Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 025.djvu/209

 Sketches of Italy and the Itul'tnns.

189

XIX. THE VATICAN APOI.I.O.

ON a bright and warm Sunday in February, I was sitting near the Apollo, whose saloon was from time to time visited by groups of chatter- ing Romans, and silent Englishmen. The Romans wander through the Museum as through a pleasure- gar- den, and rarely pause to contemplate a statue. The lower classes are at- tracted only by the hall of animals and monsters ; and the peasantry, when they return from Rome, relate wondrous tales of the marble hares and crabs they have seen in the Mu- seum. Two shepherds from the

Abruzzi, who had just enjoyed this delectable treat, opened a door in my vicinity, and suddenly encountered the outstretched arm and menacing aspect of the God of Song. Starting back in dismay, they took off their hats, and gazed in silent wonder at the towering deity from a respectful distance in the adjoining saloon. Af- ter standing thus for some time, one of them pulled the other by the sleeve, and said, " Andiamo, andiamo, ci- siamo smarriti. Questa e per il Papa e pe' Cardinali."

THE MURDER HOLE.

AN ANCIENT LEGEND.

Ah, frantic Fear ! 1 see, I see thee near ; I know thy hurried step, thy hazard rye ! Like thec I start, like thee disorder'd fly ! COLLINS.

IN a remote district of country be- longing to Lord Cassillis, between Ayrshire and Galloway, about three hundred years ago, a moor of appa- rently boundless extent stretched se- veral miles along the road, and wea- ried the eye of the traveller by the sameness and desolation of its appear- ance ; not a tree varied the prospect not a shrub enlivened the eye by its freshness nor a native flower bloomed to adorn this ungenial soil. One " lonesome desert" reached the horizon on every side, with nothing to mark that any mortal had ever vi- sited the scene before, except a few rude huts that were scattered near its centre ; and a road, or rather path- way, for those whom business or necessity obliged to pass in that direc- tion. At length, deserted as this wild region had always been, it became still more gloomy. Strange rumours arose, that the path of unwary tra- vellers had been beset on this " blast- ed heath," and that treachery and murder had intercepted the solitary stranger as he traversed its dreary ex- tent. When several persons, who were known to have passed that way, mysteriously disappeared, the inquiries of their relatives led to a strict and anxious investigation ; but though the officers of justice were sent to scour the

country, and examine the inhabitants, not a trace could be obtained of the persons in question, nor of any place of concealment which could be a re- fuge for the lawless or desperate to horde in. Yet, as inquiry became stricter, and the disappearance of in- dividuals more frequent, the simple inhabitants of the neighbouring ham- let were agitated by the most fearful apprehensions. Some declared that the death-like stillness of the night was often interrupted by sudden and pre- ternatural cries of more than mortal anguish, which seemed to arise in the distance ; and a shepherd one even- ing, who had lost his way on the moor, declared he had approached three mysterious figures, who seemed struggling against each other with su- pernatural energy, till at length one of them, with a frightful scream, sud- denly sunk into the earth.

Gradually the inhabitants deserted their dwellings on the heath, and set- tled in distant quarters, till at length but one of the cottages continued to be inhabited by an old woman and her two sons, who loudly lamented that poverty chained them to this solitary and mysterious spot. Travellers who frequented this road now generally did so in groups to protect each other ; and if night overtook them, they usual-