narrow corridor outside she stopped and stood motionless leaning
against the wall for nearly an hour.

As she stood there she thought to herself: "I cannot betray him.
Let him be guilty of what evil he may, I love him with all my
heart. I cannot send him to be broken upon the wheel. I cannot see
them burn away his hands and feet."

The storm that had raged all day became more and more violent as
evening wore on, and Elsalill could hear its roar as she stood in
the darkness.

"Now the first storms of spring have come," she thought. "Now they
have come in all their might to set the waters free and break up
the ice. In a few days we shall have open sea, and then Sir Archie
will sail from hence, never to return. No more misdeeds can he
commit in this land. What profits it then if he be taken and
suffer for his crime? Neither the dead nor the living have any
comfort of it."

Elsalill drew her cloak about her. She thought she would go home
and sit quietly at her work without betraying her secret to any
one.

But before she had raised a foot to go, she changed her purpose
and stayed.

She stood still listening to the roaring of the gale. Again she
thought of the coming of spring. The snow would disappear and the
earth put on its garment of green.