t time. I can see the bold outline of that rude, massive building
on a rock frowning on the lake below. I feel myself yet at my casement,
gazing out in search of your bark, which passed nightly close to my
window, and I fancy I hear your touch upon the lute reverberating
through the night air.

"With what horror I remember being torn from my window on that night by
my captor, as I was waving my handkerchief to you on the lake. Oh! the
torture I underwent within those unhallowed walls after you left me; the
scenes I was compelled to witness, the oaths I was forced to hear; and
then the infernal hideousness of the countenance of my demon captor!

"Oh! Charles, shall I ever forget the night on which you rode up to the
wizard's castle on a spirit charger, habited as a cavalier, and bearing
a ladder of ropes under your mantle which you reached up to me on the
point of your lance; how I descended, and you placed me behind you on
your steed and galloped away; how, ere we were far from the castle, my
flight was discovered, and the wizard and all his demon host mounted
their demon chargers and started in pursuit of us; how they gained on
us; how we avoided them for miles by hardly half-a-horse's length, until
we arrived at a bridge across a river of fire, over which none but the
pure in love can pass? Dost remember, Charles, how bravely thy spirit
charger bore us over in safety, and how, when the fell magician
endeavoured to follow us with his evil crew, how the bridge tumbled to
atoms, and the demon host was swallowed up in the fiery waves? Then how,
when our charger was spent, we turned him out to graze, the sun having
risen; and how, having arrived at the sea shore, we found a boat, which
we entered, and steered onward in search of further adventure. How
swiftly, how gallantly we sailed, as if borne on by the good spirits,
until we reached an island, where the inhabitants welcomed us and
claimed us as their king and queen. Charles! do you remember all this?
But why call up all these reminiscences? They are over now, and passed
as a dream, and this hence-forward must be our life. I know nothing of
your life in the flesh, my spirit lover, or what may be your social
position in this world. No matter, whatever it be, and in spite of
whatever obstacles may raise themselves to our happiness in this vale of
tears, remember that I am ever thine in the spirit,

"EDITH L----."