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النشر الإلكتروني
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possessions to the family of the present owner. It was a castellated, gothic. mansion, built according to the fashion of the times, in the grandest style of architecture, and consisted principally of dark winding corridors, and vaulted tapestry rooms, magnificent indeed in their size, but ill-suited to private comfort, from the very circumstance of their dreary magnitude. A dark grove of pine and mountain ash encompassed the castle on every side, and threw an

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aspect of gloom around the scene, which was seldom enlivened by the cheering sunshine of heaven.

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The castle bells rung out a merry peal at the approach of a winter twilight, and the warder was stationed with his retinue on the battlements, to announce the arrival of the company who were invited to share the amusements that reigned within the walls. The Lady Clotilda, the baron's only daughter, had but just attained her seventeenth year, and a brilliant assembly was invited to celebrate the birth-day. The large vaulted apartments were thrown open for the reception of the numerous guests, and the gaities of the evening had scarcely commenced, when the clock from the dungeon tower was heard to strike with unusual solemnity, and on the instant a tall stranger, arrayed in a deep suit of black, made his appearance in the ballroom. He bowed courteously on every side, but was received by all with the strictest reserve. No one knew who he was or whence he came, but it was evident from his appearance, that he was a nobleman of the first rank, and though his introduction was accepted with distrust, he was treated by all with respect. He addressed himself particularly to the daughter of the baron, and was so intelligent in his remarks, so lively in his sallies, and so fascinating in his address, that he quickly interested the feelings of his young and sensitive auditor. In fine, after some hesitation on the part of the host, who, with the rest of the company, was unable to approach the stranger with indifference, he was requested to remain a few days at the castle, an invitation which was cheerfully accepted.

The dead of the night drew on, and when all had retired to rest, the dull heavy bell was heard swinging to and fro in the grey tower, though there was scarcely a breath to move the forest trees. Many of the guests, when they met the next morning at the breakfast table averred that there had been sounds

as of the most heavenly music, while all persisted in affirming that they had heard awful noises, proceeding as it seemed, from the apartment which the stranger at that time occupied. He soon, however, made his appearance at the breakfast circle, and when the circumstances of the preceding night were alluded to, a dark smile of unutterable meaning played round his saturnine features, and then relapsed into an expression of the deepest melancholy. He addressed his conversation principally to Clotilda, and when he talked of the different climes he had visited, of the sunny regions of Italy, where the very air breathes the fragrance of flowers, and the summer breeze, sighs over a land of sweets; when he spoke to her of those delicious countries where the smile of the day sks into the softer beauty of the night, and the loveliness of heaven is never for an instant obscured, he drew tears of regret from the bosom of his fair auditor, and for the first time she regretted that she was yet at home.

Days rolled on, and every moment increased the fervour of the inexpressible sentiments with which the stranger had inspired her. He never discoursed of love, but he looked it in his language, his manner, in the insinuating tones of his voice, and in the slumbering softness of his smile, and when he found that he had succeeded in inspiring her with favourable sentiments towards him, a sneer of the most diabolical meaning spoke for an instant, and died again on his dark featured countenance. When he met her in the company of her parents, he was at once respectful and submissive, and it was only when alone with her, in her rambles through the dark recesses of the forest, that he assumed the guise of the more impassioned admirer.

As he was sitting one evening with the baron in the wainscotted apartment of the library, the conversation happened to turn upon supernatural agency. The stranger remained reserved and myste

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in the hours of privacy. So beauteous, yet so resigned was the fair mourner, that she seemed already an angel freed from the trammels of the world, and prepared to take her flight to heaven.

rious during the discussion, but when the baron in a jocular manner denied the existence of spirits, and satirically invoked their appearance, his eyes glowed with unearthly lustre, and his form seemed to dilate to more than its natural dimensions. When the conversation had ceased, a fearful pause of a few seconds occurred, and a chorus of celestial harmony was heard pealing through the dark forest glade. All were entranced with delight, but the stranger was disturbed and gloomy; he looked at his noble host with compassion, and something like a tear swam in his dark" and I thought all happiness was fled

eye. After the lapse of a few seconds, the music died gently in the distance, and all was hushed as before. The baron soon after quitted the apartment, and was followed almost immediately by the stranger. He had not long been absent, when an awful noise, as if a person in the agonies of death, was heard, and the baron was discovered stretched dead along the corridors. His countenance was convulsed with pain, and the gripe of a human hand was visible on his blackened throat. The alarm was instantly given, the castle searched in every direction, but the stranger was seen no more. The body of the baron, in the meantime, was quietly committed to the earth, and the remembrance of the dreadful transaction, recalled but as a thing that once

was.

After the departure of the stranger, who had indeed fascinated her very senses, the spirits of the gentle Clotilda evidently declined. She loved to walk early and late in the walks that he had once frequented, to recall his last words; to dwell on his honied smile; and wander to the spot where she had once discoursed with him of love. She avoided all society, and never seemed to be happy but when left alone in the solitude of her chamber. It was then that she gave vent to her affliction in tears; and the love that the pride of maiden modesty concealed in public, burst forth

As she was one summer evening rambling to the sequestered spot that had been selected as her favourite residence, a slow step advanced towards her. She turned round, and to her infinite surprise discovered the stranger. He stepped gaily to her side, and commenced an animated conversation. "You left me," exclaimed the delighted girl;

from me for ever; but you return, and shall we not again be happy?" "Happy," replied the stranger, with a scornful burst of derision, "Can I ever be happy again-can the-but excuse the agitation, my love, and impute it to the pleasure I experience at our meeting. Oh! I have many things to tell you; aye! and many kind words to receive; is it not so, sweet one? Come, tell me truly have you been happy in my absence? No! I see in that sunken eye, in that pallid cheek, that the poor wanderer has at least gained some slight interest in the heart of his beloved. I have roamed to other climes, I have seen other nations; I have met with other females, beautiful and accomplished, but I have met with but one angel, and she is here before me. Accept this simple offering of my affection, dearest," continued the stranger, plucking a heath-rose from its stem; "It is beautiful as the wild flowers that deck thy hair, and sweet as is the love I bear thee." "It is sweet, indeed," replied Clotilda, "but its sweetness must wither ere night closes around. It is beautiful, but its beauty is short-lived, as the love evinced by man. Let not this, then, be the type of thy attachment; bring me the delicate evergreen, the sweet flower that blossoms throughout the year; and I will say, as I wreathe it in my hair, The violets have bloomed and died-the roses have flourished and decayed; but the evergreen is still

young, and so is the love of my wan→ derer. Friend of my heart!-you will not-cannot desert me. I live but in you; you are my hopes, my thoughts, my existence itself: and if I lose you, I lose my all-I was but a solitary wild flower in the wilderness of nature, until you transplanted me to a more genial soil; and can you now break the fond heart you first taught to glow with passion?" Speak not thus," returned the stranger, "it rends my very soul to hear you;-leave me- forget me

Think not I can abandon

and nature smiles in unison with their feelings; but to me it will smile no longer-ere the morrow dawns I shall be far, very far from the house of my beloved; from the scenes where my heart is enshrined, as in a sepulchre. But must I leave thee, sweetest flower of the wilderness, to be the sport of the whirlwind, the prey of the mountain blast?"-" No, we will not part," replied the impassioned girl : where thou goest, will I go; thy home shall be my home; and thy God shall be God,'

stranger, wildly grasping her by the hand; "swear to the fearful oath I shall dictate." He then desired her to kneel and holding his right hand in a menacing attitude towards heaven, and throwing back his dark raven locks, exclaimed with the ghastly smile of an incarnate fiend, "May the curses of an offended God," he continued, in a strain of bitter imprecation, " haunt thee, cling to thee for ever-in the tempest and in the calm, in the day and in the night, in sickness and in sorrow, in life and in death, shouldst thou swerve from the promise thou hast here made to be mine.

avoid me for ever or your eternal ruin" Swear it, swear it," resumed the must ensue. I am a thing abandoned of God and man-and did you but see the seared heart that scarcely beats within this moving mass of deformity, you would flee me, as you would an adder in your path. Here is my heart, love, feel how cold it is; there is no pulse that betrays its emotion; for all is chilled and dead as the friends I once knew."-" You are unhappy, love, and your poor Clotilda shall stay to succour you. you in your misfortunes. No! I will wander with thee through the wide world, and be thy servant, thy slave, if thou wilt have it so. I will shield thee from the night winds, that they blow not too roughly on thy unprotected head. I will defend thee from the tempest that howls around; and though the cold world may devote thy name to scornthough friends may fall off, and associates wither in the grave, there shall be one fond heart who shall love thee better in thy misfortune, and cherish thee, bless thee still." She ceased, and her blue eye swam in tears, as she turned it glistening with affection towards the stranger. He averted his head from her gaze, and a scornful sneer of the darkest, the deadliest malice passed over his fine countenance. In an instant, the expression subsided; his fixed glassy eye resumed its unearthly chillness, and he turned once again to his companion.

It is the hour of sunset," he exclaimed; "the soft, the beauteous hour, when the hearts of lovers are happy,

May the dark spirits of the damned howl in thine ears the accursed chorus of fiends-may despair rack thy bosom with the quenchless flames of hell! May thy soul be as the lazarhouse of corruption, where the ghost of departed pleasure sits enshrined, as in a grave where the hundred-headed worm never dies-where the fire is never extinguished. May a spirit of evil lord it over thy brow, and proclaim as thou passest by, THIS IS THE ABANDONED OF GOD AND MAN;' may fearful spectres haunt thee in the night season; may thy dearest friends drop day by day into the grave, and curse thee with their dying breath: may all that is most horrible in human nature, more solemn than language can frame, or lips can utter, may this, and more than this, be thy eternal portion, shouldst thou violate the oath that thou hast taken." He ceased-hardly know

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Ո ing what he did, the terrified girl achal' ceded to the awful adjuration, and promy mised eternal fidelity to him who was my henceforth to be her lord. 66 Spirits of are the damned, I thank thee for thine asresistance," shouted the stranger; "I have

wooed my fair bride bravely. She is
mine-mine for ever.-Aye, body and
soul both mine; mine in life, and mine
in death. What in tears my sweet one,
'ere yet the honey-moon is past? Why!
indeed thou hast cause for weeping:
but when next we meet, we shall meet
to sign the nuptial bond." He then
imprinted a cold salute on the cheek of
his young bride, and softening down
the unutterable horrors of his counte-
nance, requested her to meet him at
eight o'clock on the ensuing evening,
m the chapel adjoining to the castle of
Hernswolf. She turned round to him
with a burning sigh, as if to implore
protection from himself, but the stran-
ger was gone.

On entering the castle, she was observed to be impressed with a sense of the deepest melancholy. Her relations vainly endeavoured to ascertain the cause of her uneasiness; but the tremendous oath she had sworn completely paralyzed her faculties, and she was fearful of betraying herself by even the slightest intonation of her voice, or the least variable expression of her countenance. When the evening was concluded, the family retired to rest; Clotilda, who was unable to take repose, from the restlessness of her disposition, requested to remain alone in the library that adjoined her apartment.

but

All was now deep midnight; every domestic had long since-retired to rest, and the only sound that could be distinguished was the sullen howl of the ban-dog as he bayed the waning moon. Clotilda remained in the library in an attitude of deep meditation. The lamp that burnt on the table, where she sat, was dying away, and the lower end of the apartment was already more than half obscured. The clock from the northern angle of the castle tolled out

the hour of twelve, and the sound echoed dismally in the solemn stillness of the night. Suddenly the oaken door at the farther end of the room was gently lifted on its latch, and a bloodless figure, apparelleled in the habiliments of the grave, advanced slowly up the apartment. No sound heralded its approach, as it moved with noiseless steps to the table where the lady was stationed. She did not at first perceive it, till she felt a death-cold hand fast grasped in her own, and heard a solemn voice whisper in her ear, "Clotilda." She looked up, a dark figure was standing beside her; she endeavoured to scream, but her voice was unequal to the exertion; her eye was fixed, as if by magic, on the form, which slowly removed the garb that concealed its countenance, and disclosed the livid eyes, and skeleton shape of her father. It seemed to gaze on her with pity and regret, and mournfully exclaimed-" Clotilda, the dresses and the servants are ready, the church bell has tolled, and the priest is at the altar, but where is the affianced bride. There is room for her in the grave, and to-morrow shall she be with me."-" To morrow?" faltered out the distracted girl; "the spirits of hell shall have registered it, and to-morrow must the bond be cancelled." The figure ceased-slowly retired, and was soon lost in the obscurity of distance.

The morning-evening-arrived: and already as the hall clock struck eight, Clotilda was on the road to the chapel. It was a dark, gloomy night, thick masses of dun clouds sailed across the firmament, and the roar of the winter wind echoed awfully through the forest trees. She reached the appointed place; a figure was in waiting for her-it advanced-and discovered the features of the stranger. "Why! this is well, my bride," he exclaimed, with a sneer; and well will I repay thy fondness. Follow me." They proceeded together in silence through the winding avenues of the chapel, until they reached the adjoining cemetry

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