bil became
more composed. She still, however, trembled at the thoughts of what
remained to be done.

"They will be here ere my prayer is finished," murmured she--"ere the
end is accomplished for which I came hither alone. Let me, oh! let me
make my peace with my Creator, ere I surrender my being to His hands,
and then let them deal with me as they will." And she bowed her head in
lowly prayer.

Again raising her hands, and casting her eyes towards the black ceiling,
she implored, in song, the intercession of the saintly man who had
bequeathed his name to the cell.

HYMN TO SAINT CYPRIAN

Hear! oh! hear me, sufferer holy,
Who didst make thine habitation
'Mid these rocks, devoting wholly
Life to one long expiation
Of thy guiltiness, and solely
By severe mortification
Didst deliver thee. Oh! hear me!
In my dying moments cheer me.
By thy penance, self-denial,
Aid me in the hour of trial.

May, through thee, my prayers prevailing
On the Majesty of Heaven,
O'er the hosts of hell, assailing
My soul, in this dark hour be driven!
So my spirit, when exhaling,
May of sinfulness be shriven,
And His gift unto the Giver
May be rendered pure as ever!
By thy own dark, dread possession,
Aid me with thine intercession!

Scarcely had she concluded this hymn, when the torch of the knight of
Malta in part dissipated the gloom that hung around the chapel.

_CHAPTER XI_

_THE BRIDAL_

_Cari._ I will not die; I must not. I am contracted
To a young gentleman.

_Executioner._ Here's your wedding-ring.

_Duchess of Malfy._

Slowly did the train descend; solemnly and in silence, as if the rites
at which they were about to assist had been those of funereal, and not
of nuptial, solemnization. Indeed, to look upon those wild and fierce
faces by the ruddily-flashing torchlight, which lent to each a stern and
savage expression; to see those scowling visages surrounding a bride
from whose pallid cheeks every vestige of color, and almost of
animation, had fled; and a bridegroom, with a countenance yet more
haggard, and demeanor yet more distracted--the beholder must have
imagined that the spectacle was some horrible ceremonial, practised by
demons rather than human beings. The arched vault, the pillars