But the pang is past, and the worst is known.

Now, then, back to those things that never die--restless projects and daring schemes.

That hag's curse keeps my blood cold still, and this solitude has something in it weird and awful.
Ha!--what sudden light is that ?" The light which caught Montreal's eye broke forth almost like a star, scarcely larger, indeed, but more red and intense in its ray.

Of itself it was nothing uncommon, and might have shone either from convent or cottage.

But it streamed from a part of the Aventine which contained no habitations of the living, but only the empty ruins and shattered porticoes, of which even the names and memories of the ancient inhabitants were dead.