water, or had laid her child down,
and gone away, like Hagar in the desert, not to see it die. The poor
innocent's skull was turned on its shoulder; its cheek must have rested
there while the face remained. It was too young to have struggled much.
Paulett thought of his little Alice; of her unconsciousness to the fate
around her; of what would be her and Charles's and poor Ellen's fate, if
he failed in his search, or perished by the way. He roused himself from
looking on all these sorrowful objects, and went on his dreary way. The
second day after he left the cavern, he came to a stately pile of
building, which he determined to explore for the life-giving stones he
was in search of. It stood upon its terraces, surrounded by its
colonnades and garden-steps, in all its old pride and beauty. Its
forests were withered indeed, its gardens burned, its fountains dry; but
the palace glanced back the sunlight, and was as steadfast and perfect
as in the days of the living. Paulett drew near, and found, as he came
close, signs of the last days of life in it. The doors were opened to
the air; and a few marks of objects removed, remained in the outer
rooms. There was scoring and dragging on the marble floor; and Paulett
doubted for a moment what had left these marks, till he saw on one side
of a gilded table, a barrel, lying there empty, from which the top, as
it seemed, had been accidentally knocked, and the liquor had flowed out.
The marble bore the stain of wine, and where it had flowed, the slabs
were broken in two places, perhaps from the violence of the struggle of
those who saw the liquid flow, to wet each one his own parched lips.
Paulett thought the lord of the castle had probably deserted it before
the worst crisis arrived, and had tried to remove what was most valuable
in his possession. He went on through long galleries and magnificent
rooms, all silent as death, statues, which represented man in his glory
and his strength; books, which were the work of that high spirit, now
extinguished under the pressure of bodily wants; luxurious
superfluities, which were for better days of the world--all was
valueless, all open; he might go where he would, till at length one door
resisted his efforts, and seemed to have been barred with a certain care
from within. Paulett's heart beat high. Was there some one still living
like himself; another human creature struggling for existence in this
great world, and guarding, as he had done in