countess to persecute Captain
Williams, and her son to murder his brother's widow. He read them slowly
through, and taking them in his hand walked towards the fireplace; he
was about to cast them in, when the same low mocking voice sounded so
close him--he turned and beheld an appalling spectacle. The picture of
his own mother, that had occupied a large compartment of the room, had
entirely disappeared, although but the instant before he had seen
it--and in its place appeared the figures of a man in a full dress naval
uniform, and a lady in the costume of the one he had murdered in distant
America. He gave one wild shriek and fell senseless on the floor. To
seize the papers was to Edward, whom our readers will easily guess to
have personated the lady, but the work of a moment; he regained the
panel and swung it to just as the domestics were hurrying up; not
however before he had fixed upon the toilet with a penknife of the
Earl's, a paper with the word "doomed!" in large characters traced upon
it.

CHAPTER IX.

THE AGENT'S PUNISHMENT.

The village bells tolled mournfully, and the stout farmers looked with
Saddened faces at each other on the morning which was to consign to
earth the remains of Mary Waters. Matrons held their aprons to their
eyes as they followed the melancholy procession. She was laid by her own
request in the same grave with Ellen Hunter. The old clergyman who had
loved her as his daughter, faltered as he read the solemn words, "I am
the resurrection and the life," and when the ceremony was concluded,
there was not an eye that was not filled with tears. When the old
steward heard the earth fall upon the coffin lid, his frame was seen to
quiver, he fell forward, and his spirit had departed. They laid him by
the side of his grand daughter the next day; and it was soon ascertained
that he had left the bulk of his savings to the poor children of
Johnson, and that Mrs. Alice Goodfellow was appointed sole executrix.

Rumors now began to circulate about the Earl--a claim had been laid in
due form by Edward--and the tumult which raged in his heart was
indescribable. Yet he dared to think of vengeance, and swore an oath to
have the heart's blood of those who had humbled him. As he approached
the house of the agent he determined to ask his aid in carrying out his
schemes. Mr. Lambert, however, had no intention of being dragged down
into the vortex, and received him coldly.

'This is not the recepti