dream rose clear. I beheld a bright and starry shape, that seemed as
a spirit, yet wore thine aspect, standing on a rock; and an angry
torrent rolled between the rock and the dry safe land. The waves
began to invade the rock, and the spirit unfurled its wings as to
flee. And then foul things climbed up from the slime of the rock, and
descended from the mists of the troubled skies, and they coiled round
the wings and clogged them."

"Then a voice cried in my ear,--'Seest thou not on the perilous rock
the Soul of Harold the Brave?--seest thou not that the waters engulf
it, if the wings fail to flee? Up, Truth, whose strength is in
purity, whose image is woman, and aid the soul of the brave!' I
sought to spring to thy side; but I was powerless, and behold, close
beside me, through my sleep as through a veil, appeared the shafts of
the ruined temple in which I lay reclined. And, methought, I saw
Hilda sitting alone by the Saxon's grave, and pouring from a crystal
vessel black drops into a human heart which she held in her hands: and
out of that heart grew a child, and out of that child a youth, with
dark mournful brow. And the youth stood by thy side and whispered to
thee: and from his lips there came a reeking smoke, and in that smoke
as in a blight the wings withered up. And I heard the Voice say,
'Hilda, it is thou that hast destroyed the good angel, and reared from
the poisoned heart the loathsome tempter!' And I cried aloud, but it
was too late; the waves swept over thee, and above the waves there
floated an iron helmet, and on the helmet was a golden crown--the
crown I had seen in the hand of the spectre!"

"But this is no evil dream, my Edith," said Harold, gaily.

Edith, unheeding him, continued: