and fell, and never rose again. The messenger strove hard for the thicket, but the moon was up now, and it was but a few strides of the swift runner of the Dale ere Board-cleaver had taken his life.
The two women stood looking toward the open door the while, and the maiden said faintly and in a quavering voice: Mother, what is it? what has befallen? Tell me, what am I to do? Hush, my dear, said the carline, hush; it is but a minute's waiting after all these years. Even therewith came a firm footstep to the door, and Osberne stepped quietly over the threshold, bareheaded now, and went straight to Elfhild; and she looked on him, and the scared look went out of her face, and nought but the sweetness of joyful love was there. And he cried out: O my sweet, where is now the Sundering Flood? And there they were in each other's arms, as though the long years had never been.
