is too good for a passing-bell, and you too good to toll it.
I tell you yet, my young hero, all will end gloriously."

Edwald looked a while with wonder in his face, and he answered
kindly: "Beloved Froda, if it displeases you, I will surely
sing no more." But at the same time he struck a few sad
chords, which sounded infinitely sweet and tender. Then the
northern knight, much moved, clasped him in his arms, and
said: "Dear Edchen, sing and say and do whatever pleases you;
it shall ever rejoice me. But you may well believe me, for I
speak not this without a spirit of presage--your sorrow shall
change, whether to death or life I know not, but great and
overpowering joy awaits you." Edwald rose firmly and
cheerfully from his seat, seized his companion's arm with a
strong grasp, and walked forth with him through the blooming
alleys of the garden into the balmy air.

At that very hour an aged woman, muffled in many a covering,
was led secretly to the apartment of the Lady Hildegardis.
The appearance of the dark-complexioned stranger was
mysterious, and she had gathered round her for some time, by
many feats of jugglery, a part of the multitude returning home
from the tournament, but had dispersed them at last in wild
affright. Before this happened, the tire-woman of Hildegardis
had hastened to her mistress, to entertain her with an account
of the rare and pleasant feats of the bronze-coloured woman.
The maidens in attendance, seeing their lady deeply moved, and
wishing to banish her melancholy, bade the tire-woman bring
the old stranger hither. Hildegardis forbade it not, hoping
that she should thus divert the attention of her maidens,