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 miracle, that the appearance of
the so-desired form might be shaped before him. And when he was alone in
quiet places in the wood, he fell down again on his knees, and even on
his face, stretching out vain hands in the air, as if they would feel her
flesh. His father noticed in those days that the inner pocket of his coat
was stuffed with papers; he would see Lucian walking up and down in a
secret shady place at the bottom of the orchard, reading from his sheaf