nour, for this people whom I love.'

Then she kissed the face so pale against the gold, and knelt again.

But when she had risen, and before she could leave the space by the
altar, Siur had stepped up to her, and seized her hurriedly, folding both
his arms about her; she let herself be held there, her bosom against his;
then he held her away from him a little space, holding her by the arms
near the shoulder; then he took her hands and laid them across his
shoulders, so that now she held him.

And they said nothing; what could they say? Do you know any word for
what they meant?

And the father and brother stood by, looking quite awe-struck, more so
they seemed than by her solemn oath. Till Siur, raising his head from
where it lay, cried out aloud:

'May God forgive me as I am true to her! hear you, father and brother?'

Then said Cissela: 'May God help me in my need, as I am true to Siur.'

And the others went, and they two were left standing there alone, with no
little awe over them, strange and shy as they had never yet been to each
other. Cissela shuddered, and said in a quick whisper: 'Siur, on your
knees! and pray that these oaths may never clash.'

'Can they, Cissela?' he said.

'O love,' she cried, 'you have loosed my hand; take it again, or I shall
die, Siur!'

He took both her hands, he held them fast to his lips, to his forehead;
he said: 'No, God does not allow such things: truth does not lie; you are
truth; this need not be prayed for.'

She said: 'Oh, forgive me! yet--yet this old chapel is damp and cold even
in the burning summer weather. O knight Siur, something strikes through
me; I pray you kneel and pray.'

He looked steadily at her for a long time without answering, as if he
were trying once for all to become indeed one with her; then said: 'Yes,
it is possible; in no other way could you give up everything.'

Then he took from off his finger a thin golden ring, and broke it in two,
and gave her the one half, saying: 'When will they come together?'

Then within a while they left the chapel, and walked as in a dream
between the dazzling lights of the hall, where the knights sat now, and
between those lights sat down together, dreaming still the same dream
each of them; while all the knights shouted for Siur and Cissela. Even
if a man had spent all his life looking for sorrowful things, even if he
sought for them with all his heart and soul, and even though he had grown
grey in that q