The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest by William Harrison Ainsworth
page 84 of 871 (09%)
page 84 of 871 (09%)
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himself in a large, low chamber, the roof of which was crossed by great
beams, covered thickly with cobwebs, whitened by flour, while the floor was strewn with empty sacks and sieves. The person who held the light proved to be the miller's daughter, Dorothy, a blooming lass of eighteen, and at the other end of the chamber, seated on a bench before a turf fire, with an infant on her knees, was the miller's wife. The latter instantly arose on beholding the abbot, and, placing the child on a corn bin, advanced towards him, and dropped on her knees, while her daughter imitated her example. The abbot extended his hands over them, and pronounced a solemn benediction. "Bring your child also to me, that I may bless it," he said, when he concluded. "It's nah my child, lort abbut," replied the miller's wife, taking up the infant and bringing it to him; "it wur brought to me this varry neet by Ebil. Ey wish it wur far enough, ey'm sure, for it's a deformed little urchon. One o' its een is lower set than t' other; an t' reet looks up, while t' laft looks down." And as she spoke she pointed to the infant's face, which was disfigured as she had stated, by a strange and unnatural disposition of the eyes, one of which was set much lower in the head than the other. Awakened from sleep, the child uttered a feeble cry, and stretched out its tiny arms to Dorothy. "You ought to pity it for its deformity, poor little creature, rather than reproach it, mother," observed the young damsel. |
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