Page:Prose works, from the original editions (Volume 1).djvu/152

 And the fierce storm did swell More terrific and fell, And louder peal'd the thunder.

XV.

And laugh'd, in joy, the fiendish throng, Mix'd with ghosts of the mouldering dead: And their grisly wings, as they floated along, Whistled in murmurs dread.

XVI.

And her skeleton form the dead Nun rear'd, Which dripp'd with the chill dew of hell. In her half-eaten eyeballs two pale flames appear'd, And triumphant their gleam on the dark Monk glared, As he stood within the cell.

XVII.

And her lank hand lay on his shuddering brain; But each power was nerved by fear.— "I never, henceforth, may breathe again; Death now ends mine anguish'd pain.— The grave yawns,—we meet there."

XVIII.

And her skeleton lungs did utter the sound, So deadly, so lone, and so fell, That in long vibrations shudder'd the ground; And as the stern notes floated around, A deep groan was answer'd from hell.

As Steindolph concluded, an universal shout of applause echoed through the cavern. Every one had been so attentive to the recitation of the robber, that no opportunity of perpetrating his resolve had appeared to Wolfstein. Now all again was revelry and riot, and the wily designer eagerly watched for the instant when universal confusion might favour his attempt to drop, unobserved, the powder into the goblet of the chief. With a gaze of insidious and malignant revenge was the eye of Wolfstein fixed upon the chieftain's countenance. Cavigni perceived it not; for he was heated