my heart felt cheered and light, and
in my hand was still the sceptre. And we feasted long and merrily; but
over the feast flapped the wings of the blood-red raven, and over the
blood-red sea beyond, swam the lion, near and near. And in the heavens
there were two stars, one pale and steadfast, the other rushing and
luminous; and a shadowy hand pointed from the cloud to the pale star, and
a voice said, 'Lo, Harold! the star that shone on thy birth.' And
another hand pointed to the luminous star, and another voice said, 'Lo,
the star that shone on the birth of the victor.' Then, lo! the bright
star grew fiercer and larger; and, rolling on with a hissing sound, as
when iron is dipped into water, it rushed over the disc of the mournful
planet, and the whole heavens seemed on fire. So methought the dream
faded away, and in fading, I heard a full swell of music, as the swell of
an anthem in an aisle; a music like that which but once in my life I
heard; when I stood on the train of Edward, in the halls of Winchester,
the day they crowned him king."

Harold ceased, and the Vala slowly lifted her head from her bosom, and
surveyed him in profound silence, and with a gaze that seemed vacant and
meaningless.

"Why dost thou look on me thus, and why art thou so silent?" asked the
Earl.

"The cloud is on my sight, and the burthen is on my soul, and I cannot
read thy rede," murmured the Vala. "But morn, the ghost-chaser, that
waketh life, the action, charms into slumber life, the thought. As the
stars pale at the rising of the sun, so fade the lights of the soul when
the buds revive in the dews, and the lark sings to the day. In thy dream
lies thy future, as the wing of the moth in the web of the changing worm;
but, whether for weal or for woe, thou shalt burst through thy mesh, and
spread thy plumes in the air. Of myself I know nought. Await the hour
when Skulda shall pass into the soul of her servant, and thy fate shall
rush from my lips as the rush of the waters from the heart of the cave."

"I am content to abide," said Harold, with his wonted smile, so calm and
so lofty; "but I cannot promise thee that I shall heed thy rede, or obey
thy warning, when my reason hath awoke, as while I speak it awakens, from
the fumes of the fancy and the mists of the night."

CHAPTER III.

Githa, Earl Godwin's wife, sate in her chamber, and her heart was sad. In
the room was one of her sons, the one dearer to her than all, Woln