slumber. Yet, so it was not--she was dead! How intensely I then longed to
lie down beside her, to gaze till death should gather me to the same
repose.

But death does not come at the bidding of the miserable. I had lately
recovered from mortal illness, and my blood had never flowed with such an
even current, nor had my limbs ever been so instinct with quick life, as
now. I felt that my death must be voluntary. Yet what more natural than
famine, as I watched in this chamber of mortality, placed in a world of the
dead, beside the lost hope of my life? Meanwhile as I looked on her, the
features, which bore a sisterly resemblance to Adrian, brought my thoughts
back again to the living, to this dear friend, to Clara, and to Evelyn, who
were probably now in Windsor, waiting anxiously for our arrival.

Methought I heard a noise, a step in the far chapel, which was re-echoed by
its vaulted roof, and borne to me through the hollow passages. Had Clara
seen my carriage pass up the town, and did she seek me here? I must save
her at least from the horrible scene the vault presented. I sprung up the
steps, and then saw a female figure, bent with age, and clad in long
mourning robes, advance through the dusky chapel, supported by a slender
cane, yet tottering even with this support. She heard me, and looked up;
the lamp I held illuminated my figure, and the moon-beams, struggling
through the painted glass, fell upon her face, wrinkled and gaunt, yet with
a piercing eye and commanding brow--I recognized the Countess of Windsor.
With a hollow voice she asked, "Where is the princess?"

I pointed to the torn up pavement: she walked to the spot, and looked down
into the palpable darkness; for the vault was too distant for the rays of
the small lamp I had left there to be discernible.

"Your light," she said. I gave it her; and she regarded the now visible,
but precipitous steps, as if calculating her capacity to descend.
Instinctively I made a silent offer of my assistance. She motioned me away
with a look of scorn, saying in an harsh voice, as she pointed downwards,
"There at least I may have her undisturbed."

She walked deliberately down, while I, overcome, miserable beyond words, or
tears, or groans, threw myself on the pavement near--the stiffening form
of Idris was before me, the death-struck countenance hushed in eternal
repose beneath. That was to me the end of all! The day before, I had
figured to my self various adventures, a