ratiocination. In a short time he seemed
to arrive at some satisfactory conclusion through all this obscurity,
and drew out a handful of coin, of some low denomination, apparently
by the sound, and placed it in the hands of his fair suitor.

"There--there--one, two, three. Never mind, wench; I could have
counted 'em once with the best clerkman i' the parish; and for the
matter of that, I've told 'em oft enough, though,--but the count
always seems to slip from me. It is all I have, save the price of my
life; and I would not part with that for a world's worth; for what
should it profit me, when with it I had bought my grave?"

Marian immediately transferred the long-hoarded treasure into the
hands of the cavalier.

"Thanks; yea, better than these, for they were a poor recompense, my
peerless maiden. I scruple not to receive this loan at thine hands,
because it is part of the means thou dost employ for my escape. Yet
doubt not of my willingness and ability to repay thee tenfold. Thou
wilt not deny me this silly suit."

As he said this, he, with the greatest gallantry and devotedness,
kissed the hand held forth to supply his exigency. He was accompanying
the movement with some fair and courtly speech when a loud and
terrible cry startled him. It was more like the howl of some ravenous
beast than any sound which human organs ever uttered. Curses
followed--horrible, untold--the suggestion of fiends in their
bitterness and malignity. Then came the cry, or rather shriek--

"Lost! lost!" at irregular intervals.

The cavalier and his companion were much alarmed by this unexpected
occurrence. They doubted not that the foul fiend was before them,
bodily, in the form of this poor maniac. After a short interval of
silence, he cried, approaching them fiercely--

"Ye have sold me, soul and body, to the wicked one. May curses long
and heavy light on ye! The coin! the coin! Oh, that accursed thing! I
have bought thy grave, stranger; and my day of hope is past!"

The latter part of the speech was uttered in a tone of such deep and
heartrending misery that pity arose in place of terror in the bosom
of his auditors. Marian ventured to address him, hoping she might
assuage or dissipate the fearful hallucination under which he
laboured.

"There is yet hope for the repenting sinner. The hour of life is the
hour of grace: for that, and that only, is life prolonged. Turn to Him
from whom thou hast backslidden, nor add unto thy crime b