Page:The Story and Song of Black Roderick.djvu/56

48 castle of Black Roderick, and there called thrice beside the gate, and for her it was opened by the little brother, who gazed affrighted and ran from her.

‘What hath come to thee?’ quoth she, and came upon him in his fear.

And he looked not to her, but spake to a knight-at-arms, saying thus:

‘Three times cried the voice of my brother's wife at the gates, and when I opened for her there was none outside.’

So the little bride, hearing, cried out in her despair, for she had forgotten that she was no longer as these others.

And when the two heard the cry, they were affrighted, and made the cross upon their foreheads.

‘It is the banshee,’ quoth the knight, ‘who weeps for some death.’

Seeing they feared her, the little bride passed sadly into the castle, and timidly sought the chamber where the Black Earl was gone to crouch by the glowing fire.

Now, when Black Roderick looked up