preternatural agency, he conceived would be effectual for his destruction. In this, however, he was, fatally for himself, mistaken, for no sooner was he perceived, than the effect of the enchantment ceased; indignation swelling at the heart of Henry, impelled the lingering fluid, his cheek flushed with the crimson tide, his limbs recovered their elasticity and tone, and avoiding with active vigour the death that was intended him, he sheathed his falchion in the breast of his opponent, who, having wasted his impetuous strength upon the air, had thus exposed himself to instant ruin.

195

NUMBER XI.

Fairy elves,

Whose midnight revels by a forest side,

Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,
Or dreams he sees, while over head the moon
Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth

Wheels her pale course, they on their mirth and dance
Intent, with jocund music charm his ear;

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds.
MILTON.

WALLERAN dropt lifeless on the ground, and the dreadful appearances in the vault, the fire, and all its apparatus, immediately vanished, whilst loud howlings and lamentations were heard at a distance in the air. A profound silence, however, now ensued throughout the castle, and Henry, by the light of the moon, as it streamed through the grated window, beheld at his feet the bleeding corpse of his antagonist. Starting from the contemplation of his fallen enemy, he resolved to explore the ruins in

search of Adeline, of whose concealment in some part of the building, he entertained not the smallest doubt, and, apprehensive now of little opposition, he once more attempted those stairs, in ascending which he had formerly encountered so many terrors. He reached the gallery without any interruption, and passing through the folding doors into the apartment already described, discovered at one end, and on the very spot where he had beheld the tremendous vision of the agonizing wretch, a narrow,winding, and arched passage, and which, taking a circular direction, probably passed into the opposite portion of the great tower. Here he entered, but had not proceeded far before the sound as of soft and very distant music reached his ear; and shortly afterward was distinctly heard the murmur of falling water. Sounds such as these, and in such a place, greatly surprised him, and hastening forward to ascertain from what quarter they originated, he found himself suddenly immersed in a very cold and damp vapour, whose density was such, that for a short time it totally suffocated the smallest ray of light; in a few minutes, however, it began in some measure to clear away, accompanied with a whispering noise, whilst

vast eddies and gusts of thin vapour passed him with a whirling motion. He now perceived himself in a kind of large cavern whose sides were of unhewn stone, aad from the roof were pendent numbers of beautiful stalactites, from whose points fell, at intervals, with a tinkling sound, large drops of water, whilst the dying notes of distant harps, the gurgling of obstructed currents, and the sighings of the restless vapour, formed a harmony so singular, yet so soothing, that when united to the surrounding chill and torpid atmosphere, seemed calculated to inspire the most profound repose. Fitzowen now advanced a little further into the cavity, and, through the chasms of the ever fluctuating mist, discerned, hanging from the centre of the roof, a vast globe, which emitted' rays of the palest hue, and which, in passing through the turbid vapour, shed a kind of twilight.

Whilst pondering on the purport of this very peculiar scene, he felt a heaviness, and a tendency to sleep creep upon him, accompanied with an indistinctness and confusion of intellect; at this instant, however, a mass of vapour rushing by him, the light gleamed more stea

dily, and he beheld in an excavation of the adjacent wail, and recumbent on a couch, what he conceived to be a human body. Curiosity was now so powerfully excited, as completely to expel the approaching torpor, and drawing nearer the object of his attention, he could hear the deep breathings of a person in profound sleep; the next moment he could perceive the garments of female attire, and in the succeeding instant hung with rapture and astonishment over the well-known features of his beloved Adeline. The globe shed a silvery and preternatural whiteness over her form, and the rose had left her cheek; she lay with her head reclined upon her hand, and the utmost tran→ quillity sate upon her countenance, though, now and then, a deep-drawn sigh would indicate the tissue of idea.

Henry stood, for some moments, riveted to the spot, then, starting from his reverie, he wound his arms about her beauteous frame, and impressed upon her lips a glowing kissshe awoke, and instantly a tremendous tempest burst upon them, loud thunder shook the earth, and a whirlwind, rushing through the pile, tore it from its foundations.