e dragoons. One, who stood in an upper gallery,
levelled his carbine and fired: a shot took effect in his left
shoulder, and wounded him slightly: another shot was repelled by a
brazen gird on the glazed cap which he wore; he was stunned however for
the moment, and reeled against the wall. This man in the upper gallery
had been hidden from Miss Walladmor by the moulded architrave of the
door-way near which she stood: but, at this moment, in a lower gallery
appeared the ominous face of Gillie Godber: behind her stood a dragoon.
Once again her eyes glared, and her vindictive voice resounded, in
Walladmor hall. "That's him," she shouted--eagerly laying one hand upon
the arm of the soldier to guide him into the right direction, whilst
with the other she pointed and followed her object as he moved: "that's
the Captain, that's the traitor!" The man watched him calmly as he
passed a range of pillars, and was emerging upon an open space of
gallery. He levelled, and settled himself firmly for his aim:--Miss
Walladmor heard the voice: she saw the action: through a cloud of smoke
she caught the preparation: she shrieked; raised her hands; ran
forwards; with a piercing cry she exclaimed--"Oh no, no, no, no!" and
Captain Walladmor turned, and caught her on his left arm just as the
fatal bullet fled across the hall and sank into her bosom.

The anguish of despair, and the frenzy of vengeance, as of one wounded
where only he was vulnerable, chaced each other over Edward Walladmor's
countenance: with the "inevitable eye" of vindictive wrath, he drew a
pistol in tumultuous hurry from his belt; fired; and shot the man
through the heart. Then, turning to Miss Walladmor, he gazed with
distraction upon her pallid lips, and her black robe now crimsoned with
blood. He seated himself, with his lovely burthen, upon the lower stair
of a flight which led off at right angles from the landing on which he
stood. Miss Walladmor's eyes were closed; and she was manifestly dying.
Half unconsciously Edward Walladmor murmured disordered words of
tenderness and distraction: some sounds fell upon her ear, and she
raised her heavy eyelids. A glare of torches and black faces fell upon
her eyes with the confusion of a dream: shrinkingly she averted them,
and they rested upon what she sought; she saw the features of her
cousin bending over her with the misery of love that feels its
impotence to save. Life was now ebbing rapidly: a gleaming smile of
tenderness f