Lady Sibyl. He accompanied her to Bernshaw Tower, their
future residence,--becoming, in right of his wife, the sole possessor of
those domains.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[41] In Lancashire these noises are called the Gabriel Ratchets,
according to Webster, which seem to be the same with the German
Rachtvogel or Rachtraven. The word and the superstition are still
prevalent. Gabriel Ratchets are supposed to be like the sound of puppies
yelping in the air, and to forebode death or misfortune.

PART THIRD.

Twelve months were nigh come and gone, and the feast of All-Hallows was
again at hand. Lord William's bride sat in her lonely bower, but her
face was pale, and her eyes red with weeping. The tempter had been
there; and she had not sought for protection against his snares. That
night she was expected to renew her allegiance to the prince of
darkness. Those fearful rites must now bind her for ever to his will.
Such appeared to be her infatuation that it led her to imagine she was
yet his by right of purchase, without being fully conscious of the
impiety of that thought. His own power had been promised to her: true,
she must die; but might she not, a spirit like himself, rove from world
to world without restraint? She thought--so perilously rapid was her
relapse and her delusion--that his form had again passed before her,
beautiful as before his transgression!--"The Son of the Morning!"
arrayed in the majesty which he had before the world was,--ere heaven's
Ruler had hurled him from his throne. Her mental vision was perverted.
Light and darkness, good and evil, were no longer distinguished. Perhaps
it was a dream; but the imagination had becomed diseased, and she
distinguished not its inward operations from outward impressions on the
sense. Her husband was kind, and loved her with a lover's fondness, but
she could not return his affection. He saw her unhappy, and he
administered comfort; but the source of her misery was in himself, and
she sighed to be free?

"Free!"--she started; the voice was an echo to her thought. It appeared
to be in the chamber, but she saw no living form. She had vowed to
renounce the devil and all his works in her rebaptism, before she was
led to the altar, and how could she face her husband?

"He shall not know of our compact."

These words seemed to be whispered in her ear. She turned aside; but saw
nothing save the glow of sunset through the lattice,