The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-05-26


his dream that was no dream.
He looked up into her eyes. Truly,
they We're glorious. again she turned to
the table of malachite, again she took
up that strange green chalice, and again
she poured from the silver flagon into
it. She raised it to her lips and drank.
She gave it to his hand and he drank.
1t seemed the nectar of the gods. 1t
ran through his veins like liquid fire,
soft yet burning. He gave back the
cup and lifted up his face TO hers. She
over him and kissed him.
Aud her voice fell on his ears.
Thou hast come for the second time.
Come never again. Forget not-come
V again, never again"
His eyes shut in an ecstasy. The
shutters closed with d clang. He was
alone in the dark.
& i
The third night, needless of the warn
ing the White Lady has given him. he
landed again at the steps of the Sfor-
ziani. This night he babe Sandro come
for him at one.
He came to the seventeenth window.
He tapped once, twice, thrice.
Again that glorious vision burst on
his eyes. Again he drank of the magic
wine, and so full of ecstasy was he that,
still holding the wonderful green chal-
Ice in his hand, he lifted up his face to
that of the White Lady.
She stopped to kiss him. but it SEEM
ed as if the fire of Heaven in her eyes
had turned to the fire of He'll. Hate
and horror cleaned and burned in
them. He came closer and closer. But
she did not touch mis- lips. She bent to
his throat.
A wild cry rang out on the night, q
second cry. and hen a third.
Something sharp was biting at his
throat, something horrible and altogeth-
eT devilish.
He srieked again and again.
Then he forgot everything.
+
Sandro was polling his way back to
thu Palazzo Luciano.
True it is. Signor, I am as inquisi-
tive as a woman. When you bade me
| go. I went but to the corner of the
Paiazzo. Then, thought I to myself. if
It be safe for the signor to go walking
about this accused place, it can be no
evil for me. Wherefore, I landed at the
DIDtI SlOe, anu CdiIie dIculu 70 where
you landed, bringing my pole with me
in case aught might happen.
I came just in time. I saw you
stand before a window. from which
light fell on our face. You raised a
cup to your lips, and When you had
drunk, you lifted yOur face as if-par-
don. signor-as if some fair lady was
o to bestOw on you a little happi-
ness.
"But there was no fair lady-it was q
| great and horrible thing I saw-a mon.
strOus bat darted at your throat, and
If it had not been for my pole and thai
| the Holy Virgin answered my prayer
you would have been a dead man.
| gave n blow of my pole and the
| loathsome thing fell dead. You, too
signor, fell. Some trouble l a il
| getting the teeth of the horror from
| your throat, but praise the saints,
succeeded and you are none the worse
Il carried you to the gondola and
had some trouble, for you are 10 ligh
weight, Signor. And you would not le
go that green glass thing there in you,
hand"
Aylwin looked down: Yes, surely
there was the green chalice from which
the enchantress had given him to drink
=
Aylwin Merton died last month.
Two small Cicatrices. one on eacl
side of the apple of his thrat, CAV
some food for thought to the medica
men who attended him in his last i'll
ness. What they meant was explaine,
in his diary from which 1 have com
piled the foregoing.
And as for the green chaIice. it /
nov in my collection.