e welfare of this province. I may be
permitted to say that with me the office has been in good hands, and I
am unwilling that an unworthy courtier or unfeeling soldier should
demolish what has cost me so many long years to build up. You are
intelligent, brave and good; and you have, with me, become familiar
with the civil duties. You are the most suitable person, and you must
be governor; where the happiness of the people is concerned, anger,
vindictiveness, and similar trifling hindrances, must not dare to raise
their heads in such a heart as yours.'

'My dear uncle!' said the yielding Arwed, and kneeling down before the
bed, he kissed the invalid's wasted hand.

'God bless thee, my son!' said the latter, laying his hand upon the
youth's head.

'And also the poor Christine! is it not so?' asked Arwed.'

'Tell her--I--do not curse her!' cried the old man with a severe
struggle; 'and now leave me. These feelings are too strong for my
exhausted powers.'

He turned his face to the wall, and Arwed departed in sadness.

CHAPTER LII.

At the appointed hour Arwed entered the shaft of the first mine in
Danemora, with his pistols under his arm. In consequence of the perfect
mental repose with which he proceeded upon his bloody business, he had
this time a better opportunity to look about him and observe the
peculiarities of the monstrous cavity. A strange feeling seized him
when he took a nearer view of the active operations of this
subterranean world. The miserable huts and wooden booths here and there
erected among the rocks; the larger hut with a small belfry which
denoted the church of the immense abyss; the market, which the venders
of the indispensable necessaries of life, attracted by all-powerful
avarice, held here below; the ceaseless prosecution of the mining
operations--gave to the whole scene the appearance of an abortive
attempt to create a subterranean city; while the black dresses and
earth colored faces of the perpetual residents of these melancholy
regions were well calculated to strengthen the illusion. The whole was
lighted only by pans of pitch which fumed and smoked here and there in
their elevated niches. No glimmer of daylight penetrated there. The
firmament of these abodes was the roof of the mines, which, indeed, had
no sun, but had its fixed and wandering stars in the fires, torches and
lamps of the workmen--and, in the frequent explosions which took place,
t