Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

XII.] 'THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE: 367
That is the nearest approach the poem contains to
a visible picture of this daughter of the house of Norton.
Yet how little of a picture it is ! — her features, her
hair, her eyes, not one of these is mentioned. She is
painted almost entirely from within. Yet so powerfully
is the soul portrayed, that no adequate painter would
find any difficulty in adding the form and face, which
would be the outward image of such a character.
There, while she sits, a herd of deer sweeps by. But
one out of the herd pauses and draws near. It is her
own White Doe, which had run wild again for years.
Now it comes to her feet, lays its head upon her knee,
looks up into her face,
'A look of pure benignity.
And fond unclouded memory.'
Her mistress melted into tears,
*A flood of tears that flowed apace
Upon the happy creature's face.'
The doe restored came like a spirit of healing and
consolation to Emily Norton. Thenceforth, go where
she will, the creature is by her side. First to one
cottage in the neighbourhood, then to another, where
old tenants of the family lived, she went and sojourned,
and the White Doe with her. At length she finds cour-
age to revisit her old haunts about Rylstone — Norton
Tov/er, — that summer-house, where the messenger of
the sad tidings had found her — near which, years before.