Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

368 ' THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE: [xiI.
her youngest brother had found the doe, when a fawn,
and carried it in his arms home to Rylstone Hall. The
prophecy of Francis, she thinks, has been fulfilled almost
to the letter — in one detail only had it been falsified —
all else was taken, but the White Doe remained to her,
her last living friend. With this companion, she dared
to visit Bolton Abbey and the single grave there.
So, through all the overthrow and the suff"ering, there
had come at last healing and calm, and with it
*A reascent in sanctity
From fair to fairer ; day by day
A more divine and loftier way !
Even such this blessed Pilgrim trod,
By sorrow lifted toward her God ;
Uplifted to the purest sky
Of undisturbed mortality.'
At length, after she had returned and sojourned
among the Wharfdale peasants, and joined in their
Sabbath worships, she died, and was laid in Rylstone
church by her mother's side.
The White Doe long survived her, and continued to
haunt the spots which her mistress had loved to visit.
But the close, which rounds off the whole with perfect
beauty, must be given in the poet's own words : —
' Most glorious sunset ! and a ray
Survives — the twilight of this day —
In that fair creature whom the fields
Support, and whom the forest shields ;
Who, having filled a holy place,
Partakes, in her degree. Heaven's grace ;