Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

THE

INVISIBLE ENEMY;

OR,

THE MINES OF WIELITSKA.

A Polish Legendary Romance.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

BY T. P. LATHY,

AUTHOR OF

USURPATION, THE PARACLETE, &c. &c.

[blocks in formation]

CODLEAN

16 NOV 1959

LIBRARY

INTRODUCTION.

NOT far from the Carpathian, or, as they are now termed, the Krapae Mountains, which separate Poland from Transylvania, and at the distance of eight leagues from the city of Cracow, there formerly existed an ancient building, called the Castle of Vistulof. The stupendous ruins with which it was surrounded, afforded, at once, a picturesque and awful scene of the grandeur and decadence of the noblest of human works, and announced that it had been, at first, composed of a vast pile, which the consuming hand of time, and the devastations of long and disastrous wars, had

VOL. I.

B

had reduced to an edifice of very moderate extent. At one place were seen fragments of buildings really detached from each other, but seemingly united by perspective, and lofty masses of ruins, admirable for their elevation and boldness of architecture, as also for their sturdy solidity; at another place appeared mouldering walls, thick, heavy turrets, and cumbrous battlements, which, in their state of decay, seemed to make the earth groan beneath their pressure. It would be impossible, without the aid of the pencil, to give an adequate idea of the saliant towers, raised at intervals, the greatest part of whose crown-work had yielded to time, after having, for centuries, resisted the violence of the most furious storms; of the lofty ramparts, angular piles composed of massy blocks, and of the buttresses, whose support should seem to

have

« AnteriorContinuar »