" A weary and lonesome time yonder old couple have of it," remarked
the old woman, smiling in the lady's face.
"And did you also hear them?" exclaimed she, a sense of intolerable
humiliation triumphing over her agony and fear.
"Yea; and we have yet more to hear," replied the old woman.
"Wherefore, cover thy face quickly."
Again the withered hag poured forth the monotonous words of a
prayer that was not meant to be acceptable in heaven; and soon, in the
pauses of her breath, strange murmurings began to thicken, gradually
increasing so as to drown and overpower the charm by which they
grew. Shrieks pierced through the obscurity of sound, and were
succeeded by the singing of sweet female voices, which, in their turn,
gave way to a wild roar of laughter, broken suddenly by groanings
and sobs, forming altogether a ghastly confusion of terror and
mourning and mirth. Chains were rattling, fierce and stern voices
uttered threats, and the scourge resounded at their command. All these
noises deepened and became substantial to the listener's ear, till she
could distinguish every soft and dreamy accent of the love songs
that died causelessly into funeral hymns. She shuddered at the
unprovoked wrath which blazed up like the spontaneous kindling of
flame, and she grew faint at the fearful merriment raging miserably
around her.
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