er shall go and bring hither the
farrier." Accordingly the brother went: he soon returned. "The farrier,"
he said, "was already on the road." Riego and his companions, who were
absolutely fainting with hunger, sat down to breakfast; but Falkland,
who had finished first, and who had eyed the man since his return with
the most scrutinising attention, withdrew towards the window, looking
out from time to time with a telescope which they had carried about
them, and urging them impatiently to finish. "Why?" said Riego,
"famished men are good for nothing, either to fight or fly--and we
must wait for the farrier." "True," said Falkland, "but--" he stopped
abruptly. Sylva had his eyes on his face at that moment. Falkland's
colour suddenly changed: he turned round with a loud cry. "Up! up!
Riego! Sylva! We are undone--the soldiers are upon us!" "Arm!" cried
Riego, starting up. At that moment Lopez and his brother seized their
own carbines, and levelled them at the betrayed constitutionalists.
"The first who moves," cried the former, "is a dead man!" "Fools!" said
Falkland, with a calm bitterness, advancing deliberately towards them.
He moved only three steps--Lopez fired. Falkland staggered a few paces,
recovered himself, sprang towards Lara, clove him at one blow from the
skull to the jaw, and fell with his victim, lifeless upon the floor.
"Enough!" said Riego to the remaining peasant; "we are your prisoners;
bind us!" In two minutes more the soldiers entered, and they were
conducted to Carolina. Fortunately Falkland was known, when at Paris,
to a French officer of high rank then at Carolina. He was removed to
the Frenchman's quarters. Medical aid was instantly procured. The first
examination of his wound was decisive; recovery was hopeless!

Night came on again, with her pomp of light and shade--the night that
for Falkland had no morrow. One solitary lamp burned in the chamber
where he lay alone with God and his own heart. He had desired his couch
to be placed by the window and requested his attendants to withdraw. The
gentle and balmy air stole over him, as free and bland as if it were to
breathe for him for ever; and the silver moonlight came gleaming through
the lattice and played upon his wan brow, like the tenderness of a bride
that sought to kiss him to repose. "In a few hours," thought he, as he
lay gazing on the high stars which seemed such silent witnesses of an
eternal and unfathomed mystery, "in a few hours either th