University of Virginia Library

It was in the far-gone times of mystery and darkness, when Religion shrouded her form of lofty and solemn
beauty within the shadow of the Gothic altar; when Superstition, companioned by her weird and mystic sisters,
Legend and Romance, sat enthroned on every castle-tower, and dwelt in every palace-hall; when the voice of
the ancient Death, shuddering with horror at the sight of unnatural crime, was heard in the court of the Unknown,
and the ocean of man's wickedness came surging to the very battlements of Heaven: it was in this time that the
world was awe-stricken, by a history of woe so dread, crime so fearful, and mystery so dark, that even the denizens
of the convent, where all was fraud and wrong, grew pale with affright; and the tyrants in their castles, where
every stone was crimsoned with human blood, shrieked in tones of terror and dismay, “It is not so!—it is not so!”