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The tie at the moor Stone by
Nigel Turner. The boat was fastened and

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I clambered up the broken steps.
Their silence met me like a friend.

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No sounds were to be heard,
but measured lapping of water against the stone

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lined banks, and the occasional cheap
of a screech bat I gained the terrace.

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Nowhere was a light visible. The
grange seemed filled with silence and darkness.

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Slowly I wended up the long alley
the beldum. That witch hag weighed

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heavily upon my spirits, and a
loathsome fear possessed me. In daytime I

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had brooded over her address, and
hell got lear. Yet sunshine and fellowship

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of men, and ripened wine had
beclogged my apprehensions. Now, walking betwixt

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the high dense hedges of box,
where no sound was for the thick turf

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as velvet sunk my footsteps, I
was once more affrighted. Twice had she

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crossed me, and two times had
evil fortune befallen. The galleon captured my

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brother slain, Ye gad man,
What of old wives prattle? Quoth I

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to myself. Their gizzards are stuffed
with ancient tails. Tush a fig for

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the hag's rubbish did not bab may
last, Saint Agnes Eve tell her beads

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to my name, and that even
the too nay, nay, her malignanty

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cannot wantonnon me. But ever and
anon. As I paced up the silent,

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fragrant ally, her words fell back
again, and unwittingly I shuddered,

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God, what courage was a constant
companion? Yet a fright grew and overwrought

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me. My bilbow fastened in a
blown branch, and I stooped to release

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it. A torturing scream broke shrilly
upon my ears, an oath, a

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scuffle, then silence. In God's
name, What's ado? I muttered,

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and sped up to the terrace door. It was bolted. This threw me

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all aback, for never before had
it been so encountered. Now I heard

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the west gates thrown open, creaking
villainously upon their hinges, A clatter of

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horses, hoofs, then no noise. I ran swiftly round the terrace,

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leapt the small stream, and,
hastening up the steep, stood upon the

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margin of the moor. But darkness
of night and softness of verdure had swallowed

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up both sight and sound. I
turned into the courtyard and hurried to the

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wicket gate by the ancient buttery.
It swung over to my touch, So

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speeding through the smaller hole, I
gained the great staircase. At the first

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turn, I tripped over a sprawling
body in a trice. I was on

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it, and at the throat it
was a woman with nervous hands. I

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struck a light and beheld the countenance
of her handmaid, Mistress Marian. Cried

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I thickly, what has happened?
But she had been stunned by a heavy

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blow, which yet left a thick
red welt upon her forehead. So in

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haste to ascertain the safety of my
beloved, I caught up the maid and

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rushed down the long corridor. The
door of Viola's room stood ajar. I

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broke in, clamoring her name,
but there came no response. The chamber

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was empty. I flung down the
woman, and with trembling hands, lit

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the flambo by the tall mirror.
As the light filled the room, I

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noticed full disorder on every side.
Viola must have retired to rest. For

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her garments, with many dainty frills
and ravishments of white lay flung aside,

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while the bedclothes were betossed. Hastily. I threw water over the damsel's face

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and violently shook her. Mistress Marian, I shouted loudly in her ear,

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where is my lady? She opened
her eyes, her lips moved, but

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I heard no sound. Bending down, I caught the low moan, my

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lord, the tie at the mow
stone, Sir Jasper, and the goodly

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maid fell a faint. Again,
This is the devil's ploy, thought I

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suddenly the heart within me. Now
I knew of a certain that an evil

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eye had been cast upon us.
My feet seemed rooted to the oaken floor.

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Action was wanting in all my members. I stood as a stucco doll.

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Me seemed an age passed, and
no sounds heard, but the sough

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of the wind through the blighted pines, and the dismal hoot of a ranging

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owl. It was strange. Fragrance
of Jessamine still lingered in the room,

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as it was at even when last
we sat in Love's sweet bower. This

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perturbed my senses with dear recollections,
and as a lout, struck dumb with

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fears indefinite, with bitter grief,
tearing at my heart strings. Heedlessly,

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I loitered, then recurred that bodeful
wording seeker by the mole stone when no

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time is and cursing my tardiness,
I hastened from the chamber. As I

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fled along the dark, re echoing
corridors, A mighty blast of wind drave

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into the house, swirling and screeching
through the many passages. Then fell a

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great silence all around, and my
heart pat exceedingly within me. For I

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on this night did evil fortune befall. From one a babe would be reft,

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ne'er to be seen again. From
another, a fair virgin would be

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ravished to be discovered. Next morn, lying afield, babbling and disfigured.

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Oft times, a wedded wench would
be lifted from beside her slumbering bridegroom,

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And next morn, at the waking
hour, a dead corpse chilled his living

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blood. All this crushed into my
head, as unwitting of the way,

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I traversed the outer hall. Its
porch stood open, and I marveled thereat.

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Neither in my life nor in my
father's had this been For time had

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so rusted and encrusted the iron bratticed
halls of the great door that nigh A

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scoursome of strong men could scarce accomplish
the opening thereof. But now it gaped

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to the thickening darkness. I gained
the heath. All was still behind me

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lay the grange, buried in the
gathering night beyond the moorstone. I plunged

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impetuously forward, scudding up the rising
grounds like a leverett before pursuit. Now

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arose all my grandam had told.
This was the eve of Witchery's highest revelry,

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the thirtieth of April. A great
offering was brought this night to the

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moorstone around hearthstones at eventide, it
was whispered the evil One himself came and

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feasted. But no mortal had ever
seen and told. Had not my father

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been found two score years ago on
the first of May, lying in deathly

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stupor nigh to the moorstone, his
body naked and livid, with impress of

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great taloned fingers all over, And
never again had his voice greeted the ear.

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My eager feet sank in a bog
and tardily I set them down again,

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lest I be pitted and drawn in
by the quickening morass. There was

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no noise but the swishle of reeds
against my body. As I bent on

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now and again a moor hen or
what a rat was, startled, and

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I heard it scuttle from me.
Ever and anon elusive lights shimmered out in

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the distance to tell of mortals lured
to destruction by malicious goblins. And I

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gathered in my mind how that travelers
crossing between Murk and morning had been lost,

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luckless whites snared into depthless morasses.
I broke out into a speedier pace

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and prayed the saints for a stout
heart. Haply stumbling into a narrow westerly

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track, I gained courage with firm
ground beneath me. My God, I

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groaned to think of my love in
their hellish tricks. The blood thickened at

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that very thought. As I sped
up to the waste land, my brain

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pieced together the case. The heart
was with my mistress, Yester. Even

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as she lay in my arms,
a cold shiver chilled her gentle frame,

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and breath failed for the space of
a lamb's bleat. As life pulsed back,

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she clung her tender soft body to
mine, and knew the quickening beat

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of her heart was felt, and
sweet caresses calm to the terrified spirit.

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She wist not the cause, but
subtle love caught upon the reason. An

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evil eye had rested upon her and
thralled ay, And by Sir Jasper had

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it been cast. May God smother
him in his own slime. I muttered

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thickly, and sped the faster onwards. At last the dreary highlands were reached.

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No knowledge had I whereby to gain
the center, where lay the moor

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stone, within the circle of stone
pillars gathered by heathenish hands. I was

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all uncertain of it. Neither moon
nor your stars broke the sullen darkness,

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No stir was in the air.
All in a clap out of the blackness.

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To my right came a shrill cry
of help, Help. Then the

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silence was broken by shrieks of a
tortured being borne far into the night.

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They beat upon my ear full of
a dread terror, and I stood rooted

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to the spot. Suddenly the air
rang with a faint echo of Jeffrey Geoffrey.

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The vague sound died away, and
I heard nought but the pit pat

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of my bosom, Now a harsh
hurtling noise passed overhead, an echo of

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discordant laughter and gibberish talk. Even
now, where the devilish gang are loose,

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Already some luckless wight had they fastened
upon and done to death. For

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this hellish brood was my mistress to
be sacrificed. A mighty wrath flowed up

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within me, and I pressed on
fiercely. Hell's dawn broke red behind a

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ridge. Some small deer drove rapidly
past me. My limbs slackened as timorously

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I clambered up, muttering a pater
noster. The top was reached. The

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sight therefrom terrified me by reason of
fear. My body shook before the druid

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circle, wherein lay the stone sat
a horrid being of evil growth, possessing

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the voice of man. Around him, red columns of fire belched forth,

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beclouding the air with Hell's vapors.
Far back, until enveloped with the mists

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of night. Grinned myriads of babbering
skulls, ancient witches and wizards again to

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renew the past. On a sudden
the earth trembled, and I fell,

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quaking upon the salts. Methinks I
had lain there in stupor a goodly time.

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As when breath crept back, the
space before me was covered with crawling,

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flickering flames, and numberless voices filled
the air with hoarse revelry. My

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heart gave a great bound, but
the blood clotted within its runs. For

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bound to the moor, stone lay
violer. I sank on the turf,

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riven with unutterable agony. No prayer
issued from trembling lips. Indeed my head

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was blank. Then thoughts slowly shaped
themselves. Tradition hath it that every volpurgis

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eve, the evil one demands the
pure soul of maidenhood thereafter to woo it

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to destruction. So Sir Jasper,
maddened at my felicity, had outrun all

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humanity of God and man. His
base malignity roused my beclotted blood, and

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I cursed him. Nay, I
could but die beside her and bulk his

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devilish intent. And I started up. But I was borne upon the grass

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by an overmastering hand that stiffening all
flesh, turned my body into stone.

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I lay prostrate, speechless and mightily
afraid. Verily, man is but a

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beast of the fields. When the
spirits of evil and of darkness do stalk

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abroad. A voice sounded from among
the crawling flames. As it receded from

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the circling witchery and drew nigh unto
the evil one. It died away into

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a long, drawn sob. The
person of a male appeared amongst the many

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wavering fires. With bowed head and
low, crouching body. He adored.

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Then, with indistinct voice, he
proffered the offering. Great clouds of smoke

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gathered above as a roof. All
sound died away into a deadened silence,

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and human utterance issued from the pillar
of fire that, slowly filling the circle,

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enwrapped the evil growth. It is
good, it said, and the

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soul of the maid is without stain. Yet their up spake a voice in

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reverent accents, Almighty Master, we
cast a spell upon her, for she

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cried on her lover to save.
So the bane was recalled. Yet the

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recumbent figure lay motionless. Forthwith there
arose a mighty clamoring of many tongues,

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crying, Am mortali is with us. The harsh, unhallowed outcry filled the

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air, and curling flames, shooting
out their long tongues sprang upon me from

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the surface of the earth. My
breath hardened, my pulse throbbed. Not

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meseemed, I was and was not
scant knowledge had I that Hell's crowd surged

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upon me, and surged back again. Baffled again, they thronged around,

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endeavoring to devour me, But I
was unharmed. Hideous forms filled the air.

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Griffins with hurtling wings and monstrous faces
swarmed above, darkening the dim light.

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Huge embodiments of winged snakes swelled up
and spitting at me, raged impotently

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with hellish spleen. Suddenly, like
a base chimera, the unholy crew went

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not before me but the lurid round
of flame and the motionless body of my

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love. Yet on all sides,
great bodied creatures, mingling with gigantic,

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wavering shadows, noiselessly massed themselves.
In the heavens above, and upon the

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face of the sleeping lands afar and
surrounding, the forces of Hell were arranging.

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My heart went from me. I
lay heaped upon the ground. Now

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the blast of a mighty hurricane wind
was to be heard. Then, speeding

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nearer and nearer, Many things tossed
by me, Yea, the evil one

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would snatch at me. As that
thistle down borne on the gusty breeze.

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A speck of gold flashed in the
red gloomed air. Another and another.

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Then a multitude of small birds with
golden plumage and whitened breasts broke over the

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body of my love, settling thereon
until she was a mass of wavering gold.

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The wind caught me. The grim
countenance of night blanched before the uncoming

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morn, gray dawn peered upon the
mist swaved hills. I awoke, starting

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to my feet. I gazed with
surprise at my strange bed quarters, twas

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deuced odd to fall asleep upon the
moor. Suddenly the wild fantasy of midnight

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clappered upon my brain, and I
shivered at mere thought of it. A

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scurrying breeze tore asunder the seething rack. In a hollow at my feet,

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between the parting shreds, was revealed
a body upon the moor stone. I

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attained the spot with frantic speed,
catching hold of the massive slabs, I

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drew up my cramped figure. Before
my eyes lay Viola, and upon her

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swarthy tresses floated one small, golden
plume. Through the monstrous enactment of evil,

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God had preserved her in the hollow
of his hand. Valpurgis Eve eighteen

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ninety six and of the Tie at
the Moorstone by Nigel Turner