Suddenly she started up and pointed to a storm-cloud rising rapidly from
the western horizon, assuming a succession of fantastic shapes as it
passed upwards. "Do you not see them?" she cried--"the great, the
glorious ones! they bend from their seats; they smile! see their power!
Their majesty! their locks stream, their swords are half drawn! they
sheathe them, they lean forward, they extend their arms! they beckon!--I
come, I come!" She stretched out her arms with the old familiar gesture
and sank back, having breathed her spirit to the tempest which she loved
so well.
They buried her on the cliffs of Pleinmont, where a cairn long marked
her resting-place. Tita was taken to the Vale; all attempts to restore
her from the shock which her nerves had received failed till on one
sunny morning Hilda's infant was placed on her knees: when the child
crowed, and smiled at her, the cloud imperceptibly passed away, never to
return. From that time she assumed her regular place in the household.
Haco abandoned his Lihou cell; his rough readiness of resource,
unfailing good-humour, and skill in managing men, proved invaluable
during the task of the restoration of the broken links of government and
society.
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