The Panola star. ([Panola] Panola County, Miss.) 1856-1857, 1856-06-21

backwards and forwards, as if in the
hand of some one who, with tOttering
steps, stole across the arena. Angri-
ly he called out "Who goes there?"
for his domestics had strict orders to
admit no one within the walls; and
since the fight of the young lady,
these commands were rigidly obeyed,
it seemed as if lifeless stones alone
dWelt within.
To the lord of the castle there came
soft voice.
can old woman" it said, ,"begs some
food, noble knight"
But the humble demand was i'm
petuously refused.
"Spy-vagrant WITCH" were the
appellations showered upon the beg
gar; and because she did not immedi-
ately retire, but reiterated her petition
with a fervent, Though weak voice,
the knight, in the wildness of his
wrath, called on his blood-hounds to
hunt the beggar woman away.
Wildly did the ferocious dogs rush
forth; but scarcely did they approach
| the old woman, when she touched the
strongest and ferccst with slender
wand. The domestics who had come
out expected that the savage dog
| would tear her to pieces, but, howling,
he turned, and the others laid them
| selves down, whining, before the beg
gar.
Again the lord of the castle urged
them on, but they only howled and
moaned and lay still.
A strange shuddering seized him,
| which redoubled when the old woman
raised her lantern on high, and her
long white hair appeared waving in
the storm, while, with a sad and
threatening voice, she exclaimed
"Thou in the heavens who seest
and hearest!"
Trembling, the kniahI retired from
the window, and ordered l& people to
give her what she demanded. The
domestics, frightened at the appari-
ton, placed some food without in
basket, and then secured me doors,
all the while repeating prayers, until
| they heard the strange old woman
carry away the food AS she stepped
out of the castle gates, the hounds
moaned mysteriously after her.
From this time regularly, every
third evening, the lantern was seen in
the castle yard, and no sooner did the
strange twinkling begin to be visible
through the darkness, and the light
steps to be heard to totter softly over
the pavement, than the lord of the
castle hastened back from the window,
the domestic put out the basket of
food, and the hounds moaned sorrow
fully till the apparition vanished.
One day-it was now the begin
ming of winter-the knight followed
the chase in the widest part of the
| mountains. Suddenly his hounds
darted up steep height, and expect
ing good capture, at the risk of i'm
minent danger, he forced his shudder-
ing horse over the stony, slippery
ground. Before a cavern in the mid
die of the ascent; the hounds stood
still; but how felt the knight when the
figure of woman stepped. to the
mouth of the abyss and with a stick
drove back the dogs. From the sill
very locks of the woman, as we'll as
from the restless and low meanings
of the hounds, and his own internal
feelings, he soon perceived that in
| this drear spot the lantern bearer
stood before him.
| Half frantic, he turned his horses
head, buried his spurs in its sides,
and galloped down the steep, accom-
panied by the yelling hounds, towards
the castle.
Soon after this strange occurrence,
the lantern was no longer seen in the
court of the castle. They waited one
day = several days-a a whole week
passed over but the apparition was
no longer seen.
If its first appearance had alarmed
the lord of the castle and his domes-
tics, its disappearance occasioned still
more.
They believed that the former prog
nosticated some dreadful event, which
the latter betokened to be near. On
the knight, this anticipation had a
dreadful effect; he became pale and
haggard, and his countenance assum-
ed such disturbed appearance, the
inmates of the castle were of the opin-
ion that the apparition gave warning
of his death. 1t was not so.
One day as was his custom, the
knight rode to the chase, and in his
present distraction of mind, he ap-
preached, unaware, that part of the
country where the old woman with
the white hair had appeared to him,
and which he from that time had with
great care avoided. Again the dogs
sprung up the height, bowling, and
looked fearfully into the cavern. The
affrighted baron in vain called them
back. They stood as if fascinated on
the dreadful spot; but on this occa-
sion no one appeared to chase them
i