Like a phantom to fright—like a pirate o’erthrow,
When the moon’s pallid light on the waters shall glow,
When slumber the sense of his victim shall lull:—
Foul speed ye! false Kelpie—thou Pirate of Mull!
’Tis midnight:—his shallop beneath the rock rides,
Where the moon’s silver rays stream along the fair tides;
In silence, and lonely, he mounts the tall cliff,
Till the shout of success calls his mates from the skiff;
His brave heart and strong hand well the precipice dare,—
His feet gain the summit! Ha! what sees he there?
A form like his own, but more terrible still—
’Tis the Kelpie himself!—Rabbie Droukit grew chill:
He stagger’d, and headlong fell down the high steep!
The sprite shrieked aloud as he sank in the deep:
And the rock that he fell from—his bark—broken hull,
Were all that remained of the Pirate of Mull!
THE ELOPEMENT.
FROM THE GERMAN OF MUSÆUS.
On the banks of a small river, called Lokwitz, in Nogtland, is situated the Castle of Lauenstein, which was formerly a nunnery, and which, having been vacated in the thirty years’ war, passed again as an abandoned property into the hands of the laity, and was let by the Count of Orlamunda, (the former lord of the manor,) to one of his vassals, who built a castle on the ruins of the nunnery, to which he gave his own name of Lauenstein. For some time he was the happiest of mortals; but the event soon proved to him, that church property seldom prospers in the hands of laymen! and that sacrilege, however clandestinely committed, generally meets with severe retribution!
Scarcely had the family taken possession of the Castle, when processions of nuns, with flaming images, were seen passing to and fro; noises of the most terrific kinds were heard after night-fall; and at length the terror and dismay, which these disturbances produced on the minds of the domestics, was so great, that they refused to obey the commands of their master, excepting in pairs, lest they should encounter something still more horrible. Nor was the Count himself proof against the intrusion of this host of spirits; when he was inclined to enjoy society, his revelry was checked by the laugh which he alone heard re-echoing his own; and when he wished to devote himself to solitude, he was disturbed by the mournful wailings of his tormentors.
Things could not long continue in this state, the Count Lauenstein sought to obtain, by means of exorcisms, a cessation of these annoyances. Many were the powerful enchantments which were resorted to, to compel these turbulent spirits to return to their resting places; but it was reserved for a travelling magician to reduce them to obedience; and the wandering seer Gessner succeeded in finally laying ghosts which had proved too powerful for the holy water and relics of any former exorcist.
Tranquillity was at length restored throughout the Castle; the nuns again slept the sleep of death; and for the period of seven years, nothing occurred to disturb the repose of its inhabitants. But at the end
