Part 16 (1/2)

So, despite all her haughtiness and disdain, did these words startle the lofty Prophetess, that she remained gazing into s.p.a.ce long after that fearful apparition had vanished, and up from the gra.s.s, 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 pa.s.sed 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 mind, once so const.i.tutionally firm, had become tremulously alive to such airy influences), he had almost predetermined to a.s.sent to his brother's prayer, when he departed to keep his dismal appointment with the Morthwyrtha. The night was dim, but not dark; no moon shone, but the stars, wan though frequent, gleamed pale, as from the farthest deeps of the heaven; clouds grey and fleecy rolled slowly across the welkin, veiling and disclosing, by turns, the melancholy orbs.

The Morthwyrtha, in her dark dress, stood within the circle of stones. She had already kindled a fire at the foot of the bautastein, and its glare shone redly on the grey shafts; playing through their forlorn gaps upon the sward. By her side was a vessel, seemingly of pure water, filled from the old Roman fountain, and its clear surface flashed blood-red in the beams. Behind them, in a circle round both fire and water, were fragments of bark, cut in a peculiar form, like the head of an arrow, and inscribed with the mystic letters; nine were the fragments, and on each fragment were graved the runes. In her right hand the Morthwyrtha held her seid-staff, her feet were bare, and her loins girt by the Hunnish belt inscribed with mystic letters; from the belt hung a pouch or gipsire of bearskin, with plates of silver. Her face, as Harold entered the circle, had lost its usual calm--it was wild and troubled.

She seemed unconscious of Harold's presence, and her eye fixed and rigid, was as that of one in a trance. Slowly, as if constrained by some power not her own, she began to move round the ring with a measured pace, and at last her voice broke low, hollow, and internal, into a rugged chaunt, which may be thus imperfectly translated-- ”By the Urdar-fount dwelling, Day by day from the rill, The Nornas besprinkle The ash Ygg-dra.s.sill, [181] The hart bites the buds, And the snake gnaws the root, But the eagle all-seeing Keeps watch on the fruit.

These drops on thy tomb From the fountain I pour; With the rune I invoke thee, With flame I restore. Dread Father of men, In the land of thy grave, Give voice to the Vala, And light to the Brave.”

As she thus chaunted, the Morthwyrtha now sprinkled the drops from the vessel over the bautastein,--now, one by one, cast the fragments of bark scrawled with runes on the fire. Then, whether or not some glutinous or other chemical material had been mingled in the water, a pale gleam broke from the gravestone thus sprinkled, and the whole tomb glistened in the light of the leaping fire. From this light a mist or thin smoke gradually rose, and took, though vaguely, the outline of a vast human form. But so indefinite was the outline to Harold's eye, that gazing on it steadily, and stilling with strong effort his loud heart, he knew not whether it was a phantom or a vapour that he beheld.

The Vala paused, leaning on her staff, and gazing in awe on the glowing stone, while the Earl, with his arms folded on his broad breast, stood hushed and motionless. The sorceress recommenced: ”Mighty dead, I revere thee, Dim-shaped from the cloud, With the light of thy deeds For the web of thy shroud.

As Odin consulted Mimir's skull hollow-eyed, [182] Odin's heir comes to seek In the Phantom a guide.”

As the Morthwyrtha ceased, the fire crackled loud, and from its flame flew one of the fragments of bark to the feet of the sorceress:--the runic letters all indented with sparks.

The sorceress uttered a loud cry, which, despite his courage and his natural strong sense, thrilled through the Earl's heart to his marrow and bones, so appalling was it with wrath and terror; and while she gazed aghast on the blazing letters, she burst forth: ”No warrior art thou, And no child of the tomb; I know thee, and shudder, Great Asa of Doom.

Thou constrainest my lips And thou crushest my spell; Bright Son of the Giant Dark Father of h.e.l.l!” [183]

The whole form of the Morthwyrtha then became convulsed and agitated, as if with the tempest of frenzy; the foam gathered to her lips, and her voice rang forth like a shriek: ”In the Iron Wood rages The Weaver of Harm, The giant Blood-drinker Hag-born MANAGARM. [184]

A keel nears the shoal; From the slime and the mud Crawl the newt and the adder, The sp.a.w.n the of flood.

Thou stand'st on the rock Where the dreamer beheld thee. O soul, spread thy wings, Ere the glamour hath spell'd thee.

O, dread is the tempter, And strong the control; But conquer'd the tempter, If firm be the soul”

The Vala paused; and though it was evident that in her frenzy she was still unconscious of Harold's presence, and seemed but to be the compelled and pa.s.sive voice to some Power, real or imaginary, beyond her own existence, the proud man approached, and said: ”Firm shall be my soul, nor of the dangers which beset it would I ask the dead or the living. If plain answers to mortal sense can come from these airy shadows or these mystic charms, reply, O interpreter of fate; reply but to the questions I demand. If I go to the court of the Norman, shall I return unscathed?”

The Vala stood rigid as a shape of stone while Harold thus spoke; and her voice came so low and strange as if forced from her scarce-moving lips: ”Thou shalt return unscathed.”

”Shall the hostages of G.o.dwin, my father, be released”

”The hostages of G.o.dwin shall be released,” answered the same voice; ”the hostages of Harold be retained.”

”Wherefore hostage from me?”

”In pledge of alliance with the Norman.”

”Ha! then the Norman and Harold shall plight friends.h.i.+p and troth?”

”Yes!” answered the Vala; but this time a visible shudder pa.s.sed over her rigid form.

”Two questions more, and I have done. The Norman priests have the ear of the Roman Pontiff. Shall my league with William the Norman avail to win me my bride?”

”It will win thee the bride thou wouldst never have wedded but for thy league with William the Norman. Peace with thy questions, peace!” continued the voice, trembling as with some fearful struggle; ”for it is the demon that forces my words, and they wither my soul to speak them.”

”But one question more remains; shall I live to wear the crown of England; and if so, when shall I be a king?”

At these words the face of the Prophetess kindled, the fire suddenly leapt up higher and brighter; again, vivid sparks lighted the runes on the fragments of bark that were shot from the flame; over these last the Morthwyrtha bowed her head, and then, lifting it, triumphantly burst once more into song.

”When the Wolf Month [185], grim and still, Heaps the snow-ma.s.s on the hill; When, through white air, sharp and bitter, Mocking sunbeams freeze and glitter; When the ice-gems, bright and barbed, Deck the boughs the leaves had garbed Then the measure shall be meted, And the circle be completed. Cerdic's race, the Thor-descended, In the Monk-king's tomb be ended; And no Saxon brow but thine Wear the crown of Woden's line.

Where thou wendest, wend unfearing, Every step thy throne is nearing. Fraud may plot, and force a.s.sail thee,-- Shall the soul thou trusteth fail thee? If it fail thee, scornful hearer, Still the throne s.h.i.+nes near and nearer. Guile with guile oppose, and never Crown and brow shall Force dissever: Till the dead men unforgiving Loose the war steeds on the living; Till a sun whose race is ending Sees the rival stars contending; Where the dead men, unforgiving, Wheel the war steeds round the living.

Where thou wendest, wend unfearing; Every step thy throne is nearing. Never shall thy House decay, Nor thy sceptre pa.s.s away, While the Saxon name endureth In the land thy throne secureth; Saxon name and throne together, Leaf and root, shall wax and wither; So the measure shall be meted, And the circle close completed.

Art thou answer'd, dauntless seeker? Go, thy bark shall ride the breaker, Every billow high and higher, Waft thee up to thy desire; And a force beyond thine own, Drift and strand thee on the throne.

When the Wolf Month, grim and still, Piles the snow-ma.s.s on the hill, In the white air sharp and bitter Shall thy kingly sceptre glitter: When the ice-gems barb the bough Shall the jewels clasp thy brow; Winter-wind, the oak uprending, With the altar-anthem blending; Wind shall howl, and mone shall sing, 'Hail to Harold--HAIL THE KING!'”

An exultation that seemed more than human, so intense it was and so solemn,--thrilled in the voice which thus closed predictions that seemed signally to belie the more vague and menacing warnings with which the dreary incantation had commenced. The Morthwyrtha stood erect and stately, still gazing on the pale blue flame that rose from the burial stone, still slowly the flame waned and paled, and at last died with a sudden flicker, leaving the grey tomb standing forth all weatherworn and desolate, while a wind rose from the north and sighed through the roofless columns. Then as the light over the grave expired, Hilda gave a deep sigh, and fell to the ground senseless.

Harold lifted his eyes towards the stars and murmured: ”If it be a sin, as the priests say, to pierce the dark walls which surround us here, and read the future in the dim world beyond, why gavest thou, O Heaven, the reason, ever resting, save when it explores? Why hast thou set in the heart the mystic Law of Desire, ever toiling to the High, ever grasping at the Far?”

Heaven answered not the unquiet soul. The clouds pa.s.sed to and fro in their wanderings, the wind still sighed through the hollow stones, the fire shot with vain sparks towards the distant stars. In the cloud and the wind and the fire couldst thou read no answer from Heaven, unquiet soul?

The next day, with a gallant company, the falcon on his wrist [186], the sprightly hound gamboling before his steed, blithe of heart and high in hope, Earl Harold took his way to the Norman court.

BOOK IX.

THE BONES OF THE DEAD.

CHAPTER I.

William, Count of the Normans, sate in a fair chamber of his palace of Rouen; and on the large table before him were ample evidences of the various labours, as warrior, chief, thinker, and statesman, which filled the capacious breadth of that sleepless mind.

There lay a plan of the new port of Cherbourg, and beside it an open MS. of the Duke's favourite book, the Commentaries of Caesar, from which, it is said, he borrowed some of the tactics of his own martial science; marked, and dotted, and interlined with his large bold handwriting, were the words of the great Roman. A score or so of long arrows, which had received some skilful improvement in feather or bolt, lay carelessly scattered over some architectural sketches of a new Abbey Church, and the proposed charter for its endowment. An open cyst, of the beautiful workmans.h.i.+p for which the English goldsmiths were then pre-eminently renowned, that had been among the parting gifts of Edward, contained letters from the various potentates near and far, who sought his alliance or menaced his repose.

On a perch behind him sate his favourite Norway falcon unhooded, for it had been taught the finest polish in its dainty education--viz., ”to face company undisturbed.” At a kind of easel at the farther end of the hall, a dwarf, misshapen in limbs, but of a face singularly acute and intelligent, was employed in the outline of that famous action at Val des Dunes, which had been the scene of one of the most brilliant of William's feats in arms--an outline intended to be transferred to the notable ”st.i.tchwork” of Matilda the d.u.c.h.ess.