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More than six leagues lay between them and the Wolves' Cairn, which surely the waters could never cover; and toward it the three rode at a stretch gallop, King Graul only tightening his hand on the bridle as Rubh strained to outpace the others. As he rode he called warnings to the herdsmen and tinners who already had heard the far roar of waters and were fleeing to the hills.
"Why crowd ye thus, knaves?" said a commanding voice. "Ha, Lord Hastings! approach! behold!" exclaimed Alwyn. "Ha, ha!" shouted Graul, as she led her sisters from the spot, wheeling, and screaming, and tossing up their timbrels, "ha! the witch and her lover! Ha, ha! Foul is fair! Ha, ha! Witchcraft and death go together, as thou mayest learn at the last, sleek wooer."
"He hath beat me with his bridle rein, he hath given a silver broad piece to Grisell; Grisell hath sat on his knee; Graul never pardons!" The friar, rogue as he was, shuddered. "I cannot help thee to murder, I cannot give thee the potion; name some other reward." "I go " "Nay, nay, think, pause." "I know where Warner is hid. By this hour to-morrow night, I can place him in thy power.
A shriek of terror at this recognition burst from Sibyll, as she threw herself again upon Adam's breast; but when he looked round to discover the cause of her alarm, Graul was gone. On reaching his own house, Hastings learned that the court was still at Shene.
Woe to thee, if thou harbourest the wizard and the succuba!" With that Graul moved slowly to the door. Host and housekeeper, varlet, groom, and scullion made way for her in terror; and still, as she moved, she kept her eyes on Sibyll, till her sisters, following in successive file, shut out the hideous aspect: and Meg, ordering away her gaping train, closed the door.
They shall be put in the stocks, they shall be brent with hot iron, they " "Ha, ha!" interrupted the terrible Graul, "guests of mark! noble guests, trow ye! Adam Warner, the wizard, and his daughter, whom we drove last night from their den, as many a time, sisters, and many, we have driven the rats from charnel and cave." "Wizard! Adam!
They laid hands on all the provisions in the house, tore the meats from the spit, devouring them half raw; set the casks running over the floors; and while they swilled and swore, and filled the place with the uproar of a hell broke loose, Graul Skellet, whom the lust for the rich garments of Sibyll still fired and stung, led her followers up the stairs towards the deserted chamber.
He wondered at this; but at the base of the cairn he wondered no longer, for the old gray wolf, for whose head Graul had offered a talent of silver, was loping down the hillside in full view, with her long family at her heels. She passed within a stone's throw of the King and gave him one quiet, disdainful look out of her green eyes as she headed her pack to the southward.
Blood of my life!" stammered the landlord, "is his name Adam after all?" "My name is Adam Warner," said the old man, with dignity, "no wizard a humble scholar, and a poor gentleman, who has injured no one. Wherefore, women if women ye are would ye injure mine and me?" "Faugh, wizard!" returned Graul, folding her arms. "Didst thou not send thy spawn, yonder, to spoil our mart with her gittern?
Graul Skellet, tossing up her timbrel, darted to the fugitives and grinned a ghastly grin when she heard the news, for the tymbesteres were all loyal to a king who loved women, and who had a wink and a jest for every tramping wench! The troopers tarried not, however, for further converse, but, having satisfied their thirst, hurried and clattered from the yard.
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