II.
How Herne the Hunter appeared to Henry on the Terrace.
Henry again sat down to his despatches, and employed himself upon themto a late hour. At length, feeling heated and oppressed, he arose, andopened a window. As he did so, he was almost blinded by a vivid flashof forked lightning. Ever ready to court danger, and convinced, fromthe intense gloom without, that a fearful storm was coming on, Henryresolved to go forth to witness it. With this view he quitted thecloset, and passed through a small door opening on the northern terrace.The castle clock tolled the hour of midnight as he issued forth, and thedarkness was so profound that he could scarcely see a foot before him.But he went on.
"Who goes there?" cried a voice, as he advanced, and a partisan wasplaced at his breast.
"The king!" replied Henry, in tones that would have left no doubt ofthe truth of the assertion, even if a gleam of lightning had not at themoment revealed his figure and countenance to the sentinel.
"I did not look for your majesty at such a time," replied the man,lowering his pike. "Has your majesty no apprehension of the storm? Ihave watched it gathering in the valley, and it will be a dreadful one.If I might make bold to counsel you, I would advise you to seek instantshelter in the castle."
"I have no fear, good fellow," laughed the king. "Get thee in yon porch,and leave the terrace to me. I will warn thee when I leave it."
As he spoke a tremendous peal of thunder broke overhead, and seemed toshake the strong pile to its foundations. Again the lightning rentthe black canopy of heaven in various places, and shot down in forkedflashes of the most dazzling brightness. A rack of clouds, heavilycharged with electric fluid, hung right over the castle, and poured downall their fires upon it.
Henry paced slowly to and fro, utterly indifferent to the peril heran--now watching the lightning as it shivered some oak in the homepark, or lighted up the wide expanse of country around him--nowlistening to the roar of heaven's artillery; and he had just quitted thewestern extremity of the terrace, when the most terrific crash he hadyet heard burst over him. The next instant a dozen forked flashes shotfrom the sky, while fiery coruscations blazed athwart it; and at thesame moment a bolt struck the Wykeham Tower, beside which he had beenrecently standing. Startled by the appalling sound, he turned and beheldupon the battlemented parapet on his left a tall ghostly figure, whoseantlered helm told him it was Herne the Hunter. Dilated against theflaming sky, the proportions of the demon seemed gigantic. His righthand was stretched forth towards the king, and in his left he held arusty chain. Henry grasped the handle of his sword, and partly drew it,keeping his gaze fixed upon the figure.
"You thought you had got rid of me, Harry of England," cried Herne, "butwere you to lay the weight of this vast fabric upon me, I would breakfrom under it--ho! ho!"
"What wouldst thou, infernal spirit?" cried Henry.
"I am come to keep company with you, Harry," replied the demon; "this isa night when only you and I should be abroad. We know how to enjoyit. We like the music of the loud thunder, and the dance of the blithelightning."
"Avaunt, fiend!" cried Henry. "I will hold no converse with thee. Backto thy native hell!"
"You have no power over me, Harry," rejoined the demon, his wordsmingling with the rolling of the thunder, "for your thoughts are evil,and you are about to do an accursed deed. You cannot dismiss me. Beforethe commission of every great crime--and many great crimes you willcommit--I will always appear to you. And my last appearance shall hethree days before your end--ha! ha!"
"Darest thou say this to me!" cried Henry furiously.
"I laugh at thy menaces," rejoined Herne, amid another peal ofthunder--"but I have not yet done. Harry of England! your career shallbe stained in blood. Your wrath shall descend upon the heads of thosewho love you, and your love shall be fatal. Better Anne Boleyn fledthis castle, and sought shelter in the lowliest hovel in the land, thanbecome your spouse. For you will slay her--and not her alone. Anothershall fall by your hand; and so, if you had your own will, would all!"
"What meanest thou by all?" demanded the king.
"You will learn in due season," laughed the fiend. "But now mark me,Harry of England, thou fierce and bloody kin--thou shalt be drunken withthe blood of thy wives; and thy end shall be a fearful one. Thou shaltlinger out a living death--a mass of breathing corruption shalt thoubecome--and when dead the very hounds with which thou huntedst me shalllick thy blood!"
These awful words, involving a fearful prophecy, which was afterwards,as will be shown, strangely fulfilled, were so mixed up with the rollingof the thunder that Henry could scarcely distinguish one sound from theother. At the close of the latter speech a flash of lightning of suchdazzling brilliancy shot down past him, that he remained for somemoments almost blinded; and when he recovered his powers of vision thedemon had vanished.
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