Oh what a tale they told of fear intense,

Of horror and amazement!

What human creature in the dead of night

Had coursed like hunted hare that cruel distance?

Had sought the door, the window in his flight,

Striving for dear existence?

What shrieking Spirit in that bloody room

Its mortal frame had violently quitted?—

Across the sunbeam, with a sudden gloom,

A ghostly Shadow flitted.