8. 
And in fervent pray’r he knelt on the ground,
Till the abbey bell struck One: 
His feverish blood ran chill at the sound: 
A voice hollow and horrible murmured around—­ 45
‘The term of thy penance is done!’

9. 
Grew dark the night;
The moonbeam bright
Waxed faint on the mountain high;
And, from the black hill, 50
Went a voice cold and still,—­
‘Monk! thou art free to die.’

10. 
Then he rose on his feet,
And his heart loud did beat,
And his limbs they were palsied with dread; 55
Whilst the grave’s clammy dew
O’er his pale forehead grew;
And he shuddered to sleep with the dead.

11. 
And the wild midnight storm
Raved around his tall form, 60
As he sought the chapel’s gloom: 
And the sunk grass did sigh
To the wind, bleak and high,
As he searched for the new-made tomb.

12. 
And forms, dark and high, 65
Seemed around him to fly,
And mingle their yells with the blast: 
And on the dark wall
Half-seen shadows did fall,
As enhorrored he onward passed. 70

13. 
And the storm-fiends wild rave
O’er the new-made grave,
And dread shadows linger around. 
The Monk called on God his soul to save,
And, in horror, sank on the ground. 75

14. 
Then despair nerved his arm
To dispel the charm,
And he burst Rosa’s coffin asunder. 
And the fierce storm did swell
More terrific and fell, 80
And louder pealed the thunder.

15. 
And laughed, in joy, the fiendish throng,
Mixed with ghosts of the mouldering dead: 
And their grisly wings, as they floated along,
Whistled in murmurs dread. 85

16. 
And her skeleton form the dead Nun reared
Which dripped with the chill dew of hell. 
In her half-eaten eyeballs two pale flames appeared,
And triumphant their gleam on the dark Monk glared,
As he stood within the cell. 90

17. 
And her lank hand lay on his shuddering brain;
But each power was nerved by fear.—­
’I never, henceforth, may breathe again;
Death now ends mine anguished pain.—­
The grave yawns,—­we meet there.’ 95

18. 
And her skeleton lungs did utter the sound,
So deadly, so lone, and so fell,
That in long vibrations shuddered the ground;
And as the stern notes floated around,
A deep groan was answered from hell.

NOTE: 
3.—­Sister Rosa:  Ballad, 1811.