IV 



AN END 265 



to him. A company of colours flickered along 

 the cliffs, driving the darkness before and leaving 

 blackness behind. He besought the Rock-Woman. 

 A mysterious light was upon the Black Abbey. 

 The moon shone fitfully through the clouds, mock- 

 ing the storm and him. And at high tide, three 

 great waves swept up the shore, and washed the 

 two children away into the west. Then he 

 remembered the words of the Rock-Woman: 

 *Yet thou and they shall all be mine, because thy 

 soul is mine.' 



A laugh, that was plash of waters, grew till It 

 drowned the rattle of the surf, and died away in 

 the combe. 



Afterwards the man forsook the cottage in the 

 combe of the Black Abbey, and returned among 

 mankind, hoping to find forgetfulness and some- 

 thing that his soul might hold to and have; but 

 always he yearned for the sea, and always the 

 Rock-Woman haunted him, till he too died. 



