As she grew in years the child's health and growth were yet on each visit more carefully noted by the Black Horseman, who appeared well satisfied both with her physical and mental progress. One day he brought with him a mysterious phial containing a liquid, which he informed Jack was, by her mother's instructions, to be administered to the child at stated intervals, and of which he should himself see that she was unfailingly supplied. He affirmed it to be a herbal elixir of wondrously strengthening properties and of absolute harmlessness, and to be one of those ancient and pricelessly-valued prescriptions of the far-famed physicians of Glyn Helen, known in all the country-side some centuries gone by for their marvellous powers of healing and wondrous discoveries, and still regarded by all honest folk as supreme benefactors to the human race, and their prescriptions to be of undying value. He assured Jack that the elixir prescribed by her mother for Little Miss Primrose had been bestowed upon her by a living descendant of the Mystic Brethren, who still practised their ancient arts, and was equally well versed with his ancestors in all their wondrous lore of plants and herbs, and that the child's mother placed an unfailing trust in the skill of this great physician. Therefore Jack, than whom no one was a more faithful believer in the ancient legends of his country, more especially in the deserved fame of these learned doctors of renown, unhesitatingly administered the prescribed elixir at the required seasons, though not without some secret wondering as to the nature of the weakness or disease which the unknown mother would appear, by enjoining its use, to wish to avert from her little daughter. But the child showing every sign of perfect health both of body and mind as she grew out of her babyhood and daily increased in loveliness, her fond foster-father began to regard this daily antidote to an unknown ill as but the whim of an over-anxious parent, and the elixir soon began to be both administered and taken as mechanically and with as little thought as the child's daily bread, though always without the knowledge of any of the neighbours, the Black Horseman having warned Jack that the prescriptions of the famous physicians of old were ever held sacred, nor permitted to be revealed to the careless public. CHAPTER IV. THE EARL'S VISIT. "Wine above all things doth God's stamp deface." --GEORGE HERBERT. "Nay, do not fear, or for a moment dream The bridge will fall! These stays, though slight they seem, Will steadfast, when our suns have set, still stand. Yes, they will safely bear, at eve, at morn, The feet of merry children yet to be; Who, in their turn, shall, crossing, pause to see The River hurrying by as if in scorn...." --JOHN JERVIS BERESFORD.