should not
be true; there was no reason why anything should not be true.

"This, Sir Florian," said the knight again, "how would you feel
inclined to fight if you thought that everything about you was mere
glamour; this earth here, the rocks, the sun, the sky? I do not know
where I am for certain, I do not know that it is not midnight instead
of undem: I do not know if I have been fighting men or only simulacra
but I think, we all think, that we have been led into some devil's
trap or other, and- and may God forgive me my sins! I wish I had never
been born."

There now! he was weeping - they all wept - how strange it was to see
those rough, bearded men blubbering there, and snivelling till the
tears ran over their armour and mingled with the blood, so that it
dropped down to the earth in a dim, dull, red rain.

My eyes indeed were dry, but then so was my heart; I felt far worse
than weeping came to, but nevertheless I spoke cheerily.

"Dear friends, where are your old men's hearts gone to now? See now!
This is a punishment for our sins, is it? Well, for our forefathers'