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No. 130.]

THE STRANGE ORMONDS.

The above title will call up some curious but indistinct recollections, to the minds of many inhabitants of an extensive district in the north of England. The family, or rather succession of individuals, who were known by no other designation than that of " the Strange Ormonds," were in their day and generation, the object alternately of ridicule, suspicion, fear, and horror. The child still lives whose infancy was scared by the illomened name; and the man of science can still remember the derisive curl of his lip, while it syllabled the word;-but he will not dare to deny, that with derision there was at times mingled doubt, and that his eye, while it instinctively sought the recesses of his library, was lighted up for an instant with the same species of enthusiasm which guided the speculations of that singular race. It is to accident that I am indebted for the little I do know on the subject. Dr. S―, of B, was supposed to be the only person capable of unriddling the mystery; but his obstinate silence, while it added fuel to the public curiosity, baffled it completely. That gentleman is now dead and I see no good reason why I should conceal what he at length disclosed to me; indeed, I can assign no possible reason for his own secresy, unless it were a fear of the world's ridicule. For my part, I have no feeling of the sort-I have no scientific reputation to lose and I profess myself to be in a state of the most happy ignorance on every subject, not immediately connected with the Belles Lettres. Let it be remembered at the same time, that I only "say the tale, as 'twas said to me." Dr. S's character as a man of honour, will bear out its truth with those who knew him; and those who did not, will, perhaps, be inclined to wave a part of their scepticism, on being informed that the facts were communicated to me on the solemn and affecting occasion of the death of his only daughter, who had accompanied him in his interview with the last of the Ormonds, and whose early fate was usually attributed to that cause.

The house occupied by the Ormonds was situated about two miles from the small town of B—, at a short distance from the main road. As a building, it was distinguished only by its extreme irregularity, for, whatever might have been its original form, this was entirely obscured by the various additions that had from time to time been patched to it, apparently without any view to a general plan. The odd shapes of these additions, constructed without the slightest regard to the usual arrangements of architecture, and the huddled appearance of the whole mass, gave it a very remarkable, though unsightly, aspect; and few travellers passed the road, without inquiring whether they beheld a human dwelling; and if so, what were the names and avocations of its inhabitants? The replies to such inquiries varied with the ages and dispositions of the informers-but in general they were dark and unsatisfactory. The house had been occupied from a period as distant as the memory or traditions of the district extended, by a succession of individuals of the same name. An old female servant was the only inmate except the proprietor, who, himself, lived in peaceable seclusion for a length of time, varying from twenty to thirty years; and at his death was instantaneously replaced by a successor, whose appearance was only known in the neighbourhood by his attend

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ance at church. There was something singular even in this meagre outline; but when the picture was duly filled up with the suspicions and surmises of the narrator, it presented an appearance which made some smile-some shudder-and some cross themselves. It was averred that lights were seen in the house at all hours of the night; that smoke was detected issuing from many parts of the roof, besides its own legitimate channel -the chimney; and that strange noises were heard by the benighted hind, who had the misfortune to pass the place at an hour when all noises, except that of sleeping aloud, are deemed incongruous and equivocal. Besides these suspicious circumstances, the new heir was generally unlike his predecessor, and of an age too far advanced to admit the idea of his being his son; while his sudden arrival, independent, as it seemed, of the usual means and modes of travelling, was enough of itself to strike the observer with astonishment. On these occasions-the death and accession of an Ormond-the whole country side was in a ferment. In these more distant periods of society, when superstition held its sway over the higher as well as the lower classes, the popular excitation, encouraged by patrician wisdom, more than once threatened to annihilate the accursed race; and there is still in preservation a curious document, professing to be a petition to the government, for a removal of so pestilent a nest of sorcerers from a peaceable and religious neighbourhood. Even the area of ground surrounding the house, for a considerable space, felt the effects of its bad character; and a pond, or rather small lake in the vicinity, known by the name of the Devil's Well, whose waters were as black as night from the shadow of the encompassing rocks,-and which, besides, lay under the imputation of being bottomless-was put under a ban, as the abode of denizens more unholy than trouts or perches. In later times a coroner's inquest was talked of, although I cannot find out on what grounds, as the declining health of the Ormonds was perceived long before their demise. They attended church regularly; and for months before the mortal hour arrived, the process of decay was visible to every spectator. Although not one of them in the calculation of human time, reached sixty years, the approaches of age were seen in distinct footsteps; week after week the hair grew whiter-the face more thin and sallow-and the step slower and feebler; then a Sunday would come without bringing its accustomed worshipper: then another would arrive, and present him tottering on his cane, and turning his drenched eyes in vain towards the symbols of his redemption; and on the next, a new face would be seen in the family pew of the Ormonds.

But time, which never deepens an impression, except in poetry

'As streams their channels deeper wear-' gradually softened the acerbity of public opinion, if it did not bring about an entire revolution. The calm deportment, unmeddling habits, and philosophic abstraction of Ormond, disarmed the suspicion of his neighbours, and almost won their respect. The shrewder part of the young, who were in want of a patron or a legacy, moved their hats to him as he passed, or picked up his cane when he let it fall; overtures (always rejected, however), were made to him by the fathers on the subject of neighbourly communication; and at last, spinsters, trembling on the very verge of forty, would begin to wonder whether the man were married. The more adventurous of the boys, in process of time

even sought the haunted well for the purpose of angling; aud their mothers although shaking their heads at their sons' temerity, would not refuse to dress the spoil, and in some instances were even prevailed on to eat of the fish, which in their own time, had borne so equivocal a character.

Matters had assumed this placable aspect at the time my story refers to; but the Ormond of that period did not seem destined to enjoy long the benefit of his neighbours' moderation. His health began seriously to decline; and the appearance of old age fell with a spectred suddeness on its usual prey, a broken constitution. Week after week he dragged his emaciated form to the house of God; and every week, although lighter in itself, it was the heavier for him to drag; his eyes, formerly bright and burning, became dim and spiritless-his hand shook as it undid the clasp of the prayer-book-his voice was thin and broken, and his step feeble and unsteady: he was dying. In common cases the tongue of malice is mute, the finger of scorn dropped, and the frown of hatred relaxed in the presence of Death; but this was the precise period when the operation of all three,—and of fifty other base and foolish passions,-was commonly directed against the ill-fated representative of "The Strange Ormonds." Every forgotten story that superstition had imagined, and bigotry believed, was drawn up in dreadful array against him; and although among the better-informed classes, compassion for the forlorn and deserted condition of the dying man, might have been the more powerful feeling; yet the old leaven of evil predominated as usual in the feelings of the mass. Dr. Shad watched with medical curiosity and interest his singularly rapid decay; and being of the number of those whose curiosity was blended with compassion, he resolved, about the time when he thought the last sands of fate were almost run, to venture on a visit of mercy, and smooth, since he could not retard, his passage to the "Come Emily," said he one day, pushing grave. the decanter away from him, after dinner; "the poor old mau must not die without somebody to wet his lips and smooth his pillow the sight will do you no harm, and the lesson it conveys may do you good; besides, a woman never looks so well-not at the most splendid ball-not on her wedding day, all smiles and tears, and blushes, as by the bed-side of the sick or dying, ministering with a tender and skilful hand to their necessities, and whispering love and comfort to their souls." Miss S-23 heart and imagination were touched by the picture which her father had intentionally presented; and conquering the more easily her natural timidity, she threw her shawl over her shoulders and putting her arm within his, they sallied forth in a gloomy November afternoon, on a visit in which even curiosity looked amiable, being gracefully enveloped in the mantle of charity.

Having reached the narrow avenue leading to the house, choked up by a self-planted colony of weeds, which the unfrequent footstep of man had been unable to subdue, they looked round on such a scene of neglect and desolation as only a newly discovered country could present, or an old one after the moral cycle had gone round which returned it to a second barbarism. Stumbling among heaps of stones and withered branches, and entangled in maizes of weeds and bushes, they at length reached the door, and knocked for admittance. They waited for some time in silence and almost in darkness, but no sound answered their demand: it seemed as if it were already the house of the dead; and the chill breath of evening, as it sighed through the wilderness around, although it broke the silence, added to the sepulchral horror of the scene. The noise of a door opening was now heard at some distance in the interior of the building, and a sound followed, resembling the hissing of a cauldron when it boils. The visitors knocked again, and in a few seconds a window was raised, and the old female domestic inquired, in a sharp and cracked voice, what was their business. Dr. S- replied by the usual question-" Is your master at home?" "My master at home!" shrieked the sybil, in a tone of the utmost astonishment;" you are the first that has asked the question in my time;

and were it only from curiosity to see what you are like, I would almost be tempted to take the trouble of opening the door;and what should hinder if it likes me? If the house of the Ormonds could ever be without a master, this is surely the moment of interregnum." But as she ran on mumbling in this manner, with all the garrulity of age, an expression of malice crossed her withered features, and reverting to the question :"Home? "quoth he-" is Ormond at home?" She cried in a sharper tone-" No, not yet; but he is fast posting-he has reached the threshold-his hand is on the latch-and, by my sooth, a hot and hearty welcome he will get!" Dr. S―, somewhat shocked by an illusion which he could not misunderstand, ordered her in a peremptory tone to open the door, adding, that understanding her master was unwell, he had called, as a neighbour and a medical man, to offer his assistance.

:

He had no sooner spoken the words, than the door suddenly and noiselessly opened, and a man who had apparently been listening to the dialogue, seizing hold of the visitor's arm, literally dragged him into the house. If you be a medical man," said he, "come in, in the name of heaven! Save his life," he continued: "save his life but for one hour, and I will make you rich-rich," be added, with emphasis, pressing the arm be still held with a skeleton gripe, as he repeated the argumentum ad hominem. Miss S followed them up the narrow staircase, and in another minute the whole party were in the invalid's room. A single glance was sufficient to convince them that assistance came to late. Ormond was sitting in an arm chair, his head reclining on the back, his hands banging lifeless by his sides, his eyes fixed and glazed, and his shrunk face covered with the waxy hue of death. Their conductor was apparently, a much younger man, probably not more than thirty-five; he was tall and wellformed, but stooped much his dress consisted of a jacket and trowsers, the former without sleeves, and his bony arms were naked to the shoulders. His clothing and the circumstance of his face and hands being daubed with soot, might have given him the appearance of some inferior Vulcan of a smithy, had it not been for a redeeming expression of mental superiority in his countenance, indicated chiefly by a very commanding forehead, and remarkably bright and searching eyes. He stood for some moments in the middle of the room, gazing on the strangers with a bewildered air, like one altogether unused to the presence of his kind; the graceful and feminine form of the young lady seemed in particular, to attract his admiration; and when she had drawn off her glove, he touched her hand, as one would examine a bauble, leaving on the fair skin the marks of his own sooty fingers, while his eyes became radiant with almost boyish delight. Starting suddenly, however, he turned away and approached the chair of the invalid, where Dr. S assisted by the old woman, was engaged in the few offices of kindness which his situation required or admitted of. "Make haste," said the dying man, with a feeble gesture of impatience, as he recognised his apprentice. "It is impossible; " replied the other," you must live for at least half an hour! but I will go and try again." 'Then I will live!" said Ormond; but a rattling noise in his throat interrupted his words, and gave the lie to his assertion. Is it fair," he continued, with renewed energy, "that after a whole lifetime of labour, I should be half an hour too late for my reward?" Hush, master dear!" said the comforting beldame, in a low hypocritical whine. "Remember that a better man then you-aye, the beginner of you all-was three centuries too soon for his reward; be thankful for the length you have gone, and die in peace." "Hag!" said Ormond, with the feeble fury of the dying; "I tell you I will not die; no, not till I please -not till it wills me to let forth the spirit!" Then, in the frenzy which sometimes precedes dissolution, he imagined Dr. S to be, in real and palpable presence, that inevitable enemy whom he dreaded and defied; and springing from his chair with the last effort of departing life, he grappled at his throat. I will not die!" he shrieked : "You have no power; do you not know me? I am Ormond, the foe of Death, destined before

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