For dear to mine eyes wert thou waxen, and my heart of thy woe was
ruth.
But now shall I deal with thee better than thy dealings to me have
been:
For my wife I will bid thee to be, and the people's very queen."

She said: "When the son of King Sigmund is brought forth to the
light of day
And the world a man hath gotten, thy will shall I nought gainsay.
And I thank thee for thy goodness, and I know the love of thine heart;
And I see thy goodly kingdom, thy country set apart,
With the day of peace begirdled from the change and the battle's wrack:
'Tis enough, and more than enough since none prayeth the past aback."

Then the King is fain and merry, and he deems his errand sped,
And that night she sits on the high-seat with the crown on her
shapely head:
And amidst the song and the joyance, and the sound of the people's
praise,
She thinks of the days that have been, and she dreams of the coming
days.

So passeth the summer season, and the harvest of the year,
And the latter days of the winter on toward the springtide wear.




BOOK II.