Harold

Excerpt: ...seek thee-thou hast seen him." "I have!" said Harold. "But thou wert about to tell me of something more than this dejection." "Well," resumed Edith, "after Gurth left me, my feet sought involuntarily the hill on which we have met so often. I sate down near the old tomb, a strange weariness crept on my eyes, and a sleep that seemed not wholly sleep fell over me. I struggled against it, as if conscious of some coming terror; and as I struggled, and ere I slept, Harold,-yes, ere I slept,-I saw distinctly a pale and glimmering figure rise from the Saxon's grave. I saw-I see it still! Oh, that livid front, those glassy eyes!" "The figure of a warrior?" said Harold, startled. "Of a warrior, armed as in the ancient days, armed like the warrior that Hilda's maids are working for thy banner. I saw it; and in one hand it held a spear, and in the other a crown." "A crown!-Say on, say on." "I saw no more; sleep, in spite of myself, fell on me, a sleep full of confused and painful-rapid and shapeless images, still at last this 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...