The Evening critic., 1885-04-23

finds too late that his right Is forfeit he
yond recall, and his lords stand upon the
letter of the bond. Naaman, tho Syrian,
thought 1T light matter to bathe in Jordan,
and would have chosen some more difficult
way to bo healed of his leprosy; and
Orpheus did but glance behind him to lose
his wife and find the truth.
by no weak pity might your gods be moved.
This also found Edric the Wild, the
Saxon Thane who stood out for four years
against William the Conquerer, Edric "Sal-
wage" and "Salvatcus," he is described in
Domesday Book, where he is entered as
lord of our manor of Ledbury North And
old Simeon of Durham calls him Ur
SrenUisSinluS, who laid waste the lands of
the Castelans Of Henford, and killed many
of their knights and squires. He lurked,
with his following of Saxon outlaws in the
forests and hills of the rough Welsh border,
and made his peace with the Normans only
in 1910, when resistance to the foreign rule
had become hopeless. He was then taken
into the favor of William-who, like a
later monarch of England loved mani
and made the expedition to Scotland with
him in 1872 SO much is history; but
legend, hardly less authentic than the
CuIOnlClCb vi butao ulul bllltS says as IOl-
lows: 49,
Edric returning late one night from
hunt, lost his way in the great oak forests
which filed the valley of the Dee. He
was attended by a single horse boy, who
nodded half asleep on his horse as he fol.
lowed his master slowly along narrow
wood road that wound between the thick
boles of the oak trees and the clumps of gi-
gantic fern. The night was a wild one
with biub wind nd nf
across the gibbous moon. There was a
| steady war in the tree tops, lower down a
| groaning and shrieking in the boughs, aud
lower still whistle and rastle in the fern
| All these sounds occasionally assumed a
resemblance to human voices, and the
waverng moon.shadows that ran along the
path seemed every now and then to be fan
tastic shapes of living creatures that raced
ahead of the riders to hide behind trunk
and then dart out and race ON again. 1t
was haunted region, "where Deya
spreads her wizard stream" full of
tho memory Of Merlin and not far from the
waste city of Chester, on whose walls tho
few Saxon churls that sometimes took
shelter there in stormy weather still saw
| the apparitions of Roman sentries making
their nightly rounds. But Edric was not
superstitious. He was a rough h-and ready
soldier, distinguished says Map "Corporis
| dgilitdte etjOcunditdte UerbOrum Ell OpeIl,nin
The horses stumbled on till the wood path
broadened into glade, in the middle of
which deserted hunting lodge broke the
moonlight with its dark bulk Here Edrlc
and his squire took lodging for the night,
after hobbling their horses and turning
them loose to crop the grass in the little
clearing. They found the lodge unfur-
nished save for few shreds of worm -eaten
arras that waved and tapped in the gusty
air. But cropping their way through hall
and bower they finally came upon heap
of leaves which the winds of many au-
tumns had driven through the empty case
ments and piled up in the corner ,ofa bare
bed and were soon asleep. 1t was
long past midnight when Edric
awoke. The wind had fallen and the moon
was down, but light streamed through
the door of a neighboring apartment,
whence also issued an indescribable sound.
The boy was still asleep, and his master,
grasping his short sear, or Saxon sword,
stole to the door and looked in. The room
was full of light, the source of which, how
ever, was invisible, as also of the whirring,
buzziDg noise which sounded as much as
anything like the continuous rustic of ten
thousand clocks that hang upon the wall
of the ahrausstell,ng at Triberg in the Black
Forest and kept up humming as of a
myriad of insects.
twanging of a Welsh harp, though the
harper was nowhere to be seen. In the
centre of the room a score of women
moved to and fro in sort of choral dance,
chanting low song in a tongue which was
neither Welsh nor English, both of which
languages were familiar to the hardy
borderer; the dancers were very fair, tall as
men, and clad in light tunics of white linen.
Edric gazed till his eyes grew dazzled and
his head swan. He had no doubt as to the
true nature of the beings that he saw before
| him,
He had heard of the nocturnal phalanxes
of demons and the vengeance which they
were wont to wreak upon the venturesome
mortals who violated their divinities and
exposed their rites. But his blood was up
| and the daredevil spirit of the outlaw
prompted him to go all lengths. Gradually
his gaze became concentrated upon single
| figure the tallest and most beautiful witch
in the band. He devoured her graceful
motions with his eyes, as she wheeled and
leaped linked and unlinked herself in the
choral chain, till the impulse to break the
spell by action became overp0wering, and,
dropping his sword, he rushed into the
group with a shout and seized the beauti-
full sorCeress in his arms.
Instantly the music stopped with loud
rattling and jarring sound, and the COM
panions of his captive, swarming about him
like angry bees, assailed him with teeth
and nails. His prize, too, writhed and
twisted in his grasp, but he held her fast
and shouted Justify for the boy. At last
the latter with pale face and chattering
teeth, appeared in the doorway, and i'm
mediately all was darkness and silence. So
suddenly had the apparations vanished that
Edric almost thought that the creature
which he held had vanished tOo But, no;
in the darkness he still felt the warm
flesh palpitating in his embrace heard her
thick paintings, and even smelled the
sweet breath Of her lips.
She made no further resistance, while tho
captor led her out from the lodge into the
open air, where the gray light of dawn
shone into her wild eyes. The boy caught
the horses and led them up, and Edric,
seating her before him on the saddle, rode
slowly Off into the woods, looking warily
into the thickets on either side, as fearful
Of an ambush. But he met with no dis
| turhonnn auH snnn fha foraaf ahnut ba0au