Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 1).djvu/171

 the good old man, tears rolled down his aged cheeks: "May Heaven preserve you, my dearest master, when there is only a choice of evils, we must endeavour to bear with that which appears the lightest; I therefore trust you to Providence rather than to the wicked and malignant. Take care of yourself, and depend upon my love and fidelity." His increasing emotions precluded farther words on either side. Ferdinand wrung his hand affectionately, and unable to repress his own tears, they, as if by mutual consent, turned and walked hastily from each other, the one to the Castle, the other pursued his way through the forest.

He walked leisurely on for some hours without feeling fatigue, for his mind was wholly occupied with revolving on all the extraordinary occurrences that had happened since the death of the late Count, and although he had never given credit to the improbable stories of ghosts, or believed in the old legends handed down to posterity by the slaves of fear and monkish superstition; yet