ived. Gerard Douw began to fear, naturally enough, that
terror or ill-treatment had unsettled the poor girl's
intellect; and he half suspected, from the suddenness of her
appearance, the unseasonableness of the hour, and, above
all, from the wildness and terror of her manner, that she
had made her escape from some place of confinement for
lunatics, and was in imminent fear of pursuit. He resolved
to summon medical advice as soon as the mind of his niece
had been in some measure set at rest by the offices of the
clergyman whose attendance she had so earnestly desired; and
until this object had been attained, he did not venture to
put any questions to her which might possibly, by reviving
painful or horrible recollections, increase her agitation.
The clergyman soon arrived; a man of ascetic countenance and
venerable age--one whom Gerard Douw respected much,
forasmuch as he was a veteran polemic, though one perhaps
more dreaded as a combatant, than beloved as a Christian--of
pure morality, subtile brain, and frozen heart. He entered
the chamber which communicated with that in which Rose
reclined; and immediately on his arrival she requested him
to pray for her, as for one who lay in the hands of Satan,
and who could hope for deliverance only from heaven.

"That you may distinctly understand all the circumstances of
the event which I am going to describe, it is necessary to
state the relative position of the parties who were engaged
in it. The old clergyman and Schalken were in the anteroom
of which I have already spoken; Rose lay in the inner
chamber, the door of which was open; and by the side of the
bed, at her urgent desire, stood her guardian; a candle
burned in the bedchamber, and three were lighted in the
outer apartment. The old man now cleared his voice, as if
about to commence; but before he had time to begin, a sudden
gust of air blew out the candle which served to illuminate
the room in which the poor girl lay, and she with hurried
alarm exclaimed, 'Godfrey, bring in another candle; the
darkness is unsafe.'

"Gerard Douw, forgetting for the moment her repeated
injunctions, in the immediate impulse, stepped from the
bedchamber into the other, in order to supply what she
desired.

"'O God! do not go dear uncle,'