Then he took her by the wrist and said: "Up, Maiden, up! and tell me this tale of the slaying." But she shrunk away from him, and looked at him with wild eyes, and said: "What hast thou done with him?
Is he gone ?" "He is dead," said Walter; "I have slain him; there lies he with cloven skull on the bent-side: unless, forsooth, he vanish away like the lion I slew! or else, perchance, he will come to life again! And art thou a lie like to the rest of them?
let me hear of this slaying." She rose up, and stood before him trembling, and said: "O, thou art angry with me, and thine anger I cannot bear.

Ah, what have I done?
Thou hast slain one, and I, maybe, the other; and never had we escaped till both these twain were dead.

Ah! thou dost not know! thou dost not know! O me! what shall I do to appease thy wrath!" He looked on her, and his heart rose to his mouth at the thought of sundering from her.

Still he looked on her, and her piteous friendly face melted all his heart; he threw down his sword, and took her by the shoulders, and kissed her face over and over, and strained her to him, so that he felt the sweetness of her bosom.

Then he lifted her up like a child, and set her down on the green grass, and went down to the water, and filled his hat therefrom, and came back to her; then he gave her to drink, and bathed her face and her hands, so that the colour came aback to the cheeks and lips of her: and she smiled on him and kissed his hands, and said: "O now thou art kind to me." "Yea," said he, "and true it is that if thou hast slain, I have done no less, and if thou hast lied, even so have I; and if thou hast played the wanton, as I deem not that thou hast, I full surely have so done.