And indeed I scarce believed but she would presently rise up from the ground and clutch me in her hands, and begin the tormenting of me.

But she moved no more, and the grass all about her was reddened with her blood; and at last I gathered heart to kneel down beside her, and found that she no more breathed than one of those conies or partridges which I had been used to slay for her.
"Then I stood and considered what I should do, and indeed I had been pondering this all the way from the Dale thereto, in case I should escape my mistress.

So I soon made up my mind that I would not dwell in that house even for one night; lest my mistress should come to me though dead, and torment me.

I went into the house while it was yet light, and looked about the chamber, and saw three great books there laid on the lectern, but durst not have taken them even had I been able to carry them; nor durst I even to look into them, for fear that some spell might get to work in them if they were opened; but I found a rye loaf whereof I had eaten somewhat in the morning, and another untouched, and hanging to a horn of the lectern I found the necklace which my mistress had taken from the dead woman.

These I put into my scrip, and as to the necklace, I will tell thee how I bestowed it later on.