Page:The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Volume 1).djvu/222

174 'Twas then that I started!—the wild storm was howling,
 * Nought was seen, save the lightning, which danc'd in the sky;

Above me, the crash of the thunder was rolling.
 * And low, chilling murmurs, the blast wafted by.

My heart sank within me—unheeded the war
 * Of the battling clouds, on the mountain-tops, broke;—

Unheeded the thunder-peal crash'd in mine ear— This heart, hard as iron, is stranger to fear;
 * But conscience in low, noiseless whispering spoke.

'Twas then that her form on the whirlwind upholding,
 * The ghost of the murder'd Victoria strode;

In her right hand, a shadowy shroud she was holding,
 * She swiftly advanc'd to my lonesome abode.

I wildly then call'd on the tempest to bear me"

Overcome by the wild retrospection of ideal horror, which these swiftly-written lines excited in his soul, Wolfstein tore the paper, on which he had written them, to pieces, and scattered them about him. He arose from his recumbent posture, and again advanced through the forest. Not far had he proceeded, ere a mingled murmur broke upon the silence of night—it was the sound of human voices. An event so unusual in these solitudes, excited Wolfstein's momentary surprise; he started, and looking around him, essayed to discover whence those sounds proceeded.—What was the astonishment of Wolfstein, when he found that a detached party, who had been sent in pursuit of the Count, had actually overtaken him, and, at this instant, were dragging from the carriage the almost lifeless form of a female, whose light symmetrical figure, as it leant on the muscular frame of the robber who supported it, afforded a most striking contrast.—They had, before his arrival, plundered the Count of all his riches, and, enraged at the spirited defence which he had made, had inhumanly murdered him, and cast his