Angelina: Or, The Mystery of St. Mark's Abbey — page 40: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE MYSTERY OF ST. MARK’S ABBEY. yf pillars, and statues without heads), that I begged in vain to ré@furn home, and presently a storm arose, and we were compelled to remain in the dismal place until it had abated. Presently we heard a strange nolse, which Angoijina at first attributed to the howling of the wind through the different apertures, but at length it was repeated, and the flashing of the lightning the next moment revealed to us——” ‘* Beware |” at that moment attered a hollow voice. The females screamed, and Mr. Woodfield, astonished at the singular interruption, {mmediately turned his eyes towards the casement, upon which he perceived those of big daughter and niece were fixed, and was completely thunderstruck at the object which there met his view. A supernatural light seemed blazing outside the cottage, and, standing in the midst of it was the figure of the mysterious woman who hed appeared to Ange- lina and her cousin in the rains of St.’Mark’s Abbey.—The blue reflection of the light imparted a most ghastly aspect to the countenance of the mysterious being, whose eyes were fixed upon the astonished and terrified group, and one hand was held out in a menacing atfitude towards Laura, as though she was enjoining her to silence. For a moment or two, so surprised was Mr. Woodfield at this singular ap- pearance, that he had not the power to move or speak, while his wife, Angelina, and Laura, were all as it were, petrified to the spot, but at length, determined to fathom the truth, and to know the reason of the woman’s visit ta them, he darted out of the cottage. As he quitted the porch, the woman fixed upon him a singular indescribable look, and walked, or rather seemed to glide to some distance from the place where she had before stood, and there she fixed herself in an attitude, appar- ently determined to await the approach of Mr. Woodfield. The woman continued unmoved uutil he had nearly reached her, when she uttered a wild laugh, and darted into the wood, which:commenced not far from the cotiage, and was soon hidden from his view, in spite of the precipitation with which Mr. Woodfield pursed her footsteps. Mr, Woodfield hastened to the spot where she had disappeared, but the dark- ness of the wood, which was almost impervious to the light of the moon, pre- vented him seeing anything at more than two or three yards distance, and he was consequently unable to discover any traces of her ; he, therefore, returned to the cottage, bewildered and disappointed. This incident had very much alarmed the mind of Angelina, who was at a loss {o imagine the motive the woman could have for thus so closely following her footsteps. The interview she had had with her in the abbey ruins, and all that she had said to her, recurred to her memory with redoubled force, and she could not help thinking that her fate was in some way or the other connected with her’s. Her uncle, who knew her delicate nature, and saw the alarm into which the visit of the woman had thrown her, mucb as he was himself astonished and perplexed at the circumstance, endeavoured on-his return to the cottage, to persuade her that the woman was only one of their neighbours, who had: assumed the wild dress and mysterious behaviour for the purpose of a hoax, but had he known what had previously taken place between the awful looking stranger and his niece, at St. Mark's Abbey, he would have seen that all his attempts would be futile. CORNICE DO© (SO)