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    wh ^ re the corpse lay , to look after the lights , and then strolled into the garden to enjoy the quiet of the summer night . The flowers were glittering in their pearl drops , and the air was breathless . c < The sight of the long-sheeted corpse , the sudden flare of lights ,

    as the long snuffs were removed from the candles , the stillness of the close shuttered room , and my own predisposition to invest death with a supernatural interest , had raised m } r heart to my throat . 1 walked backwards and forwards in the garden-path ; and the bluck shadows beneath the lilacs , and even the glittering of the glow-worms within them , seemed weird and fearful .

    * The clock struck , and I re-entered . My companions still slept , and [ passed on to the inner chamber . I trimmed the lights , and stood and looked at the white heap lying so fearfully still within the shadow of the curtains ; and my . blood seemed to freeze . At the moment when I was turning away with a strong effort at a more corn - posed feeling , a noise like a flutter of wings 9 followed by a rush and a sudden silence , struck on my startled ear . The street was as quiet as death , and the noise which was far too audible to be a deception

    of the fancy , bad come from the side toward an uninhabited wing of the house—my heart stood still . Another instant , and the fire-screen was dashed down , and a while cat rushed past me , and with the speed of light sprang like a hyena upon the corpse . The flight of a vampyre into the chamber would not have more curdled my veins , A convulsive shudder ran cold over me , but , recovering my self-command , I rushed to the animal , ( of whose horrible appetite for the flesh of the dead I had read incredulously ) and attempted to tear her from the body . With her claws fixed in the breast , and a yowl like the wail of an

    infernal spirit , she crouched fearlessly upon it , and the stains already upon the sheet convinced me that it would be impossible to remove her without shockingly disfiguring the corpse . I seized her by the throat in the hope of choking her , but with the first pressure of my fingers she

    flew into my face , and the infuriated animal seemed persuaded that it was a contest for life . Half-blinded by the fury of her attack , 1 loosed her for a moment , and she immediately leaped again upon the corpse , and hnd covered her feet and face with blood before I could recover rny hold upon her . The body was no longer in a situation to be spared , and J seized her with a desperate grasp to draw her off ; but , to- my horror , the half-covered and bloody corpse rose upright in her fangs , and , while I paused in fear , sat with drooping arms , and head fallen with ghastly helplessness over the shoulder . Years have not removed that fearful spectacle from my e \ es .

    44 The corpse sank back , and I succeeded in throttling the monster , and threw her at last lifeless from the window . I then composed the disturbed limbs , laid the hair once more smoothly on the forehead , and , crossing the hands over the bosom , covered the violated remains , and left them again to their repose . My companions , strangely enough , slept on , and 1 p ;» ced the garden walk alone , till the day , to my inexpressible relief , dawned over the mountains . ' *—vol . ii . p . 89 . We conclude our extracts with regret , for there is scarcely a single story in the book undeserving of notice , and there are many passages of equal beauty with those we have quoted . We nave not even mentioned " Edith Linsey , " yet it is , per *

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    364 Inklings of Adventure .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1836, page 364, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2658/page/36/