exclaimed the steward, fixing on her a look o fiery and suspicious indignation.

"The guards would come in," she answered sullenly; "they were more than half frozen as they stood in the open air. They are all gone now; and, drunk as they are, they have managed to bar and bolt us up securely enough. If the house were on fire, neither cat nor mouse could escape for their lives. They have piled huge stones against the door by way of additional security. But here is your food; you must want it badly enough, methinks, after such a freezing day as we have had.”

Joyce took the large drinking glass she offered him, and quaffed off its contents. She then produced a flagon of whiskey, the last remains of a long-hoarded treasure, and pledged nim in a bumper. The lamp which stood on the table burned too dimly to light even the small confined chamber in which they were: Fanga put on her spectacles. She said nothing to Joyce, whose reckless daring sometimes awed her; but presently she thought she saw something standing in a corner of the room: she

looked round again, it appeared like a thin shadow, but it stole along the wall, and gradually seemed to vanish "as breath into the wind." Few could be found less likely to be affected with dreams of an excited imagination than the old and withered beldame: but she was guilty, therfore fearful. She continued to fix her eyes so long upon the opposite wall, that Joyce sternly demanded what she was dreaming of.

"That this is our parting meal,” cried the

66

woman. drink, man, drink, and don't be cast

down, (there is no dark and light in the grave,)—as they say the proud Earl is, up yonder at the Abbey."

"Is he cast down ?" cried Joyce, with a grin of malignant pleasure; "then will I be merry." He poured out a large glass of the fiery liquid, and swallowed it at a draught. "Yes, woman, I have made my enemies suffer, and I have not done with them yet. The great lord, after all his proud, ambitious schemes, now limits himself to one very humble desire; he would beg the forgiveness of his mad wife. Poor man! it is almost a pity that he cannot

see her now, with her skeleton figure, and hollow voice; one look, or one word, would soon break the spell, I fancy."

Fanga looked at the wall and shuddered. "Woman, unbar that door!" he continued, starting to his feet," the hour is come in which I will satisfy my vengeance as far as I now can. She shall die, not by poison, but by this sword and he unsheathed a weapon which had been concealed in the vaults below.

"And if Edwin comes in your absence," asked Fanga, "what am I to say to him?"

Nothing human can venture forth for some hours, at least," he answered, looking from the grated window. "The guards have left us. We are now secure and undisturbed--unlock the door, I tell you."

Fanga looked askance at the wall. No shadow appeared on it-all was still and dark. She then slowly began to remove panels which were fastened over the door, to conceal it from view; and, after turning the key in the lock, she was stepping back to let Joyce pass her, when suddenly, with a loud shriek, she dropped the

light on the floor, and rushed to the other end of the apartment. A tremendous drift of snow had fallen on the roof of the hut, shaking it like a cradle, and a blast of wind rushed up from the subterraneous vaults, and overthrew every article of furniture in the room.

"It is a judgment upon us," cried the woman, rising from the floor, on which she had fallen prostrate, grasping the arm of the equally astonished Joyce: "stay here, don't venture down."

"Mad idiot,” he exclaimed, shaking her off, "this is the very moment for my purpose. Hold the lamp :" but, paralyzed by the effects of his long illness, the arm of the steward failed him at the hour of need. He felt the necessity of recovering his strength for the attempt which he was to make this night to escape from the hands of justice; and having long before impressed upon the mind of his associate the necessity of destroying the evidence of one who, if discovered alive, would be conclusive against them, he determined upon delegating the deed he meditated to his companion. The old woman, it was true, was feeble; but she would have to

contend with a still more fragile being; and though his own limbs at the moment refused to aid his will, he whould still be sufficiently near to compel the more active Fanga to perform his bidding. Urging her by threats, and by the promise to reveal to her the place in which he had concealed the treasures accumulated in a long life of villany; and giving her a heavy purse of gold as an earnest of the future, he succeeded to his hope in overcoming the reluctance of the hag:—she took up the weapon.

Fanga still hesitated for a few seconds, and then gave one look at the steward's pale quivering features, and disappeared. Joyce stood at the door, and gazed after the receding light until his eyes were almost blinded with the exertion. He was left entirely in the dark,how dreadful is darkness to the murderer! His blood seemed frozen in his veins; and, scarcely able to support himself, he clung to the door, and continued to stretch forward in hopes of catching some distant stream of cheering light from the lamp of his companion in crime. He clutched the door convulsively, as