fixed, as some
would have deemed, upon the door; and as others, more justly, would have
thought upon vacancy. As he gazed, however, he was suddenly conscious that
the door slowly and sullenly swung open, and admitted three strangers; a
man of tall and graceful figure, and of a comely but melancholy aspect,
arrayed in a long, loose and dark morning gown; he led two young and
lovely children, whose burnished golden hair, pale, clear, tranquil
countenances and snow-white garments gave them the appearance of celestial
intelligences. Frantz, terrified and confounded, followed with his eyes
those whom he could but fancy to be apparitions, as with noiseless steps
they walked, or rather glided, towards a table which stood near the
fireplace; upon this laid the parish register, coming in front of which,
the man opened it with a solemn air, and turning over a few pages, pointed
with his finger to some record, upon which the fair children seemed to
gaze with interest and attention. The trio smiled mournfully at each other,
then moving so that they stood upon the hearth immediately opposite the
foot of Frantz's bed, and facing the affrighted young minister, he had
full leisure to contemplate his strange visiters. That they were of a
superhuman nature, he was warranted in concluding from their appearance
in so solitary a place as Steingart--from their unceremonious _entree_ at
that unusual hour into his dormitory, and from their movements, actions,
and awful silence. Frantz endeavoured to recollect the form of adjuration,
and also that of exorcism, commonly employed to tranquillize the turbulent
departed, but vainly; his brain was giddy; his thoughts distracted; his
heart throbbed to agony with terror, and his tongue refused its office.
With a violent effort he sprang up in his bed, and in his address to the
speechless trio, had proceeded as far as--"In the name of--" when the
children sank down into the very hearthstone upon which they stood, and
the man--Frantz saw not whither _he_ went--perhaps up the chimney--but go
he certainly did.

The terrified young man leapt in a state of desperation from his bed, and
searched the apartment narrowly, as people commonly, but foolishly, are
wont to do in similar cases. His search, as might have been expected, was
useless; but not liking at present to alarm his domestics with a report
of the house being haunted, he resolved to await further evidences of
the supernatural visitation. Next morni