"'There's a gleam in the hall, and like morning's light
Hath shone upon all her presence bright.
Suitors watch as she passes by--
She may gladden their hearts by one glance of her eye:
But coldly she gazeth upon the throng,
And they that have sought her may seek her long.
She turns her away from the richly clad knight,
She heeds not the words of the learned wight;
The prince is before her in all his pride,
But other the visions around her that glide.
Then tell me, in all the wide world's space,
Who may e'er win that lady's grace?
In sorrowful love there sits apart
The gentle squire who hath her heart;
They all are deceived by fancies vain,
And he knows it not who the prize shall gain.'"


Edwald thrilled. "As God wills," said he, softly to himself.
"But I cannot understand how such a thing could be." "As God
wills," repeated Froda. The two friends embraced each other,
and soon after fell into a peaceful slumber.

Some days afterwards Froda sat in a secluded bower of the
castle garden, and was reading in the ancient book of his
lovely mistress Aslauga. It happened at that very time that
Hildegardis passed by. She stood still, and said,
thoughtfully, "Strange union that you are of knight and sage,
how comes it that you bring forth so little out of the deep