down upon a man who lay in a dim light, and had not noticed us thus far, or spoken.
“Is it your husband?” the king asked.
“Yes.”
“Is he asleep?”
“God be thanked for that one charity, yes — these three hours. Where shall I pay to the full, my gratitude! for my heart is bursting with it for that sleep he sleepeth now.”
I said:
“We will be careful. We will not wake him.”
“Ah, no, that ye will not, for he is dead.”
“Dead?”
“Yes, what triumph it is to know