Peter. That can be easily remedied. If my society be not enough, we can invite company,-people of all kindsthough you will soon tire of them. But time will not hang heavy on your hands. If you love novelties or strange curiosities, you will find plenty at my castle, which will employ you long enough. In my travels and in my campaigns, I have picked up many things which amuse even me in an idle hour.

Agnes. May I take my sister Anne with me?

Agnes. The country hereabout is very wild. That mill, yonder in the valley, sounds fearfully in this solitude. Ah! see, yonder are my brothers riding up the mountain side.

Peter. My eyes do not reach so far. Agnes. As I rode down I did not think the spot was so near where we were to part.

Peter. Drive these things out of your thoughts.

Agnes. Before I had ever travelled, there was nothing I longed for so anxiously as a long journey; I thought of nothing but beautiful, incredibly beautiful, countries, castles and towers with wondrous battlements, their gilded roofs sparkling in the morning sun; steep rocks, and wide prospects from their tops; always new faces; leafy forests, and lonely winding footpaths, through green labyrinths echoing to the nightingale's song: and now, every thing is so different, I grow more and more fearful the farther I wander from my home.

Peter. We shall meet with some remarkable scenes still.

Agnes. Look at those waste dreary fields yonder, those bleak sandy hills, over which the dark rain-clouds are gathering.

Peter. My castle has a more pleasant

site.

Agnes. Ah! it begins to rain; the sky grows darker and darker.

Peter. We must to horse; we shall be too late. Where is your sister? Call her, and cease whining. Come, our horses are already fed. [Exeunt."

The fourth act passes at the castle of Berner. Agnes has begun to get accustomed to his revolting aspect and gloomy temper; nay, to feel for him something akin to love. She has heard a thousand stories from the old housekeeper, Mechthilde, of the treasures and curiosities which the castle contains; her curiosity is roused to the highest pitch, but, controlled by the awe in which she holds her husband, she has not ventured to ask the fulfilment of his promise. The opportunity, however, of gratifying her curiosity unexpectedly occurs. Peter announces his intention of leaving the castle for a few days, to meet another of those feudal inroads, to which his riches and his remorseless temper continually exposed him.

"Peter. During my absence, Agnes, I

shall place all my keys in your keeping. Here. In a few days I intend to return. You may amuse yourself during the interval with looking at those rooms which I have not yet shewn to you. Six chambers are open to you. But the seventh, which this golden key opens, remains closed-for you. Have you understood me?

dawn; joyfully does the youth commence, what advancing years soon sternly forbid ; and often apparent good luck is but the prelude to misfortune.

Agnes. You make my heart beat, sister.
Anne. I feel melancholy to-day.

Agnes. See, what procession is this passing by?

Anne. A peasant's wedding.
Agnes. How happy the people seem!

(Trumpets from without.)

Anne. How gaily they ride forth? Heaven grant they may return as gaily!

Agnes. Why should they not? Anne. The end is not always so happy as the beginning; new clothes wear out; the green tree becomes sere; the evening often does not fulfil the promise of the

Agnes. It sounds so cheerfully. Anne. Not to me.

Agnes. But you are never cheerful. Anne. Ah! in those days when he used to play his lute under my window, and a light and distant echo repeated its tones! How the moon used to shine down on all, and I saw nothing but him, heard nothing but his song, which floated through the lonely night like a white swan upon some gloomy water.-O sister, never, never, can I forget him.

Agnes. Was he so dear to you ?

Anne. More than words-more than the sweetest music can express. His presence used to fall upon my heart as when the ruddy morning rises on the earth after a stormy night, and sheds its peaceful dew on the tempest-shaken trees and flowers-and the clouds take to flight before the golden beams of the sun. Ah! sister, forgive me these tears.

Agnes. Come-endeavour to amuse yourself; here are the keys. Be cheerful. Anne. Kind sister!

Scene III.

Hall in Berner's Castle. AGNES, ANNE, MECHTHILDE (the housekeeper), Servants carrying away sup

per.

"

Agnes. My head is perfectly giddy with all the wonders I have seen. I feel as if the whole had been a dream.

Anne. The senses grow weary at last, and variety itself becomes monotony.

Anne. Mechthilde is getting sleepy. Mech. Yes, children; I commonly go to bed at this hour, and then sleep comes to me without an effort.

Agnes. Then go to bed. I will sit up a little. The moon shines so clear. I will walk a while and take the air on the balcony.

Mech. Take care of the bats, they are flying about at this season.

Agnes. We never once thought of the Seventh Room, and yet the knight was so anxious about it; I daresay, after all, there is nothing in the least remarkable

about it.

Mech. Likely not.

Agnes. How! were you never in it? Mech. Never.

Agnes. That is strange: Take the keys with you, mother; we shall not need them longer.

Mech. Willingly.

Agnes. Men have their secrets too, as

well as women.

Mech. Still more so; only they won't confess it.

Agnes. Give me back the keys.
Mech. Here they are.

Agnes. The Knight might be displeased as he gave them into my own hands. Anne. Now, good-night, sister, I go to

bed.

Mech. I wish you a happy repose. [Exeunt,

something strange in it. I'll think on't no more. (She goes to the window.) If I could only imagine why it was forbidden to me? The key is of gold-the others are not. It must be the costliest chamber of all, and he wishes to surprise me with it some time or other. Nonsense! Why should I not see it now? There is nothing I detest more than these attempts at surprising one into pleasure. You can enjoy nothing, just because you see beforehand all the preparations that have been made for it! Agnes! Agnes! be on your guard-what torments you at present is neither more nor less than female curiosity! And why should I not be a woman as well as others? I should like to see the man in my situation who would not be curious. My sister would be as much so as I, if her head were not incessantly filled with love; but if she were to take it into her head that her Reinhold was concealed in that chamber, she would ask me for the key upon her knees. Ah, people are only accommodating to their own weaknesses. And, after all, it may be no weakness in me; something may be concealed in that chamber on which my happiness depends. I almost begin to think so. I will look in ;-how should he ever know that I have been there? There must be some reason for this strong prohibition, and he should have told me what it was, then my compliance would have been an intelligent obedience instead of blind subjection-a procedure against which my whole heart revolts. Am I not a fool to hesitate so long? The thing is a trifle not worth so much trouble. (She takes the key.) Why do I not go on? If he should return while I am in the chamber? It is night, and ere he could ascend the stairs, I should easily be in my own room-besides, he will not be back for some days yet. He should have kept his keys if he did not intend that I should enter. (Goes out with a light.)

Agnes. What a lovely night! How people talk of the curiosity of women, and yet here it is in my power to enter the forbidden chamber when I please. I made the keys be returned to me, partly, that my husband might not think I could not trust my own strength of mind. And yet, if I should yield to the temptation, no human being would ever know that I had been in the room; no farther evil would come of it. My sister, the preacher of morality, is asleep. I wish to heaven I had left the keys with that hideous old woman! The whole, I see, is arranged for the purpose of trying me -I shall not allow myself to be so easily ensnared. (Walks up and down.) The old woman, herself, has never been in the room. The Knight must have

Claus. This is the very witching time of night.

Coun. The very time for any spirit who is inclined to walk. I shall go to bed again. Claus. I thought you had slept your sleep out.

Coun. I mean on account of the ghosts. It has a bad appearance to be found by them awake at this hour.

Claus. Go then.

(A door is shut to with force.)
Coun. Do you hear? (Runs off.)
AGNES enters, pale and trembling.
Claus. What is the matter, gracious

lady?

Agnes. Nothing, nothing-get me a glass of cold water. (Claus goes out. She sinks into a chair.) Am I alonewhere am I?-God in Heaven! How my heart beats-even to my throat.

(CLAUS comes with water. J Agnes. Put it there; I cannot drink yet. Now go, go, there is nothing the matter with me. Go-Claus goes out.) I know not how I came hither. (She drinks.) I am better now. It is deep night the rest are asleep. (She looks at the key.) Here is a dark-red, a bloody spot; was it there before? Ah, no! I let it fall. All about me still smells of blood. (She rubs the key with her handkerchief.) It will not out. 'Tis strange! O curiosity,-accursed, shameful curiosity-what sin is worse than thine! And my husband, how looks he now? my husband-can I say? No, a frightful, a horrible monster; savage and hideous as a scaly dragon, from which the eye turns with loathing. Ah! I must to bed-my poor head is whirling. But the key-I must not leave it here-O God be praised that the spot is gone! Oh! no, no, wretched child, here it is again on the other side. I know not what to do -where to turn-I will try if I can sleep. Oh, yes-sleep-sleep, dream of other things, forget all; that will be sweet, that will be delightful! (Goes out.)

streaked with blood, and garnished with sepulchres "in the midst of which ghastly and supernatural forms are seen, some in motion, some fixed;" with "a large skeleton in the centre, seated on a tomb, with a dart in his characters of blood The Punishhand, and over his head written in ment of Curiosity."" Of all this raw-head and bloody-bones pageant, we see nothing. But was ever the natural progress of curiosity-the sophisms to which it has recourse, the vacillations between fear and de

sire, the sense of duty and the longings of the sex after things denied, more graphically depicted? Does not our own curiosity seem to rise as we read? Do we not follow the retreating steps of Agnes with the deepest interest, with something of our ancient childish terror? And from her broken sentences, her dark hints-her terror, her confusion of mind, do we not picture to ourselves something a little more ghastly than the above phantasmagoria of Colman ?

The commencement of the Fifth Act carries us back to the Castle of Friedheim.

Scene I.

A Hall at Friedheim.

Simon. (With a torch). He must rise whether he will or not, for now I know it for a certainty. He can escape me no longer. (He knocks at a door)—Anthony! Anthony !-awake!

Anth. (Within.) Who is there? Simon, 'Tis I-Simon-your brother; get up quickly, I must speak to you of something urgent.

Anth. Must your madness destroy to me the repose of midnight?

Simon. Speak not so, brother. You will repent of it. I believe he has fallen asleep again. What, ho!-get upawake.

Anth. Will you never give over raving. Simon. Abuse me as you will-only rise. Rise-I will give you no rest, brother.

Anth. (Comes out in his night-dress.) Tell me then what you want?

sleep the whole night. Simon. Brother, I have been unable to

Anth. I slept so much the sounder. Simon. You see my prophecies, my forebodings, or what you will, were more distinct than wont.

Anth. What! have I risen only to lis ten to your folly?

Simon. I foretold to you that our brother had carried off the daughter of Hans von Marloff, and so it was. The old man was here to complain of it last night.

Anth. Any one might have prophesied that.

Simon. And this night I have seen our sister weeping incessantly, and I have been fighting the whole night through with Bluebeard.

Anth. Well-what then?

Simon. Her life is in danger, I tell you, brother. That Bluebeard is a villain-in what I know not-but enough that he is

So.

Anth. Good-night, brother. Your mode of reasoning is too much for me.

Simon. Is it not enough, brother, that you have thrown away our sister on a ruffian like this? Will you now leave her in danger of her life? Anthony, let your fraternal heart for once be melted. Perhaps at this moment she casts a longing look for us from the window of her prison. She wishes that her deep sobs could reach to us to lure us to her assistance.-She wails for her brothers. And we may arrive only to find her dead, and stretched upon her bier.

Anth. But what has awakened these thoughts?

Simon. My whole fancy is filled with these gloomy imaginations. I can think and dream of nothing cheerful. All my visions are of death. I cannot rest till my sword has stretched this villain at my feet. Come, come, methinks somehow, at this distance, I hear my sister's cry. How soon may our horses be saddled-how soon may we be there?

Anth. The maddest thing about insanity is that it infects the sane.

Simon. You will see I am not mistaken. Anth. I scarcely know how it is, I yield to you.

Simon. Dress yourself. I will saddle the horses;-this torch will light our way till the sun rises.

Scene II.

BERNER'S Castle.

She places

AGNES enters with a lamp. it upon a table, and sits down beside it, then takes the key from her pocket.

would raise his suspicions to a height. Perhaps he may not ask me for the key. Perhaps he may not observe it. When I give it to him I will hand it to him with the clear side uppermost. Why should he think of looking at it so minutely? Perhaps the spot may disappear before he return. Ah! if Heaven could only be so gracious to me!

Anne. (Enters.) How are you, dear sister?

Agnes. That spot will not out. I have rubbed it and washed it all day, but there it remains. When I gaze at it thus fixedly, I sometimes think it is disappearing; but when I turn my eyes to other objects and then look at it again, it is still there, and, as it were, darker than ever. I might tell him I had lost it, but that