He will surely take good care of
one of two who were beaten by an unarmed man. But I think the lie will
come easiest to your master's man."
Thus spoke I bitterly, and cut the belt which bound the man's arms,
thinking all the while that he would never go back at all if he were
wise. But he said he would go back and tell the lie, and I laughed at him.
It was dusk now, and though I feared not the man, I would play with him
yet a little longer in my bitterness. So I bade him keep still, and stir
not till I gave him leave. His feet were yet bound, and he would need an
edge-tool to loose that binding. Telling him, then, that I would not run
the chance of his falling on me from behind, I took his dagger and the
seax they had given me, and stuck them in the ground a full hundred
yards away, and then bade him, when I was out of sight, crawl thither as
best he might and so loose himself.
The poor wretch was too glad to be spared to do aught but repeat that he
would do my errand faithfully, and thank me; and, but for the sort of
madness that was still on me, I must have been ashamed to torture him
so. I am sorry now as I think of it, and many a man who has well
deserved punishment have I let go since that day, fearing lest that old
cruelty should be on me again, perhaps.
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