"'O they rade on and farther on,
And they waded rivers abune the knee;
And they saw neither sun nor moon,
But they heard the roaring of the sea.'"
"I like that!" murmured the Comte de Flavigny, with a shudder.
"'It was mirk, mirk night, there was nae starlight,
They waded through red blude to the knee;
For a' the blude that's shed on the earth
Rins through the springs o' that countrie.'"
"But what does that mean?" asked the child, captured by a delicious horror. "How could——"