But Aldyth had not seated herself; and, side by side with her dead
lord's great victor, thus she spoke: 

"Woe worth the day and the hour when Aldyth left the hall of her
fathers and the land of her birth! Her robe of a queen has been rent
and torn over an aching heart, and the air she has breathed has reeked
as with blood.  I go forth, widowed, and homeless, and lonely; but my
feet shall press the soil of my sires, and my lips draw the breath
which came sweet and pure to my childhood.  And thou, O Harold,
standest beside me, like the shape of my own youth, and the dreams of
old come back at the sound of thy voice.  Fare thee well, noble heart
and true Saxon.  Thou hast twice saved the child of thy foe--first
from shame, then from famine.  Thou wouldst have saved my dread lord
from open force, and dark murder; but the saints were wroth, the blood
of my kinsfolk, shed by his hand, called for vengeance, and the
shrines he had pillaged and burned murmured doom from their desolate
altars.  Peace be with the dead, and peace with the living! I shall
go back to my father and brethren; and if the fame and life of child
and sister be dear to them, their swords will never more leave their