ney now to see it.

And as the sun sank to rest, the gorgeous colours that it cast upon the
mouldering wall, deepened from an appearance of burnished gold to a
crimson hue, and from that again the colour changed to a shifting
purple, mingling with the shadows of the evening, and so gradually
fading away into absolute darkness.

The place is as silent as the tomb--a silence far more solemn than could
have existed, had there been no remains of a human habitation; because
even these time-worn walls were suggestive of what once had been; and
the wrapt stillness which now pervaded them brought with them a
melancholy feeling for the past.

There was not even the low hum of insect life to break the stillness of
these ancient ruins.

And now the last rays of the sun are gradually fading away. In a short
time all will be darkness. A low gentle wind is getting up, and
beginning slightly to stir the tall blades of grass that have shot up
between some of the old stones. The silence is broken, awfully broken,
by a sudden cry of despair; such a cry as might come from some
imprisoned spirit, doomed to waste an age of horror in a tomb.

And yet it was scarcely to be called a scream, and not all a groan. It
might have come from some one on the moment of some dreadful sacrifice,
when the judgment had not sufficient time to call courage to its aid,
but involuntarily had induced that sound which might not be repeated.

A few startled birds flew from odd holes and corners about the ruins, to
seek some other place of rest. The owl hooted from a corner of what had
once been a belfry, and a dreamy-looking bat flew out from a cranny and
struck itself headlong against a projection.

Then all was still again. Silence resumed its reign, and if there had
been a mortal ear to drink in that sudden sound, the mind might well
have doubted if fancy had not more to do with the matter than reality.

From out a portion of the ruins that was enveloped in the deepest gloom,
there now glides a figure. It is of gigantic height, and it moves along
with a slow and measured tread. An ample mantle envelopes the form,
which might well have been taken for the spirit of one of the monks who,
centuries since, had made that place their home.

It walked the whole length of the ample hall we have alluded to, and
then, at the window from which had streamed the long flood of many
coloured light, it paused.

For more than ten minutes this mysterious looking figur