p sigh. "I shall never wake
again." And throwing herself, dressed as she was, upon her couch, she
soon fell into a deep slumber.

How long her senses were steeped in oblivion, she could not tell. But
she was awakened by shrill screams, and started to her feet in terror.

"Where am I?" she exclaimed. "Are those the cries of the condemned? Am
I indeed in another world?"

"But louder and louder came the shrieks, and now she recognized the
tones as those of the old duenna. Deeply as the woman had wronged her,
Magdalena's feminine nature could not be insensible to her distress.
She sprang down the stairway, and now stood by the bedside of the
duenna, over which Juanita was already bending.

"What _is_ the matter?" she exclaimed.

"The wine! the wine! the flask of Xeres! the Venetian goblet! I am
poisoned!" cried the old woman, as she writhed in agony.

The truth instantly flashed on the preternaturally-sharpened intellect
of Magdalena. Her own immunity from pain confirmed the fatal
supposition.

"Good God!" she cried, in tones of unutterable anguish, "I have killed
her!"

The exclamation caught the keen ear of the malignant hag, suffering as
she was. She raised herself up on her elbow, and pointing with her
skinny finger to the horror-stricken girl, she screamed,--

"Yes, yes; you have murdered me! Send for a leech, a priest, an
officer of justice! Do not let that wretch escape! She gave me a
poisoned draught! she knew it--she confesses it! Ha, ha! I shall not
die unavenged!"

These fearful words caught the ear of Don Antonio, as, having hastily
dressed himself, he rushed into the room. They caught the ear, too, of
a curious servitor, who flew to the alguazil before he summoned priest
and chirurgeon.

In less than an hour afterwards, the old beldam had breathed her last,
but not before she had made her false deposition to the officer of
justice; not before she had learned that a paper containing evidence
of poison had been found in Magdalena's room; not before she had seen
the hapless girl arrested; and then she died with a lie and a smile of
hideous triumph on her lips.

We cannot attempt to describe the anguish of the old goldsmith, and
the despair of Juanita, as they beheld Magdalena torn from their arms
to be carried before a judge for examination, and thence to be cast
into prison. Believing in her innocence, and confident that it would
be established in the eyes of the world, they longed for the dread