and held him back. He
struggled, and shrieked for water--for but one drop of water to save
his life! But he held the old man firmly, and watched his agonies with
greedy eyes; and when his lifeless head fell forward on his bosom, he
rolled the corpse from him with his feet.

'When the fever left him, and consciousness returned, he awoke to find
himself rich and free, to hear that the parent who would have let him
die in jail--WOULD! who HAD let those who were far dearer to him than
his own existence die of want, and sickness of heart that medicine
cannot cure--had been found dead in his bed of down. He had had all
the heart to leave his son a beggar, but proud even of his health and
strength, had put off the act till it was too late, and now might
gnash his teeth in the other world, at the thought of the wealth his
remissness had left him. He awoke to this, and he awoke to more. To
recollect the purpose for which he lived, and to remember that his enemy
was his wife's own father--the man who had cast him into prison, and
who, when his daughter and her child sued at his feet for mercy,
had spurned them from his door. Oh, how he cursed the weakness that
prevented him from being up, and active, in his scheme of vengeance! 'He
caused himself to be carried from the scene of his loss and misery,
and conveyed to a quiet residence on the sea-coast; not in the hope of
recovering his peace of mind or happiness, for both were fled for ever;
but to restore his prostrate energies, and meditate on his darling
object. And here, some evil spirit cast in his way the opportunity for
his first, most horrible revenge.

'It was summer-time; and wrapped in his gloomy thoughts, he would issue
from his solitary lodgings early in the evening, and wandering along
a narrow path beneath the cliffs, to a wild and lonely spot that had
struck his fancy in his ramblings, seat himself on some fallen fragment
of the rock, and burying his face in his hands, remain there for
hours--sometimes until night had completely closed in, and the long
shadows of the frowning cliffs above his head cast a thick, black
darkness on every object near him.

'He was seated here, one calm evening, in his old position, now and then
raising his head to watch the flight of a sea-gull, or carry his eye
along the glorious crimson path, which, commencing in the middle of the
ocean, seemed to lead to its very verge where the sun was setting, when
the profound stillness of the