added to those which political defamation had unsparingly inflicted. He had added his approval, however, to that of the guardians of my Bertha; and, a very short time after this, saw us united and fixed at Wyeburne Hall.

"Here, however, the prospect which, in the fervour of youthful passion and a heated imagination, I had fondly hoped to realise, faded gradually from my view. Not that I had any reason to blame the conduct or the kindness of Bertha; she was all that she had promised to be, all that a bruised heart, whose secrets she had lain before me with the most guileless simplicity, would allow her to be. It was to my own impatience in not allowing time for the wound to heal, to my own madness and credulity in listening to suggestions which I ought instantly to have abhorred and despised, that the misery and remorse I now feel is to be attributed.

"But let me be brief in giving this melancholy detail; it was, in fact, very shortly after the birth of Helen, and when little more than a twelvemonth had elapsed since our union, that I began to receive anonymous letters, intimat

ing that my wife was still attached to her first admirer, and that, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, she not only kept up a correspondence with this youth, but occasionally had interviews with him in the neighbourhood of the Hall. You will scarcely, perhaps, credit my weakness when I tell you, that though at first I despised these calumnies, which I have since found to have originated with the very wretch himself whose overtures had been rejected, and for the very purpose of effecting the misery which has resulted, yet the repetition gradually and almost insensibly worked upon my mind, occasioning a mixture of doubt and jealousy, that ultimately led to a system of espionnage on my part, of which I cannot now think without the most hearty abhorrence of its meanness and folly.

"The punishment, however, which followed, has been such as may possibly atone, not only for this injury, but for the dreadful, though in some degree unconscious crime into which it plunged me. Yes, my friend, you may well start, for I have to unfold to you what has stained Eustace Montchensey with the heavy

guilt of blood!-Not many months had passed from the period when these infamous reports first reached me, when, on my unexpected return rather late, one summer's evening, from a somewhat distant excursion, I was informed that Bertha had been absent some time; that she had gone out unattended, and had been traced to a remote plantation, on the verge of which she was seen to meet a man closely muffled up; and that they entered it immediately together. Shocked and enraged by this information, which seemed to corroborate all that had been previously insinuated by my unknown correspondent, I instantly seized my rapier, and hastened to the spot described. And here, after cautiously winding my way for some minutes towards the interior of the grove, I discovered the individuals I was in search of. It was a sight which, as you may suppose from the state of mind I was then in, wrought upon my soul even to phrenzy. They appeared to be taking leave of each other: a ray of the setting sun shone full on the face of Bertha, and I could perceive she had been weeping, but the features of the youth were turned from

me. Imagine my feelings as I heard the farewell of affection trembling on their lips, and when I beheld them the next moment locked in each other's embraces. I rushed forward in a paroxysm of fury; a piercing shriek escaped from Bertha, and, calling upon the villain, as I then thought him, to defend himself, I buried my sword, after a sharp but nearly momentary contest, in his bosom.

"It was then that, forgetting for a while the fever of revenge, which had only but the instant before boiled in my veins, I could not but look with horror, and a feeling of remorse, on what I had been led to inflict. Bertha, whom I had loved with the most impassioned fondness, lay stretched before me, apparently lifeless; and my antagonist, speechless and convulsed with pain, seemed to be bleeding to death. My first effort, as soon as I could shake off the paralysing effect of such a spectacle, was, inconsistent as it may appear, to staunch the blood which I had thirsted but the moment before to spill; and then, taking up Bertha in my arms, I brought her safely hither, with the assistance of some peasants, whom I

fortunately met with on the way. She had shown some symptoms of returning life during the act of conveyance; and very soon after she reached home, and had been placed on her bed, her senses, and with them the faculty of speech, were restored. But, good God! what was my astonishment, what my feelings, when I heard her call upon Raymond Neville, upon her brother, as the man whom I had wounded, whom I had, in all probability, slain! For a few moments I stood rivetted to the spot, unable either to speak or move, a spectacle of horror and despair! But no sooner did I recover from the shock, than recollecting the state in which I had left the unhappy victim of my rage, I uttered a loud cry, and rushing out of the room, called upon my servants to follow me. We hastened to the spot; but judge of my amazement, when no traces of the body, save the blood which had been spilt, could be found! I knew it to be impossible that Neville, on the supposition that Nature had again rallied, could, from the loss he had sustained, and its consequent weakness, have himself arisen. Who,