h ends?"

"O no; I think it not. Heaven cannot stimulate to such unheard-of
outrage. The agent was not good, but evil."

"Nay, my dear girl," said my friend, "lay aside these fancies. Neither
angel nor devil had any part in this affair."

"You misunderstand me," I answered; "I believe the agency to be external
and real, but not supernatural."

"Indeed!" said he, in an accent of surprize. "Whom do you then suppose
to be the agent?"

"I know not. All is wildering conjecture. I cannot forget Carwin. I
cannot banish the suspicion that he was the setter of these snares. But
how can we suppose it to be madness? Did insanity ever before assume
this form?"

"Frequently. The illusion, in this case, was more dreadful in its
consequences, than any that has come to my knowledge; but, I repeat that
similar illusions are not rare. Did you never hear of an instance which
occurred in your mother's family?"

"No. I beseech you relate it. My grandfather's death I have understood
to have been extraordinary, but I know not in what respect. A brother,
to whom he was much attached, died in his youth, and this, as I have
heard, influenced, in some remarkable way, the fate of my grandfather;
but I am unacquainted with particulars."

"On the death of that brother," resumed my friend, "my father was seized
with dejection, which was found to flow from two sources. He not only
grieved for the loss of a friend, but entertained the belief that his
own death would be inevitably consequent on that of his brother. He
waited from day to day in expectation of the stroke which he predicted
was speedily to fall upon him. Gradually, however, he recovered his
cheerfulness and confidence. He married, and performed his part in
the world with spirit and activity. At the end of twenty-one years it
happened that he spent the summer with his family at an house which he
possessed on the sea coast in Cornwall. It was at no great distance
from a cliff which overhung the ocean, and rose into the air to a great
height. The summit was level and secure, and easily ascended on the land
side. The company frequently repaired hither in clear weather, invited
by its pure airs and extensive prospects. One evening in June my father,
with his wife and some friends, chanced to be on this spot. Every one
was happy, and my father's imagination seemed particularly alive to the
grandeur of the scenery.

"Suddenly, however, his limbs trembled and his features betrayed alarm