100 



RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



of the most crafty, yet lie could not disprove Maud's assertion that 

 Arthur Morris had survived the moment which he thought his 

 last, and the signature resembled his crooked and confused hand- 

 writing. But though Idwal bore his examination with stubborn, 

 and sometimes shrewd, zeal in Lillian's favour, his imperfect in- 

 tellect betrayed him into hints which discovered the harper's 

 share in the transaction. That imperfect intellect saved him from 

 the fatal consequences of the forgery, when it seemed undeniably 

 proved. Pardon, in consideration of her age, and other circum- 

 stances, was granted to Maud, whose sins and struggles for the 

 advancement of her daughter ended in utter ruin. She survived 

 only a few days, and Lillian was seen no more. 



But the total disappearance of the harper, who had acted so 

 remarkable a part in this transaction, could not be explained. All 

 the bridal crowd at Llanbadarn had noticed his lean, unearthly as- 

 pect, and none knew, or could conjecture, how he came, except 

 the driver of the hearse I have once mentioned, who remembered 

 that a spectre-shape in such attire had travelled some miles in his 

 vehicle, with an air of composure which implied too intimate ac- 

 quaintance with the dead. This shadowy harper, therefore, was 

 pronounced to be the ghost or spirit of old Arthur Morris, who 

 had visited the church and hovered round his house before his de- 

 cease, according to the usual privileges of such apparitions. But 

 as signing wills is not among the allowed performances of sha- 

 dows, this busy phantom spread deep terror among the rustics of 

 this district, and neither the road where it had journeyed, nor the 

 chapel where its music had been heard, were ever entered after 

 twilight. Strange melodies were said to sound in the lonely hol- 

 low called Eorphian, or the place of the dead, near the river Ehei- 

 diol, and death-hghts appeared on its banks; from whence the 

 simple natives concluded that Lillian had taken refuge from shame 

 and penury under its waters. No human resident ventured to set • 

 tie near them, except a creature so withered and wild in its attire 

 that it could hardly be called female. As this creature seemed 

 old, poor, and desolate, the few who lived in the neighbourhood 

 called her the Witch of Rheidiol^ or the Water Sprite, though 

 she made no pretension to magic power except begging milk or 

 bread, and paying for it with a blessing. Either fear or charity 

 induced the poor cottagers to be liberal in their gifts of food ; and 

 dances, no less marvellous than the black ballet-master's in ISTor- 



