ght," asked Albert, "where is he?"

"Take the torch, and follow me," replied the other, and led the way
though a side passage. They had proceeded about twenty paces, when
Albert thought he heard the deep tones resembling those of an organ. He
drew the attention of his leader to it.

"That is some one singing," the fifer answered, "the voice sounds
particularly beautiful and full in these caverns. When two or three men
join their voices together, it resembles the full chorus of monks
chanting the _Ora_." The music became still plainer; and as they
approached the spot, the expressive feeling of a beautiful melody was
distinctly heard. They were obliged to bend themselves under the corner
of a rock, as they proceeded, when the voice of the songster sounded
from above, and broke in repeated echo on the indentations of the wall
of rock, until it was lost in the mingled noises of dripping water from
the moist stones, and the murmur of a subterranean waterfall.

"That is the place," said the guide; "above there, in the side of the
rock, is the habitation of the unhappy man. Hearken to his voice! We'll
wait and listen till he has finished, for he never was accustomed to be
interrupted, even when he lived above ground." It was with great
difficulty that they could catch the following words on account of the
great echo and the murmur of falling and rushing water.

The tow'r from whence my childhood gazed
Upon the subject fields so fair,
Now bears a stranger's banner, raised
Where erst my father's fann'd the air.

To ruin sink my father's halls,
The portion of my ancestry;
O'erthrown and unavenged, the walls
In earth's deep bosom buried lie.

O'er fields, where once in happier tide
My jocund bugle horn I blew,
The savage foemen fiercely ride:
A noble quarry they pursue.

I am their game, the quarry chased;
The slot-hound follows where he flies,
Athirst the stag's warm blood to taste,
Whose antlers[1] are the hunter's prize.

The murderers have bent their bow,
They ransack forest, hill, and plain;
Whilst clad in rags I nightly go
A beggar on my own domain.

Where once I rode in lordly state,
Whilst greeting vassals bow'd the head;