time Amyot and I had been looking at each other, but just then I turned
my head away from him, and as soon as I did so, the music ended with a
long wail, and when I turned again Amyot was gone; then I felt even more
sad and sick at heart than I had before when I was by the river, and I
leaned against a tree, and put my hands before my eyes. When I looked
again the garden was gone, and I knew not where I was, and presently all
my dreams were gone. The chips were flying bravely from the stone under
my chisel at last, and all my thoughts now were in my carving, when I
heard my name, "Walter," called, and when I looked down I saw one
standing below me, whom I had seen in my dreams just before--Amyot. I
had no hopes of seeing him for a long time, perhaps I might never see him
again, I thought, for he was away (as I thought) fighting in the holy
wars, and it made me almost beside myself to see him standing close by me
in the flesh. I got down from my scaffolding as soon as I could, and all
thoughts else were soon drowned in the joy of having him by me; Margaret,
too, how glad she must have been, for she had been betrothed to him for
some time before he went to the wars, and he had been five years away;
five years! and how we had thought of him through those many weary days!
how often his face had come before me! his brave, honest face, the most
beautiful among all the faces of men and women I have ever seen. Yes, I
remember how five years ago I held his hand as we came together out of
the cathedral of that great, far-off city, whose name I forget now; and
then I remember the stamping of the horses' feet; I remember how his hand
left mine at last, and then, some one looking back at me earnestly as
they all rode on together--looking back, with his hand on the saddle
behind him, while the trumpets sang in long solemn peals as they all rode
on together, with the glimmer of arms and the fluttering of banners, and
the clinking of the rings of the mail, that sounded like the falling of
many drops of water into the deep, still waters of some pool that the
rocks nearly meet over; and the gleam and flash of the swords, and the