Others believed that she concealed herself in the
top of the highest mountain that was near them, and by a commerce with
invisible, malignant beings, still exercised the same gloomy temper in
more potent, and therefore more inauspicious harm. The blight that
overspread the meadows, the destructive contagion that diffused itself
among the flocks, the raging tempest that rooted up the oak, when the
thunder roared among the hills, and the lightning flashed from pole to
pole, they ascribed to the machinations and the sorcery of Rodogune.
Their conjectures indeed were blind, but their notions were not wholly
mistaken.
"Rodogune was the mother of Roderic. She was deeply skilled in those
dark and flagitious arts, which have cast a gloom upon this mortal
scene. The intellectual powers bestowed upon her by the Gods were great
and eminent, and were given for a far different purpose than to be
employed in these sinister pursuits. But all conspicuous talents are
liable, my son, to base perversion; and such was the fate of those of
Rodogune. She delighted in the actions which her dark and criminal
alliance with invisible powers enabled her to perform. It was her's to
mislead the benighted shepherd. It was Sher's to part the happy lovers.
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