ntly, that he began
to believe it to be a part of the debtor's craft. As some people can
regard the most beautiful varying tints of heaven, the lights and
shadows which flit across the face of nature, and see nothing more in
them than a part of that vast and complicated machinery that governs
the world--so he, in these lights and shadows of life, only beheld the
natural workings of the human mind.

With a pale cheek but a firm step Dumiger departed. The last sound
that fell upon his ear as he left his door, was the blessing murmured
by his bride. Again he felt disposed to turn back and sacrifice all
for his affection; but already one of the city guard stood behind him,
and the rattle of arms on the pavement told him that his arrest had
not been lightly planned or carelessly conducted.

The castle toward which Dumiger and his guards directed their steps
was the Grimshaus, formerly a citadel and an important point of
defense for the town of Dantzic, though now converted into a prison
for political offenders and debtors. The reader may be aware that
the laws against debtors in the great free commercial cities were
intolerably severe. Some men were permitted to groan away their whole
lives in hopeless misery. The creditor was in general without pity,
and the debtor unpitied. He was entirely at the mercy of the jailer,
who had it in his power to load him with chains, and even on the
slightest pretext of insubordination to execute summary justice
upon him. These laws, however, had as yet little affected Dumiger;
though threatened with arrest on one or two previous occasions his
difficulties had always been arranged. But the present debt was more
serious than any which had as yet been pressed for, and he could not
but feel that friends might be less willing to become surety.

They arrived at the square in which the Grimshaus was situated. It
was a wild, unhealthy, stern, fantastic pile, which stood, in point
of fact, upon an island, for a wide, wet ditch surrounded it, except
where a drawbridge connected it with the square. The towers and
ramparts had in some places mouldered away, and huge bars of iron
were introduced in different parts of the wall to give strength to the
building by binding the yawning mason-work together.

The square was deserted. The cry of the sentinel at the most distant
of the landward posts sounded ominous, like that of a lost bird
at night. Although the moon shone brightly, it was difficult to
di