A hollow sound, hardly like the tones of a human voice, answered in a slow and solemn adjuration:
"Beware, rash fools! None approach the Red Woman but to their undoing."
"I know no hindrance to my free course in this domain. By whose authority am I forbidden?" said he, taking courage.
"Away—mine errand is not to thee unless provoked."
"Unto whom is thy message?"
"To thy leman—thy ladye-love, whom thou wilt cherish to thine hurt. Leave her, ay, though both hearts break in the separation."
"I will not."
"Then be partaker of the wrath that is just ready to burst upon her doomed house."
"I told thee," said Grace, "she is the herald of misfortune! What woe does she denounce? What cruel judgment hast thou invoked upon our race?" cried she to this grim messenger of evil.
"Evil will—Evil must! I will cling to ye till your last sustenance be dried up, and your inheritance be taken from ye."