Page:The Elene of Cynewulf.djvu/33

 course of years? Two hundred or more in number are now vanished away—I know not the sum of them, and I cannot declare the event. Many of wisdom, of virtue, and of learning, who were before our time, are told among the dead. In days long after was I born, and in my childhood, and in my youth. I may not discover in my heart that which I know not, and which came to pass so long ago.’

Then Elene bespake him in answer:—‘Whence cometh it that ye bear in mind so many things, every wondrous deed, such as those which the Trojans wrought in battle? That far-famed war of old was further in the course of years than this holy event, and yet ye know that fully, how to declare at once the number of all that were slain there, and of the spearmen who fell in death beneath their shields. Ye set forth in writing the tombs beneath the rocky cliffs, and likewise the places and the tale of years.’

Then Judas answered—he suffered bitter grief:—‘We are mindful of that war from very need, my dear lady, and we set forth in writing the fierce strife and the deeds of the nations, but never have we heard this declared unto men from the mouth of any save here and now.’

And the noble queen gave him answer:—‘Too mightily dost thou withstand the truth and the right concerning the tree of life, insomuch as thou spakest verily of the rood of victory before thine own people but a little time ago, and now dost turn to falsehood.’

Judas again spake unto her, and said that he uttered those words in sorrow and exceeding doubt, that he had weened bitter hardship for himself.