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Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. THE RUINED TOWER AND ITS TENANT
CHAPTER II. THE FATAL BIRTHDAY FEÊTE
CHAPTER III. HORROR AND MYSTERY
CHAPTER IV. A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
CHAPTER V. THE APPARITION OF THE RUINED TOWER
CHAPTER VI. THE INMATE OF THE CAVE
CHAPTER VII. WHAT LADY VOLANTE SAW
CHAPTER VIII. WHAT THE FISHERMEN SAID THEY SAW
CHAPTER IX. MAD HAM
CHAPTER X. CONFLICTING TESTIMONY
CHAPTER XI. THE THREE MYSTERIES
CHAPTER XII. THE STRANGE LADY AT STONY FELLS.
CHAPTER XIII. THE CAGED BEAUTY
CHAPTER XIV. CASTLE BELLE ISLE
CHAPTER XV. BERRY IRVINE'S DANGER
CHAPTER XVI. DEMONDIKE GIVES UP THE SECRET
CHAPTER XVII. THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
CHAPTER XVIII. IN THE PALACE ZAVIESKI
CHAPTER XIX. THE PERPLEXED COMMUNITY
CHAPTER XX. VISIONS
CHAPTER XXI. FOUND
CHAPTER XXII. THE EARL AND COUNTESS AT HOME.
CHAPTER XXIII. THE MOST BRILLIANT MATCH OF THE SEASON
CHAPTER XXIV. IN THE CORRIDOR.
CHAPTER XXV. DRIVEN INTO DELIRIUM
CHAPTER XXVI. "I WILL NOT LIVE WITH HIM"
CHAPTER XXVII. THE BRIDE'S HATE
CHAPTER XXVIII. AT BELLE ISLE
CHAPTER XXIX. THE APPARITION IN THE PARK
CHAPTER XXX. THE WITCH AT WORK
An excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I
THE RUINED TOWER AND ITS TENANT
Here, above, around, below,
On mountain or in glen,
Nor tree, nor shrub, nor plant, nor flower,
Nor aught of vegetative power,
The weary eye may ken;
For all is rock at random thrown,
Black waves, bare rocks and banks of stone.
--SIR WALTER SCOTT.
Why, what art thou,
So withered and so wild in thy attire,
That lookst not like th' inhabitants of earth,
And yet are on't? Thou shouldst be woman,
And yet thy beard forbids us to interpret
That thou art so.
--SHAKESPEARE.
SOME few years ago, in an ancient family of Cornwall, in England, a series of events occurred of a nature so extraordinary as to seem incredible had not their authenticity been positively proven in the courts of law.
For some time we hesitated to use in fiction these facts, which seemed too marvelous even for a romantic narrative; but now we have decided to give the strange history under the guise of the following story--reminding any critic who may think the incidents "unreal," "impossible," that Shakespeare himself has warned us to
"With caution judge of probability;
Things deemed unnatural, even impossible,
Experience oft hath proven to be true."
On the wildest part of the coast of Cornwall there is a frightful ravine cloven down through the cliffs, several hundred feet in depth, near the sea, but gradually lessening toward the interior, until half a mile away it disappears on the down.
At high tide this ravine is filled with water to half its depth and length. At low tide it is dry.
The chasm is called by the natives "Demondike," and there is a local tradition that it was fashioned out of the solid rocks by imps of darkness in one night.
But scientists hold that it was riven by some convulsion of nature in one moment.
Both science and tradition agree, however, that it had existed from a period to which the memory of man goes not back.
This portion of the coast belonged to the vast landed estate of the Hawkes, Earls of Hawkewood, whose ancient seat was situated on the edge of a deep forest some three miles back of the sea.
