Page:The Elene of Cynewulf.djvu/32

 Then she let each man seek his own home in peace, and took Judas alone as hostage. And she earnestly bade him tell the truth concerning the cross, which had been long buried in a secret place. Then Elene, the glorious queen, drew him aside by himself, and thus spake to the lonely man:—‘Two ways are ready for thee, either life or death, whichsoever thou shalt please to choose. Declare quickly now which one thou wilt accept.’

And Judas made answer unto her—nor could he rid himself of sorrow and turn away the wrath of his ruler, but he was in the power of the queen—: ‘How shall it be with him who treadeth the moor in a desert, weary, without food, and tortured with hunger, if before his eyes a loaf and a stone together seem hard and soft, and he knoweth them not apart, but taketh the stone to ward off his hunger, and marketh not the loaf, turneth to want and forsaketh the food, refuseth the better when he hath the choice of both?’

Then openly before the people the blessed Elene gave him answer:—‘If thou wouldst have thy life in the world and a home with the angels in the kingdom of heaven, the reward of victory in the sky, tell me straightway where the holy rood of the King of glory lieth under the earth, which ye have hid now for a while from men because of the unrighteous murder.’

Judas answered, and his heart was heavy within him; there was grief in his soul, and woe either way, whether thus he forsook the joy of the heavenly realm and this present kingdom beneath the skies, or disclosed the rood:—‘How can I reveal that which came to pass so long ago in the