Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/287

 maiden there in her old place, and then shall we be no more utterly disunited, as though each for each we were neither of us in the world.

Said Sir Godrick: This is a hope of no great things, nor is it like to come about. Were it well for this to leave thy fellows and thy friends and all the fame of thine that shall be? Osberne laughed. Ah yes, he said, some deal I know it now, that fame; when we draw together before the foemen, and our men cry out, The Red Lad! the Red Lad! in no faltering voice, and even therewith the foeman's ranks quaver, as the trees of the wood when the wind comes up from the ground amongst them; and then I ride forward with Board-cleaver in my fist, and the arrows fly away about me for fear, and the array opens before me, and we plunge in and find nought there, and the rout goes down the green meadows. Yea, so it is, and many deem it fair. But then comes the quiet of the night, and my comrades are as though they were dead, and my praisers are voiceless, and I am alone; and then meseems it is I that have been overthrown and thwarted, and not thine enemies and mine, my friend. Nay, let me go back to my folk and the land that I know, and that endures before me when others have faded out; there will I abide whatso may come to me. Then he said: Moreover there is this last month at Longshaw; who knows what may there betide? I shall keep my eyes and ears open I promise thee. Ah! said Sir Godrick, but beware, Red Lad, beware! thou knowest how much hatred