The Black Douglas by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
page 27 of 499 (05%)
page 27 of 499 (05%)
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foreboding of the mysteries of fate fell upon his heart and abode
there heavy as doom. He turned his head as though he felt a presence near him, and lo! sudden and silent as the appearing of a phantom, another horse was alongside of Black Darnaway, and upon a white palfrey a maiden dressed also in white sat, smiling upon the young man, fair to look upon as an angel from heaven. Earl William's lips parted, but he was too surprised to speak. Nevertheless, he moved his hand to his head in instinctive salutation; but, finding his bonnet already off, he could only stare at the vision which had so suddenly sprung out of the ground. The lady slowly waved her hand in the direction of the children, whose young voices still rang clear as cloister bells tolling out the Angelus, and whose white dresses waved in the light wind as they danced back and forth with a slow and graceful motion. "You hear, Earl William," she said, in a low, thrilling voice, speaking with a foreign accent, "you hear? You are a good Christian, doubtless, and you have heard from your uncle, the Abbot, how praise is made perfect 'out of the mouths of babes and sucklings.' Hark to them; they sing of their own destinies--and it may be also of yours and mine." And so fascinated and moved at heart at once by her beauty and by her strange words, the Douglas listened. _"What did the robbers do to you, do to you, do to you, |
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