The supplication ended, she seemed about to raise her hand to give the
anticipated signal when a look of amazement passed over her features;
she brushed her hand over her eyes and looked again, then folded her
arms and gazed steadily seawards. What she saw might have shattered even
her nerves of iron. At the close of her prayer, which had exactly
coincided with the moment when Hilda stepped from her cell, the bosom of
the sea heaved and rose: a wave, ten feet high, glided, stole as it
were, so gently did it move, into the forest; but so rapidly, that in
one minute every human being except herself and Jean was engulphed. They
were gone, the high-couraged and the craven, the frenzied priest and the
laughing child, with their passions, their hopes, and their fears,
without the faintest note of warning of coming danger! Judith glanced at
Jean, almost contemptuously; he, not having seen what had happened, was
still momentarily expecting the application of the torch. A second wave
crept in, smaller than the former, but overwhelming the pyre. The dazed
warrior on the Guet reported that after this second wave had passed he
saw the tall form still towering on the peak, but that when he looked
again the rock, though still above water, was tenantless; a little later
the granite mass, together with the tops of the tallest trees, lay under
an unruffled surface.
Pages:
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100