Cruel as the grave

THE BERNERS OF THE BURNING HEARTS. "Their love was like the lava flood That burns in Etna's breast of flame." Near the end of a dark autumn-day...

JOHN LYON HOWE. "A brow half martial and half diplomatic, An eye upsoaring like an eagle's wing." John Lyon Howe was the younger son of a planter...

SYBIL BERNERS. "All that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eye." Sybil Berners was at this time about eighteen years o...

THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER. "From the glance of her eye Shun danger and fly, for fatal's the glance." Very happy w...

THE LANDLORD'S STORY. "What wit so sharp is found in youth or age That can distinguish truth from treachery? Falsehood puts on th...

ROSA BLONDELLE. Her form had all the softness of her sex, Her face had all the sweetness of the devil When he put on the cherub to perplex ...

DOWN IN THE DARK VALE. Where rose the mountains, there for her were friends, Where fell the valley, therein was her home; Where the steep rock...

BLACK HALL. Seest thou our home? 'tis where the woods are waving In their dark richness to the autumn air; Where yon blue stream its rocky bank...

THE GUEST-CHAMBERS. Deserted rooms of luxury and state, Which old magnificence had rudely furnished With pictures, cabinets of anci...

THE JEALOUS BRIDE. Yea, she was jealous, though she did not show it, For jealousy dislikes the world to know it.--BYRON. Rosa was the last to wake up in t...

LOVE AND JEALOUSY. There was a time when bliss Shone o'er her heart from every look of his; When but to see him, hear him, breathe the air ...

"CRUEL AS THE GRAVE." Go, when the hunter's hand hath wrung From forest cave her shrieking young, And calm the raging lioness; ...

MORE THAN THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH. He to whom I gave my heart with all its wealth of love, Forsakes me for another...

THE FIRST FATAL HALLOW EVE. AMBROSE--Where be these maskers, fool? COLLIN--Everywhere, sage! But chiefly there Where least they seem to mas...

THE MASQUERADE BALL. Light up the mansion, spread the festive board; Welcome the gay, the noble, and the fair! Through the bright hall in joy...

ON THE WATCH. False--from the head's crown to the foot's sole--false! To think I never knew it until now, Nor saw thro' him e'en when I saw him smile; ...

DRIVEN TO DESPERATION. For only this night, as they whispered, I brought My own eyes to bear on her so, that I thought, Could I keep them one h...

LYING IN WAIT. "He is with her; and they know that I know Where they are, and what they do; they believe my tears flow While they laugh, laugh at me, at me...

SWOOPING DOWN. Twice it called, so loudly called With horrid strength beyond the pitch of nature; And murder! murder! was the dreadful cry....

THE SEARCH. My friends, I care not, (so much I am happy Above a number,) if my actions Were tried by every tongue, every eye saw them, ...

SYBIL'S FLIGHT. 'Tis well--my soul shakes off its load of care; 'Tis only the obscure is terrible; Imagination frames events unknow...

THE HAUNTED CHAPEL. "The chapel was a ruin old, That stood so low, in lonely glen. The gothic windows high and dark ...

THE SOLITUDE IS INVADED. Oh, might we here In solitude live savage, in some glade Obscured, where highest woods impenetrable To sta...

THE VERDICT AND THE VISITOR. Can such things be, And overcome us like a summer cloud Without our special wonder?--Shakespeare. "Pe...

THE FALL OF THE DUBARRYS. But, soft! behold, lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.--Stay, illusion! If thou ...

THE SPECTRE. It was about to speak And then it started like a guilty thing. Upon a fearful summons.--SHAKESPEARE. "Philip Dubarry ...

FEARFUL WAITING. Still the wood is dim and lonely, Still the plashing fountains play, But the past with all its beauty,...

A GHASTLY PROCESSION. If charnel-houses and our graves must send Those that we bury back, our monuments Shall be the maws of kites.--SHAKESP...

GHOSTLY AND MYSTERIOUS On horror's head Horrors accumulate.--Thompson. An icy sweat of terror bathed Sybil's form. She tried to cry out, and did utter a low half-stifl...

FLIGHT AND PURSUIT. Oh, death were welcome!--COLERIDGE. On reaching Norfolk, Lyon Berners drove at once to an obscure tavern down by the wharves, and near the ma...

THE ARREST. Had it pleased Heaven To try me with affliction; had He rained All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head; Ste...

A DESPERATE VENTURE I have set my life upon a cast. And I will stand the hazard of the die.--SHAKESPEARE. It was yet so early in the morning that they dro...

A FATAL CRISIS. Each at the life Levelled his deadly aim; their fatal hands No second stroke intended.--MILTON. "Hold! on your lives!" exclaim...

THE PURSUIT. Horse! horse! * * * * and chase!--MARNION. Farmer Nye and Robert Munson remained standing with their heads uncovered, looking after the fugitives until...

THE FUGITIVES. They may not set a foot within their fields, They may not pull a sapling from their hills, They may not enter their fair mansion house.--HOW...