came to Marstrand.

Now late in the afternoon the skipper stood on the lofty poop of
his vessel and looked out to seaward. Nothing was changed around
the vessel, and the wall of ice towered ever higher before her.

Then the skipper saw a long procession of people coming out to his
ship. All the women of Marstrand were there, both young and old.
They all wore mourning weeds, and they brought with them a group
of boys who carried a bier.

When they were come to the gallias, they said to the skipper: "We
are come to fetch a young maiden who is dead. Those murderers have
confessed that she gave her life to hinder their escape, and now
we, all the women of Marstrand, are come to bring her to our town
with all the honour that is her due."

Then Elsalill was found and brought down to the ice and borne in
to Marstrand; and all the women in the place wept over the young
maid, who had loved an evildoer and given her life to destroy him
she loved. But even as the line of women advanced, the wind and
waves broke in behind them and tore up the ice over which they had
but lately passed; and when they came to Marstrand with Elsalill,
all the gates of the sea stood open.

THE END


FOREWORD