The sun was slowly sinking to the west
Pavilioned with a thousand glorious dyes;
The turtle-doves were winging to the nest,
Along the mountain’s soft declivities.
Croley.
Young Stanley’s congratulations that he alone knew of the communication held by Lucy Ellet and her sister with the mysterious creature whom he had seen, were not destined to be of long duration. The lady of the vapor was soon beheld by various other persons of the village at different times—and the Haunted Rock became an object of universal dread. The rumor, moreover, speedily grew rife that the object of her visitations was to hold unholy intercourse with the young nieces of the governor of the colony. These, therefore, from having been the idols of all classes in the place, became subjects of curiosity and vague apprehension.
Superstition, when not arrayed in her full horrors, had charms which makes us regret her banishment in a state of society enlightened by reason and education. Her system of imaginary terrors had something exciting to minds fond of feeding upon the marvelous. This is especially true with regard to the lighter forms in which she sometimes appeared when fortune-tellers were introduced as part of the amusements of the age, and their auguries regarded as serious and prophetic earnest. But as we have seen, none of the lighter forms by which imagination works upon her subjects were here indulged as the food of a wild and wayward fancy. Their belief, though not less erroneous, was founded on the records of that page which cannot lie, and which warned them of the existence of one great and mighty spirit of evil, wandering to and fro in the earth, and seeking to decoy the souls of mankind to his abode of darkness. The object of this dread was no other than he who had once stood high in Heaven, and afterward became prince of the powers of Hell.
Recollecting that the wiles of this same adversary practiced upon the mother of our race, had become the means of expelling her from the bowers of Paradise, and bringing “death into the world and all our wo,” it is not surprising that Lucy and Jessy Ellet were now regarded with suspicion on all hands. The gossips, like the sybils, after consulting their leaves, arranged and combined their information, which passed through a hundred channels, and in a hundred different varieties in the village of L. The rumors to which their communications gave rise were strange and inconsistent. The result was that the society of the sisters became as much avoided as it had been previously sought after. Closer observation, however, caused the chief blame to rest upon Lucy, who was seen daily, at sunrise and sunset, wending her way to the haunted spot.
It was some weeks after Stanley’s first sight of the phantom lady that twilight overtook him on an evening ramble. He had carefully, since the time we have described, avoided bending his steps toward that vicinity in any of his walks. Accordingly, on this evening, he had turned off at the outskirts of the village, at a place where another road met that leading to the fearful spot. Having been occupied with reflections of a deeper cast than are common to youths, he had remained until the slow departing sunset reminded him to retrace his steps. On approaching the place where the two roads met, he was startled by the sight of a light figure emerging into the main path. The thought of the strange lady of the mist instantly suggested itself to the mind of the youth. A new moon had just risen behind the dim embodiment, and shed her soft rays upon the spot where it stood. The last beams of the setting sun were almost lost beyond the distant hills, and nothing but the soft light of that evening-queen lit the scene.
Stanley advanced to meet the spectral shape—it turned—a pair of dark eyes flashed from beneath a silken hood, and the clear voice of Lucy Ellet sounded in his ears.