“Aye!” fiercely answered Sir Richard,--“consider my wounds; a
daughter lost, deceived, polluted;--my hospitality returned by the
foulest treachery. Consider these wounds! aye, and revenge them
too!”
“But still,” returned his follower, “the shades of night are fast
descending. We cannot remain here long.”
No answer was given, and he perceived his leader kneeling over
a heap of bodies. The light was streaming upon that point. An
awful silence ensued, when in a tone which seemed the very voice
of satisfied revenge, Sir Richard exclaimed, “Here is the elder
villain!” He held his face close to the lifeless body of Sir Thomas
Tyldesley. No sound escaped him; but there he gazed, like a mad
spirit, exulting, yet miserable, that the object of his revenge
could not open his eyes, and know his fate. His face was pressed
close to that of the dead, as if the unholy embrace was sweet to
the very senses, and thrilling even through the frame of the aged.
Hate did not prompt him to trample, with profane foot, upon the
unresisting body, or to mar the calmness reposing on the stiff
features, but he even kissed the cold lips in ecstacy, and drew
the head into his bosom. At length he suffered himself to be led
away. “The young man,” after a short silence, he added, “the young
man must be here likewise, and I go not before I have seen him.”
They sought in vain, until reaching the banks of the Douglas, they
stumbled on two bodies, lying at the foot of a tree. They were
those of young Tyldesley and the page. What a shriek of madness
was uttered by the knight, as he recognized in the page, his own
beloved Anne! Her breast was naked, and on it lay the head of her
dead lover, while his arms were encircled around her, as if their
love could never die. Sweet and beautiful was the expression of
her countenance in death. Her dark ringlets were moved by the
breeze from the river, and richly they waved, under the radiant
moon, gleaming through the foliage. Calm they lay, as in the sleep
of love, which a single murmur may disturb, and affection seemed
awaking on their countenances, to assure them of each other’s
safety, and then go to rest. Sir Richard’s grief, was gradually
subsiding and ebbing, but only to feel the barren, dry waste, over
which it had rolled, and the wreck which its waves had borne along.
Without a word, he quietly prepared to sit down on the little mound
where the head of Anne was reposing. The father once more blessed
his child. Attempting to raise her lover’s head, and make them
divided in death, a shudder passed over him, and he again restored
it to its place, and put the cold, stiff arms, even more closely
around Anne, with as much fondness, as if, like a heavenly priest,
he wished to bind them in eternal wedlock. But over such a scene of
sadness we draw the curtain. Long after, that tree marked out the
spot where the young lovers died, in each other’s embrace. It has
now, however, entirely disappeared; but if the Chronicler has drawn
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account