Waverly Novels Talisman - v. 38 Author:Walter Scott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER THE FOUKTH. Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost in profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense of... more » oppression on his chest, which at first suggested a flitting dream of struggling with a powerful opponent, and at length recalled him fully to his senses. He was about to demand who was there, when,opening his eyes, he beheld the figure of the anchorite, wild and savage -looking as we have described him, standing by his bedside, and pressing his right hand upon his breast, while he held a small silver lamp in the other. " Be silent," said the hermit, as the prostrate knight looked up in surprise; " I have that to say to you which yonder infidel must not hear." These words he spoke in the French language, and not in the Lingua Franca, or compound of Eastern and European dialects, which had hitherto been used amongst them. "Arise," he continued, "put on thy mantle—speak not, but tread lightly, and follow me." Sir Kenneth arose, and took his sword. " It needs not," answered the anchorite, in a whisper ; " we are going where spiritual arms avail much, and fleshly weapons are but as the reed and the decayed gourd." The knight deposited his sword by the bedside as before, and, armed only with his dagger, from which in this perilous country he never parted, prepared to attend his mysterious host. The hermit then moved slowly forwards, and was followed by the knight, still under some uncertainty whether the dark form which glided on before to shew him the path, was not, in fact, the creation ol a disturbed dream. Thej passed, like shadows, into the outei apartment, without disturbing the paynim Emir, who lay still buried in repose. Before the cross andaltar, in the outward room, a lamp was still burning, a mi...« less