Page:The Enchanted Knights; or The Chronicle of the Three Sisters.djvu/52

40 abstained however from telling him anything, lest his life should be endangered. “All I can tell you, my dear brother, is, that you must find the key of the enchantments if you want to undo them. If destiny has chosen you for our liberator, the stars will guide you, if not, all you might undertake would be folly.” Thereupon, he took from his pocket book, three eagle’s feathers—presenting them as a keepsake—enjoining him to rub them in his hands if he should require aid. They then parted, highly pleased with each other. Edgar’s chamberlain conducted him through a long alley planted with pines and yews to the outskirts of the grove, and when he passed them the grated gate was quickly shut, the time of transformation being close at hand.

Reginald sat down under a lime tree, to be a witness of the wondrous change; the moon shone clear and bright; and he saw the castle distinctly towering above the trees. At the dawn of morning he was completely enveloped in an impenetrable mist, and when the rising sun had dispersed it, castle, park, grated gate, and all had disappeared!—he himself sat upon a rock on the verge of a deep abyss.

The young adventurer looking around to find a