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Updated: May 26, 2025
"Hilda," said he, in a low but firm voice, "thou hast often told me that the dead can advise the living. Raise thou the Scin-laeca of the hero of old raise the Ghost, which mine eye, or my fancy, beheld before, vast and dim by the silent bautastein, and I will stand by thy side.
Farther than this the mystery of thy dream escapes from my lore; wouldst thou learn thyself, from the phantom that sent the dream; stand by my side at the grave of the Saxon hero, and I will summon the Scin-laeca to counsel the living. For what to the Vala the dead may deny, the soul of the brave on the brave may bestow!"
I know not; but I had not held it thus fixed for many seconds, before a cold air, well remembered, passed by me, stirring the roots of my hair; and, reflected against the opposite wall, stood the hateful Scin-Laeca. The Shadow was dimmer in its light than when before beheld, and the outline of the features was less distinct; still it was the unmistakable lemur, or image, of Margrave.
To whom appeared the great Scin-laeca, but to him who shall lead a new race of kings to the Saxon throne!" Harold breathed hard, and the colour mounted bright and glowing to his cheek and brow. "I cannot gainsay thee, Vala.
"And is it thus," she said at last, "that I see the first-born of Godwin the fortunate, for whom so often I have tasked the thunder, and watched the setting sun? for whom my runes have been graven on the bark of the elm, and the Scin-laeca been called in pale splendour from the graves of the dead?"
It is the spectre of a human body seen in a phosphoric light; and so exactly did this phantom correspond to the description of such an apparition in Scandinavian fable that I knew not how to give it a better name than that of Scin-Laeca, the shining corpse. There it was before me, corpse-like, yet not dead; there, as in the haunted study of the wizard Forman! the form and the face of Margrave.
Farther than this the mystery of thy dream escapes from my lore; wouldst thou learn thyself, from the phantom that sent the dream; stand by my side at the grave of the Saxon hero, and I will summon the Scin-laeca to counsel the living. For what to the Vala the dead may deny, the soul of the brave on the brave may bestow!"
"Fiend or spectre, or mere delusion of my own brain," cried I, "there can be no compact between thee and me. I despise thy malice, I reject thy services; I accept no conditions to escape from the one or to obtain the other." "You may give a different answer when I ask again." The Scin-Laeca slowly waned, and, fading first into a paler shadow, then vanished. I rejoiced at the reply I had given.
"Says Hilda this?" said the Earl, thoughtfully. "So say the Vala, the rune, and the Scin-laeca! and such is the doom that now darkens the brow of Haco! Seest thou not that the hand of death is in the hush of the smileless lip, and the glance of the unjoyous eye?" "Nay, it is but the thought born to captive youth, and nurtured in solitary dreams. Thou hast seen Hilda? and Edith, my mother?
Mutely I turned towards the Scin-Laeca, and the expression of its face was menacing and terrible; my will became yet more compelled to the control imposed upon it, and my lips commenced the formula again whispered into my ear, when I heard distinctly a voice of warning and of anguish, that murmured "Hold!" I knew the voice; it was Lilian's.
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