sharply
by the arm.

"'Whither going?' he said.

"'For my lady,' replied I.

"'For Amelia?' he said--'for the murderer of my Lillah, my first love,
my angel?'

"I stood petrified, the word 'murderer' twittering on my shaking lips in
fragments.

"'Yes,' he said, 'come in, come in--bolt that door; the other is
already cared for. Francis, you know how my Lillah died; there was no
disease--she slept away as a drugged victim. Now, listen. During this
last night I was awoke by the restlessness of Amelia. I heard her leave
my side, and rise from the bed'--that on which you are now lying.--'The
rush-light burned on the mantelpiece, and I could see my wife, as she
rose and began to pace the floor. I called out gently, "Amelia;" but
got no answer. Her eyes, I saw, were fixed; and she moved her arms,
as if she were addressing some imaginary being. I concluded she was
sleep-walking, and immediately she began to speak, as she paced
backwards and forwards. Part of what she said I lost, but I could join
together enough for conviction.

"'"She stood between me and my love," she said, as she stopped for a
moment, laying one hand upon another, "and it was necessary she should
be put out of the way. A Grierson was never a waverer when a deed of
blood was to be done." "How did you do it?" "How did I do it? Poison! I
made her sleep the long sleep, which the sun never breaks, nor the moon,
nor time." "What poison did you say?" "The sleepy poison. I made for her
a draught, that I might draw the sweet life away; and"--

"'She stopped and laughed, as a sleep-walker laughs--hollow and distant.

"'"And get into the _Temple_ she occupied. Was you still kind to her
while you watched the effect of your draught?" "Was I, did you say? Yes,
very kind. Oh! I nursed her dying spirit, that he might think me a
ministering angel to his wife, whom I wanted to succeed. He was
deceived. Yes, yes; simple fool, he was deceived. Ay, and not deceived,
for I loved him."

"'She began to walk again to and fro, sometimes slowly, sometimes
quickly, then of a sudden turned and stood--"She was fair," she
continued, as she kept looking at the wall; "but so am I. He got as good
a bargain in me as in her." Then she made devious movements, turning and
returning, muttering to herself, but so thickly that I only caught words
much disjointed--"Remorse!--yes, yes!--no, no!--not till I am to be
hanged; but that cannot be; no one saw me. Say nothing, nothing!--mix
th