"Would you were right touching _such_ victory, noble maiden!" answered Aage, "but evil is so mighty in the world, that no knight should vaunt himself of having overcome it; the noblest of monarchs overcomes not evil in his own kingdom, and scarcely even in his own heart." "Yes, in his own heart he surely must!" said the maiden; "but you are right after all, the power belongs not to man." They rode on for another hour in silence, and drew near to Esrom monastery. "The young King Eric looked as though he were good," resumed the elder maiden, at length; "sternly as he spoke to us, I still could not fear him; and our just rights he would not deny us; only thus doth anger beseem a king." "My liege and sovereign is impetuous," said Aage; "he is strict, but just; and there is assuredly no knight in Christendom who more faithfully observes all the noble laws of chivalry." "If that be true," exclaimed the maiden, with a suppressed sigh, "then I am thankful even for the misfortune which now brings us this way; had I even been myself the cause of our faithful foster-father's death," she added, after a pause, "his blood will nevertheless not be upon my head." "How mean ye, noble maiden?" asked Aage, starting. "I understand you not." "Had my father's faithful squire but hit the mark he aimed at," answered the maiden, "you and all King Eric's faithful friends would now have had more to sorrow for than we. His arrow never missed the eagle in his flight"--she paused, as if hesitating to say more: "yet you shall know it," she continued--"had not my sister shrieked, had I not clung to the archer's arm, he would surely have been alive and safe among us at this moment, while ye wept the death of your liege and sovereign. But praised be St. Cecilia! it were better it chanced as it did, were even King Eric not so good and just as you say he is." "Assuredly, noble maiden!" exclaimed Aage, in astonishment, "you have been the means of averting the greatest misery: knew ye that miscreant's intention?" "I knew he had sworn the king's death, for our father's sake, and that he would keep his vow. He meant to flee with us out of the country; but when the hunting train approached, we hid ourselves: he recognised the king, and instantly seized the cross-bow"--she stopped and burst into tears. "You have followed a fearful guide," said Aage, in a low voice; "weep not for his death. Although you knew his fell purpose, your soul hath been rescued from sharing his crime, and the king hath to thank you for his life. Yet would you had been ignorant of that madman's purpose! Such dangerous information you should never have confided to me." "Why, then, did you question me of it, Sir Knight!"