and agonized recollection in which he found himself, he rushed out and walked hastily up the glen, as if to shake off the load which hung upon his mind. The sun was setting when he reached the entrance of Corri-nan-shian, and the recollection of what he had seen when he last visited that haunted ravine burst on his mind. He was in a humour, however, rather to seek out danger than to avoid it.
'I will face this mystic being,' he said; 'she foretold the fate which has wrapped me in this dress; I will know whether she has aught else to tell me of a life which cannot but be miserable.'
He failed not to see the White Spirit seated by her accustomed haunt, and singing in her usual low and sweet tone. While she sang, she seemed to look with sorrow on her golden zone, which was now diminished to the fineness of a silken thread.
Thou shalt seldom now be seen.
With all thy glittering garlands bending,
As to greet my slow descending,
Startling the bewilder'd hind,
Who sees thee wave without a wind.
Farewell, Fountain! now not long
Shalt thou murmur to my song,
While thy crystal bubbles glancing,
Keep the time in mystic dancing.
Rise and swell, are burst and lost,
Like mortal schemes by fortune crost.
The knot of fate at length is tied,
The churl is lord, the maid is bride.
Vainly did my magic sleight
Send the lover from her sight;
Wither bush, and perish well,
Fall'n is lofty Avenel!'
The Vision seemed to weep while she sang; and the words impressed on Edward a melancholy belief that the alliance of Mary with his brother might be fatal to them both.
Here terminates the First Part of the Benedictine's Manuscript. I have in vain endeavoured to ascertain the precise period of the story, as the dates cannot be exactly
