host of Canute of Denmark; and all his men have followed him. But even that
agreement could not hold Norman back from Avalcomb. He lay hidden near the
gate till he saw my father come, in the dusk, from hunting, when he fell upon
him and slew him, and forced an entrance--the nithing! When he had
five-and-fifty men and my father but twelve!"

She paused, with set lips and head flung high. The nun got down stiffly beside
her and laid a gentle hand upon her knee.

"Think not of it, my daughter," she urged. "Think of your present need and of
what it behooves us to do. Tell me how you escaped from the chamber, and why
you wear these clothes."

"They were Fridtjof's." She spoke his name very softly. "I found them hanging
on the chamber wall. In the night the men began to entertain themselves with
singing, and it could be heard that they were getting drunk. It had been in my
mind that I would stay where I was until they forced the door; then, because I
would like it better to die than to marry any of them, I would throw myself
out of the window, and the stones below would cause my death. But now it came
to me that if I could dress so that they would not notice me, there were many
good chances that I might slip past them and get out through the postern. I
waited till they were all still, and then I crept into the women's room, and
found the bondmaids huddled in their beds. They got afraid at the sight of me,
for they thought I was Fridtjof's ghost; and they dared not move. So I had to
go down alone." She shuddered in spite of herself. "Never did I think that
darkness could be so unpleasant,--when one is listening for sounds and fears
to put out a hand lest it touch something alive! But I got past the door and
through the guard-room, where the Englishmen were snoring so loud that they
would not have heard if I had stamped. In a niche in the wall outside I found
Almstein the steward hiding, full of fear. I made him follow me out of the