Prince, and prosper the works of his hand.
With his horn, as the horn of the rhinoceros, may he blow the waters to
the extremities of the earth; and may He who has ascended to the skies be
his aid for ever!"

Then Hilda stretched forth her hand to lead Edith from the place. But
Edith shook her head and murmured "But once again, but once!" and with
involuntary step moved on.

Suddenly, close where she paused, the crowd parted, and down the narrow
lane so formed amidst the wedged and breathless crowd came the august
procession;--prelate and thegn swept on from the Church to the palace;
and alone, with firm and measured step, the diadem on his brow, the
sceptre in his hand, came the King. Edith checked the rushing impulse at
her heart, but she bent forward, with veil half drawn aside, and so gazed
on that face and form of more than royal majesty, fondly, proudly. The
King swept on and saw her not; love lived no more for him.

CHAPTER III.

The boat shot over the royal Thames. Borne along the waters, the shouts
and the hymns of swarming thousands from the land shook, like a blast,
the gelid air of the Wolf month. All space seemed filled and noisy with
the name of Harold the King. Fast rowed the rowers,--on shot the boat;
and Hilda's face, stern and ominous, turned to the still towers of the
palace, gleaming wide and white in the wintry sun. Suddenly Edith lifted
her hand from her bosom, and said passionately:

"O mother of my mother, I cannot live again in the house where the very
walls speak to me of him; all things chain my soul to the earth; and my
soul should be in heaven, that its prayers may be heard by the heedful
angels. The day that the holy Lady of England predicted hath come to
pass, and the silver cord is loosed at last. Ah why, why did I not
believe her then? why did I then reject the cloister? Yet no, I will not
repent; at least I have been loved! But now I will go to the nunnery of
Waltham, and kneel at the altars he hath hallowed to the mone and the
monechyn."

"Edith," said the Vala, "thou wilt not bury thy life yet young in the
living grave! And, despite all that now severs you--yea, despite
Harold's new and loveless ties--still clearer than ever it is written in
the heavens, that a day shall come, in which you are to be evermore
united. Many of the shapes I have seen, many of the sounds I have heard,
in the trance and the dream, fade in the troubled memory of waking life.
But never