New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-05-17
Tha Ghost ed a Love STORY.

In an excursion I once made in Brittany, /
arrive one evening at the littletown OF Pontaven
in Lo wer Cornwall-for Cornwall is on both
sides of the channel-with all It's Tors, Tres,
and F'eas, as well on the French as on the
English land, which goes far to prove that the
two cou ntres of Great and Little Britain were
once united. ~
1t was q beautiful summer, and the charming
country in that point of projecting land between
the Bay of Douarnenez and the inlet of Benodet,
had never looked more smiling and agreeable. ]
was on my way to Quimper, the capital of the
district, and need not have yentured on such
fire as the very shabby inn offered but L had a
fancy to stop in order to have an opportunity of
visiting the ruins of castle which b ad OBJ
served on my way, erowniDg hill rising above
village called Nixon, a short walk from Pom
taven
As was well aware that to view a ruin
Alright, one should ego visit it by the pale moon
light" and the moon being then g in her highest
noon,'' | meditated an excursion with my COM
panions-orle of whom was Breton born, and
| the other q brisk little native of Normandy-to
the Castle of Rnstefan, as soon as our supper had
| little restored us after days journey over
| bad roads.
The walk was extremely pretty, through deep
| shaded lanes, across which the clear rays OF the
moonlight danced as they escaped through the
leaves, stirred by soft breeze. We soon
reached the village, and mounted the steep hill,
at the highest point of which rose the numerous
walls and towers of what must once have been
! q large castle. In what had been the inner
court the ground was covered with soft turf,
where, formerly, the village fates and dances
were held.
One night, a merry party of young people
we're dancing on this green, and had not yet
ceased, when the clock of the chapel of Nixon
tolled twelve. Exactly at that moment, al
though the wea ther had been beautiful until
then, for it was a warm summer, sudden chill
came over ALL the moon became obsoured, and
the wind rose in sharp gusts which violently
shook the thick ivy garlands on the wall The
party stopped in the midst Of their dance, for
every one had felt the influence of the change,
and, as the sky grew darker and the wind
louder, they chung to each other in actual fear.
Presently those who had courage to look round
them were aware thst, gazing at them from the
pointed ruined window of the donjon, stood q
figure in the dress of monk with a shaver
crown and hollow lustreus eyes. As the greai
Revolution had Long since cleared the country
of monasteries, and as no monk had ever beer
seen in the locality except in a picture, the gen
eral astonishment was great. The terror in
creased when the figure, slowly gnoying from tn
window, reappeared at a lower one, as if de
, seending the broken stair, and finally was seer
te emerge from beneath the stone portal into tht
interrupted moonlight, and apprenticeship fix
ing his lustrous eyes upon them-tc be advan
, cling. With general cry of terror, ana with 9
rapidity which only fear could give, all rushea
, towards the opposite entrance, and nearly tan
ing over each other in their eagerness to escape
: darted from the castle and made the best O.
their way to the bottom Of the bill, nor stopped
Z until they had regained the cottages
i After this, the ruins were never VISITED bJ
!. night but occasionally it happened that {
! Estranger. coming from a distance. would hav
!, = to cross the lower part of the hill, which tn
/ castle crowned, and, if he looked up from tn
: : marshy lake into which drains al the waite
!. from the heights round about, and which is on
II of the most dismal, dreary looking spots in tn
"a neighborhood he was sure to see, mounting tn
\ hill and advancing slowly to the chief entranc
;. to the castle, a funeral procession conducting
a bier covered with white cloth, and having fou