He held up his head no longer, forsook all
his usual haunts and occupations, and seemed only to find pleasure in
moping about those apartments in the old castle which the Master of
Ravenswood had last inhabited. He ate without refreshment, and slumbered
without repose; and, with a fidelity sometimes displayed by the canine
race, but seldom by human beings, he pined and died within a year after
the catastrophe which we have narrated.
The family of Ashton did not long survive that of Ravenswood. Sir
William Ashton outlived his eldest son, the Colonel, who was slain in a
duel in Flanders; and Henry, by whom he was succeeded, died unmarried.
Lady Ashton lived to the verge of extreme old age, the only survivor
of the group of unhappy persons whose misfortunes were owing to her
implacability. That she might internally feel compunction, and reconcile
herself with Heaven, whom she had offended, we will not, and we dare
not, deny; but to those around her she did not evince the slightest
symptom either of repentance or remorse. In all external appearance she
bore the same bold, haughty, unbending character which she had displayed
before these unhappy events.
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