Page:The Necromancer, or, The Tale of the Black Forest Vol. 2.djvu/139

 resolution to shut himself up within a cloister's hallowed walls; but, having prophaned his holy order, by entering into it with a worldly heart, polluted by the loose desires of sensual love, he had been condemned to purgatory until a certain condition should be fulfilled."

"All these queries and answers, previously set down in writing and got by heart, produced the desired effect on the blinded mind of the credulous father, who, at length, stammered out the question, "By what means he could be relieved from his torments?" The ghost replied, that he was doomed to suffer the agonies of purgatory, and to haunt his former abode in the midnight hour, until an unhappy couple, separated by a parent's cruel tyranny, should be united in holy wedlock."

"Having related his fictitious tale he disappeared behind the partition of paper, under the cover of a thick smoke, leaving my landlord in a state of mind, which seconded our design to the utmost of our wishes."