ndid the
bolts, sunk the drawbridge, and bade them enter in the name
of God. Having done so, he instantly retired into his
_sanctum sanctorum_ to await the event, for there was
something in the voices and language of his guests that
sounded mysterious and awful. They rushed into the castle,
and appeared to know their way through all its recesses.
Grooms were heard hurrying their horses to the
stables--sentinels were heard mounting guard--a thousand
lights gleamed from place to place through the ruins, till
at length they seemed all concentrated in the baronial hall,
whose range of broad windows threw a resplendent
illumination on the moss-grown court below.

After a short time, a domestic, clad in a rich but very
antique dress, appeared before the old couple, and commanded
them to attend his lord and lady in the great hall. They
went with tottering steps, and to their great terror found
themselves in the midst of a most brilliant and joyous
company; but the fearful part of it was, that most of the
guests resembled the ancestors of John's family, and were
known to him by their resemblance to pictures which
mouldered in the castle, or by traditionary description. At
the head, the founder of the race, dressed like some mighty
baron, or rather some Galwegian prince, sat with his lady.
There was a difference of opinion between these ghostly
personages concerning our honest John. The chief was
inclined to receive him graciously; the lady considered him,
from his mean marriage, as utterly unworthy of their name
and board. The upshot is, that the chief discovers to his
descendant the means of finding a huge treasure concealed in
the castle; the lady assures him that the discovery shall
never avail him.--In the morning no trace can be discovered
of {p.150} the singular personages who had occupied the
hall. But John sought for and discovered the vault where the
spoils of the Southrons were concealed, rolled away the
covering stone, and feasted his eyes on a range of massy
chests of iron, filled doubtless with treasure. As he
deliberated on the best means of bringing them up, and
descending into the vault, he observed it began slowly to
fill with water. Bailing and pumping were resorted to, and
when he had exhausted his own and hi