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Abb. Ha! who may this be? hush! (Knocking heard again.)

2d Monk. It is the knock of one in furious haste. Hush, hush! What footsteps come? Ha! brother Bernard.

1st Monk. See, what a look he wears of stiffen'd fear! Where hast thou been, good brother?

Bern. I've seen a horrid sight!

(All gathering round him and speaking at once.) What hast thou seen? Bern. As on I hasten'd, bearing thus my light, Across the path, not fifty paces off, I saw a murther'd corse stretch'd on its back, Smear'd with new blood, as tho' but freshly slain.

Abb. A man or woman?

Bern.A man, a man!

Abb. Did'st thou examine if within its breast There yet is lodg'd some small remains of life? Was it quite dead?

Bern. Nought in the grave is deader. I look'd but once, yet life did never lodge In any form so laid.— A chilly horrour seiz'd me, and I fled.

1st Monk. And does the face seem all unknown to thee?

Bern. The face! I would not on the face have look'd For e'en a kingdom's wealth, for all the world.