Page:Foreign Tales and Traditions (Volume 2).djvu/389

 He hastened forward with long strides, the wind again drove the dark clouds across the moon, and William plunged into the thickest gloom of the forest.

At length he found himself at the crossway. The magic circle was drawn, and the skulls and bones placed around. The moon buried herself deeper in the clouds, and no light was shed upon the scene but that which the flickering blaze of a few faggots threw, and which waxed and waned by fits as the wind rose and fell. The distant clock struck the third-quarter, and William placed the ladle upon the fire, threw in the lead, and along with it three bullets which had hit the mark,—for he had heard when a boy that such was the practice among those who cast Fatal or Free Bullets. A sound as of a heavy shower of rain was now heard, and a multitude of owls and bats, and other light-shunning creatures, came flitting around, and stationed themselves upon the enchanted circle, where by their low croaking they seemed to be holding converse with the bones and skulls in some unknown language. Their numbers rapidly increased, and indistinct misty-forms, some with human, others with brute countenances, seemed to mingle themselves with them. Their vapoury lineaments seemed to wave to and fro in the wind; but there stood one form near the circle, which remained immoveable, and fixed its melancholy gleaming eyes upon William. Sometimes it seemed to ring its hands in agony, and ever when it raised them in the attitude of entreaty, the fire burned more sullenly; but a great owl would then fan it up with its wings, and thus rekindle the sinking embers. William averted his looks from this spectre with unutterable dismay and anguish of soul, for its features bore a likeness to his own mother, and it seemed to mourn bitterly on his account.

At last the clock struck eleven, and the friendly spectre vanished with a heavy and stifled sigh. The owls and the night-ravens now came croaking and screaming around him, and the skulls and bones rattled under the heavy flap of