The novels of Charles Brockden Brown, consisting of Wieland;or, The transformation. Arthur Mervyn; or, Memoirs of the year 1793. Edgar Huntly; or, Memoirs of a sleep-walker. Jane Talbot. Ormond; or, The secret witness. Clara Howard; or, The enthusiasm of love. With a memoir of the author.

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ORMOND; OR,

stayed, she continued to vent her anguish in exclamations
and sighs and passionate weeping. It did not appear
that any other person was within.
Mr. Thompson, being next day informed of these incidents, endeavoured to enter the house; but his signals,
though loud and frequently repeated, being unnoticed,
he was obliged to gain admission by violence. An old
man, and a female lovely in the midst of emaciation and
decay, were discovered without signs of life. The death
of the latter appeared to have been very recent.
In examining the house, no traces of other inhabitants
were to be found. Nothing serviceable as food was discovered, but the remnants of mouldy bread scattered on
a table. No information could be gathered from neighbours respecting the condition and name of these unfortunate people. They had taken possession of this
house during the rage of this malady, and refrained from
all communication with their neighbours.
There was too much resemblance between this and the
story formerly heard, not to produce the belief that they
related to the same persons. All that remained was to
obtain directions to the proprietor of this dwelling, and
exact from him all that he knew respecting his tenants.
I found in him a man of worth and affability. He
readily related, that a man applied to him for the use
of this house, and that the application was received.
At the beginning of the pestilence, a numerous family
inhabited this tenement, but had died in rapid succession.
This new applicant was the first to apprize him of this
circumstance, and appeared extremely anxious to enter
on immediate possession.
It was intimated to him that danger would arise from
the pestilential condition of the house. Unless cleansed
and purified, disease would be unavoidably contracted.
The inconvenience and hazard this applicant was willing
to encounter, and, at length, hinted that no alternative
was allowed him by his present landlord but to lie in the
street or to procure some other abode.
"What was the external appearance of this person?"
"He was infirm, past the middle age, of melancholy
aspect and indigent garb. A year had since elapsed, and