With the help of Saint Bernard I clambered over
the wall, but not before his teeth had found my leg, and he had
torn away the whole back skirt of my gown." As he spoke he turned
and gave corroboration to his story by the hanging ruins of his
long trailing garment.
"In what shape then did Satan appear?" the Abbot demanded.
"As a great yellow horse, holy father--a monster horse, with eyes
of fire and the teeth of a griffin."
"A yellow horse!" The sacrist glared at the scared monk. "You
foolish brother! How will you behave when you have indeed to face
the King of Terrors himself if you can be so frightened by the
sight of a yellow horse? It is the horse of Franklin Aylward, my
father, which has been distrained by us because he owes the Abbey
fifty good shillings and can never hope to pay it. Such a horse,
they say, is not to be found betwixt this and the King's stables
at Windsor, for his sire was a Spanish destrier, and his dam an
Arab mare of the very breed which Saladin, whose soul now reeks in
Hell, kept for his own use, and even it has been said under the
shelter of his own tent. I took him in discharge of the debt, and
I ordered the varlets who had haltered him to leave him alone in
the water-meadow, for I have heard that the beast has indeed a
most evil spirit, and has killed more men than one."
"It was an ill day for Waverley that you brought such a monster
within its bounds," said the Abbot.
Pages:
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42