Forest Keep [By A. King] (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 40 CHAPTER III. THE STORM. "Away, away, my steed and I!" Mazeppa. On, ye strange old days of chivalry, how does fancy love to wander in your enchanted groves, listening to the song of the troubadour; watching the gleaming shapes of the knights as they ride up and down in their burnished armour, mounted on their gallant coursers, whose trappings shine with gold; trembling at the half-seen form of grim wizard or wrinkled witch; peeping, half curiously, half fearfully, through the lone glade at the .moonlit dance of elf or fay; starting at the cry of some lonely damsel in distress who sits in yon solitary tower spell-bound by the cruel enchanter, and flying now with her own true knight to the rescue, and bearing her off from danger, in spiteof charm and spell! Oh, ye glorious old days, let some of your spirit descend and rest upon me, and gild my page with your own magic light! We must now return to the Baron and his train, who, since we have been loitering in the enchanted grove, have resumed their route along the river, which, as it winds away in the distance, looks like a glittering scarf dropped from the shoulders of an Eastern princess; and, now leaving its course, they began to ascend the hill. The minstrel, not at all abashed by the ungracious terms in which the permission to accompany the party had been given, hastened to take advantage of it by placing himself at the side of Beatrice, who had now, as they proceeded, full leisure to examine the person of her companion, which had hitherto been concealed under the folds of a large mantle which he wore over his surcoat of green, but which he had now thrown aside in order that be might move with greater freedom and ease. He was apparently about fifty years of age, somewhat below the middle height; and though well-...