lf a lodging at a cottage not far from the spot which held
Gertrude's remains. Night after night I wandered to that lonely place,
and longed for a couch beside the sleeper, whom I mourned in the
selfishness of my soul. I prostrated myself on the mound; I humbled
myself to tears. In the overflowing anguish of my heart I forgot all
that had aroused its stormier passions into life. Revenge, hatred,--all
vanished. I lifted up my face to the tender heavens: I called aloud to
the silent and placid air; and when I turned again to the unconscious
mound, I thought of nothing but the sweetness of our early love and the
bitterness of her early death. It was in such moments that your footstep
broke upon my grief: the instant others had seen me,--other eyes had
penetrated the sanctity of my regret,--from that instant, whatever was
more soft and holy in the passions and darkness of my mind seemed to
vanish away like a scroll. I again returned to the intense and withering
remembrance which was henceforward to make the very key and pivot of my
existence. I again recalled the last night of Gertrude's life; I again
shuddered at the low murmured sounds, whose dreadful sense broke slowly
upon my soul. I again felt the cold-cold, slimy grasp of those wan and
dying fingers; and I again nerved my heart to an iron strength, and
vowed deep, deep-rooted, endless, implacable revenge.

"The morning after the night you saw me, I left my abode. I went to
London, and attempted to methodize my plans of vengeance. The first
thing to discover was Tyrrell's present residence. By accident I heard
he was at Paris, and, within two hours of receiving the intelligence, I
set off for that city. On arriving there, the habits of the gambler
soon discovered him to my search. I saw him one night at a hell. He was
evidently in distressed circumstances, and the fortune of the table
was against him. Unperceived by him, I feasted my eyes on his changing
countenance, as those deadly and wearing transitions of feeling, only to
be produced by the gaming-table, passed over it. While I gazed upon him,
a thought of more exquisite and refined revenge than had yet occurred to
me flashed upon my mind. Occupied with the ideas it gave rise to, I went
into the adjoining room, which was quite empty. There I seated myself,
and endeavoured to develop more fully the rude and imperfect outline of
my scheme.

"The arch tempter favoured me with a trusty coadjutor in my designs. I
was l