Lasher by Rice Anne - Mayfair Witches 02

Author:Rice, Anne - Mayfair Witches 02 [02, Rice, Anne - Mayfair Witches]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-12-20T02:02:31.718000+00:00

LEGENDS OF THE HIGHLANDS

"Ah, here we are. St. Ashlar, still venerated in some parts of Scotland as late as the sixteen hundreds, principally by young girls who would have their most secret wishes granted. Not a true canonical saint."

He closed the book. "Well, that doesn't surprise me. Not a true canonical saint. All of this is too early for us to call it history. That means he was never canonized by Rome, you understand. We're dealing with another St. Christopher."

"I know," said I, but I was mainly quiet, swept up again in the memories. I saw the Cathedral so distinctly. For the first time I truly saw its windows - narrow, high, with bits of colored glass, not pictures, but mostly glass mosaics of gold, red and blue - and the rose window, ah, the rose window! Suddenly I saw the flames. I saw the glass shattering. I heard the cries of the mob. I felt myself so much in the midst of it that I knew for an instant my height as I faced the oncoming crowd, I saw my own hands outstretched against them!

I shook it off. The old professor was peering curiously at me.

"You do have a great passion for these things, don't you?"

"Almost an unholy passion," I said. "A cathedral of the twelve hundreds. That's not too early to be called history."

"No, indeed not," he said, and now he went to another shelf, to a whole series of books on the churches and ruins of Scotland. "So much has been lost, you see, so much. Why, if it weren't for the present scholarly interest in all these things, every trace of those Catholic edifices would have been... here, 'Highland Cathedrals.'

"Donnelaith Cathedral, under the patronage of the Clan of Donnelaith, greatly expanded and enhanced from 1205 to 1266, by their chieftains. A special Christmas Devotion fostered by the Franciscan friars drew thousands from the surrounding area. No records remain today, but the principal patrons were always members of the Donnelaith clan. Some records believed to be... in Italy."

I gave a long sigh. I didn't want to be dislodged from the present by the memories again. What had the memories taught me?

He turned several pages. "Ah, see here, a crude family tree of the Donnelaith clan. King Ashlar, then look here, the great-grandson, Ashlar the Venerable, and here another descendant, Ashlar the Blessed, married to the Norman queen Mora. My, but there are any number of Ashlars."

"I see."

"And here an Ashlar, and an Ashlar, but you can trace the progress of the name, that is, if you believe all these chieftains existed! You know these clans reveled so in all this, and their mossback descendants write up these fanciful accounts. I don't know."

"It's quite enough to satisfy my lust for the moment," I said.

"Ah, lust, yes, that's the word, isn't it?" He shut the book. "There must be more. I'll find it for you. But to tell you the truth, it's going to be pretty much like this, in these old privately published texts, and the best you can say of it is it's folklore.

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