ather would know of it." And she
spoke so courageously that I was reassured.

"Well; you must cry out if it comes again. You can have your maid to
sleep with you."

"I might do that," she said; and then--

"Cousin Roger; doth God permit these things to provide us against some
danger?"

"It may be so," I said, to quiet her; "but be sure that no harm can come
of it."

At that we heard her father calling her; and she stood up.

"I have told you as a secret, Cousin Roger; there must be no word to my
father."

I pledged myself to that; for I could see what a spirit she had; and we
said no more about it then.

As the day passed on, the sky grew heavy--or rather the air; for the sky
was still blue overhead; only on the horizon to the south the clouds
that are called _cumuli_ began to gather. The air was so hot too that I
could scarcely bear to work, for I had set myself to take some
plant-cuttings in a little glass-house that was in the garden against
the south wall; and by noon the sky was overcast.

After dinner I went up to my chamber; and a great heaviness fell upon
me, till I looked out of the window and saw that beyond the limes the
clouds spewed a reddish tint that marked the approach of thunder; and at
that grew reassured again; and not only for myself but for my Cousin
Dorothy, whose tale had lain close on my heart through the morning: for
this thought I, is the explanation of it all: the maid was oppressed by
the heat and the approaching storm, and fancied all the rest.

I fell asleep in my chair, over my Italian; and when I awakened it was
near supper-time, and the heaviness was upon me again, like lead; and my
diary not written.

After supper and some talk, I made excuse to do my writing; and as it
was growing dark, and I was finishing, I heard music from the Great
Chamber beneath. They were singing together a song I had not heard
before; and I listened, well pleased, promising myself the pleasure too
of going downstairs presently and hearing it.

Between two of the verses, I heard on a sudden, over the hill-top beyond
the village, the beat of a horse's hoofs, galloping; but I thought no
more of it. At the end of the next verse, even before it was finished, I
heard the hoofs again, through the music; I ran to the window to see who
rode so fast; and was barely in time to see a courier, in a blue coat,
dash past the new iron gate, pulling at his horse as he did so; an
instant later, I heard the horse