205 None dared withstand him to his face,
But one sly maiden spake aside:
"The little witch is evil-eyed!

210

"Her mother only killed a cow,
Or witched a churn or dairy-pan;

But she, forsooth, must charm a man!"

215

PART V.

IN THE SHADOW.

POOR Mabel, homeward turning, passed
The nameless terrors of the wood,
And saw, as if a ghost pursued,

Her shadow gliding in the moon;

The soft breath of the west-wind gave
A chill as from her mother's

grave.

How dreary seemed the silent house!

Wide in the moonbeams' ghastly glare
Its windows had a dead man's stare!

220 And, like a gaunt and spectral hand, The tremulous shadow of a birch

225

Reached out and touched the door's low porch

As if to lift its latch: hard by,

A sudden warning call she heard,
The night-cry of a brooding bird.

She leaned against the door; her face,
So fair, so young, so full of pain,
White in the moonlight's silver rain.