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"Ah! Ellen," replied he, "there is no wish of yours, but finds an echo in my bosom, would that mine also were thus responded by your own.

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"And why not," asked she, "is there aught I can perform I would refuse you?"

"Love me,'

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he exclaimed, "love me and make life what it was intended for-a blessing."

"I do love you, my father loves you, every one loves you, Phillippe."

You mistake me, Ellen: the love, I ask, is that absorbing sentiment which engrosses the whole feelings of the soul, not a thought is engendered in my mind of which you are no sharer-not a hope have I in which you bear no part-not a prayer do I utter in which your name is forgotten-absent or present, sleeping or waking, still you are present to me-such is the passion I bear for you, such I ask from you." We need not pursue this conversation farther, let it suffice, that mutual vows were pledged, and two days afterwards Phillippe de la Cour was on his passage back to his native land.

The plan of his agent had been so well designed, that he reached Paris, and having wound up his affairs, as well as under present circumstances, it was possible for him to do, the breaking out of the "Reign of Terror" determined him to remain for a while concealed in the retreat, he and his friends had chosen, for indeed to have been recognized as an adherent of the Bourbons, would have been immediate death to him. An opportunity, however, happened of escape to him on the day of the procession and deification of the Goddess of Reason, and in the confusion, and amid the shouts of the impious multitude, he was fortunate enough to pass the gates of Paris. After undergoing a series of adventures, he arrived in safety at Toulon, yet was still in imminent danger, the city being besieged by the Revolutionary party. Here he witnessed such a succession of horrors, that it is a question if any of Bonaparte's after battles ever exceeded it in the carnage and destruction. The historians of that period have minutely described the miseries to which that devoted city was subjected, from the assault without and the commotions within, that to attempt an account now would be altogether useless, suffice it to say, that some of the adherents of monarchy escaped to the English ships, which, under the command of Lord Hood, were endeavouring from the harbour to protect the town.

With a party of about twenty, Phillippe entered a small fishing boat, and the wind, at that moment, proving favorable, he soon reached the Admiral's ship, which was then standing out to sea, but while in the act of ascending the vessel's side, a shot struck him in the back, and entering his heart, killed him on the spot.

A short while previous to this circumstance, Mr. Seymour had fallen a victim to a violent fever, and from the commencement of the attack, the cares of the anxious and affectionate daughter had been incessant. Already worn out by fatigue, and overcome by the

contemplation of her lonely situation, this new trial, the death of him, on whom she had built hopes of such unbounded happiness, plunged her into a depth of melancholy, which soon terminated her existence. The estates devolved upon a distant branch of the family, who reared this tablet to her memory, and frequently did the old tenants of her father visit her tomb, and shed the tear of sorrowful remembrance over the grave of Ellen Seymour.

*K*

A CHAPTER ON GHOSTS.

I believe in Ghosts. Mr. Coleridge may say that he has seen too many to credit their existence;-for all that I believe in Ghosts. No sensible man can do otherwise. Dr. Johnson was convinced that such things are; Sir Walter Scott has no doubt upon the subject; our ancestors were equally well assured of their credibility; and I am of the same opinion. The amiable and talented Shelley owns also that such are his sentiments :

"While yet a boy I sought for Ghosts, and sped
Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead."

6

This age is incredulous; a powerful scepticism prevails, and people will not be convinced of the existence of any thing spiritual: except in a liquid state. But even many such are above proof,' and spirits of wine' are as difficult to swallow' a spirit of hell or goblin damned.' 'Seeing is believing,' as the good woman exclaimed when she caught her demure husband kissing the maid; but because Ghosts are not so frequently visible as they used to be, are they to be abolished altogether from society? A most unheardof atrocity!-a banishment less excusable than the ostracism of the Athenians. Sending a whole generation to Coventry, merely because they do not choose to appear before infidels, in a land of liberty like this, is a barbarity unequalled in the Celestial Empire, from the days of the Emperor of the Three Blue Umbrellas, which is eleven thousand years before the creation, to the present time.

Few are so fortunate in these degenerate times as to be visited by these substantial individuals. The age of Ghosts, like that of chivalry is gone. The world is too wicked to receive them; but I have strong hopes that after the Reform Bill has been passed, they will return to us again in all their original brightness.' No one now, by any chance in the world, enjoys an opportunity of beholding one, except at some minor theatre, where I once saw three in one night, radiant in white muslin and spangled shoes, and hold

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ing something red; but whether it was a carving knife, rubbed over with rosepink, or some identical bloody dagger,' I cannot possibly say. Those which have been seen of late years are poor things to such as appeared in my younger days.

In my infancy I was well grounded in Ghost lore; my nurse possessed an inexhaustible stock of stories of the kind, and all well authenticated. I profitted by her knowledge, and grew up with the strongest belief in their reality, which the doubts or the sneers of others have not since weakened in the least degree. I saw them even then. So soon as it became the 'witching hour of night,' terror generally kept me awake; I beheld unnatural faces peeping through the darkness, and then not daring to cry out or scarcely to move, I huddled myself under the bedclothes, trembling from head to foot, till I fell asleep. When I could read I devoured legends of terror, and ghost-stories of all descriptions, without entertaining so much as a doubt of their truth: but I was particularly careful of not being left alone in the dark. As I grew older, I read Mrs. Radcliffe and Monk Lewis, Maturin and the German Romances, Horace Walpole and Clara Reeve-in fact, all authors who dealt in the supernatural; and they were to me as food, and drink, and raiment. I read them all day, and frequently all night; stealing bits of candle from the kitchen, to enable me to continue my occupation after the rest of the family had retired to bed. I recollect one melancholy evening, about midnight, I was deeply engaged in perusing a most delightfully horrible romance, when just as I got to a passage where, in some subterranean chamber noises are heard, denoting the approach of an unearthly visitant, the candle wanted snuffing; I thought it burned blue; I was deeply excited by the scene I had been reading, and was just approaching a most serious denouement. I snuffed the candle, when, O, horrible catastrophe! I was left in the dark. Here was a situation for a reader of romances-here a predicament for a believer in ghosts! I looked fearfully round, and was going to move, when I heard a noise-I am ignorant of what further occurred, except that the next morning I found myself in bed with my_clothes on. About that time ghosts frequently appeared to me. I remember once, when on a visit at a very ancient mansion in a dreary part of the country, I had discovered in the library a number of old romances, which I read with my accustomed avidity. Going, one very gloomy night, to change one volume for the succeeding one, I had to pass through a long gallery; I proceeded with rather a suspicious sort of confidence, as my mind was full of the horrible story I had been perusing. I heard strange noises as I proceeded, mingled with howling and shrieking, not at all pleasing. I began to feel a little frightened, but endeavoured to keep up my courage by whistling. I put my mouth in the usual position, but not a sound could I produce. The candle which I carried threw an uncertain light on all around, making the most horrible figures out of -what became, on a close acquaintance, a piece of rusty armour on

an old picture. I heard foot-steps following, and when my head was on the door of the library, I took a hasty glance over my left shoulder, and beheld a black figure of most extraordinary length within a short distance. I dropt the candle and the book, and took to my heels with the most marvellous rapidity. I told the servants what I had beheld; they crowded round me with wondering eyes; ever afterwards devoutly believed that the eastern gallery was. haunted, and nothing could prevail upon them to enter it alone after dark. The old butler, a complete heretic on such matters, denounced my tale as a fiction, and actually had the impudence to affirm that I had allowed myself to be frightened by the moaning of the wind, the echo of my own footsteps, and my shadow on the wainscoat. Most preposterous! I never liked that fellow after; but he was soon obliged to change his opinion, for one day he was. missed after dinner, and was discovered during the evening, perfectly insensible in the wine cellar.

My ghost-seeing propensities got known, and I got quizzed; but I still continued in communication with the inhabitants of another world. One afternoon, shortly after dusk, I had been reading in the summer-house during the day, and as it was nearly dark I thought of going into the house. I was walking slowly along the garden, when I was horror-struck by observing a tall figure in white approaching me with long and rapid strides. I stood rooted to the ground-my hair stood up as perpendicular as Carolus Wilson, and my knees became on the most familiar footing with each other. The figure passed me-1 looked round, and it had disappeared. I hurried in as fast as my fears would let me, and in a wild and unconnected manner communicated the extraordinary occurrence to my wandering auditors. Just as I had concluded, who should come in laughing in a most outrageous manner, but my oldest brother Dick, and he, interrupting his discourse by many bursts of merriment, told them how capitally he had frightened me, by walking on a pair of stilts in his mother's dressing-gown. They all joined most vociferously in the laugh at my expense, but I did not believe him; and nothing shall make me suppose that it was not a real ghost.

I have a very satisfactory conscience. I can credit any thing affirmed by supernatural historians. I would as soon think of doubting their testimony, as the whole ship's company who swore they saw the old biscuit-baker carried on the devil's back up Mount Stromboli. Sailors are famous for swearing, and their oaths are always impressive; therefore, if report speaks true, Belzebub had a very good right to his booty. Besides, glrosts are the most an cient family under the sun. One, the Witch of Endor called up before Saul, and others of the same amiable race were introduced to Macbeth. Then there is a whole generation of them brought forward in Richard the Third, and another very respectable personage in Hamlet. Some ignorant persons have assured me that the

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latter are merely the ideal creations of the poet, but that is nonsense. What I see with my own eyes I'll believe

I grew up less fearful, but more superstitious. I was strongly assured of their existence, but their repeated appearance had made them familiar to me. I now felt extremely anxious to question them, and to know from themselves the object of their visits. The village church had the reputation of being haunted;-I bribed the sexton, summoned up all my courage, and with a phosphorus box and candle, determined to watch for the ghost, and to catechise it when it came. I walked along the aisles with a firm step, ascended the pulpit, as the place best fitted for receiving ghostly counsel; lighted my candle, and fixed it in one of the branches which served to light the clergyman. I tookout a book and began to read. All at once my candle went out. I thought it might arise from a sudden gust of wind, so I lit it without feeling alarmed; though there was not a breath stirring, in an instant after it was again extinguished.. Things began to take a serious turn; but my courage was good, and I relighted it. I had no sooner done so than out it went. I experienced a slight agitation-it was mysterious and unaccountable, and it did not lessen my fear when I heard shrieks issuing from different parts of the building. I began to repent my folly, and felt my courage, like that of Acres, oozing out of my fingers' ends; but I took a good draught from a bottle of brandy I had brought with me, and it returned. I again lighted my candle, with a determination of finding the cause of its total eclipse.' I kept my eyes fixed upon the flame for several minutes; it seemed to burn steadily and clearly, but I fancied it had a considerable tinge of blue. All at once I felt something cold, like a clammy hand fresh from the tomb, touch my cheek, and again I was in darkness. I involuntarily put out my arms, but grasped nothing but the thin air. Horrible situation! to be alone at midnight in á haunted church; my heart beat audibly; a sort of shivering came over me, and had I not laid hold of the pulpit cushion, I should most probably have fainted. The shrieks were continued, and my fear increased. I wished myself at home among my friends, and cursed my ridiculous folly for placing myself in such an awkward and disagreeable situation. I again had recourse to spiritual influence, and not without a good effect; it roused my fainting spirits, and I rallied myself to a fresh exertion. For the last time I applied a lighted match to my extraordinary candle. I looked into the distant darkness, but I could not penetrate its gloom. The faint light thrown on the grim and antique monuments of the church, gave them by no means a prepossessing appearance. I fancied once or twice that I saw them move, but I think I must have been deceived. I thought I observed something dark moving in the distance; I strained my eyes to discover the object, but it disappeared. Presently it was again visible, swimming about the air in a most supernatural manner. It came nearer approached me-and gracious Heaven! I saw-O horrible mockery a bat!!

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