She might have humbled his pride had she gone to her spinning-wheel again , but she did nothing of the sort . Not long after she learnt that Guilbert had left the country . He did not even come to say good-bye to her , but , all the same , she knew the day and hour of his departure , and hid herself on the road to see him once more . When she came in she put her silent wheel into a corner , and cried for three days and three nights . VII So another year went by . Then the Count fell ill , and the Countess supposed that Renelde , weary of waiting , had begun her spinning anew ; but when she came to the cottage to see , she found the wheel silent . However , the Count grew worse and worse till he was given up by the doctors . The passing bell was rung , and he lay expecting Death to come for him . But Death was not so near as the doctors thought , and still he lingered . He seemed in a desperate condition , but he got neither better nor worse . He could neither live nor die ; he suffered horribly , and called loudly on Death to put an end to his pains . In this extremity he remembered what he had told the little spinner long ago . If Death was so slow in coming , it was because he was not ready to follow him , having no shroud for his burial . He sent to fetch Renelde , placed her by his bedside , and ordered her at once to go on spinning his shroud . Hardly had the spinner begun to work when the Count began to feel his pains grow less . Then at last his heart melted ; he was sorry for all the evil he had done out of pride , and implored Renelde to forgive him . So Renelde forgave him , and went on spinning night and day . When the thread of the nettles was spun she wove it with her shuttle , and then cut the shroud and began to sew it . And as before , when she sewed the Count felt his pains grow less , and the life sinking within him , and when the needle made the last stitch he gave his last sigh . VIII At the same hour Guilbert returned to the country , and , as he had never ceased to love Renelde , he married her eight days later .
He had lost two years XXXXX happiness , but comforted himself with thinking that his wife was a clever spinner , and , what was much more rare , a brave and good woman .
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