Rookwood [by W H Ainsworth] Revised by W H Ainsworth

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Xl ' PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. you again, under a new, and, I trust, more favourable aspect; beseeching you, in the mean time, in the words of old Rabelais, to interpret all my sayings and doings in the perfectest sense. Reverence the cheese-like brain that feeds you with all these jolly maggots; and...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Xl ' PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION. you again, under a new, and, I trust, more favourable aspect; beseeching you, in the mean time, in the words of old Rabelais, to interpret all my sayings and doings in the perfectest sense. Reverence the cheese-like brain that feeds you with all these jolly maggots; and do what lies in you, to keep me always merry. Be frolic now, my lads Cheer up your hearts, and joyfully read the rest, with all ease of your body, and comfort of your reins. London, May 12. 1836. chapter{{Section 4ROOKWOOD. BOOK I. THE WEDDING RING. It has been observed, and I am apt to believe it is an observation which will generally be found true, that before a terrible truth conies to light, there are certain murmuring whispers fly before it, and prepare the minds of men for the reception of the truth itself. Gallick Reports- Case of the Count Saint Geran. CHAPTER I. THE VAULT. Let me know, therefore, fully the intent Of this thy dismal preparation, This talk fit for a charnel . Webster. '- the gloomy precincts of a vault?by the feeble light of a candle stuck in a sconce against its walls ? and at midnight's witching hour, two figures might be discovered, seated on an old oaken coffin-lid, and wrapped in silence as deep as that of the dead around them. The sepulchre, in which this meeting took place, was of singular construction, and considerable extent. The roof was of solid stone masonry, and rose in a wide semi-circular arch to the height of about seventeen feet, measured from the centre of the ceiling to the ground floor, while the sides were divided by slight partition- walls, into ranges of low narrow catacombs. The entrance to each cavity was surmounted by an obtusely-pointed arch, resting upon slender granite pillars; and th...