"Yes, Thorstan," she said quaking.
"I will tell you, my wife, that you need not grieve for me, nor fear
me, for I shall never hurt you now--nor could I have the heart. I am
come to a good place, and am at peace. Now you are to know that you
will be married to an Icelander who will be kind to you, and give you
what your heart desires. But your life will be longer than his, and
your end will be pious--and that, too, you will desire before you reach
it. And I pray you to take my body back to Ericsfrith and give me holy
burial. Farewell, Gudrid, and have no fear for me."
Gudrid, cold as a stone, sat on Thorstan Black's knee as if she had
been a child, and stared at the figure of her love. She could not say
anything to him, she dared not touch him. His head sank forward, and
he fell back in the bed and lay still. Thorstan Black touched him. He
was stone cold.
The good giant thought now of Gudrid only, and talked to her gently for
a long while, comforting her. He promised that he would never forsake
her until he had brought her safely home to Ericsfrith. He would take
Thorstan Ericsson to his own ship, and all the bodies of the crew who
were dead should be put with him there until such time as they could
sail. "And as for you, dear child," he said, "remember that you and
that true man have had the best that life can give you--for than wedded
love there is no more blessed thing. Think of me, my child, who lived
happily with my good wife a twenty years, and think that you are better
off maybe than I. For love such as yours is not a thing that can
live--no, but it must needs change as it grows older. You change, and
the world comes in between; and so it changes too. Now you have had
love at the full--and it is ended at the full. You should be thankful
for that. And be thankful too that he is at peace, and his fate
rounded--and nothing for him now but folded hands and quiet sleep.
Why, look at him now, Gudrid. Even now he smiles quietly, as who
should say, I have done with it all. Look at him, and have no more
fear of so gentle a thing."
Gudrid turned her haunted eyes towards the dead man. It was true.
Thorstan smiled to himself wisely. And now she could see that his eyes
were shut. She slipped off Thorstan Black's knee and knelt beside the
bed. She looked at her dead lover, and without remembering her fear or
thinking what she did, she put his hair off his forehead and tidied it.
Then she leaned over him, looking tenderly down at him, and stooped and
put her lips to his forehead.
Thorstan Black left her, and returned presently with candles and a
cross which he had made. So they laid out Thorstan Ericsson, and
Thorstan Black watched him all the rest of the night.