Sir Howard also, in witnessing such scenes, felt a gratification, but the effect they produced in him was utterly opposed to that experienced by Rosilia. "A night such as this," said he, "suits with the gloomy habit of my soul."
A sentiment so serious, from one usually influenced by volatility, was unexpected by Rosilia, being at the little time aware, that Sir Howard often yielded himself to the indulgence of a propensity of a nature singular and peculiar. Scenes such as struck the mind with horror, such as others shunned as obnoxious, were by him courted and sought after with avidity. Often, in the deep stillness of the midnight hour, he would descend into those cold vaults, the habitations of the dead, or wander over the graves of the departed.
"Oft seen in charnel vaults and sepulchres
Lingering and setting by a new made grave."
Not with the view of teaching himself the useful lesson respecting the vanity of all earthly things, but because something within him, analogous to, and corresponding with, the sepulchral gloom, attracted him thither.
Influenced by similar feelings, he ever bent his steps where he might behold that dreadful spectacle,—the criminal about to be launched into eternity. Death, whenever thus brought before him in idea, the more appalling in its terrors the more delightful to him, overwhelming him with sensations difficult
