s husband of the daughter of
Clavelta, but for a reason that is not known to me."

"And," asked another Chief, "do you know what instrument that enemy
seeks to use?"

"One who has over her intended victim such influence as few of her sex
ever have over their lords; one of whom his love will learn no
distrust, against whom his heart has no guard and his manhood no
wisdom."

A shiver of horror passed over the forms of the Chiefs and of many who
sat near them, incomprehensible to me till a sudden light was afforded
by the indignant interruption of Kevima, who sat not far from myself.

"It cannot be," he cried, "or you can name her whom you accuse."

"Be silent!" Esmo said, in the cold, grave tone of a president
rebuking disorder, mingled with the deeper displeasure of a priest
repressing irreverence in the midst of the most solemn religious rite.
"None may speak here till the Chiefs have ceased to speak."

None of the latter, however, seemed disposed to ask another question.
The guilt of the accused was confessed. All that he could tell to
guide their further inquiries had been told. To doubt that what was
forced from him was to the best of his knowledge true, was to them,
who understood the mysterious power that had compelled the spirit and
the lips to an unwilling confession, impossible. And if it had seemed
that further information might have been extracted relative to my own
personal danger, a stronger tie, a deeper obligation, bound them to
the supposed object of the last obscure imputation, and none was
willing to elicit further charges or clearer evidence. Probably also
they anticipated that, when the word was extended to the Initiates, I
should take up my own cause.

"Would any brother speak?" asked Esmo, when the silence of the Chiefs
had lasted for a few moments.

But his rebuke had silenced Kevima, and no one else cared to
interpose. The eyes of the assembly turned upon me so generally and so
pointedly, that at last I felt myself forced, though against my own
judgment, to rise.

"I have no question to ask the accused," I said.

"Then," replied Esmo calmly, "you have nothing now to say. Give to the
brother accused before us the cup of rest."

A small goblet was handed by one of the sentries to the miserable
creature, now half-insensible, who awaited our judgment. In a very few
moments he had sunk into a slumber in which his face was comparatively
calm, and his limbs had ceased to tremble. His fate w