Armorel of Lyonesse

, so quiet and so calm. The visitor who comes by one boat and goes away by the next thinks he has seen this archipelago. As well stand inside a great cathedral

il round these rumbling water-dungeons begin to think of sea monsters. Hidden in those recesses the awful calamary lies watching, waiting, his tentacles forty feet long stretching out in the green water, floating innocently till they touch their prey, then seizing and haling it within sight of the baleful, gleaming eyes and within reach of the devouring mouth. In these holes, too, lie the great conger-eels-they fear nothing that swims except that calamary; and in these recesses walk about the huge crabs which devour the dead bodies of shipwrecked sailors. On the sunlit rocks one looks to see a mermaiden, with glittering scales, combing out her long fair tresses: perhaps one may unfortunately miss this beautiful sight, which is rare even in Scilly; but one cannot miss seeing the seals flopping in the water and swimming out to sea, with seeming intent to cross the

ged rock of Mincarlo. He climbed up the steep sides of the rock and stood upon the top of its highest peak. He made two or three rapid s

he first time in her life

wn turf crept up their sides; where there was space to grow, the yellow bra

o sit on this carn while the wind whistles in your ear, and the waves are lapping against the rocks all day long and always--Armorel, is there any other world? Are there men and women li

a high compliment. Then they began to explore the rest of this mountainous island, which has such a variety of scenery all packed away in the small space of twelve acres. When th

aid Armorel. 'I am sure you are

rock that will do for a table, and here is one on which we two can sit. There is a rock for you,

made it yesterday. Do you like cake-pudding? Here are bread and sal

ner instead of lunch, and that supper is an excellent cold spread served at eight. 'A very

home-brewed of which the like can no longer be found in any other spot in the British Islands. I hope one need do no m

r to the broken line of rocks and the blue horizon beyond, was happiness undeserved. Beside him sat

o due north by the compass, until they came within another sep

rowed: Peter and Roland taking the oars, while Armorel steered. They rowed round Maiden Bower, with its cluster of granite forts defying the whole strength of the Atlantic, which will want another hundred thousand years to grind them down-about and among the Black Rocks and the Seal Rocks, dark and threatening: they landed on Ilyswillig, with his peak of fifty feet, a strange wild island: they stood on the ledge of Castle Bryher and looked up at the tower of granite which rises o

rtnight of fine weather-we went through this channel, Peter a

nodded h

aced and rushed, boiling into whirlpools, foaming and tearing at the sides. The rapids below Niaga

in ten minutes, for she was held in a vice like, while the waves beat her into sticks. Some of the men got on to the north rock-wha

re saved?'

was this way: the pilot-boat that took them off the r

old what these rocks look like in rough weather: and what Scilly is like when

,' said Armorel. 'The waves beat upon the rocks, a

against this mass of rock, the hissing and boiling in the channel, the roaring of the wind and th

oment their bones were broken to fragments, and the fragments themselves were thrown against the rocks till there was nothing left of them. And these poor fellows clung to the rock, hiding under a boulder from the dri

l powers in this direction were, according to Armorel, unrivalled. There is a shipwreck story belonging to every rock of Scilly, and to many th

more than their graves, which now lie in a triumphant row on St. Agnes. On Maiden Bower he placed, I know not with what truth, the wreck of the Spaniard which gave Armorel an ancestor. On Mincarlo he remembered the loss of an orange-ship on her way from the Azores. On Menovaur he had seen a collier driven in broad daylight and broken all to pieces in half a day, and of her crew not a man saved. Other t

d so long among the reefs, loth to leave the wild, strange place, that the sun was fast g

its downs rising steeply from the water, and making a great pretence of being a very lofty ascent indeed. In the middle of the coast juts out a high promontory, surrounded on all sides but one by the water. On this rock stands Cromwell's Castle, a round tower, older than the Martello Towers. It still possesses a roof, but its interior has been long since gutted. In front of it has been built a square stone platform or bastion, where once, no doubt, they mounted guns for the purpose of defending this channel against an invader, as if Nature had not already defended it by her ledges and shallows and hardly concealed teeth of granite. To protect by a fort a channel when the way is so tortuous and difficult, and where there are so many other ways, is almost as if Warkworth Castl

e of delight among the Outer Islands,

like it?' as

peated. 'Armorel

make a ske

od place to take it from-over there, I think, on that beach. Armorel! It is splendid. To

said, softly, 'you will not be able to go away to

child. You sho

us? We will make you as comfortable as ever w

y and sincerely anxi

ally and truly

e. The weather will be fine, I think

at the back of it and the water below it. I will make it for you, Armorel; but I will keep a co

cture. But, oh! Roland!-as if

should she not speak what was in her heart? Never before had she seen a young man so brave, so g

nocence. A child-only a child. Armorel would change. In a year or two this trustfulness would vanish. She would become like all o

to the fine white sand of the landin

'A day to dream of. How shal

nd have some mo