Page:Once a Week Jun to Dec 1864.pdf/714
man, and he rarely showed himself beyond the wall of his garden, until September came, when he erected a flag-staff upon what was called the “Beacon.” He passed almost every hour of daylight at the place, now hoisting one coloured flag, now another, all the while watching the distant horizon (where lay the Devon coast) with a telescope.
One night a party of fishermen noticed a boat lying off Morvybachen Bay; but, darkness coming on, nothing more was seen of it until next morning it was found lying upon the sands, left, as it was said, by the tide. Where it had come from was a mystery, and served the people to talk of for many a day.
About a month went by, and then, a young and sad-looking woman was seen in the cottage garden. After a time she extended her walks to the beach, and, morning or evening, sometimes even at midnight, she might be seen pacing slowly along, never looking at or speaking to anyone, but keeping her beautiful face, so hopeless in its misery, turned to the sea.
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At first the little children, with that instinct of pity inherent in their innocent hearts, would creep up to her; but, when they heard their mothers talking mysteriously of the “lady,” they began to look at her with shy, wondering eyes, and keep far away; grouping together for protection as she walked by; yet in spite of this, the green hill below the cottage garden was the favourite play-ground, and continued so, until one day they all rushed shrieking down wild and pale with affright, some of the elder ones positively affirming that they had seen and heard the devil himself in the cottage garden, and that he was killing the “lady,” a fact strangely corroborated by the unearthly and terrible cries that were to be heard proceeding from the garden.
It was not difficult in those days to rouse the superstitions of the Welsh, and the country round soon echoed with the children's adventure; the story being proportionately increased, according to the narrator's feelings or passions. So the villagers sent their children to play far away from the cottage, and nothing would have tempted the bravest man among them to approach it after night-fall. At length an old hag fell ill, and, in her delirium, made sundry raving assertions, that she had seen the “lady” dancing with the witches round the flagstaff on the Beacon Hill, and changing into a black cat, scale the steepest cliffs, and more-