It made me shiver. Presently the knock was repeated, and then we heard these words in a guarded voice:
“Mother! Father! Open—we have got free, and we bring news to pale your cheeks but glad your hearts; and we may not tarry, but must fly! And—but they answer not. Mother! father!—”
I drew the king toward the other end of the hut and whispered:
“Come—now we can get to the road.”
The king hesitated, was going to demur; but just then we heard the door give way, and knew that those desolate men were in the presence of their dead.
“Come, my liege! in a moment they will strike a light, and then will follow that which it would break your heart to hear.”
He did not hesitate this time. The moment we were in the road I ran; and after a moment he threw dignity aside and followed. I did not want to think of what was happening in the hut—I couldn’t bear it; I wanted to drive it out of my mind; so I struck into the first subject that lay under that one in my mind:
“I have had the disease those people died of, and so have nothing to fear; but if you have not had it also—”
He broke in upon me to say he was in trouble, and it was his conscience that was troubling him:
“These young men have got free, they say—but how ? It is not likely that their lord hath set them free.”
“Oh, no, I make no doubt they escaped.”