Then came the priest of the Place of Morwenna, a gray and silent man! He had served long years at a lonely altar, a bent and solitary form. But he had been wise in the language of his youth, and he read the legend thus—
"The earth must hide
Both eyes and pride!"
Now, as he uttered these words, they stood in the Pleasance by the mound; and on a sudden there was a low faint cry! They beheld, and O wondrous and strange! there was a small dark creature, clothed in a soft velvet skin, in texture and in hue like the Lady Alice her robe; and they saw, as it went into the earth, that it moved along without eyes, in everlasting night. Then the ancient priest wept, for he called to mind all these things, and saw what they meant; and he showed them how this was the maiden, who had been visited with doom for her pride. Therefore her rich array had been changed into the skin of a creeping thing and her large proud eyes were sealed up; and she herself had become
The first mole!
Of the hillocks of Cornwall!
Ah! woe is me! and well-a-day! that damsel so stately and fair, sweet Lady Alice of the Lea, should be made for a judgement—the dark mother of the moles!
Now take ye good heed, Cornish maidens, how ye put on vain apparel, to win love. And cast down your eyes, all ye damsels of the west, and look ye meekly on the ground! Be ye good and gentle, tender and true; and when ye see your image in the glass, and begin to be lifted up with the beauty of that shadowy thing, call to mind the maiden of Morwenna, her noble eyes and comely countenance, the vesture of price and the glittering ring. Sit ye by the wheel, as of old they sate and as ye draw the lengthening wool, sing ye ever-more and say,
"Beryan Erde,
Oyn and Perde!"