"That I will, when I can," I answered; "but it is only at times that the
power of song comes upon me. For that I must wait; but I have a feeling
that if I work well, song will not be far off to enliven the labour."
This was all the compact made: the brothers required nothing more, and
I did not think of giving anything more. I rose, and threw off my upper
garments.
"I know the uses of the sword," I said. "I am ashamed of my white hands
beside yours so nobly soiled and hard; but that shame will soon be wiped
away."
"No, no; we will not work to-day. Rest is as needful as toil. Bring the
wine, brother; it is your turn to serve to-day."
The younger brother soon covered a table with rough viands, but good
wine; and we ate and drank heartily, beside our work. Before the meal
was over, I had learned all their story. Each had something in his heart
which made the conviction, that he would victoriously perish in the
coming conflict, a real sorrow to him. Otherwise they thought they would
have lived enough. The causes of their trouble were respectively these:
While they wrought with an armourer, in a city famed for workmanship
in steel and silver, the elder had fallen in love with a lady as
far beneath him in real rank, as she was above the station he had
as apprentice to an armourer. Nor did he seek to further his suit by
discovering himself; but there was simply so much manhood about him,
that no one ever thought of rank when in his company. This is what his
brother said about it. The lady could not help loving him in return. He
told her when he left her, that he had a perilous adventure before him,
and that when it was achieved, she would either see him return to claim
her, or hear that he had died with honour. The younger brother's grief
arose from the fact, that, if they were both slain, his old father, the
king, would be childless. His love for his father was so exceeding, that
to one unable to sympathise with it, it would have appeared extravagant.
Both loved him equally at heart; but the love of the younger had
been more developed, because his thoughts and anxieties had not been
otherwise occupied. When at home, he had been his constant companion;
and, of late, had ministered to the infirmities of his growing age. The
youth was never weary of listening to the tales of his sire's youthful
adventures; and had not yet in the smallest degree lost the conviction,
that his father was the greatest man in the world. The grandest triumph
possible to his conception was, to return to his father, laden with the
spoils of one of the hated giants. But they both were in some dread,
lest the thought of the loneliness of these two might occur to them,
in the moment when decision was most necessary, and disturb, in some
degree, the self-possession requisite for the success of their attempt.
For, as I have said, they were yet untried in actual conflict. "Now,"
thought I, "I see to what the powers of my gift must minister." For my
own part, I did not dread death, for I had nothing to care to live for;
but I dreaded the encounter because of the responsibility connected with
it. I resolved however to work hard, and thus grow cool, and quick, and
forceful.