The six sisters of the valleys : an historical romance - University Library

RAYNALD AND I0LANDE. 209
her no more ! That love which was the star
of his life, and which still seemed to survive
the desolation of home, had sunk in the
blackness of night, and his beloved might
perish in the dungeon, the victim of some
profligate noble. The stalwart mountaineer
was convulsed with agony as he stooped to
pick up the sword. In his grief he remem-
bered her on whose grave he knelt, and his
first communion in her sick chamber. He
wished in his bitterness that he were en-
tombed with her in the friendly earth.
Alas ! perhaps the sanctity of the tomb
had been outraged, and a betrayer might
have trampled on the mother's ashes, in
his vile abduction of the weeping daughter.
The ruins of his father's home were before
him, and when he reviewed the beloved
members of that circle who had perished or
disappeared, his heart felt the poignancy of
an orphan's grief. He rose up from his
knees, and then knelt once more on the
grave, while the fatal sword dropped from
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