But when she saw that he was breathing not so
ill, and that the colour was little changed in his lips and cheeks,
she knew that it was but the might of the mead that had overcome him.
Wherefore she laid him so that he was easy, and then stood up and
looked about her, and saw the children playing together a little way
off; and nought else anigh her, save the birds in the brake, or
flying on their errands eagerly from place to place. Then, as it
were, without her will being told them, her limbs and her feet turned
her about to the shore where lay the Sending Boat, and she went
speedily but quietly thitherward, her heart beating quick, for fear
lest something should yet stay her, and her eyes glancing from brake
to bush, as if she looked to see some enemy, old or new, come out
thence.
So now her will was clear enough to her feet, and they brought her
down to the water-side and the long strand, past which the wide water
lay windless and gleaming in the hot afternoon. Then lightly she
stepped aboard, and awoke the Sending Boat with blood-offering, and
it obeyed her, and sped swiftly on the way to the southward.
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