This first
terror I have borne, but if a second falls upon me then I know that I
shall go mad and perish in this way or in that, and you, Quilla, will be
my murderess."
"No, no, not that!" she murmured.
"Then swear to me by your god and by your spirit, that you will do
yourself no harm, whatever chances, and that if die you must, it shall
be with me for company."
"Is your love so great that you would dare this for my sake, Lord?"
"I think so, though not till all else had failed. I think that if you
were taken from me, Quilla, I could not live on here in loneliness and
exile--however great the sin. But do you swear?"
"Aye, Love and Lord, I swear, for your sake. Moreover, I add to the
oath. If perhaps we should escape these perils and come together, I will
be such a wife to you as never man has had. I will wrap you round with
love and lift you up to be a king, that you may live in glory forgetting
your home across the sea, and all the sorrows that befell you there.
Children you shall have also of whom you need not be ashamed, though my
dark blood runs in them, and armies at command and palaces filled with
gold, and all royal joys.
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