The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1835-01-14

read them to sleep an hour after midnight, per-
formed my half hourly duty of entering the room
where the corpse lay to look after the lights anC
then stroled into the garden to enjoy the quiet o
the summer night. The flowers were glttering ii
their pearl drops, and the air was breathcss.
The sight of the long, sheeted corpse, the sudden
glare of lights the long snufls removed from
the candles, the stiffness of the close c-shuttered room
and my own predisposton to invest death with a
supernatural interest, had raised my heart to my
throat. ! walked backward and forward in the
garden path and the black shadows beneath the
lilacs and even the glit.ering of the glow-worms
within them seemed weird and fearful.
The clock struck, and re-cncred. My COM
panions still slept and | passed on to the inner
chamber trimmed the lights, and stood and look
ed at the white heap lying 50 feariuly still within
the curtains and my blood seemed to freeze. At
the moment was turning away with strong effort
at composed feeling, noise like iluttering
of wings, followed by a rush and sudden silence,
struck my startled ear The street was as quiet
as death, and the noise, which was Tar too audible
to be a deception of the fancy, bad come from the
side toward an unnhablted wing OF the house. My
heart stood still. Anotherinsant and the frescrcen
was dashed down, and Il aohic cat rushed past me,
and with the speed Of lightning, sprang, like hye
ma, upon the corpse. The flight of "A vampire into
the chamber would not have curdlcd my veins
conyulsiyc sluddcr ran cold over me, but, rccOy-
erlng my scli-cOmmand, rushed to the animal (Of
whose horrible appetite for the flesh of the dead /
had read incredulousy) and attempted to tear her
from the body With her claws fixed in the breast
and a-y0wi like the wall of an internal spirit, she
crouched earlessy upon it, and the stains already
upon the sheet, convinced me that it would be Inn
possible to remove her without shockingly dsfigur-
ing the corpse. | seized her by the throat, in the
hope of choalllng her. but, with the first pressure of
my fingers, she flew into my face, and the muriated
animal seemed persuaded that it was contest for
life. Half blinded by the fury of her attacks
looscd her for the moment, and she Immediately
leaped again upon the corpse and had covered her
feet and face with blood before could recover my
hold upon her. The body no longer in a situa-
ton to be spared, and seized her with desperate
grasp to draw her off; but to my horror the half
covered and bloody corpse upright in her iangs,
and, while paused in fear sat with dropping arms,
and head fallen with ghastly hclplessness over the
shoulder. Years have not removed that fearful spec
tacle from my eyes.
The corpse sank back, and succeeded in throt-
Ting the insane monster, and threw her at last, life
less from the window. | then composed the dis
turbed limbs, laid the hair away once more smoothly
on the forehead, and, crossing the hands upon the
bosom, covered the violated rcmains and left them
again to their rcpose. My companions, strangely
enough, slcpton, and paced the garden walk alone,
till the day, to my incxpresslbe relief dawned over
the mountains.
was called upon in my senior year, to watch
with insane student. He was a man who had
attracted eroot deal of attention in rneor he |
had appeared in an extraordinary costume at the
beginning of our Freshman Term, and wrote him
self down as Washington Greyling, Of, an I'M
heard-of settlement somewhere beyond the Missis-
sippi.-lIis coat, and other gear might have been l
the work of Chlckasaw tailor aided by the SUPER
taste of some white huntsman, who re-
mcmbcrcd family the outline of habiliments he had
not seen for half century; 1t was body of green
cloth, eked out with wampum and otter skin, and
would have been ridiculous if it had encascd
IF the finest models of manly frame that trod
he earth. With cosc-curlng black hair, fine i
complexion, Spanish features
from his mothcr-a frequent phiziognomy i'll the j
Countries bordering on Spanish Amcrica) and the
,ort and light motion of lion, he was figure to
ook upon in any disguise with warm admiration.
lie put into the hands of tailor-proper, T;
nd, with the facility which belongs to his country F,
nen, became i'll month, the best dressed man in L
he college. His manners were of gentleman
ike miidnCsS, energetic, but courteous and chNal- {
esquc, and unlike most sayages and all COINS, he
polished without losing his mark" At the end
# his first term, he would have been called high
red gentleman at any court in Europe.
The opening of his mind was almost as rapid and
He was like man who had tum-
He'd into new star, and was collecting knowledge
or world to which he was to return. The first IN
Ill games, the widest in all adventure, the most dis
lngushcd even in the elegant society for which the
own is remarkable and untailingy brilliant in his
ecitatons and college performances, he was looked
pon as Il sort of admirable phenomenon, and nei-
her nor opposed in any thing. have often thought
n envled looking him, that his sensations at /
oming fresh from a Wild western prairie, and at "
he first measure of his capacities with men of bet
er advantages, finding himself uniformly supe- {
Tor, must have been stirringy delightful 1t is
1onder he never became arrogant but 1t was the i
lst loibe of which he could have been accused.
We were reading hard for the honors of the SEN =
Or year, when GreyGng suddenly lost his reason /
lie had not been otherwise ill., and had, apparently |
a the midst of high health, gone mad at moments
EARNING. The physicians scarce knew how to treat