f spring had begun
to fade into a yellow lustre, the flowery verdure of the fields was
changed to a russet hue. A robin chirped on a neighbouring oak, a wren
chattered beneath, swallows twittered around the decayed buildings, the
ludicrous mocking bird sung sportively from the top of the highest elm
and the surrounding groves rung with varying, artless melody; while deep
in the adjacent wilderness the woodcock, hammering on some dry and
blasted trees, filled the woods with reverberant echoes. The Sound was
only ruffled by the lingering breezes, as they idly wandered over its
surface. Long Island, now in possession of the British troops, was
thinly enveloped in smoky vapour; scattered along its shores lay the
numerous small craft and larger ships of the hostile fleet. A few skiffs
were passing and repassing the Sound, and several American gun-boats lay
off a point which jutted out from the main land, far to the eastward.
Numberless summer insects mingled their discordant strains amidst the
weedy herbage. A heavy black cloud was rising in the north west, which
seemed to portend a shower, as the sonorous, distant thunder was at long
intervals distinctly heard.

Melissa walked around the yard, contemplating the varying beauties of
the scene: the images of departed joys--the days when Alonzo had
participated with her in admiring the splendours of rural prospects,
raised in her bosom the sigh of deep regret. She entered the garden and
traversed the alleys, now overgrown with weeds and tufted knot-grass.
The flower beds were choaked with the low running bramble and tangling
five-finger; tall, rank rushes, mullens and daisies, had usurped the
empire of the kitchen garden. The viny arbour was broken, and
principally gone to decay; yet the "lonely wild rose" blushed mournfully
amidst the ruins. As she passed from the garden she involuntarily
stopped at the cemetery: she paused in serious reflection:--"Here, said
she, in this house of gloom rest, in undisturbed silence, my honourable
ancestors, once the active tenants of yonder mansion. Then, throughout
these solitary demesnes, the busy occurrences of life glided in cheerful
circles. Then, these now moss-clad alleys, and this wild weedy garden,
were the resort of the fashionable and the gay. Then, evening music
floated over the fields, while yonder halls and apartments shone in
brilliant illumination. Now all is sad, solitary and dreary, the haunt
of spirits and spectres of namele