Or throws him on the ridgy fteep

Of fome loofe hanging rock to fleep.

The exquifite Scotch ballad of Hardyknute, fo happily completed by Mr Pinkerton, may be alfo mentioned as including several incidents which, for genuine pathos, and for the fpecies of terror now under confideration, cannot eafily be furpaffed. The close of the first, and commencement of the fecond part, are particularly ftriking.

In the fragment annexed to thofe obfervations it has been. the aim of the author to combine picturesque defcription with fome of thofe objects of terror, which are independent of fupernatural agency.

DE MONTMORENCY, A FRAGMENT.

From Dr Drake's " Literary Hours."

THE fullen tolling of the Curfew was heard over the heath, and not a beam of light iffued from the dreary villages, the murmuring Cotter had extinguished his enlivening embers, and had fhrunk in gloomy fadness to repose, when Henry de Montmorency and his two attendants rushed from the caftle of A—y.

The night was wild and ftormy, and the wind howled in a fearful manner. The moon flashed, as the clouds paffed from before her, on the filver armour of Montmorency, whose large and fable plume of feathers ftreamed threatening in the blaft. They hurried rapidly on, and, arriving at the edge of a declivity, defcending into a deep glen, the dreadful and favage appearance of which was sufficient to strike terror into the ftouteft heart. It was narrow, and the rocks on each fide, rifing to a prodigious height, hung bellying over their heads; furiously along the bottom of the valley, turbulent and dashing against huge fragments of the rock, ran a dark and fwollen torrent, and farther up the glen, down a precipice of near ninety feet, and roaring with tremendous ftrength, fell, at a fingle ftroke, an awful and immenfe cafcade. From the clefts and chafms of the crag, abrupt and ftern, the venerable oak threw his broad breadth of shade, and bending his gigantic arms athwart the ftream, shed, driven by the wind, a multitude of leaves, while from the fummits of the rock was heard the clamour of the falling fragments, that, bounding from its rugged fide, leapt with refiftless fury on the vale beneath. Montmorency

Montmorency and his attendants, intrepid as they were, felt the inquietude of apprehenfion: they food for fome time in filent aftonishment, but their ideas of danger from the conflict of the elements being at length alarming, they determined to proceed, when all inftantly became dark, while the rushing of the ftorm, the roaring of the cafcade, the shivering of the branches of the trees, and the dafhing of the rock affailed at once their fenfe of hearing. The moon, however, again darting from a cloud, they rode for ward, and, following the courfe of the torrent, had advanced a confiderable way, when the piercing shrieks of a perfon in diftrefs arrefted their speed; they ftopped, and liftening attentively, heard thrill melancholy cries repeated, at intervals, up the glen, which gradually becoming more dif tant, grew faint, and died away. Montmorency, ever ready to relieve the oppreffed, couched his lance, and bidding his followers prepare, was haftening on, but again their pro-. grefs was impeded by the harrowing and ftupendous clash of falling armour, which, reverberating from the various cavities around, feemed here and there, and from every direction, to be echoed with double violence, as if a hundred men in armour had, in fucceffion, fallen down, in different parts of the valley. Montmorency, having recovered from the confternation into which this fingular noife had thrown him, undauntedly pursued his courfe, and presently discerred, by the light of the moon, the gleaming of a coat of mail. He immediately made up to the spot, where he found, laid along at the foot of an aged oak, whofe branches hung darkling over the torrent, a knight wounded and bleeding; his armour was of burnished fteel, by his fide there lay a faulchion, and a fable fhield emboffed with ftuds of gold, and, dipping his cafque into the ftream, he was endeavouring to allay his thirft, but, through weakness from lofs of blood, with difficulty he got it to his mouth. Being queftioned as to his misfortune, he fhook his head, and unable to speak, pointed with his hand down the glen: at the fame moment the fhrieks, which had formerly alarmed Montmorency and his attendants, were repeated, apparently at no great diftance; and now every mark of horror was depicted on the pale and ghaftly features of the dying knight; his black hair, dashed with gore, flood erect, and, ftretch. ing forth his hand toward the found, he feemed ftruggling for fpeech, his agony became exceffive,, and groaning, he dropped down dead upon the earth.

The fuddenuefs of this fhocking event, the total ignorance of its caufe, the uncouth scenery around, and the difmal wailings

wailings of diftrefs, which ftill poured upon the ear with aggravated ftrength, left room for imagination to unfold its moft hideous ideas: yet Montmorency, though aftonished, loft not his fortitude and refolution, but determined, following the direction, of the sound, to fearch for the place whence thefe terrible screams feemed to iffue, and recommending his men to unheath their fwords, and maintain a strict guard, cautiously following the windings of the glen, until, abruptly turning the corner of an outjutting crag, perceived two corfes mangled in a frightful manner, and the glimmering of light appeared through fome trees, that hung depending from a steep and dangerous part of the rock. Approaching a little nearer, the fhrieks feemed evidently to proceed from that quarter, upon which, tying their horfes to the branches of an oak, they afcended flowly and without any noise toward the light, but what was their amaze. ment, when, by the pale glimpses of the moon, where the eye could penetrate through the intervening foliage, in a vaft and yawning cavern, dimly lighted by a lamp suspended from its roof, they beheld half a dozen gigantic figures. in ponderous iron armour; their vizors were up, and the lamp, faintly gleaming on their features, difplayed an unrelenting fternnefs capable of the most ruthless deeds. One, who had the aspect, and the garb of their leader, and who, waving his fcymetar, feemed menacing the reft, held on his.... arm a maffy fhield of immenfe circumference, and which, being ftreaked with recent blood, prefented to the eye an object truly terrific. At the back part of the cave and fixed to a brazen ring, stood a female figure, and, as far as the obscurity of the light gave opportunity to judge, of a beautiful and elegant form. From her the flieks proceeded; fhe was dreffed in white; and fruggling violently and in a convulfive manner, appeared to have been driven almoft to madness from the confcious horror of her fituation. Two of the banditti were in high difpute, fire flashed from their eyes, and their feymetars were half unfheathed, and Montmorency, expecting that, in the fury of their paffion, they would cut each other to pieces, waited the event, but as the authority of their captain foon checked the tumult, he rushed in with his followers, and, hurling his lance, Villains!' he exclaimed, • receive the reward of cruelty!' The lance bounded innocuous from the shield of the leader, who turning quickly upon Montmorency, a fevere engagement enfued: they Imote with prodigious ftrength, and the valley refounded to the clangour of their fteel. Their falchions, unable to tuftain the shock, fhivered into a thousand pieces, when

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Montmorency, inftantly elevating with both hands his fhield, dafhed it with refiftlefs force against the head of his antagonift; lifeless he dropped prone upon the ground, and the crash of his armour bellowed through the hollow rock.

In the mean time his attendants, although they had exerted themselves with great bravery, and had already difpatched one of the villains, were, by force of numbers, overpowered, and being bound together, the remainder of the banditti rufhed in upon Montmorency, juft as he had stretched their commander upon the earth, and obliged him alfo, notwithstanding the most vigorous efforts of valour, to furrender. The lady who, during the rencounter, had fainted away, waked again to fresh scenes of mifery at the moment when these monfters of barbarity were conducting the unfortunate Montmorency and his companions, to a dreadful grave. They were led, by a long and intricate paffage, mid an immenfe affemblage of rocks, which, rifing between feventy and eighty feet perpendicular, bounded on all fides in a circular plain, into which no opening was apparent but that through which they came. The moon thone bright,, and they beheld, in the midst of this plain, a hideous chaẩm; it seemed near a hundred feet in diameter, and on its brink grew feveral trees, whofe branches, almoft meeting in the centre, dropped on its infernal mouth a gloom of fettled horror. Prepare to die,' faid one of the banditti, for into that chaẩm thall ye be thrown; it is of unfathomable depth, and that ye may not be ignorant of the place ye are fo foon to vifit, we shall gratify your curiofity with a view of it.' So faying, two of them feized the wretched Montmorency, and dragging him to the margin of the abyss, tied him to the trunk of a tree, and having treated his affociate in the fame manner, look,' cried a banditto with a fiendlike fmile, look, and anticipate the pleafures of your journey.' Dismal and pale affright fhook the cold limbs of Montmorency, and as he leant over the ilimitable void, the dew fat in big drops upon his forehead. The moon's rays, ftreaming in between the branches, fhed a dim light, fufficient to difclofe a confiderable part of the vaft profun dity, whofe depth lay hid, for a fubterranean river, bursting with tremendous noife into its womb, occafioned fuch a mist, from the rifing fpray, as entirely to conceal the dreary gulph beneath. Shuddering on the edge of this accurfed pit ftood the miferable warrior; his eyes were starting from their fockets, and as he looked into the dark abyfs, his fenfes, blafted by the view, feemed ready to forfake him. Meantime the banditti, having unbound one of the attend

a nes

ants, prepared to throw him in: he refifted with aftoniffing ftrength, fhrieking aloud for help, and, just as he had reached the flippery margin, every fibre of his body racked with agonizing terror, he flung himself with fury backward on the ground; fierce and wild convulfion seized his frame, which being foon followed by a state of exhauftion, he was in this condition, unable any longer to refift, hurled into the dreadful chafm; his armour ftriking upon the rock, there burft a fudden effulgence, and the repetition of the ftroke was heard for many minutes as he defcended down its rugged fide.

No words can describe the horrible emotions, which, on the fight of this fhocking spectacle, tortured the devoted wretches. The foul of Montmorency funk within him, and, as they unbound his laft fellow fufferer, his eyes fhot forth a gleam of vengeful light, and he ground his teeth in filent and unutterable anguish. The inhuman monsters now laid hold of the unhappy man; he gave no oppofition, and, though defpair fat upon his features, not a fhriek, not a groan efcaped him, but no fooner had he reached the brink, than making a fudden effort, he liberated an arm, and grasping one of the villains round the waift, fprang headlong with him into the interminable gulph. All was filent-but at length a dreadful plunge was heard, and the fullen deep howled fearfully over its prey. The three remaining banditti ftood aghaft; they durft not unbind Montmorency, but refolved, as the tree to which he was tied grew near the mouth of the pit, to cut it down, and, by that means he would fall, along with it, into the chaẩm. Montmorency, who, after the example of his attendant, had conceived the hope of avenging himself, now faw all poffibility of effecting that defign taken away, and as the axe entered the trunk, his anguish became fo exceffive that he fainted. The villains, obferving this, determined, from a malicious prudence, to forbear, as at prefent he was incapable of feeling the terrors of his fituation. They therefore withdrew, and left him to recover at his leifure.

Not many minutes had paffed away when, life and fenfation returning, the haplefs Montmorency awoke to the rememberance of his fate. Have mercy,' he exclaimed, the briny fweat trickling down his pallid features, 'oh! Chrift have mercy!' then looking around him, he started at the abyss beneath, and shrinking from its ghaftly blink, preffed close against the tree. In a little time, however, he recovered his perfect recollection, and preceiving that the banditti had left him, became more compofed.. His hands,