brought  skill  to  the  hands  which  then  guided  thee,  and  in  the
red  path  of  battle  thou  hast  never  waved  in  vain. Be  stained
but  once  more  with  human  blood,  and  I  will  prize  every  drop
of  that  blood  beyond  all  the  triumphs  thou  hast  brought  me  ! "
Yes,  it  had  been  with  a  fiery  and  intense  delight  that  I  had
learned  that  Montreuil  would  have  companions  to  his  flight  in
lawless  and  hardened  men,  who  would  never  yield  him  a  pris-
oner without  striking  for  his  rescue;  and  I  knew  enough  of
the  courageous  and  proud  temper  of  my  proposed  victim  to
feel  assured  that,  priest  as  he  was,  he  would  not  hesitate  to
avail  himself  of  the  weapons  of  his  confederates,  or  to  aid  them
with  his  own. Then  would  it  be  lawful  to  oppose  violence  to
his  resistance,  and  with  my  own  hand  to  deal  the  death-blow
of  retribution. Still  as  these  thoughts  flashed  over  me,  my
heart  grew  harder,  and  my  blood  rolled  more  burningly  through
my  veins. "They  come  not,  Gerald  returns  not,"  I  said,  as
ray  eye  dwelt  on  the  clock,  and  saw  the  minutes  creep  one  after
the  other — "it  matters  not — he  at  last  shall  not  escape! —
were  he  girt  by  a  million,  I  would  single  him  from  the  herd  ;
onestrokeof  this  right  hand  is  all  that  I  ask  of  life,  then  let  them
avenge  him  if  they  will."  Thus  resolved,  and  despairing  at
last  of  the  return  of  Gerald,  I  left  the  tower,  locked  the  outer
door,  as  a  still  further  security  against  my  prisoner's  escape,
and  repaired  with  silent,  but  swift,  strides  to  the  beach  by  the
Castle  Cave. It  wanted  about  half  an  hour  to  midnight;  the'
night  was  still  and  breathless,  a  dim  mist  spread  frorh  sea  to
sky,  through  which  the  stars  gleamed  forth  heavily,  and  at  dis-
tant intervals. The  moon  was  abroad,  but  the  vapors  that  sur-
rounded her  gave  a  watery  and  sicklied  dulness  to  her  light,
and  wherever  in  the  niches  and  hollows  of  the  cliff,  the  shad-
ows fell,  all  was  utterly  dark,  and  unbroken  by  the  smallest
ray  ;  only  along  the  near  waves  of  the  sea,  and  the  whiter  parts
of  the  level  sand  were  objects  easily  discernible. 