moment burst upon her ear, and her aunt, who had been
awakened by the music, and had followed her silently to the window, fell
into her arms. When she looked again, the specter had disappeared.

Of the two females, the aunt now required the most soothing, for she was
perfectly beside herself with terror. As to the young lady, there was
something, even in the specter of her lover, that seemed endearing.
There was still the semblance of manly beauty; and though the shadow of
a man is but little calculated to satisfy the affections of a love-sick
girl, yet, where the substance is not to be had, even that is consoling.
The aunt declared she would never sleep in that chamber again; the
niece, for once, was refractory, and declared as strongly that she would
sleep in no other in the castle: the consequence was, that she had to
sleep in it alone: but she drew a promise from her aunt not to relate
the story of the specter, lest she should be denied the only melancholy
pleasure left her on earth--that of inhabiting the chamber over which
the guardian shade of her lover kept its nightly vigils.

How long the good old lady would have observed this promise is
uncertain, for she dearly loved to talk of the marvelous, and there is a
triumph in being the first to tell a frightful story; it is, however,
still quoted in the neighborhood, as a memorable instance of female
secrecy, that she kept it to herself for a whole week; when she was
suddenly absolved from all further restraint, by intelligence, brought
to the breakfast table one morning, that the young lady was not to be
found. Her room was empty--the bed had not been slept in--the window was
open, and the bird had flown!

The astonishment and concern with which the intelligence was received,
can only be imagined by those who have witnessed the agitation which the
mishaps of a great man cause among his friends. Even the poor relations
paused for a moment from the indefatigable labors of the trencher, when
the aunt, who had at first been struck speechless, wrung her hands, and
shrieked out, "The goblin! the goblin! She's carried away by the
goblin!"

In a few words she related the fearful scene of the garden, and
concluded that the specter must have carried off his bride. Two of the
domestics corroborated the opinion, for they had heard the clattering of
a horse's hoofs down the mountain about midnight, and had no doubt that
it was the specter on his black charger, bearing her aw