"I'll hold them back a while and then join you," and as he spoke his bow twanged.
For an instant Eve paused, then threw off her scarlet cloak.
"Remember, I slew your brother!" said Hugh hoarsely.
"I remember that he would have slain you," she answered; and leapt straight from the point into the icy flood, beneath which her head sank.
When it rose again there was another head beside it, that of dead John, who appeared for one moment, to be seen no more for ever, since ere morning the ocean had him.
Now Hugh leapt after her, and presently the pair of them were swimming side by side to the river's further shore.

Then, as now, it was but a narrow stream.

Yet they did not reach it easily, for, cumbered as they were with clothes, and numbed by the ice-cold water, the fierce tide caught them and carried them beyond the bend.

There they were lost in the gathering darkness, so that most of those who watched believed that they had sunk and drowned.

But it was not so, for after a long struggle they came safe to shore near to a clump of willows, and clambered over the frozen mud to the heath beyond.
"First fire, then water," said Hugh, in a mazed voice.
"You have missed out love and death," answered the girl--"a full feast for a day that is not done.