apse of memory as this. He looked at his master in distress and
perplexity.

"Oh!" answered Lyon Berners for his man, "Joe was thrown from his horse,
and had his ankle sprained."

"Poor Joe! You must be very careful until it gets quite well," said
Sybil, compassionately.

And soon after this her visitors, master and servants, took their leave.

CHAPTER XXIII.

SYBIL'S CHILD.

But thou wilt burst primeval sleep,
And thou wilt live my babe to weep;
The tenant of a dark abode,
Thy tears must flow as mine have flowed.--BYRON.

Summer ripened into autumn. Sybil and her faithful friend employed the
golden days of September and October in the graceful and pleasing
feminine work of making up garments for the expected little stranger.

But meanwhile, outside the prison walls, a cloud, black as night, was
gathering over the young prisoner's doomed head.

The rumor got abroad that the Governor meant to follow up the long
respite with a full pardon.

His course in this matter was canvassed and commented upon severely in
every bar-room, grocery, street corner, political meeting, and
elsewhere.

The press took up the matter, and vindictively reprobated the course of
the Governor, putting his conduct upon the motives of partiality for the
aristocracy.

Had the murderess been a woman of the people, it said, her life would
have paid the forfeit of her crime.

But she was a lady of the county aristocracy, a daughter of the house of
Berners; and however notoriously that house had been cursed with
demoniac passions, and however deeply dyed with crime, its daughter,
however guilty, was not to be held amenable to the laws!

Was such outrageous worship of the aristocracy by partial judges and
venal governors to be endured in a country of freemen?

No! the voice of the people would be heard through their organ, a free
press! and if not listened to, then it would be heard in thunder at the
polls in the coming autumn elections!

Such was the spirit of the people and the press in regard to Sybil.

It was strange how the people and the press clamored for the sacrifice
of Sybil Berners' life--the "female fiend," as they did not hesitate to
call her, "daughter of demons," "the last of a race of devils, who
should have been exterminated long before," they declared.

It was because they honestly ascribed to her a nature she did not
possess, and imputed to her a crime she had not committed, thus making
h