e of thee and me. O, if then there might be some
chastisement for the guilty woman, and not mere sundering!"

"Fear nothing, sweetling," said he; "for indeed I deem that already I
know partly what thou hast done."

She sighed, and said: "I will tell thee next, that I banned thy kissing
and caressing of me till to-day because I knew that my Mistress would
surely know if a man, if thou, hadst so much as touched a finger of mine
in love, it was to try me herein that on the morning of the hunting she
kissed and embraced me, till I almost died thereof, and showed thee my
shoulder and my limbs; and to try thee withal, if thine eye should
glister or thy cheek flush thereat; for indeed she was raging in jealousy
of thee. Next, my friend, even whiles we were talking together at the
Well of the Rock, I was pondering on what we should do to escape from
this land of lies. Maybe thou wilt say: Why didst thou not take my hand
and flee with me as we fled to-day? Friend, it is most true, that were
she not dead we had not escaped thus far. For her trackers would have
followed us, set on by her, and brought us back to an evil fate.
Therefore I tell thee that from the first I did plot the death of those
two, the Dwarf and the Mistress. For no otherwise mightest thou live, or
I escape from death in life. But as to the dastard who threatened me
with a thrall's pains, I heeded him nought to live or die, for well I
knew that thy valiant sword, yea, or thy bare hands, would speedily tame
him. Now first I knew that I must make a show of yielding to the King's
Son; and somewhat how I did therein, thou knowest. But no night and no
time did I give him to bed me, till after I had met thee as thou wentest
to the Golden House, before the adventure of fetching the lion's skin;
and up to that time I had scarce known what to do, save ever to bid thee,
with sore grief and pain, to yield thee to the wicked woman's desire. But
as we spake together there by the stream, and I saw that the Evil Thing
(whose head thou clavest e'en now) was spying on us, then amidst the
sickness of terror which ever came over me whensoever I thought of him,
and much more when I saw him (ah! he is dead now!), it came flashing into
my mind how I might destroy my enemy. Therefore I made the Dwarf my
messenger to her, by bidding thee to my bed in such wise that he might
hear it. And wot thou well, that he speedily carried her the tidings.
Meanwhile I hastened to lie to