tion was too much for my friend, who once more fell flat upon his face, overwhelmed with excess of perturbation; nor was my situation much more enviable, for, in a recoiled attitude of affright, I stood nearly in a state of complete insensibility, which instantaneously changed to phrensy, when I beheld the same figure leap at us from the monument, uttering an infernal laugh, unlike any human sound I had ever heard, that rung in reechoed peals through all the vaults that lie beneath the building.

Finding myself in the firm gripe of some powerful being, and driven almost to madness, I also grappled in my turn, when the figure stared me full in the face, and again burst out into a peal of horrid laughter, at the same time crying out, in a wild voice, "Why you won't hurt poor crazy Fanny, will you?"-In an instant my 'error gave way to surprise; and after the first effects of the rencontre were over, I recollected the poor creature in my grasp to be an insane girl, that I had frequently seen in the public streets, subsisting upon the charity of the citizens. I immediately quitted my hold, and begged she would inform me how she came there, and what

was her object in view, when she took up her abode in such a strange situation.

From her wild and incoherent sentences, I at length understood that she had been walking in the cathedral, during the afternoon of the preceding day; and having loitered in an obscure part of the building, had been locked in by the door-keeper through mistake; and that having seen my friend walking about among the monuments, had taken that situation in order to terrify him, which unfortunately had had that effect, to such a degree, that he will certainly feel the effects of it so long as he shall exist; and by this trifling cause, I had myself been strangely disordered.

The poor maniac seemed much pleased that she had met with companions, and appeared very willing to assist in the second conveyance of my entranced companion to the body of the church; and during my endeavours to recal his scattered faculties, this melancholy object danced round us, sometimes singing, and sometimes uttering the most piteous exclamations of woe.

After a considerable time elapsed, in endea yours to revive my friend, he uttered a deep

groan, that announced returning sensation, and soon after he opened his eyes; but in rolling them about, he suddenly perceived the maniac, and instantly relapsed into his former state of insensibility. I now thought proper to convey the poor girl to some distance, until I should have recovered my friend and explained the cause of his fright.-It was not without great difficulty I could make the poor maniac understand what I wished her to do, and it was not till after much intreaty, and many promises, I prevailed upon her to remain alone, in a pew of the choir, until I should call her; to which place I at length conducted her. As I led this unhappy girl through the gothic archway of that part of the edifice, I felt much impressed by the striking scene before me. The great bell was tolling the hour of midnight from the principal tower, in tones so deep, that they shook the very walls. The moon, which was nearly in her last quarter, shone with more than common lustre through the lofty painted windows, and cast their beautiful tints upon the marbled pavement before us. The statues and figures to the right and left, appeared through the moon light like so many corpes preserved from the encroachments of time,

by a state of enchantment, and reared their pale. fronts through the misty distance in solemn majesty. The miserable girl walking before me, through the beautiful perspective (whose fluted arches were now more visible by the clear light of the moon) appeared like the genius of the sacred spot. She was yet young, and had been remarkably beautiful; but the severity of her misfortunes, the keenness of her sorrows, and the depri vation of her mental faculties, had destroyed the early bloom of her beauty, and had placed an expression of uncommon wildness, in the stead of that soft delicacy of exquisite feeling, which had once characterized her interesting countenance in a striking degree. Her long black tresses now flowed down her back, and over her exposed bosom, unadorned and undressed; but its beautiful gloss and natural ringlets were not yet entirely destroyed. The snowy whiteness of her expansive forehead, was, indeed, injured by a perpetual exposure to the inclmencies of the weather; and her large blew eyes no longer languished in captivating lustre, or beamed with female delicacy and softness; but sent forth the untameable fire of madness in irregular flashes, like the irresistable blaze of the forked lightning,

when shooting from the black bosom of contending elements, athwart the troubled expanse of the stormy heavens. Her delicate nose and pouting lips, even yet bore some of the characteristics of femenine beauty; though her wan cheeks and pale complexion evinced the total decay of all other charms. Her form was finely moulded, and was yet graceful; and the miserable rags she bore, could not entirely screen her native elegance from the view, or prevent the compassionate beholder from lamenting the fall of so noble a being.

Such was the interesting figure I led into a small pew within the choir, until I should have recovered my friend.

A full hour elapsed before I had restored his senses, and another passed away before he was in a state to converse. At length I informed him of the real state of the case; but he would not credit any narration, and hinted that I wished to pass over the affair in that manner; but when I assured him I could produce the girl who was the innocent cause of his terror, he begged he might see her; accordingly I called her, and she presently came running towards us,

He did not behold her without evident marks