THE HAUNTED PALACE, OR THE Horrors of Ventoliene; A ROMANCE, By Mrs. YORKE, AUTHOR OF Valley of Collares, Romance of Smyrna, &c. &c. &c. Fra cento affanni e cento Palpito, tremo, e sento Che freddo dalle vene Fugge il mio sangue al cor. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: Printed by C. Stower, King Street, Covent Garden, OTHEC FOR BARLE AND HEMET, ALBEMARLE-STREET, 1801, 249.5.343. THE HAUNTED PALACE, OR The Horrors of Ventoliene. As soon as the company returned to the hotel, they were all anxious to learn each other's sentiments of what they had seen. All expressed their wonder and amazement; but none more so than the captain, as he had been led to expect a very different ceremony. The sacrifices which had been made the time before, when he was there, he thought would be repeated, with VOL. III. B some some more awful ceremonies. He wished to learn from the father, why it was omitted, though it gave him great pleasure to hope he should never see it performed again. The father said, He hoped so too, and he was extremely happy in the idea that those whom he trembled for, a fortnight ago, had so agreeably disappointed him; "as that ceremony," said he, "is never performed, but when a member is, by his perseverance in vice, entered on the black list. That sacrifice is their sacrament, and, by the laws which were instituted in the infancy of this society, the officiating priests, though repugnant to their natures, are obliged to comply, if a member insists on being one of the black associates. Each brother of the white is obliged to drink of the bowl; but, from that moment, they are sworn enemies, and it is the business of each to to counteract the designs of the other. If the number of the black exceed that of the white, a thousand schemes are invented and put into practice, to harrass and distress them. Nothing, that demonical wickedness can devise, but what is tried to effect their purpose, and lead the good, by the most artful means, into the commission of deeds, which, when once perpetrated, they know will prevent their return tỏ their former friends. Hence those crimes, which have so recently caused the death of the five members we saw to-night; their being taken off in one year, has lessened their power, and the unexpected seceding of the brothers now with us, will enable the white to complete their good intentions, respecting the dead at Ventoliene, which, it was prophesied many years ago, would be accomplished, when a parricide, and destroyer of the nearest ties of nature, |