Part I Simple paraphrase: most strongly Explanation: The person who now lives there (wherever it is) loves the speaker, without a doubt. In English, we talk about things being proven by "test" -- not a test like an examination, but by some kind of difficulty. Maybe that person proved his/her love by almost dying for the speaker. Or that person had to suffer a lot to prove how much he/she loves the speaker. As for what exactly "the greatest possible" test is, I am guessing that it must have been something unusually difficult, and probably unusually painful. Possibly even resulting in death. Like in the movie "Titanic" -- self-sacrifice so someone else can live. ---- Part II Simple paraphrase: "talked about me following them" or "talked about the fact that I would follow them" To "speak of" is a slighly old-fashioned (or poetic, or dramatic) way to say "talk about." The "my following" is what's called a "gerund phrase." A gerund is one of the verb+ing constructions. It is an action -- think of it as a verb becoming a noun. Here, it is "my [action of] following"... So, the original sentence (given in a very dry, literal, boring, unpoetic way): "they talked about my action of following them later."