d with an utter weakness.

And she came running, and was lost with faintness, and did sway this way
and that, stumbling; and she went sudden to the earth, and did be still.

And I crept onward so speedy as I might, and the earth to seem alway as
that it moved from my hands, and to slide; and this-seeming to be of my
weakness; for my hands and my knees went everyway, and my head to be
that it kept nodding forward very stupid to the earth.

And lo! as I came anigh unto the Maid, where she did lie so quiet, I saw
that something moved in the wood, and was running. And truly it did be
an Humpt Man, and came forward very silent and with a quick slyness, as
that he did track the Maid secretly; for he lookt alway to the earth.
And I perceived that he was that one of the Humpt Men which the Maid had
cut with the knife; for the blood did show upon the shoulder and the
breast; and this bleeding mayhap to have slowed the Man; so that Mine
Own did be like to have supposed she had come utter free; yet he to have
found her, by tracking, as I perceived.

And I strave to my feet, that I should come to the Maid, before the
Humpt Man; and surely I gat upright, and went with a strange running,
and did roll, and lo! I fell immediate, ere I was come to her. And the
Humpt Man to run also; and surely it did be a dreadful race; for I went
creeping and did be weak and as that I was of lead. And the Humpt Man
came very swift and brutish; but I came the first to Mine Own Maid. And
I rose up at the Humpt Man, upon my knees, and I swung the Diskos, and
the great weapon did roar in my hands, as that it did know and did live.
And the Humpt Man ran in upon me; but I smote him truly with the Diskos,
and he ran past me, all blundering, and fell and died upon his face, a
little way off.

And lo! my wounds had brake out into a great bleeding, and my head did
roll upon my shoulders. And I lookt down dull, yet with an utter great
love upon Mine Own; and there did be no proper wound upon her; but yet
was she all bruised and knockt and marked with the trees, and where she
did fall in her running. And she did be there, very still and dear, and
I to have brake my heart with love for her, but that I did be so dulled,
as I have told.

And I fought that I should be strong a little while more against my
weakness; and I strove that I set mine ear gently upon her breast, that
I should listen for her heart. But my head did go downward something
clumsy and heavy u