Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/317

 she sank exhausted upon the ground just in front of the governor's horse; and startled by the sudden apparition of the fair, spirit-*like thing, Sir William sat in silent bewilderment, reining in his plunging, snorting horse with a powerful hand, till the spirited animal sank upon his haunches beneath the strong control.

But Sir William's were not the only eyes to which that fair, frantic face appealed: one of the officers in the company, who had come out from England with the governor, galloped to the scene, and forcing his horse up to the side of the death-cart, peered with quick, inquiring eyes into the face of the prisoner, who had sat with closed eyes and tightly compressed lips, not turning her head or moving hand or foot since she entered that car of death; then suddenly, as if his gaze had assured him of her identity, he bent forward and shouted close to her ear, "Elsie Campbell!—look at me!"

With a mighty effort, the fast-sealed eyes unclosed; and the thoughts which had, it would seem, already preceded her to the unknown and eternal world she was so soon