doth be that dear and uplifting Power of
Love, which I to set forth in this mine own story; for, in truth, I to
have known love, and to need death when that I be parted from Mine Own.

Now, surely, Mine Own did come twice and thrice unto weeping, as I did
tell of this thing and that, which did set her memory backward unto the
ways of the Lesser Redoubt. And presently, I did cease from my tellings,
because that she did so be gone into pain of her memories. But, indeed,
she then to beg me that I go forward again; for, truly, she to need in
the heart that she know, and to strive to be no more in grief for the
telling.

And I then to say on, and did tell upon the Might and Wonder and great
Olden Delight of the Underground Fields, that were below the Great
Redoubt, as you do know. And I told how that they went downward an
hundred strange miles, that did be dug of the labour of Millions and of
the years of Eternity.

And I set out unto Mine Own concerning that there did be wondrous
villages spread through that great and hidden Country that did be in the
underground; and how that great millions of the Peoples did live there,
and made a constant labour in those deep Lands and Countries, that did
be truly so monstrous in all as an huge Continent.

And I showed Mine Own how that there did be wondrous processes that did
be learned in the Ages; and how that water did be made in chemistry; and
truly she to nod to this, because that she did mind upon the powder that
we did use; but truly the powder to have to be made in the first, as you
shall think; and we but to advantage ourselves of that which did result,
and I to speak to her of the making of the powder, rather than of the
way that it afterward to make chemistry with the air, unto water.

And I told the Maid how that there did be mighty underground pipes that
went across the Night Land, and did be, mayhap, oft so much as twenty
great miles deep in the world, and did come upward into the seas of the
Land; and all to have been made secret and hid from the monsters of the
Land, as I to know from much readings of the Histories.

And Mine Own then to tell me that they did lack to have any such great
wonders below the Lesser Redoubt; but that there did be utter monstrous
caverns, where that there had been alway a strange and uncouth Country
of Husbandry, and lit from the Earth-Current; and they also there to
bury their Dead. And all had been a-lack through great thousands of
ye