wench-once

Updated: May 29, 2025

An ominous stillness is broken by the dull clank of chains, the muttering of voices, the shuffling of limbs; then a low wail breaks upon the ear, and rises higher and higher, shriller and shriller, until in piercing shrieks it chills the very heart. Now it ceases, and the echoes, like the murmuring winds, die faintly away. "Look in here, now," says Mr. Glentworthy "a likely wench-once she was!"

F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams - Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life