despisest? When will all the clouds that beset thee roll away from
thy ken? When thy hopes are all crushed, when thy passions lie dead,
when thy pride is abased, when thou art but a wreck, like the shafts
of this temple, through which the starlight can shine. Then only, thy
soul will see clearly the sense of the runes, and then, thou and I
will meet on the verge of the Black Shoreless Sea!"

So, despite all her haughtiness and disdain, did these words startle
the lofty Prophetess, that she remained gazing into space long after
that fearful apparition had vanished, and up from the grass, which
those obscene steps had profaned, sprang the lark carolling.

But ere the sun had dispelled the dews on the forest sward, Hilda had
recovered her wonted calm, and, locked within her own secret chamber,
prepared the seid and the runes for the invocation of the dead.




CHAPTER VI.


Resolving, should the auguries consulted permit him to depart, to
entrust Gurth with the charge of informing Edith, Harold parted from
his betrothed, without hint of his suspended designs; and he passed
the day in making all preparations for his absence and his journey,
promising Gurth to give his final answer on the morrow,--when either
himself or his brother should depart for Rouen. But more and more
impressed with the arguments of Gurth, and his own sober reason, and
somewhat perhaps influenced by the forebodings of Edith (for that