back." Having fastened the chapel door, Vipond led Eva to the apartment she usually sat in, for he saw she was still under the dominion of great terror. Before he left her, he said, "It is requisite, lady, after the fright you have undergone, that you should take some wine to recruit your spirits. I will seek Rachel, and send her to you. But remember your promise,— your solemn promise."

"Dear lady," said Rachel, when she entered the apartment in which Eva was sitting, "I did not expect to see you here;-I have been waiting in the garden for you;-I cannot think how I missed you."

"I left the east wing almost as soon as I entered it," replied Eva.

"Then that must have been while I just stepped into the kitchen," said Rachel; "I thought you would be frightened."

"Indeed I was, and glad to get back as fast as I could," said Eva; "for the future I will be advised, and no more enter such lonely places."

Eva passed a sleepless night, so much were her thoughts occupied by the appearance of what she had beheld in the east wing. "I certainly have been too positive," thought Eva, "in the disbelief of spirits being permitted to revisit the earth. It was wrong in one so young as I am, to place such confidence in my own opinion, when the appearance of spirits, and even supernatural agency is so generally believed." But that im

mortality should dwell in the abode of mortality, greatly surprised and shocked Eva. Yet, however dreadful the idea, so it was, beyond a doubt. "What my own eyes have witnessed," she mentally said, "that I cannot disbelieve."

At the convent in which Eva was educated, there was a lady of the name of Delancy, a woman of much sense and learning. This lady totally disbelieved in the appearance of super-natural beings. She was very fond of Eva, with whom she took much pains. Eva loved Madam Delancy, and paid more attention to the precepts of that lady than to those of any other person. The instruction she had derived from Madam Delancy, had become with Eva, a fixed principle. The more she thought on the subject, the more she was perplexed. "Are we not told," thought Eva," that there are mysteries that even the very angels are not permitted to pry into; how then shall man define the ways of Heaven ?" In the morning, she tried to banish from her mind the thoughts of the preceding day; but it was impossible. She walked in the gardens, but her favourite flowers had lost their attraction; her mind was absorbed on one particular object, from which she wished, but in vain, to withdraw it. Having met Rachel in the garden, she for some time talked with her on indifferent subjects, and found her mind somewhat relieved by so doing. She then took her drawing materials, and walked on the banks of the river, intending, if she could sufficiently engage her attention, to draw a landscape from the surrounding scenery, to present her patron with, who yet, had not seen any specimen of her abilities in that art. After a short time spent in walking, she seated herself,

and began sketching out a landscape. She had not been long so employed, when a footstep coming suddenly behind her, caused her the greatest alarm,— for the least thing now startled and affected her; a dizziness came over her; and fainting, Eva must have fallen into the stream, had not the person who caused her alarm, caught hold of a part of her dress, and lifted her in his arms from her perilous situation. Still unconscious, she reclined on his shoulder, her face pale as the sculptured marble. No house appeared near, in which the youth who had saved her could rest her unconscious form, and he was about to place her again on the bank, and watch her recovery, when, recollecting he had seen a cottage at a short distance, he hastened towards it, hoping there to meet with some good woman, who would use such remedies as would soon recall the senses of his lovely burthen. When he reached the cottage, he passed into it without impediment, for the railings before the rude overgrown garden were thrown down, and the door of the cottage was wide open. No person was to be seen, yet some person or persons resided there beyond a doubt, for there was a bed in one corner of the room, some scraps of victuals in a plate, and a cat lay sleeping in the chimney corner. Eva, soon after entering the cottage, recovered, and was much surprised at being in a strange place, and with a young man who was to her an entire stranger. He saw by her enquiring glance, that she wished for an explanation of her being brought there, for she had not at that moment recovered her recollection. The young man gracefully apologized for having caused her alarm, by coming so suddenly behind her, and said, that terrified at seeing her faint, he had conveyed her to that cottage, hoping

to find a female whose attentions would accelerate her recovery. Eva bowed her thanks, and was about to leave the cottage, when a heavy shower stayed her departure.

"I wonder to whom this cottage belongs?" said Eva's companion; "the garden is gone to ruin for want of culture; nor does the owner take any pains with the cottage; I never saw a place that was inhabited so neglected."

"But there has been some pains bestowed here,” said Eva, pointing to the walls of the cottage, on which a number of figures were drawn with coloured chalk. One drawing represented a young cottage girl;—another, a lady, elegantly dressed, stepping into her carriage; another was of a female, pale and emaciated, who appeared dying on the earth. Whilst surveying these rude drawings, they heard a voice sing the following wild strain :—

Hear the rattling hail come down,—
See the vivid lightning play;

Hark! how groans the wind-swung oak,
All its branches torn away.

Hear the mighty thunder roll,-
Let it split the world in twain;
Make the foaming billows roll,
Dash the ships along the main.

The poor traveller on the heath,

By the bolt is stricken down;

His soul free from mortal coil,

His stiffened corpse upon the ground.