Western Reserve chronicle and weekly transcript of the times. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1854-1855, 1855-01-10


mate acquaintance with the dead. This
shadowy harper, therefore, was pro-
nounced 10 be the ghost or spirit of old
Arthur Morris, which had visited the
church and hovered near his house before
his decease, according to the usual priv
ileges of such apparitions. But as sign
ing wills is not among the allowed per-
formances of shadows, this busy phantom
spread terror among the rustics of this
district, and neither the road where it had
journie1, nor the chapel where its music
had been heard were ever entered after
twilight. Strange melodies were said to
sound in the lonely hollow called Eor-
phian, or the place of the dead, near the
river Rheidiol, and death-lights appeared
on in its banks from whence the simple
natives concluded that Lillian had taken
refuge from shame and penury under its
waters. No human resident ever ven
tured to settle near them, except crea-
ture so withered and wild in its attire that
it hardly could be called female. AS this
creature seemed old, poor, and desolate,
the few who lived in the neighborhood
called her the Witch of bheidiol, or the
Water Sprits, though she made no Preten-
sions to magic power except begging
milk or bread, and paying for it only with
blessing. Either fear or charity in
duced the poor cottagers to be liberal in
their gifts of food and dances no less
marvellous than the black ballet-master's
in Normandy, were said TO be performed
at midnight on the river.
Nevertheless, these tales did not pre-
vent a traveller from paying visit to
these unhallowed places, to see the rain
bow and arrowy light often visible there
at the noon of night. This traveller,
whom shall call Judge Lloyd, because
that name was afterwards borne by man
who resembled him in firmness and sa-
gacity, pursued his way between two
walls of rock divided by little stream,
which suddenly leaped through narrow
rent and escaped from sight. He forced
himself through the chasm, tempted by a
light which shone far within a kind Of
cavern rooted with sloping rocks, and fur
nished with a porch composed of dwarf
sycamores, whose branches were knit in
to a pleasant trellis. Here he stopped to
reconnoitre, hearing a plaintive voice
singing remnant of ancient Cambrian
poetry ascribed to Llydwarch Hen, the
Bard of Arthur's court.
The traveller had heard these words IN
the best days of his youth, and he sighed
at their strange concurrence with some
passages of his secret history. As his
curiosity was sustained and justified by
benevolent desire to discover the reputed
haunts of witchcraft, and as music PROM
ises gentleness, he hazar'ied step toward
the threshold. But lean hag-like hg-
ure, attired in the ragged remnant OF a
black silk cassock, brandished formida-
BILE staff across his path. To the Judges
courteous question, this hideous sentinel
replied, " Md ychtOi mo nahabsanti," sig
nifying, " Thou art not my Patron-salnt
confessor," and added, with something like
the feryent wildness of an ancient bard,
"If thou comest to wound the sleeping
fawn, beware lest the stag trample on
thee" The intrepid Judge answered by
My by uncovering his face, and looking
steadily at his opponent, who fell PROSTATE
at his feet with a cry of terror which
brought forth the inhabitants of the hut
Lillian and her child! She instantly
recognized the spectre-harper, but till he
had embraced her thousand times, and
recalled to her mind almost as many for
gotten circumstances, she did not believe
or recognize her only brother, the long
lost adventurer who had left his faith
er's house in his early youth. Since her
deep disgrace she had lived in this soli-
tude, fed and sheltered by the idiot Idwal,
whose fantastic and half feminine attire
gained him the homage paid to witchcraft,
ami enabled him to preserve their abode
from detection. Faithful TO that devoted
affection which seemed the only un-
changeable instinct of his wandering
mind, and the sole occupation of his life,
he had built her hut, begged her bread,
and watched her steps as the doe watches
her young, when all else had abandoned
her to famine and despair.
"My father Prophecied in his anger"
said Lillian, " that my child should have
neither gate nor hearth, and be nestled
among wild ravens; but it has found
bread in their nests, and they are more
merciful than the world to a sinner"
"You shall return to the world" an
swered the good Judge, "and find it never
denies respect to modest and sincere PEN
itence. No part of the guilt Of forgery
rests on your head or on ldwal's. The
harper's dress was a safe disguise when
| came unexpected to a home where |
had no friends; but l signed a name
which belonged to me, and only gave you
by that deed of gift what my fathers
death, | knew, had entitled me to give.
The sentence shall be repealed, the avari-
cious heir displaced, and the world will
laugh to see justice administered by
Spectre Harper"