Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the RosesYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
Grisly Grisell; Or, The Laidly Lady of Whitburn: A Tale of the Wars of the Roses
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Great Britain -- History -- Wars of the Roses, 1455-1485 -- Fiction
Sister Avice told the legend, how St. Edith grew in love and tenderness
at Wilton, and how she loved the gliding river and the flowers in the
garden, and how all loved her, her young playmates especially. She
promised one who went away to be wedded that she would be godmother to
her first little daughter, but ere the daughter was born the saintly
Edith had died. The babe was carried to be christened in the font at
Winchester Cathedral, and by a great and holy man, no other than
Alphegius, who was then Bishop of Winchester, but was made Archbishop of
Canterbury, and died a holy martyr.
“Then,” said Sister Avice, “there was a great marvel, for among the
sponsors around the square black font there stood another figure in the
dress of our Mother Abbess, and as the Bishop spake and said, “Bear this
taper, in token that thy lamp shall be alight when the Bridegroom
cometh,” the form held the torch, shining bright, clear, and like no
candle or light on earth ever shone, and the face was the face of the
holy Edith. It is even said that she held the babe, but that I know not,
being a spirit without a body, but she spake the name, her own name
Edith. And when the holy rite was over, she had vanished away.”
“And that is she, with the lamp in her hand? Oh, I should have been
afraid!” cried Grisell.
“Not of the holy soul?” said the sister.
“Oh! I hope she will never come in here, by the little window into the
church,” cried Grisell trembling.
Indeed, for some time, in spite of all Sister Avice could say, Grisell
could not at night be free from the fear of a visit from St. Edith, who,
as she was told, slept her long sleep in the church below. It may be
feared that one chief reliance was on the fact that she could not be holy
enough for a vision of the Saint, but this was not so valuable to her as
the touch of Sister Avice’s kind hand, or the very knowing her present.
That story was the prelude to many more. Grisell wanted to hear it over
again, and then who was the Archbishop martyr, and who were the Virgins
in memory of whom the lamps were carried. Both these, and many another
history, parable, or legend were told her by Sister Avice, training her
soul, throughout the long recovery, which was still very slow, but was
becoming more confirmed every day. Grisell could use her eye, turn her
head, and the wounds closed healthily under the sister’s treatment
without showing symptoms of breaking out afresh; and she grew in strength
likewise, first taking a walk in the trim garden and orchard, and by and
by being pronounced able to join the other girl scholars of the convent.
Only here was the first demur. Her looks did not recover with her
health. She remained with a much-seamed neck, and a terrible scar across
each cheek, on one side purple, and her eyebrows were entirely gone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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