very terrible,' he said; 'I could almost weep, old though I am, and grown
cold with dwelling in the ivory house: O, Ella, if you only knew how cold
it is there, in the starry nights when the north wind is stirring; and
there is no fair colour there, nought but the white ivory, with one
narrow line of gleaming gold over every window, and a fathom's-breadth of
burnished gold behind the throne. Ella, it was scarce well done of you
to send me to the ivory house.' 'Is it so cold, love?' she said, 'I knew
it not; forgive me! but as to the matter of a witness, some one we must
have, and why not this man?' 'Rather old Hugh,' he said, 'or Cuthbert,
his father; they have both been witnesses before.' 'Cuthbert,' said the
maiden, solemnly, 'has been dead twenty years; Hugh died last night.'"
(Now, as Giles said these words, carelessly, as though not heeding them
particularly, a cold sickening shudder ran through the other two men, but
he noted it not and went on.) "'This man then be it,' said the knight,
and therewith they turned again, and moved on side by side as before; nor
said they any word to me, and yet I could not help following them, and we
three moved on together, and soon I saw that my nature was changed, and
that I was invisible for the time; for, though the sun was high, I cast
no shadow, neither did any man that we past notice us, as we made toward
the hill by the riverside.

"And by the time we came there the queen was sitting at the top of it,
under a throne of purple and gold, with a great band of knights
gloriously armed on either side of her; and their many banners floated
over them. Then I felt that those two had left me, and that my own right
visible nature was returned; yet still did I feel strange, and as if I
belonged not wholly to this earth. And I heard one say, in a low voice
to his fellow, 'See, sir Giles is here after all; yet, how came he here,
and why is he not in armour among the noble knights yonder, he who fought
so well? how wild he looks too!' 'Poor knight,' said the other, 'he is