"Yea, sweetling," said he, "to live and die with me."
She looked on him, and said softly: "Maybe it were an ill wish towish that I were thou; yet if it might be for one hour!"
Said he: "Shall it not be for more than one hour? Shall it not be forevermore, since we twain are become one?"
"Nay," she said, "this is but a word; I am but thine handmaid: andnow I can scarce refrain my body from falling before thy feet."
He laughed in her face for joy, and said: "Abide a while, until thesemen have looked on thee, and then shalt thou see how thou wilt be a flameof war in their hearts that none shall withstand."
Now were the dale-dwellers all come together in their weapons, andthey were glad of their King and his loveling; and stout men were they all,albeit some were old, and some scarce of man's age. So they wereranked and told over, and the tale of them was over six score who hadobeyed the war-arrow, and more and more, they said, would come in everyhour. But now the Captains of them bade the Toft-folk eat with them;and they yea-said the bidding merrily, and word was given, and sacks and baskets brought forth, and barrels to boot, and all men sat down on thegreensward, and high was the feast and much the merriment on the edge ofHazeldale.