Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

present day, saving, that its two small windows were glazed with squares of horn, like a stable lantern, in place of glass. There was, however, something gloomy in its appearance, but this was owing to the rising ground by which it was overtopped, and the dark green boughs by which it was overshadowed, and whose moisture fed an hundred varieties of moss and lichen, that vegetated on the thatched roof, and gave it that grey and melancholy look we so much admire in the paintings of a Gainsborough, or a Morland.

As the different parts of the park were distinguished by some particular name, such as Upper-covert, and Lower-covert, Oak-thicket, High-wood, Briar-dingle, &c., in order that the foresters might not be at a loss to discover the places appointed by the hunters, when they were ordered to be in attendance with the hounds, so was the spot on which our story opens, called the Dark Valley. Neither was there Verduror or Agistor found bold enough to pass through it after night-fall; for one of the

keepers who had offended that irritable tiger, Henry the Eighth, had been hung on the oak which threw its broad branches over the hut; and it was rumoured that the ghost of Reynold the Ranger still haunted the Dark Valley. The hut itself would doubtless long before have fallen to decay, had not the capricious tyrant, (to quieten some qualm of conscience, before his death,) given order that the mother of the unfortunate keeper should continue to live in it unmolested, and it was still the residence of old Duskena at the time of which we write.

It was on a beautiful evening in June, and during the reign of the young monarch, Edward the Sixth, when the old woman was seated alone in her hut. The dim light from her ill-trimmed lamp, threw its dull beams through the horny casement, casting a feeble glimmering on the mossy stems that grew around, and just revealing a small portion of the footpath, which was in many places overgrown with tall withered grass, before it dwindled away into the deep darkness of the underwood.

Within the cottage sat the lonely and aged inhabitant, watching the contents of an iron vessel which was simmering on the fire, and sometimes taking up a wooden spoon, she collected the gathering skum and threw it into the flames. At length she took up the lamp, the better to ascertain the progress of her evening meal, and as she threw the full force of the light upon the iron vessel, by shading it with her trembling and withered hand, her own features were cast into a deep and mellow shade. Her countenance, which was naturally very dark, now wore a hue almost approaching to blackness, and rendered yet more striking the strongly marked outline of her features. The nose was large and hooked like the beak of a sparrow-hawk, and as old age had deprived her of nearly all her teeth, the mouth fell inward in proportion as the chin projected, which almost met the hooked and prominent member above. Her cheek bones also stuck out remarkably, and threw a shade over the fallen and sunken jaw, while her face was marked with an hundred different wrinkles,

some deep and dark, and branching into a variety of angles and fanciful forms. But the most striking part of her countenance was the deep-sunk and piercing black eyes, which seemed to glow with a fiercer fire than had ever belonged to her youth ;-as if, when all the rest had decayed, her spirit still reigned there with a power that bade defiance to years. It was a countenance which, when once seen, can never again be forgotten; a face which haunts the memory of the beholder for ever, and keeps hideous watch over his troubled slumbers. The faded red hood which she had gathered around her head, also added to her strange appearance, (for the night air came in chilly through the numerous crannies); from beneath the hood, a few straggling and dishevelled locks of black hair fell over her face, as if defying time to turn them grey. Two or three times she dashed the locks aside with her brown skinny hand, then grumbling to herself, she at length tucked them under her faded head-gear.

When she arose from her seat, she was com

pelled to support herself on a strong blackthorn walking-staff, the handle of which was tipped with horn, and worn bright through long and constant use. Old age and infirmity had almost bent her double, and ever as she moved to and fro across the rough mud floor, a large black cat followed her, and kept rubbing its head against her kirtle, the nap of which had long been worn away, and now showed the bare, coarse, and woollen ground. Her clothes were indeed, in a wretched plight: the old cloak which she had thrown around her was tattered and weather-stained, a dead brown had stolen over what had once been red, and even the grey and blue patches, which from time to time had been stitched over its many rents, were gradually toning down into the faded hue of the original garment; while her ragged gown, or tunic, seemed to be of the same age and colour as her patched and square-toed shoes.

The different articles of furniture, which were ranged around the apartment, were of a strange mixture, and, when taken in connection

« ÎnapoiContinuă »