ome that sudden
fury of rage against all humanity, as he went out of Caermaen carrying
the book that had been stolen from him by the enterprising Beit. He
shuddered as he though of how nearly he had approached the verge of
madness, when his eyes filled with blood and the earth seemed to burn
with fire. He remembered how he had looked up to the horizon and the sky
was blotched with scarlet; and the earth was deep red, with red woods
and red fields. There was something of horror in the memory, and in the
vision of that wild night walk through dim country, when every shadow
seemed a symbol of some terrible impending doom. The murmur of the brook,
the wind shrilling through the wood, the pale light flowing from the
moldered trunks, and the picture of his own figure fleeing and fleeting
through the shades; all these seemed unhappy things that told a story in
fatal hieroglyphics. And then the life and laws of the sunlight had
passed away, and the resurrection and kingdom of the dead began. Though
his limbs were weary, he had felt his muscles grow strong as steel; a
woman, one of the hated race, was beside him in the darkness, and the
wild beast woke within him, ravening for blood and brutal lust; all the
raging desires of the dim race from which he came assailed his heart. The
ghosts issued out from the weird wood and from the caves in the hills,
besieging him, as he had imagined the spiritual legion besieging
Caermaen, beckoning him to a hideous battle and a victory that he had
never imagined in his wildest dreams. And then out of the darkness the
kind voice spoke again, and the kind hand was stretched out to draw him
up from the pit. It was sweet to think of that which he had found at
last; the boy's picture incarnate, all the passion and compassion of his
longing, all the pity and love and consolation. She, that beautiful
passionate woman offering up her beauty in sacrifice to him, she was
worthy indeed of his worship. He remembered how his tears had fallen upon
her breast, and how tenderly she had soothed him, whispering those
wonderful unknown words that sang to his heart. And she had made herself
defenseless before him, caressing and fondling the body that had been so
despised. He exulted in the happy thought that he had knelt down on the
ground before her, and had embraced her knees and worshipped. The woman's
body had become his religion; he lay awake at night looking into the
darkness with hungry eyes; wishing for a mi