A solitary monk is prowling around in the moonlit cathedral; he has a brow of stony marble, he has raven hair, and he falters out the name of Agathe. He has said adieu to that fair one, and to her sister Peace, that lieth in her grave. He has loved, and loves, the silent Agathe. He was the son of a Crusader, "And Julio had fain Have been a warrior, but his very brain Grew fevered at the sickly thought of death, And to be stricken with a want of breath." On the whole he did well not to enter the service. Mr. Aytoun has here written--"A rum Cove for a hussar." "And he would say A curse be on their laurels. And anon Was Julio forgotten and his line-- No wonder for this frenzied tale of mine." How? asks Aytoun, nor has the grammatical enigma yet been unriddled. "Oh! he was wearied of this passing scene! But loved not Death; his purpose was between Life and the grave; and it would vibrate there Like a wild bird that floated far and fair Betwixt the sun and sea!" So "he became monk," and was sorry he had done so, especially when he met a pretty maid, "And this was Agathe, young Agathe, A motherless fair girl," whose father was a kind of Dombey, for "When she smiled He bade no father's welcome to the child, But even told his wish, and will'd it done, For her to be sad-hearted, and a nun!" So she "took the dreary veil." They met like a blighted Isabella and Lorenzo: "They met many a time In the lone chapels after vesper chime, They met in love and fear." Then, one day, "He heard it said: Poor Julio, thy Agathe is dead." She died "Like to a star within the twilight hours Of morning, and she was not! Some have thought The Lady Abbess gave her a mad draught." Here Mr. Aytoun, with sympathy, writes "Damn her!" (the Lady Abbess, that is) and suggests that thought must be read "thaft." Through "the arras of the gloom" (arras is good), the pale breezes are moaning, and Julio is wan as stars unseen for paleness. However, he lifts the tombstone "as it were lightsome as a summer gladness." "A summer gladness," remarks Mr. Aytoun, "may possibly weigh about half-an- ounce." Julio came on a skull, a haggard one, in the grave, and Mr. Aytoun kindly designs a skeleton, ringing a bell, and crying "Dust ho!" Now go, and give your poems to your friends! Finally Julio unburies Agathe:--