THE moon shone clear, the night was sultry, and the air was hushed into that heavy calm, which casts a death-like silence on the final departure of day, when Henry, Prince of Wales, after his retirement to France, from a late defeat, was riding through that part of Normandy, in which was erected the interesting tower. He stopped his horse to admire a scene so peculiarly romantic, and which bore so fairy / like an appearance. On the summit of a fine, grassy hill stood a tower; and, from the rude haste with which it had been formed, appeared to have been erected in ages the most remote. Aromatic shrubs and flowers were elegantly planted round the level on which it stood: while a moon, at its full lustre, reflected the shadow of this apparent piece of antiquity on the distant hills. And, as he turned his eyes from the building they had first rested on, he perceived in the valley, the sumptuous tomb of alabaster, which the countess had erected over her husband. It represented an aged knight, and another in the flower of youth, both stabbing each other, and in the attitude of falling; a female form, in silent agony, hung over them; and waved her hand, in disgust and horror, / to a figure of Hymen, whose torch was represented extinguished in blood!

As the prince gazed in astonishment at the scene before him, the soft airs of the lute harmonized the dead and solemn silence of the night. Enthusiastic as brave, the young hero imagined himself in the regions of enchantment. He tied his horse to a tree; and proceeded, on foot, to take a nearer view of the tower.

A door, at its rugged entrance, stood half open; he perceived a mourning robe flowing in drapery on the floor; while a milk-white thin arm struck the chords of, while its partner supported, a lute.