Page:The Wreck of a World - Grove - 1890.djvu/76

60 At last he found some actual relics of the final struggle. The footsteps were close together; the wheel-tracks circled round and converged; and there, close beside a great tree, were some scraps of stuff and feathers, which he recognised as being portions of her hat and shawl. It appeared that this tree was Aurelia's last resource. Here she had, it seemed, evaded them two or three times by doubling rapidly round it, till, her strength becoming exhausted, they had simultaneously made a rush and torn her to pieces where these relics were found.

Returning to the boat, Gell found that he was deeper in the wood than he had imagined, and would have had some trouble in finding his way but for a pocket compass he carried with him. He brought the poor fragments, which were all that remained of my dear girl, and which we have treasured as the early Christians used to treasure the blood of their martyrs. The sudden shock and grief for her loss turned my black hair quite grey in a week, and for her dear sake Gell long remained a bachelor.

Our own dangers were not at an end, and this time they came from a quarter whence they were not ex-