Speaker 1: The closed window by A. C. Benson. The Tower of
Speaker 1: Nort stood in a deep angle of the Downs. Formerly
Speaker 1: an old road led over the hill, but it is
Speaker 1: now a green track covered with turf, the later highway
Speaker 1: choosing rather to cross a low saddle of the ridge
Speaker 1: for the sake of the beasts of burden. The tower,
Speaker 1: originally built to guard the great road, was a plain, strong,
Speaker 1: thick walled fortress. To the tower had been added a
Speaker 1: plain and seemly house, where the young Sir Mark de
Speaker 1: Nort lived very easily and plentifully. To the south stretched
Speaker 1: the great Wood of Nort, but the tower stood high
Speaker 1: on an elbow of the down, sheltered from the north
Speaker 1: by the great green hills. The villagers had an odd,
Speaker 1: ugly name for the tower, which they called the Tower
Speaker 1: of Fear, but the name was falling into disuse and
Speaker 1: was only spoken, and that heedlessly by ancient men, because
Speaker 1: Sir Mark was vexed to hear it. So called Sir
Speaker 1: Mark was not yet thirty and had begun to say
Speaker 1: that he must marry a wife, but he seemed in
Speaker 1: no great haste to do so, and loved his easy,
Speaker 1: lonely life, with plenty of hunting and walking on the down.
Speaker 1: With him lived his cousin and heir Rowland Elise, a heedless,
Speaker 1: good tempered man, a few years older than Sir Mark.
Speaker 1: He had come on a visit to Sir Mark when
Speaker 1: he first took possession of the tower, and there had
Speaker 1: seemed no reason why he should go away. The two
Speaker 1: suited each other. Sir Mark was sparing of speech, fond
Speaker 1: of books and of rhymes. Rowland was different, loving ease
Speaker 1: and wine and talk, and finding in Mark a good listener.
Speaker 1: Mark loved his cousin and thought it praiseworthy of him
Speaker 1: to stay and help to cheer. So sequestered a house
Speaker 1: since there were few neighbors within reach. And yet Mark
Speaker 1: was not wholly content with his easy life. There were
Speaker 1: many days when he asked himself why he should go
Speaker 1: thus quietly on day by day like a stalled ox.
Speaker 1: Still there appeared no reason why he should do otherwise.
Speaker 1: There were but few folk on his land, and they
Speaker 1: were content. Yet he sometimes envied them their bondage and
Speaker 1: their round of daily duties. The only place where he
Speaker 1: could else have been was with the army, or even
Speaker 1: with the court. But Sir Mark was no soldier, and
Speaker 1: even less of a courtier. He hated tedious gaiety, and
Speaker 1: it was a time of peace. So because he loved
Speaker 1: solitude and quiet, he lived at home, and sometimes thought
Speaker 1: himself but half a man. Yet he was happy after
Speaker 1: a sort, but for a kind of little hunger of
Speaker 1: the heart. What gave the tower so dark a name
Speaker 1: was the memory of old Sir James de Nort, Mark's grandfather,
Speaker 1: an evil and secret man who had dwelt at nought
Speaker 1: under some strange shadow. He had driven his son from
Speaker 1: his doors, and lived at the end of his life
Speaker 1: with his books and his own close thoughts, spying upon
Speaker 1: the stars and tracing strange figures in books. Since his death,
Speaker 1: the old room in a turret top, where he came
Speaker 1: by his end in a dreadful way, had been closed.
Speaker 1: It was entered by a turret door with a flight
Speaker 1: of steps from the chamber below. It had four windows,
Speaker 1: one to each of the winds, but the window which
Speaker 1: looked upon the down was fastened up and secured with
Speaker 1: a great shutter of oak. One day of heavy rain, Roland,
Speaker 1: being wearied of doing nothing and vexed because Mark sat
Speaker 1: so still in a great chair reading in a book,
Speaker 1: said to his cousin at last that he must go
Speaker 1: and visit the old room in which he had never
Speaker 1: set foot. Mark closed his book, and, smiling indulgently at
Speaker 1: Rolin's restlessness, rose, stretching himself, and got the key, and
Speaker 1: together they went up the turret stairs. The key groaned
Speaker 1: loudly in the lock, and when the door was thrown back,
Speaker 1: there appeared a high, faded room, with a timbered roof
Speaker 1: and with a close, dull smell. Round the walls were presses,
Speaker 1: with the doors fast. A large oak table with a
Speaker 1: chair beside it, stood in the middle. The walls were
Speaker 1: otherwise bare and rough. The spiders had spun busily over
Speaker 1: the windows and in the angles. Roland was full of questions,
Speaker 1: and Mark told him all he had heard of old
Speaker 1: Sir James and his silent ways, but said that he
Speaker 1: knew nothing of the disgrace that had seemed to envelop him,
Speaker 1: or of the reasons why he had so evil a name.
Speaker 1: Roland said that he thought it a shame that so
Speaker 1: fair of rooms should lie so nastily, and pulled one
Speaker 1: of the casements open, when a sharp gust broke into
Speaker 1: the room, with so angry a burst of rain that
Speaker 1: he closed it again in haste. Little by little, as
Speaker 1: they talked, a shadow began to fall upon their spirits,
Speaker 1: till Roland declared that there was still a blight upon
Speaker 1: the place, and Mark told him of the death of
Speaker 1: old Sir James, who had been found after a day
Speaker 1: of silence, when he had not set foot outside his chamber,
Speaker 1: lying on the floor of the room strangely bedabbled with
Speaker 1: wet and mud, as though he had come off a
Speaker 1: difficult journey, speechless and with a look of anguish on
Speaker 1: his face, and that he had died soon after they
Speaker 1: had found him, muttering words that no one understood. Then
Speaker 1: the two young men drew near to the closed window.
Speaker 1: The shutters were tightly barred, and across the panels were
Speaker 1: scrawled in red in an uncertain hand, the words clouded
Speaker 1: at nemo aperit, which Mark explained was the Latin for
Speaker 1: the text he shutteth and none openeth. And then Mark
Speaker 1: said that the story went that it was ill for
Speaker 1: the man that opened the window, and that shut it
Speaker 1: should remain for him. But Roland girded at him for
Speaker 1: his want of curiosity, and had laid a hand upon
Speaker 1: the bar as though to open it, But Mark forbade
Speaker 1: him urgently, nay, said, he let it remain, so we
Speaker 1: must not meddle with the will of the dead. And
Speaker 1: as he said the words, there came so furious a
Speaker 1: gust upon the windows that it seemed as though some
Speaker 1: stormy thing would beat them open. So they left the
Speaker 1: room together, and presently descending, found the sun struggling through
Speaker 1: the rain. But both Mark and Roland were sad and
Speaker 1: silent all that day, for though they spake not of it,
Speaker 1: there was desire in their minds to open the closed
Speaker 1: window and to see what would befall. In Roland's mind,
Speaker 1: it was like the desire of a child to peep
Speaker 1: into what is forbidden. But in Mark's mind a sort
Speaker 1: of shame to be so bound by an old and
Speaker 1: weak tale of superstition. Now it seemed to Mark for
Speaker 1: many days that the visit to the turret room had
Speaker 1: brought a kind of shadow down between them. Roland was
Speaker 1: peevish and ill at ease, and ever the longing grew
Speaker 1: upon Mark so strongly that it seemed to him that
Speaker 1: something drew him to the room, some beckoning of a
Speaker 1: hand or calling of a voice. Now, one bright and
Speaker 1: sunshiny morning it happened that Mark was left alone within
Speaker 1: the house. Rowland had ridden out early, not saying where
Speaker 1: he was bound, and Mark sat more listlessly than was
Speaker 1: his wont and played with the ears of his great
Speaker 1: dog that sat with his head upon his master's knee,
Speaker 1: looking at him with liquid eyes, and doubtless wondering why
Speaker 1: Mark went not abroad. Suddenly, Sir Mark's eye fell upon
Speaker 1: the quay of the upper room, which lay on the
Speaker 1: window ledge where he had thrown it, and a desire
Speaker 1: to go up and pluck the heart from the little
Speaker 1: mystery came upon him with a strength that he could
Speaker 1: not resist. He rose twice and took up the key, and,
Speaker 1: fingering it doubtfully, laid it down again. Then suddenly he
Speaker 1: took it up and went swiftly into the turret stair
Speaker 1: and up, turning, turning till his head was dizzy with
Speaker 1: the bright peats of the world through the loophole windows.
Speaker 1: Now all was green where a window gave on the down,
Speaker 1: and now it was all clear air and sun, the
Speaker 1: warm breeze coming pleasantly into the cold stairway. Presently Mark
Speaker 1: heard the pattering of feet on the stair below, and
Speaker 1: knew that the old hound had determined to follow him,
Speaker 1: and he waited a moment at the door, half pleased
Speaker 1: in his strange mood to have the company of a
Speaker 1: living thing. So when the dog was at his side,
Speaker 1: he stayed no longer, but opened the door and stepped
Speaker 1: within the room. The room, for all its faded look,
Speaker 1: had a strange air about it, and though he could
Speaker 1: not say why, Mark felt that he was surely expected.
Speaker 1: He did not hesitate, but walked to the shutter and
Speaker 1: considered it for a moment. He heard a sound behind him.
Speaker 1: It was the old hound, who sat with his head aloft,
Speaker 1: sniffing the air uneasily. Mark called him and held out
Speaker 1: his hand, but the hound would not move. He wagged
Speaker 1: his tail as though to acknowledge that he was called,
Speaker 1: and then he returned to his uneasy quest. Mark watched
Speaker 1: him for a moment and saw that the old dog
Speaker 1: had made up his mind that all was not well
Speaker 1: in the room, for he lay down, gathering his legs
Speaker 1: under him, on the threshold, and watched his master with
Speaker 1: frightened eyes, quivering visibly, Mark no lighter of heart, and
Speaker 1: in a kind of fearful haste, pulled the great staple
Speaker 1: off the shutter and set it on the ground, and
Speaker 1: then wrenched the shutter's back. The space revealed was largely
Speaker 1: filled by old and dusty webs of spiders, which Mark
Speaker 1: lightly tore down, using the staple of the shutters to
Speaker 1: do this. It was with a strain shock of surprise
Speaker 1: that he saw that the window was dark, or nearly so.
Speaker 1: It seemed as though there were some further obstacle outside,
Speaker 1: Yet Mark knew that from below, the leaded panes of
Speaker 1: the window were visible. He drew back for a moment, but,
Speaker 1: unable to restrain his curiosity, wrenched the rusted casement open.
Speaker 1: But still all was dark without, and there came in
Speaker 1: a gust of icy wind from outside. It was as
Speaker 1: though something had passed him swiftly, and he heard the
Speaker 1: old hound utter a strangled howl. Then turning, he saw
Speaker 1: him spring to his feet, with his hair bristling and
Speaker 1: his teeth bare, And next moment the dog turned and
Speaker 1: leapt out of the room. Mark, left alone, tried to
Speaker 1: curb a tide of horror that swept through his veins.
Speaker 1: He looked round at the room flooded with the southerly sunlight,
Speaker 1: and then he turned again to the dark window, and,
Speaker 1: putting a strong constraint upon himself, leaned out and saw
Speaker 1: a thing which bewildered him so strangely that he thought
Speaker 1: for a moment his senses had deserted him. He looked
Speaker 1: out on a lonely, dim hill side covered with rocks
Speaker 1: and stones. The hill came up close to the window,
Speaker 1: so that he could have jumped down upon it, the
Speaker 1: wall below seeming to be built into the rocks. It
Speaker 1: was all dark and silent, like a clouded night, with
Speaker 1: a faint light coming from whence he could not see.
Speaker 1: The hill sloped away very steeply from the tower, and
Speaker 1: he seemed to see a plain beyond, where at the
Speaker 1: same time he knew that the down ought to lie
Speaker 1: in the plain, there was a light like the fire
Speaker 1: lit window of a house. A little below him, some
Speaker 1: shape like a crouching man, seemed to run and slip
Speaker 1: among the stones, as though suddenly surprised and seeking to escape.
Speaker 1: Side by side with the deadly fear which began to
Speaker 1: invade his heart, came an uncontrollable desire to leap down
Speaker 1: among the rocks. And then it seemed to him that
Speaker 1: the figure below stood upright and began to beckon him.
Speaker 1: There came over him a sense that he was in
Speaker 1: deadly peril, and like a man on the edge of
Speaker 1: a precipice who has just enough will left to try
Speaker 1: to escape, he drew himself by main force away from
Speaker 1: the window, closed it, put the shutters back, replaced the staple,
Speaker 1: and his limbs all trembling, crept out of the room,
Speaker 1: feeling along the walls like a palsied man. He locked
Speaker 1: the door, and then, his terror overpowering him, he fled
Speaker 1: down the turret stairs, hardly thinking what he did. He
Speaker 1: came out on the court and going to the great
Speaker 1: well that stood in the center of the yard. He
Speaker 1: went to it and flung the key down, hearing it
Speaker 1: clink on the sides as it fell. Even then he
Speaker 1: dared not re enter the house, but glanced up and down,
Speaker 1: gazing about him, while the cloud of fear and horror,
Speaker 1: by insensible degrees dispersed, leaving him weak and melancholy. Presently,
Speaker 1: Roland returned full of talk, but broke off to ask
Speaker 1: if Mark were ill. Mark, with a kind of surliness,
Speaker 1: an unusual mood for him, denied it somewhat sharply. Roland
Speaker 1: raised his eyebrows and said no more, but prattled on presently.
Speaker 1: After a silence, he said to Mark, what did you
Speaker 1: do all the morning? And it seemed to Mark as
Speaker 1: though this were accompanied by a spying look. An unreasonable
Speaker 1: anger seized him. What does it matter to you what
Speaker 1: I did? He said? May not I do what I
Speaker 1: like in my own house? Doubtless, said Roland, and sate
Speaker 1: silent with uplifted brows. Then he hummed a tune and
Speaker 1: presently went out. They sate at dinner that evening with
Speaker 1: long silences, contrary to their wont though Mark bestirred himself
Speaker 1: to ask questions. When they were left alone, Mark stretched
Speaker 1: out his hand to Roland, saying, Roland, forgive me. I
Speaker 1: spoke to you this morning in a way of which
Speaker 1: I am ashamed. We have lived so long together, and
Speaker 1: yet we came nearer to quarreling to day than we
Speaker 1: have ever done before, And it was my fault. Roland
Speaker 1: smiled and held Mark's hand for a moment. Oh, I
Speaker 1: had not given it another thought, he said. The wonder
Speaker 1: is that you can bear with an idle fellow as
Speaker 1: you do. Then they talked for a while with the
Speaker 1: pleasant glow of friendliness. That two good comrades feel when
Speaker 1: they have been reconciled. Late in the evening, Roland said,
Speaker 1: was there any story Mark about your grandfather's leaving any
Speaker 1: treasure of money behind him? The question grated somewhat unpleasantly
Speaker 1: upon Mark's mood, but he controlled himself and said, no,
Speaker 1: none that I know of, except that he found the
Speaker 1: estate rich and left it poor. And what he did
Speaker 1: with his revenues, no one knows. You had better ask
Speaker 1: the old men of the village. They know more about
Speaker 1: the house than I do. But Rowland forgive me once
Speaker 1: more if I say that I do not desire Sir
Speaker 1: James's name to be mentioned between us. I wish we
Speaker 1: had not entered his room. I do not know how
Speaker 1: to express it, but it seems to me as though
Speaker 1: he had sate there, waiting quietly to be summoned, and
Speaker 1: as though we had troubled him, and as though he
Speaker 1: had joined us. I think he was an evil man,
Speaker 1: close and evil. And there hangs in my mind a
Speaker 1: verse of Scripture where Samuel said to the witch, why
Speaker 1: hast thou disquieted me to bring me up? Oh? He
Speaker 1: went on, I do not know why I talk wildly thus,
Speaker 1: for he saw that Roland was looking at him with
Speaker 1: astonishment with parted lips. But a shadow has fallen upon me,
Speaker 1: and there seems evil abroad. From that day forward a
Speaker 1: heaviness lay on the spirit of Mark that could not
Speaker 1: be scattered. He felt, he said to himself, as though
Speaker 1: he had meddled lightheartedly with something far deeper and more
Speaker 1: dangerous than he had supposed, like a child that has
Speaker 1: aroused some evil beast that slept. He had dark dreams too.
Speaker 1: The figure that he had seen among the rocks seemed
Speaker 1: to peep and beckon him with a mocking smile over
Speaker 1: perilous places where he followed unwilling. But the heavier he grew,
Speaker 1: the lighter hearted Rowland became. He seemed to walk in
Speaker 1: some bright vision of his own, intent upon a large
Speaker 1: and gracious design. One day he came into the hall
Speaker 1: in the morning, looking so radiant that Mark cast him
Speaker 1: half enviously. What he had to make him so glad? Glad?
Speaker 1: Said Roland? Oh, I know it. Merry dreams? Perhaps, what
Speaker 1: do you think of a good grave fellow who beckons
Speaker 1: me on with a brisk smile and shows me places
Speaker 1: wonderful places under banks and in woodland pits, where riches
Speaker 1: lie piled together. I am sure that some good fortune
Speaker 1: is preparing for me, Mark, but you shall share it. Then, Mark,
Speaker 1: seeing in his words a certain likeness with a difference
Speaker 1: to his own dark visions, pressed his lips together and sate,
Speaker 1: looking stonily before him. At last, one still evening of spring,
Speaker 1: when the air was intolerably languid and heavy for mankind,
Speaker 1: but full of sweet promises for trees and hidden peeping things.
Speaker 1: Though a lurid redness of secret thunder had lain all
Speaker 1: day among the heavy clouds in the plain, the two
Speaker 1: dined together. Mark had walked alone that day and had
Speaker 1: lain upon the turf of the down, fighting against a
Speaker 1: weariness that seemed to be poisoning the very springs of
Speaker 1: life within him. But Roland had been brisk and alert,
Speaker 1: coming and going upon some secret and busy errand with
Speaker 1: a fragment of a song upon his lips, like a
Speaker 1: man preparing to set off for a far country, who
Speaker 1: is glad to be gone. In the evening, after they
Speaker 1: had dined, Rowland had let his fancy rove in talk.
Speaker 1: If we were rich, He said, how we would transform
Speaker 1: this old place. It is fair enough for me, said
Speaker 1: Mark heavily, and Roland had chidden him lightly for his
Speaker 1: somber ways and sketched new plans of life. Mark, wearied
Speaker 1: and yet excited, with an intolerable heaviness of spirit, went
Speaker 1: early to bed, leaving Roland in the hall. After a
Speaker 1: short and broken sleep, he awoke and, lighting a candle,
Speaker 1: read idly and gloomily to pass the heavy hours. The
Speaker 1: house seemed full of strange noises that night. Once or
Speaker 1: twice came a scraping and a faint hammering in the wall.
Speaker 1: Light footsteps seemed to pass in the turret, but the
Speaker 1: tower was always full of noises, and Mark heeded them.
Speaker 1: Not At last, he fell asleep again, to be suddenly
Speaker 1: awakened by a strange and desolate crying that came. He
Speaker 1: knew not whence, but seemed to wail upon the air.
Speaker 1: The old dog who slept in Mark's room heard it too,
Speaker 1: He was sitting up in a fearful expectancy. Mark rose
Speaker 1: in haste, and taking the candle, went into the passage
Speaker 1: that led to Roland's room. It was empty, but a
Speaker 1: light burned there and showed that the room had not
Speaker 1: been slept in full of a horrible fear. Mark returned
Speaker 1: and went in hot haste up the turret steps, fear
Speaker 1: and anxiety struggling together in his mind. When he reached
Speaker 1: the top, he found the little door broken forcibly open
Speaker 1: and a light within. He cast a haggard look round
Speaker 1: the room, and then the crying came again, this time
Speaker 1: very faint and desolate. Mark cast a shuddering glance at
Speaker 1: the window. It was wide open and showed a horrible
Speaker 1: liquid blackness round the bar in the center that divided
Speaker 1: the casements. There was something knotted. He hastened to the
Speaker 1: window and saw that it was a rope which hung heavily.
Speaker 1: Leaning out, he saw that something dangled from the rope
Speaker 1: below him, and then came the crying again. Out of
Speaker 1: the darkness, like the crying of a lost spirit. He
Speaker 1: could see, as in a bitter dream, the outline of
Speaker 1: the hateful hillside, but there seemed to his disordered fancy
Speaker 1: to be a tumult of some kind below. Pale lights
Speaker 1: moved about, and he saw a group of forms which
Speaker 1: scattered like a shoal of fish. When he leaned out,
Speaker 1: he knew that he was looking upon a scene that
Speaker 1: no mortal eye ought to behold, and it seemed to
Speaker 1: him at the moment as though he were staring straight
Speaker 1: into hell. The rope went down among the rocks and disappeared,
Speaker 1: but Mark clenched it firmly, and, using all his strength,
Speaker 1: which was great, drew it up hand over hand. As
Speaker 1: he drew it up, he secured it in loops round
Speaker 1: the great oak table. He began to be afraid that
Speaker 1: his strength would not hold out, and once, when he
Speaker 1: returned to the window after securing a loop, a great
Speaker 1: hooded thing like a bird flew noiselessly at the window
Speaker 1: and beat its wings. Presently he saw that the form
Speaker 1: which dangled on the rope was clear of the rocks below.
Speaker 1: It had come up through them as though they were
Speaker 1: but smoke. And then his task seemed to him more
Speaker 1: sore than ever. Inch by painful inch, he drew it up,
Speaker 1: working fiercely and silently. His muscles were tense, and drops
Speaker 1: stood on his brow, and the veins hammered in his ears.
Speaker 1: His breath came and went in sharp sobs. At last
Speaker 1: the form was near enough for him to seize it.
Speaker 1: He grasped it by the middle and drew Roland, for
Speaker 1: it was Rowland over the window sill. His head dangled
Speaker 1: and drooped from side to side. His face was dark
Speaker 1: with strangled blood, and his limbs hung helpless. Mark drew
Speaker 1: his knife and cut the rope that was tied under
Speaker 1: his arms. The helpless limbs sank huddling on the floor.
Speaker 1: Then Mark looked up at the window. A few feet
Speaker 1: from him was a face more horrible than he had supposed,
Speaker 1: a human face, if it was human, indeed could be.
Speaker 1: It was deadly, white and hatred, baffled, rage and a
Speaker 1: sort of devilish malignity glared from the white set eyes
Speaker 1: and the drawn mouth. There was a rush from behind him.
Speaker 1: The old hound, who had crept up unawares into the
Speaker 1: room with a fierce outcry of rage, sprang on to
Speaker 1: the window sill. Mark heard the scraping of his claws
Speaker 1: upon the stone. There. The hound leaped through the window,
Speaker 1: and in a moment there was the sound of a
Speaker 1: heavy fall outside. At the same instant, the darkness seemed
Speaker 1: to lift and draw up like a cloud. A bank
Speaker 1: of blackness rose past the window and left the dark
Speaker 1: outline of the down with a sky sown with tranquil stars.
Speaker 1: The cloud of fear and horror that hung over Mark
Speaker 1: lifted too. He felt in some dim way that his
Speaker 1: adversary was vanquished. He carried Roland down the stairs and
Speaker 1: laid him on his bed. He roused the household, who
Speaker 1: looked fearfully at him, and then his own strength failed.
Speaker 1: He sank upon the floor of his room, and a
Speaker 1: dark tide of unconsciousness closed over him. Mark's return to
Speaker 1: health was slow. One who has looked into the unknown
Speaker 1: finds it hard to believe again in the outward shows
Speaker 1: of life. His first conscious speech was to ask for
Speaker 1: his hound. They told him that the body of the
Speaker 1: dog had been found horribly mangled, as though by the
Speaker 1: teeth of some fierce animal, at the foot of the tower.
Speaker 1: The dog was buried in the garden, with a slab
Speaker 1: above him, on which other words huij serve bone et fidelis.
Speaker 1: A silly priest once said to Mark that it was
Speaker 1: not meet to write scripture over the grave of a beast.
Speaker 1: But Mark said warily that an inscription was for those
Speaker 1: who read it to make them humble, and not to
Speaker 1: increase the pride of what lay below. When Mark could
Speaker 1: leave his bed, his first care was to send for
Speaker 1: builders and the old Tower of Nought was taken down
Speaker 1: stone by stone to the ground, and a fair chapel
Speaker 1: built upon the site. In the wall there was a
Speaker 1: secret stairway which led from the top chamber and came
Speaker 1: out among the elder bushes that grew below the tower.
Speaker 1: And here was found a coffer of gold, which paid
Speaker 1: for the church, because until it was found, it was
Speaker 1: Mark's design to leave the place desolate. Mark is wedded
Speaker 1: since and has his children about his knee. Those who
Speaker 1: come to the house see a strange and wan man
Speaker 1: who sits at Mark's board, and whom he uses very tenderly.
Speaker 1: Sometimes this man is merry and tells a long tale
Speaker 1: of his being beckoned and led by a tall and
Speaker 1: handsome person smiling down a hillside to fetch gold. Though
Speaker 1: he can never remember the end of the matter, but
Speaker 1: about the springtime he is silent, or mutters to himself,
Speaker 1: and this is Rowland. His spirits seems shut up within
Speaker 1: him in some close cell, and Mark prays for his release,
Speaker 1: but till God call him. He treats him like a
Speaker 1: dear brother, and with the reverence dw to one who
Speaker 1: has looked out on the other side of death, and
Speaker 1: who may not say what his eyes beheld. End of
Speaker 1: the Closed Window recording by raf Bull