cell, it was a gibbering maniac that
rushed forward to meet them. Walter removed his fainting daughter from
the appalling spectacle, and returned with a sickening heart and
terrible forebodings. The shades of evening had given place to bright
moonlight ere they reached the castle. The driver used his utmost speed,
but the snow hindered their progress, and just as they arrived at the
castle gates, the horses swerved violently, and starting to the side of
the road, stood snorting with terror. Walter sprang out, and in the
momentary strength caused by the excitement, his daughter followed him.
The Earl with some companions rode up at the moment of seeing the
carriage stopped; but a more ghastly obstacle obstructed their path--for
there in the snow drift at the gates of the mansion where her seducer
lived in splendor, lay the corpse of the once fair, gentle, and
accomplished Ellen Hunter.

The Earl gazed upon the body of his victim for a moment, and even his
callous heart was touched. It was evanescent, however, for on one of his
companions asking in a tone of coarse buffoonery, if he was
contemplating that frozen carrion with a view to ornamenting his hall
with it as a statue, he replied in the same strain, and was turning his
horse's head towards the gate, when he was arrested by the stern voice
of the mariner.

'Blasphemer, peace! Add not insult to the fearful injury you have
committed to that poor piece of clay! Man of the marble heart, your
career is near its close! This is not the only one of your crimes that
has resulted in death. There arises from the earth in South Carolina a
voice that calls for vengeance on her murderer. The child you thought
without a friend, whom you hoped would perish unknown, is even now
preparing to assert his rights, and drive you, titled bastard as you
know yourself to be, from your usurped position. Your agents have
confessed, and nothing can save you from the merited punishment of your
crimes. Repent, weep tears of penitence over this poor form, and make
your peace with God. You have but little time left ere man's justice
will claim you as its due.' He replaced his daughter in the carriage,
and lifting the body of poor Ellen as tenderly as if it had been a
child, placed it inside, and thus the dying and the dead departed.

At headlong speed the Earl reached his mansion, galled to madness. He
pondered long and deeply who the mysterious seaman could be, but could
arrive at no satisfacto