The Hollow Land | Page 5

so, she raised her face, and
glared defiance at us all, as though she would die queenly after all.
Then rose up Arnald and said, "Queen Swanhilda, we judge you guilty
of death, and because you are a queen and of a noble house, you shall
be slain by my knightly sword, and I will even take the reproach of
slaying a woman, for no other hand than mine shall deal the blow."
Then she said, "0 false knight, show your warrant from God, man, or
devil."
"This warrant from God, Swanhilda," he said, holding up his sword,
"listen! Fifteen years ago, when I was just winning my spurs, you
struck me, disgracing me before all the people; you cursed me, and
mean that curse well enough. Men of the house of the Lilies, what
sentence for that?"
"Death!" they said.
"Listen! Afterwards you slew my cousin, your husband, treacherously,
in the most cursed way, stabbing him in the throat, as the stars in the
canopy above him looked down on the shut eyes of him. Men of the

house of Lily, what sentence for that?"
"Death!" they said.
"Do you hear them. Queen? There is warrant from man; for the devil, I
do not reverence him enough to take warrant from him, but, as I look at
that face of yours, I think that even he has left you."
And indeed just then all her pride seemed to leave her, she fell from the
chair, and wallowed on the ground moaning, she wept like a child, so
that the tears lay on the oak floor; she prayed for another month of life;
she came to me and kneeled, and kissed my feet, and prayed piteously,
so that water ran out of her mouth.
But I shuddered, and drew away; it was like hav ing an adder about one;
I cou'd have pitied her had she died bravely, but for one like her to
whine and whine! Pah!
Then from the dais rang Amald's voice terrible, much changed. "Let
there be an end of all this." And he took his sword and strode through
the hall towards her; she rose from the ground and stood up, stooping a
little, her head sunk between her shoulders, her black eyes turned up
and gloaming, like a tigress about to spring. When he came within
some six paces of her something in his eye daunted her, or perhaps the
flashing of his terrible sword in the torch-light; she threw her arms up
with a great shriek, and dashed screaming about the hall. Amald's lip
never once curled with any scorn, no line in his face changed: he said,
"Bring her here and bind her."
But when one came up to her to lay hold on her she first of all ran at
him, hitting with her head in the belly. Then while he stood doubled up
for want of breath, and staring with his head up, she caught his sword
from the girdle, and cut him across the shoulders, and many others she
wounded sorely before they took her. Then Arnald stood by the chair to
which she was bound, and poised his sword, and there was a great
silence.
Then he said, "Men of the House of the Lilies, do you justify me in this,
shall she die?" Straightway rang a great shout through the hall, but
before it died away the sword had swept round, and therewithal was
there no such thing as Swanhilda left upon the earth, for in no
battle-field had Arnald struck truer blow.
Then he turned to the few servants of the palace and said, "Go now,
bury this accursed woman, for she is a king's daughter." Then to us all,

"Now knights, to horse and away, that we may reach the good town by
about dawn." So we mounted and rode off.
What a strange Christmas-day that was, for there, about nine o'clock in
the morning, rode Red Harald into the good town to demand vengeance;
he went at once to the king, and the king promised that before nightfall
that very day the matter should be judged; albeit the king feared
somewhat, because every third man you met in the streets had a blue
cross on his shoulder, and some likeness of a lily, cut out or painted,
stuck in his hat; and this blue cross and lily were the bearings of our
house, called "De Liliis." Now we had seen Red Harald pass through
the streets, with a white banner borne before him, to show that he came
peaceably as for this time; but I know he was thinking of other things
than peace.
And he was called Red Harald first at this time, because over all his
arms he wore a great scarlet cloth, that