Page:The Literary Magnet 1825 vol 4.djvu/228

 But the ingenuity of love surmounts every obstacle. Emily was well acquainted with the periodical visits of the spirits; and that on All Saints Day, at the ensuing autumn, when seven years would have elapsed since their last appearance, they would in all probability be renewed. The terror of the inhabitants of the Castle she knew to be so great, that she had sanguine hopes of being enabled to make her escape as one of the ghosts. With this impression she proposed to have a nun’s dress in readiness, and under this disguise to leave her paternal roof.

A few days from the period that these arrangements were decided upon, the army received orders to commence operations against the enemy. Frederick mounted his horse, and committing himself to the protection of fortune, put himself at the head of his squadron. In the meantime Emily busied herself in devising means of gaining information of the success of the army, and had occasionally the happiness of hearing of the welfare of her lover from the travellers, whom the well known hospitality of the Count induced to visit the Castle. Once or twice she received communications direct from Frederick himself, who urged her, with all the warmth of the most devoted passion, to be punctual to her appointment on the night of All Saints Day.

At length the important hour arrived, and Emily, with the assistance of her maid, prepared herself for putting her scheme into execution. She retired to her chamber at an early hour, and speedily converted herself into one of the handsomest nuns, whose spirit had ever appeared.

In the meantime the moon, the common friend of lovers, threw her pale light over the Castle, where the bustle of the busy day had given way to awful stillness.

No one was awake but the housekeeper, who was summing up the domestic expenses of the family by the dim light of a single candle; the porter, who also served as watchman, and the dog Hector, who was deeply baying the rising moon.

When the midnight hour arrived, the undaunted Emily sallied forth provided with a large bunch of keys, which unlocked the doors, and glided gently down the stairs into the hall. Descrying here, unexpectedly, a light, she rattled the large keys with all her might, threw down a chimney board with violence, opened the Castle door, and entered the outer porch.

As soon as the three watchmen heard this rattling, they thought of the horrid figures that were wont to haunt the Castle on that night, and immediately took refuge in the lodge of the porter; and even the dog, as if smitten with the same fear, fled whining into his kennel. The way was now open for our heroine; she hastened forward to the wood, and fancied she already saw in the distance, the carriage which was to bear her away from the home of her childhood. She proceeded with hurried steps; but what was her amazement when she discovered that what had appeared to her an equipage, was merely the shade of a forest oak! For some moments she thought that she must have mistaken the place of rendezvous, and traversed, therefore, every part of the wood, but all her explorations terminated in the most grievous disappointment; her knight and his carriage were nowhere to be found.

Amazed at this circumstance, she was for some time incapable of