Alice at that moment was dying,
and had "prayed powerfully that she might see her master's son and renew
her warning." Observe the difference between this and any vulgar ghost
story. From the very first we feel that the Superior Powers are against
this match, and that it will be cursed. The beginning of the curse lies
far back in the hereditary temper of the Ravenswoods, in the intrigues
of the Ashtons, and in the feuds of the times. When Love intervenes we
discover in an instant that he is not sent by the gods to bring peace,
but that he is the awful instrument of destruction. The spectral
appearance of Alice at the hour of her departure, on the very spot "on
which Lucy Ashton had reclined listening to the fatal tale of woe . . .
holding up her shrivelled hand as if to prevent his coming more near,"
is necessary in order to intimate that the interdict is pronounced not
by a mortal human being but by a dread, supernal authority.
SEPTEMBER, 1798. "THE LYRICAL BALLADS."
The year 1798 was a year of great excitement: England was alone in the
struggle against Buonaparte; the mutiny at the Nore had only just been
quelled: the 3 per cent.
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