Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/29

Rh their wild foliage like immense fans, ever quivering in the wind like the sound of Aeolian harps. Herds of wild deer passed in their flight, like yellow flashes of lightning, amid the dense vegetation; while cows browsed on that moist and succulent herb, of an almost fluid green tint, to which the island owes its name of Emerald.

Notwithstanding the popularity of the Kehlmarks in the district, the castle had for the last twenty years remained uninhabited. The mutual affection of the young and handsome parents of the present Count had been so intense that the one could not survive the other. Henry was born there some months before their death. His paternal grandmother, who took charge of him, refused ever to set foot again in the country, to the ravages of whose inclement climate she attributed the premature death of her children. Henry, accordingly, was brought up on the continent, in the capital of the kingdom of Kerlingalande; and afterwards by the advice of physicians, he was sent to study at an international boarding-school in Switzerland.

There, at Bodemberg Castle where he passed his youth, he long wore the look