[The Days of Bruce Vol 1 by Grace Aguilar]@TWC D-Link bookThe Days of Bruce Vol 1 CHAPTER XVI 34/35
He received lands and honors from the Dukes of Normandy, and at the advanced age of seventy and five, accompanied Duke William to England.
The third generation from him obtained anew Scottish possessions, and gradually Kildrummie and its feudal tenures returned to its original lords; but the tower had been altered and enlarged, and except the tradition of these chambers, the fearful fate of the second of the line has faded from the minds of his descendants, unless casually or supernaturally recalled." "Ha! supernaturally, sayest thou ?" interrupted Nigel, in a tone so peculiar it almost startled his companion.
"Are there those who assert they have seen his semblance--good, gifted, beautiful as thou hast described him? why not at once deem him the guardian spirit of our house ?" "And there are those who deem him so, young lord," answered the seer. "It is said that until the Lords of Bruce again obtained possession of these lands, in the visions of the night the form of the murdered warrior, clad as in yon portrait, save with the addition of a scarf across his breast bearing the crest and cognizance of the Bruce, appeared once in his lifetime to each lineal descendant.
Such visitations are said to have ceased, and he is now only seen by those destined like himself to an early and bloody death, cut off in the prime of manhood, nobleness, and joy." "And where--sleeping or waking ?" demanded the young nobleman, in a low, deep tone, laying his hand on the minstrel's arm, and looking fixedly on his now strangely agitated face. "Sleeping or waking? it hath been both," he answered, and his voice faltered.
"If it be in the front of the war, amid the press, the crush, the glory of the battle, he hath come, circled with bright forms and brighter dreams, to the sleeping warrior on the eve of his last fight; if"-- and his voice grew lower and huskier yet--"if by the red hand of the foe, by the captive's chain and headsman's axe, as the noble Wallace, there have been those who say--I vouch not for its truth--he hath been seen in the vigils of the night on the eve of knighthood, when the young, aspiring warrior hath watched and prayed beside his arms. Boy! boy! why dost thou look upon me thus ?" "Because thine eye hath read my doom," he said, in a firm, sweet tone; "and if there be aught of truth in thy tale, thou knowest, feelest I have seen him.
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