rept out of the very pile which she had been so fearfully
contemplating all night. He was attended by a female figure, who
carefully seated him on a bank opposite her window. The occupation of
these spectres was no less extraordinary than the time of their
appearance, for they seemed engaged in what, she thought, ghosts always
omitted--devotion. Yet ghosts they must be, since nothing human could
have dared to pass the night in such a scene of desolation. She
continued to gaze, in petrified horror, till the female apparition
rising from its knees, after adjusting the hair, and wiping the face of
its companion, sung the following stanzas, with a voice resembling that
of human beings, except that its harmonious notes exceeded in sweetness
any thing Mrs. Abigail had ever heard:

Oh, sooth me with the words of love,
Heal me with pity's balsams dear;
For I have heard the proud reprove,
And felt the wrongs of men austere.

I gaz'd on grandeur's gay career,
Alone distracted and aggriev'd;
None stopp'd to wipe my bitter tear,
My bursting heart unnotic'd heav'd.

The happy hate to see distress,
It tells a tale they dread to know,
And guilt, tho' thron'd in mightiness,
In every victim sees a foe.

Where does the pamper'd worldling go?
To those who spread their banners brave--
Lonely and sad, the house of woe
Is like the robber's mountain cave.

On life's sad annals if we dwell,
Do they not speak of trust betray'd;
Of merit rising to excel,
On which the canker envy prey'd;

Of youth by enterprise upstaid,
Till sad experience broke the spell;
And slighted age a ruin laid,
Fit only for the narrow cell?

Yet of the tortures that betide
A feeling heart, the worst are they
Which bid it never more confide
On those who were its earthly stay.

Once guided by religion's ray,
True as the sun they seem'd to move;
Now led by meteor-lights astray,
Estrang'd in honour and in love.

The waiting-gentlewoman's astonishment at this vision soon burst out
into an exclamation, which unfortunately broke Lady Bellingham's
slumber, and drew her also to the window. Her lamentations at the misery
of having her rest disturbed, were soon interrupted by consternation at
the objects she beheld, which were no other than her brother and his
daughter enjoying their morning liberation fr