This page has been validated.
BOOK THE FIRST.
CHAPTER I.
the village.—its inhabitants.—an old manor-house: and an english family; their history, involving a mysterious event.
"Protected by the divinity they adored, supported by the earth which they cultivated, and at peace with themselves, they enjoyed the sweets of life, without dreading or desiring dissolution."
In the county of ——— there is a sequestered hamlet, which I have often sought occasion to pass, and which I have never left without a certain reluctance and regret. It is not only (though this has a remarkable spell over my imagination) that it is the sanctuary, as it were, of a story which appears to me of a singular and fearful interest; but the scene itself is one which requires no legend to arrest the traveller's atten-
