own residence. Before setting out, however, I did not neglect to make all possible inquiries into the real history of the spectre bride. It must be confessed, however, that my evidence, depending on mere oral tradition, is not very full nor satisfactory. She is said to have been a young lady of rank in the fifteenth century, and to have been a native of the district in which stands the castle of my friend Count Globoda. It is alleged that she had been guilty of such cruel infidelity towards a young man, with whom she was once in love, that he died of grief. Afterwards, on her marriage night, his ghost appeared, claimed the lady, and her immediate death ensued; but the story runs on, not very consistently, that, since then, she has never rested in the grave, but has wandered through this world, assuming many different forms and aspects, in order to seduce lovers into a breach of their solemn vows and engagements. As it is impossible for her to wear the features of any living being, she invests herself in the frames of the dead, nor can she ever be released from her task, which forms the punishment of her own crimes, till she has found some youth whose fidelity resists all such endeavours.
