Still the King listened in his trance, and he listened until his hearing acted for him as a dog acts for the hunter, or as a wild hog acts, following the scents of the roots that he wants even under the surface of the ground. Alone by his hearing he perceived what was going on; his eyes could not see, but his mind saw even more clearly than eyes. His young wife had been false to him; she was talking to another man even there within his own house; they were kissing each other, they were touching each other, they were speaking wickedness, such wickedness as would have power to split a mountain or to separate the waters of the sea--crime as would destroy the world. But he, the giant they betrayed, the King they betrayed, the husband, he could not move. Coldness of death is about him; he feels his blood freezing. O! for the days when he could renew his strength in a moment merely by filling his great lungs with the sea winds. "If I could only breathe the sea wind for one second," he thinks, "then I could rise up." And the ghost of him really seeks the shore of the sea, the flint-breasted naked rocks of the beach--racing like a horse in order to get strength from the sea wind to awaken the great inert body. When the ghost gets in, then the King can wake. XIII Smell of brine his nostrils filled with might, Nostrils quickened eyelids, eyelids hand; Hand for sword at right Groped, the great haft spanned. XIV Wonder struck to ice his people's eyes; Him they saw, the prone upon the bier, Sheer from backbone rise, Sword uplifting peer. XV Sitting did he breathe against that blade, Standing kiss it for that proof of life: Strode, as netters wade, Straightway to his wife.