m," said Helen.

Her soft voice fell upon my ears with a singular cadence. With a
fierce laugh I struck my brother to the earth, and rushed forth into
the forest. All that night I must have wandered through its depths. I
found myself at the break of day miles from our mansion, lying beneath
an aged oak. I did not seem to know myself. I cannot now describe the
feelings and thoughts which raged within me. The wild storm which is
now lashing the ocean without my cabin is not more wild and
fierce--the black sky above me is not more dark and gloomy. They
seemed at length to settle into one stern, unchanging emotion, and
that was hatred toward my brother, and a stern determination to
revenge upon him the cruel wrong which had driven me mad.

My path led along the course of a mountain torrent, whose sudden
descent as it hurried toward the river, formed successive water-falls
not unmusical in their cadence. A few purple beech and drooping
willows with here and there a mountain ash, skirted the ravine that
formed its bed; their leaves had fallen before the blasts of autumn,
they seemed emblematic of myself; like me their glory had
departed--they were shorn of their loveliness by the rough storm, left
bare and verdureless in the chilling breath of autumn; the seasons in
their round would restore to them their beauty and their bloom,
clothing their branches again in all the freshness of youth; but what
should give back to me the freshness and youth of the heart? what
restore the desolation of of the soul?

Weak and exhausted, I flung myself down in a rude grotto, which
commanded a view of the foaming stream as it washed the rocks below;
it was a scene fitted to my mood, for I turned in disgust from the
beautiful landscape an opening in the forest revealed--the beauty of
earth had forever passed away from me. That same opening, however,
unfolded to the sight the gray towers of my family mansion, and at
once I started to my feet and bent my course toward them.

At length I reached my home--how hateful every thing about the
venerable building seemed. I stole to my chamber, and falling upon my
couch, slept from pure exhaustion.

It was night when I awoke. I arose, but did not leave my room; seated
by the window with the cold wind of November blowing upon my burning
brow, I nursed my thoughts of vengeance. I forgot that he against whom
I harbored such thoughts was my only brother; I forgot my self-offered
trial of our powers with