Poor youngling! You would better have crept out to your
countrymen, as I bade you."
Again the dark head shook obstinately. "Rather would I starve with you than
feast with them. I go not out till you go."
Something seemed to come into the young man's throat as he was about to speak,
for he swallowed hard and was silent. Putting an arm about the slender figure,
he drew it to his side; and so they left the room and began to climb the
stairs.
As soon as the curtain fell at their heels a stifling mustiness came to their
nostrils, and a chill that was like the flat of a knife-blade pressed against
their cheeks. They drew breath thankfully when they had come up into the sweet
freshness of the night air. Flashing on the weapons of the pacing sentinels, a
glory of silver moonlight lay like a visible silence over the parapets. In the
darkness below, a sea of forest trees was murmuring and splashing at the
passing of a wind. Yet deeper down in the dark glowed the fires of the Danish
camp,--red eyes of the dragon that would rise ere long and crush them under
his iron claws.
After they had twice made the round without speaking, the page said gravely,
"I heard what Brithwald told you about the bread, lord. What will overtake us
when that is gone? Shall we charge them, so that we may die fighting?" When
the Etheling did not answer immediately, his companion looked up at him with
loving reproach.
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