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The Greylock by Georg Ebers
page 6 of 52 (11%)
before, and his heart seemed to harden to a steel spring, while a gay and
reckless mood came over him. A wild desire to fly took possession of him
at the same time, and it seemed as if he were only fourteen years old
once more. Some strange force impelled him aloft into the air, to which
he yielded, spreading the two large wings, that he suddenly found himself
in possession of, as naturally as if he had used them all his life. He
soon felt the feathers on his back stroked by the clouds, and yet he saw
everything below him on the earth more distinctly than ever before. Even
the smallest things appeared perfectly clear to his sharpened eyes, and
yet he seemed to see them as if reflected in a brilliant mirror. He
could distinguish even the hairs on the rat and suddenly another impulse
came over him--the impulse to stoop down and catch the long-tailed vermin
in his beak and claws. Wendelin had been changed into a falcon, and the
rat struggled in vain to escape his powerful attack.

The prisoner had followed the combat first with anxiety, then with joy.
While the falcon held the rat in his claws and struck him with his beak
again and again, she called the squire to her, and bade him free her from
her chains. This was no distasteful task for George, indeed it gave him
so much pleasure that he was in no hurry to finish.

When at last all her bonds were loosened, she stood very erect, and
lifted her arms, and each moment seemed to make her more lovely and more
beautiful. Then she grasped the circle of emeralds, about which the
enchanter had wound her golden hair, and waving it high in the air,
cried: "Falcon, return to the shape you were before. Misdral, hear thy
sentence!"

Wendelin assumed immediately his knightly guise, which seemed very clumsy
to him after having been a falcon. The rat lengthened itself and
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