midnight
God grants , that to punish thy falsehood and pride My Ghost at thy marriage should sit by thy side , Should tax thee with perjury , claim thee as Bride And bear thee away to the Grave ! ' Thus saying , his arms round the Lady He wound , While loudly She shrieked in dismay ; Then sank with his prey through the wide-yawning ground : Nor ever again was Fair Imogine found , Or the Spectre who bore her away . Not long lived the Baron ; and none since that time To inhabit the Castle presume : For Chronicles tell , that by order sublime There Imogine suffers the pain of her crime , And mourns her deplorable doom . At midnight four times in each year does her Spright When Mortals in slumber are bound , Arrayed in her bridal apparel of white , Appear in the Hall with the Skeleton-Knight , And shriek , as He whirls her around . While They drink out of skulls newly torn from the grave , Dancing round them the Spectres are seen : Their liquor is blood , and this horrible Stave They howl . -- ` To the health of Alonzo the Brave , And his Consort , the False Imogine ! ' The perusal of this story was ill-calculated to dispel Antonia 's melancholy .