blessed, standest thus hoodless and alone on the waysides, a mark for
the eyes of men? go to, it is naught."

Thus reproved, and in presence of so large and brilliant a company,
the girl's colour went and came, her breast heaved high, but with an
effort beyond her age she checked her tears, and said meekly, "My
grandmother, Hilda, bade me come with her, and I came."

"Hilda!" said the King, backing his palfrey with apparent
perturbation, "but Hilda is not with thee; I see her not."

As he spoke, Hilda rose, and so suddenly did her tall form appear on
the brow of the hill, that it seemed as if she had emerged from the
earth. With a light and rapid stride she gained the side of her
grandchild; and after a slight and haughty reverence, said, "Hilda is
here; what wants Edward the King with his servant Hilda?"

"Nought, nought," said the King, hastily; and something like fear
passed over his placid countenance; "save, indeed," he added, with a
reluctant tone, as that of a man who obeys his conscience against his
inclination, "that I would pray thee to keep this child pure to
threshold and altar, as is meet for one whom our Lady, the Virgin, in
due time, will elect to her service."

"Not so, son of Etheldred, son of Woden, the last descendant of Penda
should live, not to glide a ghost amidst cloisters, but to rock
children for war in their father's shield. Few men are there yet like
the men of old; and while the foot of the foreigner is on the Saxon
soil no branch of the stem of Woden should be nipped in the leaf."