“What is your name and which is your country, O my second saviour?” he asked, still speaking in English. Only now the English was of a different and more refined sort to that which he had used when he addressed Dick; such English, for instance, as came from the lips of Sir Geoffrey Carleon or from those of the lords of Edward’s Court.
“I am Sir Hugh de Cressi of Dunwich, in the county of Suffolk, in England,” answered Hugh slowly.
“England. I have heard of England, and Dunwich; I have heard of Dunwich. Indeed, I travel thither, having an appointment with an old friend in that town.”
Now a light came into Hugh’s bewildered face, but he said nothing.
“I seem to have touched some chord of recollection in your mind, O my saviour of Dunwich,” said the Man. “Look at me and tell me, who am I?”
Hugh looked, and shook his head.
“I never saw you before, nor any one at all like you,” he answered.
“No, no; you never saw me, though I have been very near to you once or twice. Yet, your pardon, look again.”
Hugh obeyed, and this time, for a second only, perceived that the Man’s head was surrounded by a multitude of doves. Two endless lines of doves, one line black and the other line white, stretched from his right shoulder and from his left shoulder, till miles away they melted into the lofty gloom of the sky that was full of the soughing sound of their wings.
Now he knew, and for the first time in his life fell upon his knees to a man, or to what bore the semblance of man.