San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-08-17
THE RANSOM.

gaze at their quivering reflection in the blue
mirror at their feet
The great walls of the city still bore the
victorious mark of the Caesars, and on them
paced the restless watchers whose monoto,
nous cries told the hours of the night in con
cert with the tongues of monastery bells.
The outline of great aqueducts cut sharply
across the horizon. Triumphal arches and
rostral columns emerged from the thick
foliage of trees whose shadows had lain for
centuries upon them. The homes of the poor,
the palaces of priests and ministers, vast halls
and ruined temples cast their strange and
varied silhouettes upon the fathomless blue
of the Latin sky and fretted the horizon like
the lace mantle of some Titaness.
When the gods reigned, the city was known
as the city of Aphrodite. Now she bore the
name of sainted bishop of the true church.
Above her walls rose the olive woods, and
higher still the forests of pines, somber and
mysterious, and fast against the granite hills
beyond, into the infinite ether, where the
eagle spreads his mighty wings, pointed the
nine towers of the castle of Pierreluce.
Here dwelt the virgin Bathilde
She was a widow who had ne'er been a
wife. Her lord, called forth to single handed
combat on their marriage eve, had gone
never to return, and with the chaste kiss of
parting on her brow, she was like a fruit of
Paradise. with bloom untouched save by the
swift passing Of an angels wing.
Her skin was white as the petals of the lily
flower.
Her eyes were deep; changeful as twilights
in autumn
Her throat was an ivory column-fne and
white and slender, and wound about with
strings of gold, clasped by single amethyst.
Her hair was like copper threads in the sun
light-like brown seaweed in the shade, but
soft to the touch as is the fur of the wild
beast
She loved no one.
She was as cold as the marble gods and her
heart was of ice. And her people hated and
feared her. for she was wicked and cruel; IN
their hearts they cursed her.
But she cared not at ALL In the radiant
pride of her beauty she was like pagan EN-
press and she scarce bowed her naughty
head at the elevation of the Host. The
priest swung the sacred chalice before her
beautiful eyes-wide opened and scor1ful-
and when the white robed friars in the don
jon chapel besought her to kneel with the
proudly:
''Of what should accuse myself?"
And the angels wept in heaven, and ever
the good and just God saw that she must be
humbled
1t was yet the time of the harvest, and the
autumn sunset lay warm on the granite hills,
when there came knocking at the gates ana
a sound OF many horses hoofs and the voices
of men.
Foulques the Beautiful asked shelter for
the night from the Lady of Pierreluce
Foulques the Beautiful was tall of stature
and fair of face. His head was the moeking
head of Bacchus, and his lips were red as if
stained by the juice of the grape His hair
lay on his brow like rings of gold, and there
was that in his eye which no woman could
withstand
From a window in the tower Bathilde
looked down on the guest at her donton
gates.
From the donjon gates Foulques the Beau,
tiful looked up at Bathilde in the window of
the tower
And it was as if she were held by chains,
and the heart which she had never felt be-
fore to beat rose in great throbs of ecstasy,
and she placed her two hands at her white
throat and felt the beating there.
And FOulqueS the Beautiful smiled, and
Bathilde sent down her servitorS to open the
castle to him and to his followers, and to bid
them welcome in the name of the Lady of
Pierreluce.
And all the splendors of the castle were
shown him and the magnificence of his enter
tainment surpassed that which would have
been offered to king or pope
And Bathilde laid aside her robes of mourn
ing and attired herself in garments of white,
and put on her girdle glittering with pre-
cious stones and unbound her hair, that it
might fall its length to her white feet and
went down and stood before Foulques the
Beautiful
He gazed on her and loved her even as she
loved him. And he saw her only as the wo-
man, humble in her love, for she served him
and listened to him and, when he spoke, made
answer as she thought would please him.
Day by day with her beauty she wooed
him from the wars toward which he jour
ueyed
Ter eyes.
But still he said no word of love to her,
knowing well it was his duty to go ON. For
to the soldier duty comes first and love comes
after.
At last she went and stood before him-she
bat had been so proud In her humility, she
asst down her eyes and sank upon her knees
md stretched out her hands to him implor
ngly and said:
Leave me mott love thee"
And he lifted her in his arms and kissed
Ter lips.
And Foulques the Beautiful and the Lady