rch. Edith may be wife to another,
if thou wilt,--barren spouse of the Church or mother of children who lisp
not Harold's name as their father.' Out on these priests with their
mummeries, and out on their war upon human hearts!"

His fair brow grew stern and fierce as the Norman Duke's in his ire; and
had you seen him at the moment you would have seen the true brother of
Sweyn. He broke from his thoughts with the strong effort of a man
habituated to self-control, and advanced to the narrow window, opened the
lattice, and looked out.

The moon was in all her splendour. The long deep shadows of the
breathless forest chequered the silvery whiteness of open sward and
intervening glade. Ghostly arose on the knoll before him the grey
columns of the mystic Druid,--dark and indistinct the bloody altar of the
Warrior god. But there his eye was arrested; for whatever is least
distinct and defined in a landscape has the charm that is the strongest;
and, while he gazed, he thought that a pale phosphoric light broke from
the mound with the bautastein, that rose by the Teuton altar. He
thought, for he was not sure that it was not some cheat of the fancy.
Gazing still, in the centre of that light there appeared to gleam forth,
for one moment, a form of superhuman height. It was the form of a man,
that seemed clad in arms like those on the wall, leaning on a spear,
whose point was lost behind the shafts of the crommell. And the face
grew in that moment distinct from the light which shimmered around it, a
face large as some early god's, but stamped with unutterable and solemn
woe. He drew back a step, passed his hand over his eyes, and looked
again. Light and figure alike had vanished; nought was seen save the
grey columns and dim fane. The Earl's lip curved in derision of his
weakness. He closed the lattice, undressed, knelt for a moment or so by
the bedside, and his prayer was brief and simple, nor accompanied with
the crossings and signs customary in his age. He rose, extinguished the
lamp, and threw himself on the bed.

The moon, thus relieved of the lamp-light, came clear and bright through
the room, shone on the trophied arms, and fell upon Harold's face,
casting its brightness on the pillow on which the Vala had breathed her
charm. And Harold slept--slept long--his face calm, his breathing
regular: but ere the moon sunk and the dawn rose the features were dark
and troubled, the breath came by gasps, the brow was k