service for its excellence, and for this alone, and leave it to God
to reward us at His own time and in His own manner. And after this he
compelled us to eat always two at a table to watch each other lest we
fasted unduly, for some among us said that if one fasted for a love
of the holiness of saints and then died, the death would be
acceptable. And the years passed, and one by one my fellows died in
the Holy Land, or in warring upon the evil princes of the earth, or
in clearing the roads of robbers; and among them died the knight of
Palestine, and at last I was alone. I fought in every cause where the
few contended against the many, and my hair grew white, and a
terrible fear lest I had fallen under the displeasure of God came
upon me. But, hearing at last how this western isle was fuller of
wars and rapine than any other land, I came hither, and I have found
the thing I sought, and, behold! I am filled with a great joy.'

Thereat he began to sing in Latin, and, while he sang, his voice grew
fainter and fainter. Then his eyes closed, and his lips fell apart,
and the lad knew he was dead. 'He has told me a good tale,' he said,
'for there was fighting in it, but I did not understand much of it,
and it is hard to remember so long a story.'

And, taking the knight's sword, he began to dig a grave in the soft
clay. He dug hard, and a faint light of dawn had touched his hair and
he had almost done his work when a cock crowed in the valley below.
'Ah,' he said, 'I must have that bird'; and he ran down the narrow
path to the valley.