tear in pieces, than he who shall live burdened by the curse of the
Foes of the Gods.'

The housemaster looked on his son as the old carle spake, and a cloud
gathered on his face a while; and when Stone-face had made an end he
spake:

'This is long and evil talk for the end of a merry day, O fosterer!
Wilt thou not drink a draught, O Redesman, and then stand up and set
thy fiddle-bow a-dancing, and cause it draw some fair words after it?
For my cousin's face hath grown sadder than a young maid's should be,
and my son's eyes gleam with thoughts that are far away from us and
abroad in the wild-wood seeking marvels.'

Then arose a man of middle-age from the top of the endlong bench on
the east side of the hall: a man tall, thin and scant-haired, with a
nose like an eagle's neb: he reached out his hand for the bowl, and
when they had given to him he handled it, and raised it aloft and
cried:

'Here I drink a double health to Face-of-god and the Bride, and the
love that lieth between them, and the love betwixt them twain and
us.'

He drank therewith, and the wine went up and down the hall, and all
men drank, both carles and queens, with shouting and great joy. Then
Redesman put down the cup (for it had come into his hands again), and
reached his hand to the wall behind him, and took down his fiddle
hanging there in its case, and drew it out and fell to tuning it,
while the hall grew silent to hearken: then he handled the bow and