Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-07-22

returned, bringing sorrow to me and to
yourself? Two years ago you Went away
promising to be seen here no more. l
gave you money, and | warned you
when YOU went that it would be Ill for
you and fer me if ever You forswore
your oath and came back-sorrow and
shame for US both. My word was truth.
1t is i'll for ns-ill for you and i'll for me.
Who can tell for which of US the most:'
The woman made no answer, but she
understood what he said, and she under
stood-how bitterly.-the look which
was upon his face. His words seemed
to break the power which held her spell
bound. She threw herself upon her
knees by the small chair cradle and burst
into food of passionate tears, putting
her hands upon the child's face and cry
ing her lamentations over it until the
cottage re-echoed with the sharp agon-
lied sound of her voice.
AT length, through the dark grief
which tore the poor woman's heart, there
seemed to struggle even yet o last glim-
mering hope. She left the child, and
/ grovelirg along the ground upon her
knees put up her hands aud took hold
of the hem of Egliniog's coat
"Gwna yrndrech. Frrs.i Duw, Eglin-
log" she said in Welsh-"do that which
is in your power, bard of God. 1t is my
| last hope, but it will not be allowed TO
! fail. Try if, as you loved me in the time
of which dare not think, as you should
/ love it which has gone. Try it. With
/ good faith he will be brought back to
I me-"
The bard knew what she meant. 1t
was the last resource Of his mysticism
which she invoked. and its power was
traditional, legendary, scarcely to be be-
lieved in by himself, to whom this final
/ desperate beseeching was addressed.
Back in the far years. when everyday
! life moved on its way through shadows
of mystery and wonder. when magic was
/ en- clement of existence and faith was
the lever of mountains, it was said that
the gift which was now invoked by this
/ last passionate hope of despair first
/ came within human power through a
/ miracle wrought by man both great
and holy. A princes son lay dying. All
that was known to arts of those un-
learned days had been done for him, and
/ wien the resources of their simple medi-
cine were exhausted there had been
called in the aid of magic.
Even while he grew cold in the death
chamber, while the head woman crossed
! his hands upon his breast and the lesser
women knelt around the bed shrieking
their lleenipg cries. there had come a
man bearing a harp upon his shoulders
/ to the castle gates.
When they heard his errand, they
would have turned him from the castle
with soothing, but that the prince, bowed
with sorrow and scarcely knowing
whittier he went, had CHANGED to pass
that way and catching in his despair at
! the widest waif of hope babe them let
the strange harper in. He marched at
| once to the death chamber and turning
| the women out remained alone with the
corpse of the princes dead son. Soon
the listeners without heard the sounds
of the harp half mufTied by the closed
/ door which interviewed between them and
the player, and his voice rising and fall
| ing in an air like to which for its wildness
and weirdness they had never heard any
strain before.
Many times repeated, the unusual har-
mony grew and waned in the silence of
| the deathroom, until at last, when the
hope of the prince had turned to anger
and he was for breaking in the door to
put stop to the unseemly experiment,
the music died away in sudden broken
note of joy, and there were heard sounds
| behind that darkened threshold which
made the listeners pause and the heart
of the prince bound in his throat And
in this there was no wonder, for the
voice which they had heard, the voice
which had at last made answer to the
long appeal of the strange harper, was
the voice of the princes dead son.
Eghniog. in the midst of his triumphs
of sound and song and the adulations of
the people around him, had long boosted,
as Elspeth knew, that his was the ances-
try which had been headed by this shad-
owy figure who had wrought the most
mysterious and divine of miracles, the
calling back of the soul when it las
/ passed to that bourne whence there Is NJ
return.
The bard plucked his coat out of the
woman's clutch and looked at her long
and earnestly.
"Gwna yrndrech,- Furdd Duw" she
reiterated. Bard of God, try it. 1t is
my last hope"
Could he dare, now that the crisis of
action was upon him, to arrogate to him
self such a power? The very attempt at
the miracle seemed profanity. Would
not some terrible blow fall upon him,
and for such audacity kill him where he
stood? He looked at the child in its
cradle upon the chair-the motionless
marble face, scarcely contrasting with
the white wrappings with which it was
swathed, gave him no hope Of success.
! He let his gaze wander from it until his
/ eyes fell upon the golden harp with the
black engraving of his triumphs. and as
he looked upon it there swept into his
/ heart a keen romantic desire to outvie
all his former victories by winning a
! contest of which the prize was human
1 life. The inspiration began to take hold
of him. If he succeeded, or if he failed,
it was for her and not for himself that
| he would have made the attempt. He
| put forth his hand toward the instru-
ment, and at the gesture the woman let
her hands fall to her sides.
"Furdd Duw," she reiterated. "Furdd
1 Duw."
He understood her meaning. and en-
/ tering an inner closet came forth again
in the full dignity of his bardic robes.
Then Elspeth Vaughan rose and placed
/ the carved throne of the bard at the feet
of the child. who throughout these fan.
tastic preparations had given no sign Of
( life. She removed herself to little dis.
lance and stood with her arms crossed
upon her breast in an attitude of mo
( tionless resignation, which her feyered
cheeks, her blazing eyes and The quick
+ rise and fall of her bosom showed to be
assumed. The doctor, or, to drop such
title where the treatment had gone be
yond the most extravagant quaekery-
the ROBBED bard, took his harp and let hi;
hands wander over the strings in few
/ preliminary notes.
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