She anxiously gazed after him, until his form was altogether lost in the distance. The many tales to which she had listened, of the witch’s power and revenge, were unfolded again, and they seemed scrolls of the future, written with the fate of herself, and all that were dear. She led Edward into the hall, and soon perceived a marvellous change in the boy. At first he was silent, and did not acknowledge the attentions of his mother. He then shrieked in terror, and laughed in joy, alternately. His features were, at times, absolutely hideous, grinning, as if with malice, and then they became more beautiful than a mother’s eye ever beheld. “Mamma! mamma!” he would exclaim,--and he looked from his mother upon vacancy--“give Edwy more--oh! it is sweet, sweet. Heed not the man, wicked man, who drives you away;--come back to Edwy!” At length she succeeded in hushing him to rest, and her thoughts were of her husband. Darkness was now over the earth, and she imagined that the hag’s face was gazing in upon her at the casement, but she dared not rise to close it, lest she might disturb the sleeper. Sometimes, too, another form, seen by the moonlight, was there, and the witch dared to embrace the husband, in sight of his trembling wife! Hour after hour passed, and the next would be midnight, and William had not returned. In vain did his faithful servant, whom she had summoned to bear her company, suggest that his master might have refused to leave the cave, until the woman had read the destiny of the family more distinctly. “Nay, Roger,” she said, “something has befallen your master. Oh! if he should return no more!” and her agony was too deep for tears. “My lady, fear not. It is said that all those who are bewitched in the cave, have first listened to the love confessions of the old woman’s daughter, and drunk the cup of unearthly beauty. But I will instantly go to the cave.” Emily was about to urge him to make all possible haste, when he shrieked out, and pointed to her breast; and there her boy was gradually raising up his head, like a serpent, to her face, whilst his eyes gleamed with the most fiendish expression, and his mouth was grinning and distended. For a moment she was silent as the dead, and gazed in horror; but she could not trace a touch of kindness on the young features. All love and beauty, in a moment, had been dashed from them. The boy’s eye never moved from hers, or changed its emotion;--it was slowly meeting hers, in malice. His breath was now close to her cheek!