slipt from his neck the string on which it hung, and was presenting it, as he had done his weapons, when, as if suddenly recollecting himself, he paused, and said,

"And yet, ere ye deprive me of my sweet bugle, let me once more-once, for the last time, listen to its echo over the waves."

"Is it possible," asked the Inquisitor, "that its sound may act as a signal, and bring any of his freebooters to his rescue? Can he have any motive save the one he alleges for blowing his bugle?"

"None whatever," said Scharaffa. "None, none!" echoed Zastrow and Bruno.

"Wind your bugle, then," said the Inquisitor," and come with us."

"Yes," replied Wolfstein, "three farewell blasts-and afterwards- afterwards! What a fine sunset it is! Do you all mark it well? I marvel if it will set as red to-morrow!"

"Come, blow, blow, Chevalier!" cried

Rufo, impatiently: "let to-morrow take its chance!"

"Spoken like an oracle!" said Wolfsteïn, lifting the horn to his lips, and blowing a loud blast: you hear the echo? Hark! how it

waves!"

Again he blew.

dies along the

"Now," said he, preparing for his third blast," the effect of this last echo will astonish ye all-mark!"

The bugle was still at his lips, when, with an explosion that seemed to rend the world, the bastion on which they stood was hurled high in the air; all for a moment was uproar, dust, darkness, and chaos: a large portion of the castle was riven from its foundation and flung into the sea, and the Lord of Lornberg, attended by a multitude of unprepared souls, was plunged deep beneath the waves of the Adriatic.

CHAPTER XIV.

"If plagues or earthquakes break not Heaven's

design,

Why then a Borgia, or a Catiline ?"

Pope.

WOLFSTEIN had always considered that his choice lay between two alternatives, success, either present or prospective, or death, (i. e.) annihilation. Why a man should consent to continue breathing in a degraded and fallen state, "when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin," was a question which, as he believed in no religion, save that of Nicolo Machiavelli, whose dogmas he had devoutly studied, and zealously reduced to practice, he did not waste his time in discussing. He had found himself alive and conscious in the midst of many

beings, outwardly resembling himself, but for whom the intelligence or the chance which had created him had not endued him with one spark of sympathy or affection: his intellect, which was powerful, told him, that since these resembling beings in no way awakened his love, or contributed to his pleasure, in short, that he delighted not in them, they might, at least, be rendered subservient to his use. Early, therefore, he became a subtle and infallible analyst, and as a skilful chemist, neglecting the gay or fragrant plants, the boast of Flora's train, would select for his purposes the hemlock, the poppy, or the ominous nightshade; so would Wolfsteïn extract from the hearts and brains of those from whom other men would turn with dread and abhorrence, such deadly virtues as might assist in corroborating those possessed by himself, and in rendering them more intense and subtle. He was well aware of the penalties annexed to such associations, and it was

after mature and deliberate calculation that his election was made. "Men," thought he," at the best, are weak, wavering, fickle, liable to eternal fluctuation of mind or circumstance; if, with good faith and simple integrity, believed in and believing, you identify your interests with any of them, ten thousand to one but some chance, or inconsistency, or fraud, perhaps, for there are fewer honest men than honest men deem, breaks the pious league, and then the cheated fool stands staring on his blighted views, with nothing to curse save his own folly! Now, I know my men, and they know me-I know that my associates are dissembling, treacherous, deadly-I know that only one hook will hold them, and I trust to no other; thus saving myself a weary parade of seemings, and following the bias of my own nature by the light of my own reason. Assured that my agents would ruin me, if their interest prompted them to