I
wonder if, when we see the great Dome Kirk itself, it will give one's
spirit wings, as does the gazing up from the Ptarmigan's Pool."
"Thou minnesinger, was it the blue sky thou hadst to tell me of?"
"No, brother, it was ere I reached it that I saw this sight. I had
scaled the peak where grows the stunted rowan, and I sat down to look
down on the other side of the gorge. It was clear where I sat, but
the ravine was filled with clouds, and upon them--"
"The shape of the blessed Friedmund, thy patron?"
"OUR patron," said Friedel; "I saw him, a giant form in gown and
hood, traced in grey shadow upon the dazzling white cloud; and oh,
Ebbo! he was struggling with a thinner, darker, wilder shape bearing
a club. He strove to withhold it; his gestures threatened and
warned! I watched like one spell-bound, for it was to me as the
guardian spirit of our race striving for thee with the enemy."
"How did it end?"
"The cloud darkened, and swallowed them; nor should I have known the
issue, if suddenly, on the very cloud where the strife had been,
there had not beamed forth a rainbow--not a common rainbow, Ebbo, but
a perfect ring, a soft-glancing, many-tinted crown of victory.
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