knight, and to return and wed her. Many
long days passed away, and the lady waited in vain for her true knight.
Though she heard often from others of his chivalrous deeds in the East,
yet no word came from him to tell her he was faithful; and she began to
fear that he was no longer true to her, but was serving some other lady.
Despair at last came upon her; and she grew wan and pale, and slept no
longer soundly: But, when the world was at rest, she would rise in her
sleep, and wander to the trysting tree, and pluck off the green oak
leaves, and throw them into the foaming water.
The knight was all this time faithful, but was not able to send word to
his lady love. At last, he returned to England, and hastened towards the
castle where she lived.
It was late at night when he came to the Ara Force; and he sat him
down under the trysting tree to wait for the morning. When he had been
there a long time, he saw a figure approach, all in white, and pluck off
the oak leaves, and fling them into the stream. Angry to see the sacred
tree thus injured, he rose to prevent it. The figure started and awoke. In
a moment he knew his beloved lady. She was now on the frail bridge.
The sudden shock, and the roar of the Force below, had made her giddy.
He leaped forward to embrace and save her. Alas! too late. Her foot
slipped, and she fell. It was all over. The water tumbling far down into
the rocky chasm beneath told the story of death.
The knight was inconsolable. He retired from the world forever, and
built a monastery near by, on the borders of the lake, where he died.
The frail bridge is now gone, and a strong plank, with a railing,
supplies its place. But the water still roars down the rock as on the fatal
night; and the foam and spray look as if the white garments of the fair
lady were still fluttering over the deep below.
From Ambleside I went with some friends to visit Dr. Nichol at
Glasgow. We took coach first, and then the railroad. For the sake of
economy we took a second class carriage. The second class carriages,
on the English railroad, are, in fact, boxes with small holes for
windows, from which you may, if you are not very short, see
something of the world you are flying through, but not much. Good,
honest, hard boards are on the floor, sides, tops, and seats; in short, all
around you. The backs are not slanted at all. You must sit bolt upright,
or not sit at all. Now and then, these vehicles have a thin leather on the
seats--not often.
Nothing can be more luxurious than a first class carriage. The floors are
nicely carpeted, the seats and backs are all stuffed; each seat is a very
nice easy chair. You can sleep in them almost as well as in a bed; but
these carriages are very expensive; and on this account many of the
gentry take those of the second class, hard as they are.
We arrived at Glasgow at eight o'clock in the evening, and were
unfortunate enough to have a driver to the vehicle we took, who did not
know where the Observatory was. We knew that it was three miles
from the city, and not much more. We were advised by a gentleman,
who was in the same railroad box with us, to take a noddy, or a minibus,
to the Observatory. What these things were, of course, we could only
guess, and we did not care much, so we could only get out of our
wooden box. We came to the conclusion that we could sympathize
tolerably well with poor Box Brown.
We, as we had been advised, took a noddy. A minibus is only a small
omnibus. A noddy is a contrivance that holds four, and has a door at the
end, and only one horse,--very like a Yankee cab.
Glasgow, as every one knows, is one of the greatest manufacturing
cities in the world. Before we arrived, we were astonished at the great
fires from the iron works in the environs; and, as the streets were well
lighted, our eyes were dazzled and delighted with the whole scene, and
we were so pleased with the comfort of our noddy, that we did not at
first feel troubled at the fact that neither our driver nor we knew where
Dr. Nichol's house was. Presently we found ourselves left in the middle
of the street, and saw our noddy man, in a shop as bright as day,
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