Page:Prose works, from the original editions (Volume 1).djvu/149

 were folded, and his gaze rested fixedly upon the fearless countenance of the murderer. Wolfstein shuddered when he beheld the brow of the mysterious Ginotti contracted, his marked features wrapped in inexplicable mystery.

All were now heated by wine, save the wily villain who destined murder; and the awe-inspiring Ginotti, whose reservedness and mystery, not even the hilarity of the present hour could dispel.

Conversation appearing to flag, Cavigni exclaimed, "Steindolph, you know some old German stories; cannot you tell one, to deceive the lagging hours?"

Steindolph was famed for his knowledge of metrical spectre tales, and the gang were frequently wont to hang delighted on the ghostly wonders which he related.

"Excuse, then, the mode of my telling it," said Steindolph, "and I will with pleasure. I learnt it whilst in Germany; my old grandmother taught it me, and I can repeat it as a ballad."—"Do, do," re-echoed from every part of the cavern.—Steindolph thus began:

I.

The death-bell beats! The mountain repeats The echoing sound of the knell; And the dark monk now Wraps the cowl round his brow, As he sits in his lonely cell.

II.

And the cold hand of death Chills his shuddering breath, As he lists to the fearful lay Which the ghosts of the sky, As they sweep wildly by, Sing to departed day. And they sing of the hour When the stern fates had power To resolve Rosa's form to its clay.