I do otherwise now that by God's justice the wheel has come round at last?" I added, pointing to the hollows beneath my brows where the eyes once had been.
"Oh! Olaf," she said, "if I harmed you, you know well it was because I loved you."
"Then God send that no woman ever loves me in such a fashion," broke in Jodd.
"Olaf," she continued, taking no note of him, "once you went very near to loving me also, on that night when you would have eaten the poisoned figs to save my son, the Emperor. At least, you kissed me. If you forget, I cannot. Olaf, can you blind a woman whom you have kissed?"
"Kissing takes two, and I know that you blinded him," muttered Jodd, "for I crucified the brutes you commanded to do the deed to which they confessed."
"Olaf, I admit that I treated you ill; I admit that I would have killed you; but, believe me, it was jealousy and naught but jealousy which drove me on. Almost as soon would I have killed myself; indeed, I thought of it."
"And there the matter ended," said Jodd. "It was Olaf who walked the Hall of the Pit, not you. We found him on the brink of the hole."
"Olaf, after I regained my power"
"By blinding your own son," said Jodd, "for which you will have an account to settle one day."
"I dealt well with you. Knowing that you had married my rival, for I kept myself informed of all you did, still I lifted no hand against you"
"What good was a maimed man to you when you were courting the Emperor Charlemagne?" asked Jodd.
