Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/31

Rh eyes, he seemed to see his young bride gazing upon him from the open door. And in his anger he sprang to seize her, but only the empty air came to his hands.

He mounted the marble stairs to her chamber to seek her there, but only found a sewing-maid, pale and deadly faint.

‘Oh, sharp sorrow,’ quoth she, ‘from what I have seen this night, Mary protect me! A white ghost have I seen—evil it may bring to me—a white ghost with dim eyes of the dead!’

‘Whither went she?’ said the Black Earl, angry in his need.

‘Into thy chamber, great Earl!’ cried the maid; ‘I saw her at thy bed-head weeping piteously.’

‘It was thy lady,’ quoth the Earl; ‘lead me her way, and stop thy lamentation.’

‘My grief!’ the girl said, ‘her way I know not; when I, deeming her my mistress, reached her side, she was no more. It is an evil day that cometh upon us.’

Now, when the proud Roderick saw the