eat grief that was consuming him was an occasional
groan, which came up from the great deep of his heart, as though they were
forced out by some unseen or over-mastering power. He was like the tall oak
of the forest when blasted by the fiery thunderbolt! What a sad picture!

At length the exclamation burst forth from his lips, as though the
overcharged heart would relieve itself in words:

"Oh, my God, pity me!" and he clasped his hands, and pressed them upon his
laboring breast, as if to still its tumult. Then came another groan,
accompanied by a deep, soul-desponding "Oh!"

And the strong man was calm. But such a calmness! It seemed as if years of
suffering had stamped their impress upon his brow, and in his face, in
those brief moments of agony! Ah, how true it is, that the soul may grow
old in a day!

After a time he again took up the letters and perused them.

"How artful!" he mused to himself, as he read the one to Eveline. "Every
word is written with studied care, and every sentence conceals a
temptation. Then the last, the postscript, so much to tell her, to excite
her curiosity, as well as operate upon her affections!--The villain! But
she ought not to have yielded to his solicitations; even in her great love
I can find no adequate excuse for her. She knew he was accused of a crime,
and pledged me her solemn word that she would never see him until the
accusation was proved false. But she is gone--_gone_! Oh, what desolation
in the thought! And I am left alone and forsaken in my woe! Ungrateful
child! may heaven reward you as you have dealt by me! No, no, God forbid!
Heaven be merciful to her! But on _him_, on the miscreant who is at the
bottom of all this undutiful conduct, of all the pain it inflicts, may the
fierce lightning of God's vengeance descend in burning wrath, and as a
consuming fire! God of heaven! thou who beholdest the anguish of a stricken
parent's heart, smite him with a curse; aye, pour out upon his forsaken
head the vials of thy hot anger! Give him no rest to his soul, day or
night, until the hour of reckoning shall come!"

Amen! Let that prayer enter the ear of Him who sitteth upon the Throne; and
may He commission the angels of wrath to bear the curse, and heap it upon
the head of the guilty author of all this wretchedness, and of the
unutterable pain inflicted upon _another_ heart!

* * * * *

Bill and Dick proceeded with their prisoner through the dens