lands to find what they had loved less lovable and their arm lighter
in the battle, for he had taught them how little a hair divides the
false and true; others, again, who had served no cause, but wrought
in peace the welfare of their own households, when he had expounded
the meaning of their purpose, found their bones softer and their will
less ready for toil, for he had shown them greater purposes; and
numbers of the young, when they had heard him upon all these things,
remembered certain words that became like a fire in their hearts, and
made all kindly joys and traffic between man and man as nothing, and
went different ways, but all into vague regret.

When any asked him concerning the common things of life; disputes
about the mear of a territory, or about the straying of cattle, or
about the penalty of blood; he would turn to those nearest him for
advice; but this was held to be from courtesy, for none knew that
these matters were hidden from him by thoughts and dreams that filled
his mind like the marching and counter-marching of armies. Far less
could any know that his heart wandered lost amid throngs of
overcoming thoughts and dreams, shuddering at its own consuming
solitude.

Among those who came to look at him and to listen to him was the
daughter of a little king who lived a great way off; and when he saw
her he loved, for she was beautiful, with a strange and pale beauty
unlike the women of his land; but Dana, the great mother, had decreed
her a heart that was but as the heart of others, and when she
considered the mystery of the hawk feathers she was troubled with a
great horror. He called her to him when the assembly was over and
told her of her beauty, and praised her simply and frankly as though
she were a fable of the bards; and he asked her humbly to give him