nd with its dying the faces of those that
had ventured went black as coal; and they flung up their arms, screaming,
and fell prone where they stood, and were hidden from our view.

Then, indeed, despair seized upon all of us that survived, and we made no
doubt but that we were to be exterminated and wiped from the earth for
our sins, as were the men of Anathoth. And for an hour the Black Reaper
mowed and trussed, till he had cut all from the little upper field and
was approached to the neck of juncture with the lower and larger. And
before us that remained, and who were drawn back amongst the trees,
weeping and praying, a fifth of our comrades lay foul, and dead, and
sweltering, and all blotched over with the dreadful mark of the
pestilence.

Now, as I say, the reaper was nearing the neck of juncture; and so we
knew that if he should once pass into the great field towards us and
continue his mowing, not one of us should be left to give earnest of our
repentance.

Then, as it seemed, our Vicar came to a resolution, moving forward with a
face all wrapt and entranced; and he strode up the meadow path and
approached the apparition, and stretched out his arms to it entreating.
And we saw the other pause, awaiting him; and, as he came near, put
forth his hand, and so, gently, on the good old head. But as we looked,
catching at our breaths with a little pathos of hope, the priestly face
was thrown back radiant, and the figure of him that would give his life
for us sank amongst the yet standing corn and disappeared from our sight.

So at last we yielded ourselves fully to our despair; for if our pastor
should find no mercy, what possibility of it could be for us!

It was in this moment of an uttermost grief and horror, when each stood
apart from his neighbour, fearing the contamination of his presence, that
there was vouchsafed to me, of God's pity, a wild and sudden inspiration.
Still to my neck fastened the little Margery--not frighted, it seemed,
but mazed--and other babes there were in plenty, that clung to their
mothers' skirts and peeped out, wondering at the strange show.

I ran to the front and shrieked: "The children! the children! He will not
touch the little children! Bring them and set them in his path!" And so
crying I sped to the neck of meadow, and loosened the soft arms from my
throat, and put the little one down within the corn.

Now at once the women saw what I would be at, and full a score of them
snat