Obedience was the only alternative, and Scharaffa and his assistants carried off the helpless Pandulfo. The remainder of the guests retired to their several chambers; and Wolfstein, with Loscho, went round the castle, saw the guard relieved, explained that the commandant had drank too deep to attend that night to his duty, and then held a conference of some length, in which they exchanged congratulations on the ease with which their manœuvre had been effected; and Loscho went to his repose, with a promise of being invested the following morn ing in the important post which the dis grace of Pandulfo had rendered vacant.

Father Felix had passed the night in watching by the bed-side of one or other of his patients, and wandering between their different apartments. Madame de Wolfstein, although feverish and restless, was not now in a state to alarm his apprehensions. Once recovered from her long and death-resembling trance, she

had no relapse, and he feared not but the methods he adopted for her restoration would prove effectual. It was other wise with Casimir; the long and cruel confinement he had undergone, assisted by the harassing disquietude of his mind, had undermined his strength, and a slow hectic was consuming his once athletic frame. Every new shock, therefore, made a dangerous inroad, and Father Felix feared that death had already marked him for his prey. His union with Louisa in the tomb had taken an exclusive and powerful possession of his thoughts; and, in his delirium during the night, his notion of her death, and the anxious anticipation of his own, were the only ideas which remained distinct from among the

events of the preceding day.

CHAPTER XI.

"That is wormwood!"

Hamlet.

WOLFSTEIN, in the pride and courage of intoxication, was not a little elated by the revolution he had effected in the go vernment of his garrison, and retired to his chamber highly applauding himself; but with the first dawn of morning, and the first dawn of reflection, the whole danger of this rash manoeuvre pressed upon his thoughts. For a moment he debated with himself, whether he might not better treat the whole transaction as a drunken frolic, liberate and conciliate Pandulfo, and compound as he might with Loscho, for his disappointment; but pride and personal dislike combated this prudent counsel.

"No," said he, "the deed is done;

and, come what come may, I will not sit in my own castle, braved and cowed by one of my own creatures, and sneered at by my officers for my imbecility. Let Pandulfo's boasted talents, and his untameable audacity, set him free from my fetters, this hand of mine shall never be so weak. Loscho is a fool!-But what of that? I can mould him to my will, and stiffer clay I never encountered than that of Pandulfo."

While he thus ruminated, Scharaffa entered his apartment.

"I come, sir," said he, "to ask your pleasure concerning your late command, ant;" and he held in his hand the key of the vaulted chamber.-" Shall I let him forth before his men get tidings of what happened last night?"

"What! would you have me manage, and study, and compromise with my slaves? I awoke this morning under the illusion that I was lord of this castle, and of all, breathing or inanimate, that it

contains. It was a dream, perhaps,and, if so, who is lord of Lornberg ?"

"Even yourself, my noble Chevalier : but if your servant may speak his thoughts, as heretofore you have permitted, he would suggest that even the mightiest among the earth's mighty have ever found policy an excellent second to their will."

"I tell thee what, Scharaffa," and he held his head with both hands, "I am sick of scheming! My whole life has been a plot; my brain is entangled in cobwebs of its own weaving, and if I have not yet earned the despotic and absolute use of my will-But I will try it at least.-I hate Pandulfo, and he shall feel I hate him."

"And, like a faithful servant, I hate him too," said Scharaffa, showing, as he grinned ferociously, his discoloured fangs." Do you think I would stand between him and your aversion? No. But you are not secure, my lord, you are not se