"No, lady," the man-at-arms said. "I am neither knight nor esquire, but
a simple soldier; but I take no presents for saving two maidens from
capture and captivity. I have been a monk all my life, though now a
man-at-arms. Never before have I had an opportunity of doing aught of
kindness for a woman, and I am glad that the chance has fallen in my
way."
"May I ask the name of one who has done us such kindness?" the girl
said, turning to Oswald.
"It were best not, lady. It is a service that might cost me my head,
were it to be bruited about. 'Tis best, then, that even you should not
know it. I doubt not that you would preserve the secret; but you would
perhaps mention it to your father, and it were best that it were known
to none."
The girls were silent for a minute.
"Sir," the elder said, after exchanging a word or two with her sister,
"we would ask a boon of you. The successes in a war are not always on
one side. My sister and I will think often of one who has so greatly
befriended us; and were you, by any accident of war, to fall into the
Welsh hands, and should evil befall you, it would be a deep grief to
us. We pray you then, sir, to accept this little gold necklet.
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