Warwick Deeping

“ Deep in the woods a voice was singing, wild and solitary in the gathering gloom. Like the cry of a ghost, it seemed to set the silence quivering, the leaves quaking with a windless awe. The men who looked towards the sea heard it, a song that echoed in the heart like woe.
"Sire, there is yet hope."
"Life grows dim, and dreams elapse in fire."
Merlin pointed into the darkening woods. His eyes shone crystal bright, and there was a great radiance upon his face.
"Sire, trust thine own heart, and the god in thee. Through superstition thou hast been brought nigh unto death and to despair. ”

“ The moonlight seemed to shudder on the trees. A stupendous stupor weighed upon the world.
A hollow glade opened sudden in the woods, a white gulf in the forest's gloom. Water shone there, a mere, rush-ringed, and full of mysterious shadows, girded by the bronzed foliage of stately beeches. Moss grew thick about the roots; dead leaves covered the grass. ”

“ Death seemed near, and shadows, and things from hell. I knew not what I did, nor where I wandered, nor what strange stupor held my soul. All was dark about me, horrible midnight peopled with foul forms. It has passed ”