Page:Hoffmann's Strange Stories - Hoffman - 1855.djvu/169

 ! I drove to the village where the steward of the domain lived, I asked to see him.

"Sir," said a clerk in royal livery to me, taking out his pipe, "there is no longer here any steward of the domain of R—sitten. It is a domain sequestered to the crown by the death of the last baron without heirs, deceased sixteen years ago."

I went up to the manor; it was in ruins. They had employed the best materials in the construction of a light-house on the rock. A peasant whom I met in the wood of fir trees told me, with a frightened look, that at the return of the full moon, was often seen white shadows pursuing each other among the ruins uttering mournful cries.

Sweet soul of my Seraphine, thou shalt not go into those desolate places! God has recalled thee to Himself, to sing holy hymns among the angels!