Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please.”
Spenser, The Faerie Queen.
“Dreams;
Which are the children of an idle brain
Begot of nothing but vain phantasy.”
Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
THE SEVEN STREAMS
CHAPTER I
For a night and a day Tristan le Sauvage had watched his arms before the high altar of the chapel of Purple Isle. For a night and a day he had seen the long tapers glimmering towards their silver sockets, under the painted roof. Dawn light and evening glow had shone through the latticed casements east and west, dusting the stones with colour, carving deep shadows from sculptured pillar and from moulded arch. Not a sound had broken the silence of the tombs. Alone before the Great Cross, Tristan had kept vigil, chastening his manhood for quest beyond the sea. Two months had passed since a great ship with gleaming sails had swooped like a falcon upon Purple Isle, and carried thence that white dove, Columbe the Fair.