more tempt the dark art, I will no more seek to disentangle the awful
truth from the juggling lie. All so foretold me I will seek to
forget,--hope from no prophecy, fear from no warning. Let the soul go
to the future under the shadow of God!"

"Pass on thy way as thou wilt, its goal is the same, whether seen or
unmarked. Peradventure thou art wise," said the Vala, gloomily.

"For my country's sake, heaven be my witness, not my own," resumed the
Earl, "I have blotted my conscience and sullied my truth. My country
alone can redeem me, by taking my life as a thing hallowed evermore to
her service. Selfish ambition do I lay aside, selfish power shall
tempt me no more; lost is the charm that I beheld in a throne, and,
save for Edith--"

"No! not even for Edith," cried the betrothed, advancing, "not even
for Edith shalt thou listen to other voice than that of thy country
and thy soul."

The Earl turned round abruptly, and his eyes were moist. "O Hilda,"
he cried, "see henceforth my only Vala; let that noble heart alone
interpret to us the oracles of the future."

The next day Harold returned with Haco and a numerous train of his
house-carles to the city. Their ride was as silent as that of the day
before; but on reaching Southwark, Harold turned away from the bridge
towards the left, gained the river-side, and dismounted at the house
of one of his lithsmen (a franklin, or freed ceorl). Leaving there
his horse, he summoned a boat, and, with Haco, was rowed over towards
the fortified palace which then rose towards the west of London,