490 The White Spectre of Malinanza ; [MAY, 



been called in by the peasantry as the shortest and most reasonable way 

 of accounting for a power which seemed to gather strength by each effort 

 to weaken it. It was not enough to believe that he was the lord of a 

 fierce and increasing band of choice spirits, who ranged wood and 

 mountain, and nobly set the paltry dyssyllables meum and tuum at 

 defiance ; for a white phantom of mist was seen nightly to glide round 

 the towers of the baron's castle ; strange lights the usual concomitants 

 of haunted dwellings sent blue and lurid rays athwart the lake then, 

 deepening to a glaring red, threw a ruddy glow on the opposite moun- 

 tains. Then the fearful chief had as usual in all these cases his mys- 

 terious chamber in a lone and tall turret, where nightly he watched the 

 course of the heavenly bodies, and called down their baleful influence 

 on earth. The spirits of darkness were his agents ; and the night-wind 

 which blew from his castle brought dire events on its dusky wings. Very 

 few, excepting by daylight, ventured to eye the castle, lest some foul or 

 hideous spectacle on its walls, or at its windows, should blast their 

 senses. 



An event which tended to strengthen the idea of Carmelo's inter- 

 course with the powers of evil, was the untimely and mysterious death 

 of the heir of Ferrando, in the prime of health and manhood. The brow 

 of the unfortunate Costantino now began to darken with fearful convic- 

 tions of forebodings. He made another unsuccessful appeal to the pre- 

 occupied governor, and then summoned home in despair his youngest 

 son, now the heir to all his lands, and the sole hope of his still powerful 

 but declining house. 



Brave and noble in person and disposition, Alberto di Ferrando had 

 been educated in a foreign university, had served valiantly in a foreign 

 army, and received knighthood at the hands of one of the first monarchs 

 of the age. He remembered little of his father's country, his father's 

 residence, or his father's feuds. With the name of the dread enemy of 

 his house he was not, however, unacquainted, and with generous promp- 

 titude gave up his own successful career to protect and support the 

 declining years of his parent. On his home ward- way, he visited the 

 residence of a Castellano, to whose hospitality his father had recom- 

 mended him, and with whose daughter he received a paternal hint to 

 fall in love. The latter injunction was far from being agreeable to the 

 spirited young chief, as his heart had, more than two years before this 

 period, taken the unfilial liberty of making a selection for itself, and had 

 even stood the test of twelve months' absence from the object of its 

 devotion. That object was no other than Portia di Baveno, the niece 

 and the ward of his father's enemy, whom (by one of those fatuities 

 with which legend-readers must be familiar) he had met and loved in a 

 foreign country, ere the will of dying parents had consigned her to the 

 care and the dwelling of the dark-browed lord of Malinanza. 



The young knight, however, visited, as enjoined, the Castellan ally of 

 his house ; saw the lady ; found her no trial at all on his constancy j and, 

 fatigued with his journey, was preparing early to retire to his couch, 

 when the good baron, drawing him into close conversation, began to 

 descant on the miserable political state of the country ; and, on conduct- 

 ing him to his chamber, commended to his special care a sealed packet 

 to the Baron Ferrando. 



The young knight proceeded on his way before cock-crowing of the 

 morrow. As he prosecuted his journey, he began to think rather unea- 



