appeared to urge him on; and though his limbs failed not, though he
staggered not in his lightning speed, yet did the foam at his mouth, the
thick flakes of perspiration on his body, and the steam that enveloped
him as in a dense vapor, denote how distressed the unhappy being in
reality was.

At last--at last a faint tinge was visible above the eastern horizon;
gradually the light increased and put to flight the stars.

But now the Oriental sky was to some extent obscured with clouds; and
the Wehr-Wolf gnashed his teeth with rage, and uttered a savage howl, as
if impatient of the delay of dawn.

His speed began to relax; the infernal influence which had governed him
for so many hours already grew less stern, less powerful, and as the
twilight shone forth more plainly in proportion did the Wehr-Wolf's
velocity diminish.

Suddenly a piercing chill darted through his frame, and he fell in
strong convulsions upon the ground, in the midst of the same wood where
his transformation had taken place on the preceding evening.

The sun rose angrily, imparting a lurid, reddened hue to the dark clouds
that hung upon the Oriental heaven, as if the mantling curtains of a
night's pavilion strove to repel the wooing kisses of the morn; and the
cold chill breeze made the branches swing to and fro with ominous
flapping, like the wings of the fabulous Simoorg.

But in the midst of the appalling spasmodic convulsions, with direful
writhings on the soil, and with cries of bitter anguish, the Wehr-Wolf
gradually threw off his monster-shape; and at the very moment when the
first sunbeam penetrated the wood and glinted on his face he rose a
handsome, young, and perfect man once more!

CHAPTER XIII.

NISIDA'S EMOTIONS--THE DISGUISE--THE PLOT.

We must now return to Nisida, whom we left gazing from the window of the
Riverola mansion, at the moment when Wagner rushed away from the
vicinity of his lady-love on the approach of sunset.

The singularity of his conduct--the look of ineffable horror and anguish
which he cast upon her, ere he parted from her presence--and the
abruptness of his departure, filled her mind with the most torturing
misgivings, and with a thousand wild fears.

Had his senses suddenly left him? was he the prey to fits of mental
aberration which would produce so extraordinary an effect upon him? had
he taken a sudden loathing and disgust to herself? or had he
_discovered_ anything in respect to her which ha