maybe in that desperate venture he had found a kindly and swift death or perchance an ill one , and maybe he had rescued failivrin and found happiness , yet not thus was he fated to earn the name he had taken anew , and the drake reading his mind suffered him not thus lightly to escape his tide of ill. `` hearken to me , 0 son of urin , '' said he ; `` ever wast thou a coward at heart , vaunting thyself falsely before men .