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Elsalill laid her hand on the wheel to stop it, and sat still, looking at her foster sister. At first she was afraid, but she thought to herself: "It is unworthy of me to be afraid of my foster sister. Whether she be dead or alive, I am still glad to see her." "Dear sister," she said to the dead girl, "is there aught you would have me do?"
Such faithfulness shall you show her that your love will be greater on the day of your death than on your wedding day." Elsalill stood still as before with downcast eyes. Then Sir Archie laid his hand on her head and raised it. "You must tell me, Elsalill, whether you hear what I say," he said. Then he saw that Elsalill was weeping so violently that great tears ran down her cheeks.
"Are you thinking that now there is an end of all your joy, Elsalill? Are you thinking that now there is an end of my hope of atoning for my crime?" "Sir Archie," whispered Elsalill, rising from her seat in her terror; "now the men are all posted. Now they will catch and seize you. Make haste and fly! I shall come out to your ship, Sir Archie, if only you will fly."
"So was it that my foster sister's hair was wound about the hand of him who murdered her," she said. But now Sir Archie burst into a laugh. He quickly drew back his hand. "Why," said he, "you and I, Elsalill, we are frightening ourselves like little children. It was nothing more than a bright sunbeam falling through the window."
But Elsalill tried once more to put fear into Sir Archie. "Sir Archie," she said, do you not hear the watch coming down the steps to the cellar?" "Oh, yes, I hear them," said Sir Archie; "they will come here to empty a pot of ale, since their prisoners are safe under lock and key. Think not of them, Elsalill, but think how tomorrow you and I will be sailing the wide sea to my dear native land!"
When I saw you I was forced to think even more of a young maid to whom I have done wrong. Many others have I wronged in my lifetime, Elsalill, but my conscience plagues me for naught else but what I did to this young maid." As Elsalill still said nothing, he took her hands again and raised them to his lips and kissed them.
Before the entrance hung a lantern, which threw a feeble light upon the street. "Let us see what you have found, mistress," said Sir Philip, standing under the light. Elsalill held up the coin to the lantern, and hardly had she cast eye upon it when she cried out: "This is Herr Arne's money! I know it well. This is Herr Arne's money!" "What's that you say, mistress?" asked Sir Reginald.
He was in cheerful mood, he had not been plagued with evil thoughts, and he believed it was owing to his promise to make good to one maiden the wrong he had done another. When Elsalill saw him and heard him speak she could not bring herself to tell him that she was sad at heart and would part from him. All the sorrows which gnawed at her were forgotten as she sat listening to Sir Archie.
The snow would disappear and the earth put on its garment of green. "Merciful heaven, what a spring will this be for me!" thought Elsalill. "No joy and no happiness can bloom for me after the chills of this winter. "No more than a year ago I was so happy when winter was past and spring came," she thought. "I remember one evening which was so fair that I could not sit within doors.
And Elsalill sprang up in terror and cried out: "Sir Archie, whose hair is it that is bound about your hand?" Sir Archie looked at her in confusion, not knowing what to say. "It is real hair, Elsalill, I can feel it. It lies soft and cool about my hand. But whence did it come?" The maid sat staring at his hand, and it seemed that her eyes would fall out of her head.
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