ble shroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply.
Seem'd all on fire, within, around,
Deep sacristy and altar's pale
Shone every pillar, foliage-bound,
And glimmer'd all the dead men's mail.
Blazed battlement and pinnet high,
Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair;
So still they blaze when Fate is nigh
The lordly line of Hugh St. Clair.
But, although the last "Roslin," as he was called, died in the year
1778, and the estates passed into the possession of the Erskines,
Earls of Rosslyn, the old tradition has not been extinguished.
Something of the same kind is described as having happened to the old
Cornish family of the Vingoes on their estate of Treville, for
"through all time a peculiar token has marked the coming death of one
of the family. Above the deep caverns in the Treville Cliff rises a
carn. On this chains of fire were seen ascending and descending, and
oftentimes were accompanied by loud and frightful noises. But it is
reported that these tokens have not taken place since the last male of
the family came to a violent end. According to Mr. Hunt,[42]
"tradition tells us this estate was given to an old family who came
with the Conqueror to this country. This ancestor is said to have been
the Duke of Normandy's wine taster, and to have belonged to the
ancient Counts of Treville, hence the name of the estate. For many
generations the family has been declining, and the race is now
nearly, if not quite, extinct.
In some cases, families have been apprised of an approaching death by
some strange spectre, either male or female, a remarkable instance of
which occurs in the MS. memoirs of Lady Fanshaw, and is to this
effect: "Her husband, Sir Richard, and she, chanced, during their
abode in Ireland, to visit a friend, who resided in his ancient
baronial castle surrounded with a moat. At midnight she was awakened
by a ghastly and supernatural scream, and, looking out of bed, beheld
by the moonlight a female face and part of the form hovering at the
window. The face was that of a young and rather handsome woman, but
pale; and the hair, which was reddish, was loose and dishevelled. This
apparition continued to exhibit itself for some time, and then
vanished with two shrieks, similar to that which had at first excited
Lady Fanshaw's attention. In the morning, with infinite terror, she
communicated to her host what had happened, and found him prepared not
only to credit, but t
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