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 must hide
Both eyes and pride!"

Now, as he uttered these words, they stood in the Pleasance by the
mound; and on a sudden there was a low faint cry! They beheld, and O
wondrous and strange! there was a small dark creature, clothed in a soft
velvet skin, in texture and in hue like the Lady Alice her robe; and
they saw, as it went into the earth, that it moved along without eyes,
in everlasting night. Then the ancient priest wept, for he called to