banquet in the halls of Stowe, of wassail,
and the dance. The messengers had sped, and Alice of the Lea would be
there. Robes, precious and many, were unfolded from their rest, and the
casket poured forth jewel and gem, that the maiden might stand before
the knight victorious! It was the day--the hour--the time. Her mother
sate by her wheel at the hearth. The page waited in the hall. She came
down in her loveliness into the old oak room, and stood before the
mirrored glass. Her robe was of woven velvet, rich, and glossy, and
soft; jewels shone like stars in the midnight of her raven hair, and on
her hand there gleamed, afar off, a bright and glorious ring! She {226}
stood--she gazed upon her own countenance and form, and worshipped! "Now
all good angels succour thee, dear Alice, and bend Sir Bevil's soul!
Fain am I to see thee a wedded wife, before I die! I yearn to hold thy
children on my knee! Often shall I pray to-night that the Granville
heart may yield! Thy victory shall be my prayer!"

"Prayer!" was the haughty answer; "with the eyes that I see in that
glass, and this vesture meet for a queen, I lack no doubting prayer!"

Saint Mary shield us! Ah words of evil soul! There was a shriek--a
sob--a cry: and where was Alice of the Lea? Vanished--gone. They had
heard wild tones of sudden music in the air. There was a rush--a beam of
light--and she was gone, and that for ever! East sought they her, and
west, in northern paths and south; but she was never more seen in the
lands. Her mother wept till she had not a tear left; none sought to
comfort her, for it was vain. Moons waxed and waned, and the crones by
the cottage-hearth had whiled away many a shadowy night with tales of
Alice of the Lea.

But, at the last, as the gardener in the Pleasance leaned one day on his
spade, he saw among the roses a small round hillock of earth, such as he
had never seen before, and upon it something which shone. It was her
ring! It was the very jewel she had worn the day she vanished out of
sight! They looked earnestly upon it, and they saw within the border
(for it was wide) the tracery of certain small fine letters in the
ancient Cornish tongue, which said,--

"Beryan Erde,
Oyn und Perde!"

Then came the priest of the Place of Morwenna, a gray and silent man! He
had served long years at a lonely altar, a bent and solitary form. But
he had been wise in the language of his youth, and he read the legend
thus--

"The earth m