desire is that they may be left to sleep in peace. Well may I weep
when you say this birch cannot die for thinking of its murderer.
The hardest fate for one deprived of life is that he may not sleep
in peace but must pursue his murderer. The dead have naught to
long for but to be left to sleep in peace."

When Elsalill recalled these words she began to weep and wring her
hands.

"My foster sister will not find rest in her grave," she said,
"unless I betray my beloved. If I do not aid her in this, she must
roam above ground without respite or repose. My poor foster
sister, she has nothing more to hope for but to find peace in her
grave, and that I cannot give her unless I send the man I love to
be broken on the wheel."

IV

Sir Archie came out of the tavern and went through the long
corridor. The lantern hanging from the roof had now been lighted
again, and by its light he saw that a young maid stood leaning
against the wall.

She was so pale and stood so still that Sir Archie was afraid and
thought: "There at last before my eyes stands the dead girl who
haunts me every day."

As Sir Archie went past Elsalill he laid his hand on hers to feel
if it was really a dead girl standing there. And her hand was so
cold that he could not say whether it belonged to the living or