incidents which the slightest knowledge of
Wessex novels can fill in amply. There were rows of swedes, legions of
dairymen, maidens to milk the lowing cows that grazed soberly upon the
rich pasture, farmers speaking rough words of an uncouth dialect, and
gentlefolk careless of a milkmaid's honour. But nowhere, as far as
the eye could reach, was there a sign of the sheep that Bo had that
morning set forth to tend for her parents. Bo had a flexuous and
finely-drawn figure not unreminiscent of many a vanished knight
and dame, her remote progenitors, whose dust now mouldered in many
churchyards. There was about her an amplitude of curve which, joined
to a certain luxuriance of moulding, betrayed her sex even to a
careless observer. And when she spoke, it was often with a fetishistic
utterance in a monotheistic falsetto which almost had the effect of
startling her relations into temporary propriety.

CHAPTER IV.

Thus she sat for some time in the suspended attitude of an amiable
tiger-cat at pause on the edge of a spring. A rustle behind her caused
her to turn her head, and she saw a strange procession advancing over
the parched fields where--[Two pages of field-scenery omitted.--ED.]
One by one they toiled along, a far-stretching line of women sharply
defined against the sky. All were young, and most of them haughty and
full of feminine waywardness. Here and there a coronet sparkled on
some noble brow where predestined suffering had set its stamp. But
what most distinguished these remarkable processionists in the clear
noon of this winter day was that each one carried in her arms an
infant. And each one, as she reached the place where the enthralled
BONDUCA sat obliviscent of her sheep, stopped for a moment and laid
the baby down. First came the Duchess of HAMPTONSHIRE followed at an
interval by Lady MOTTISFONT and the Marchioness of STONEHENGE. To
them succeeded BARBARA of the House of GREBE, Lady ICENWAY and Squire
PETRICK's lady. Next followed the Countess of WESSEX, the Honourable
LAURA and the Lady PENELOPE. ANNA, Lady BAXBY, brought up the rear.

BONDUCA shuddered at the terrible rencounter. Was her young life to
be surrounded with infants? She was not a baby-farm after all, and the
audition of these squalling nurslings vexed her. What could the matter
mean? No answer was given to these questionings. A man's figure,
vast and terrible, appeared on the hill's brow, with a cruel look of
triumph on his wicked face. It