d she sat down on the sand to
ponder upon the strange incidents which had so terribly varied the
monotony of her existence. She thought, too, of the scene which she had
beholden on the banks of the Arno--her worst fears were confirmed; Flora
had escaped from the ruin of the Carmelite convent--was alive, was at
liberty--and was with Francisco! Oh! how she now longed for the return
of Fernand Wagner; but many hours must elapse--a night must pass--and
the orb of day which had by this time gone down, must gain the meridian
once more ere he would come back. And in the meantime, although she
suspected it not, he must fulfill the awful doom of a Wehr-Wolf, as the
reader will find by the perusal of the next chapter.

CHAPTER LV.

It was within a few minutes of sunset, as Fernand Wagner, having crossed
the mountains, hastened down that bituminous declivity constituting the
scene of desolation which separated the range of volcano hills from the
delightful plains and verdant groves stretching to the sea-shore.

A shudder passed over his frame as he beheld the solitary tree in which
he had seen the monstrous snake playing and gamboling, on the morning
when he was thrown upon this Mediterranean isle.

"Oh!" he exclaimed aloud, as he sped onward, "what happiness and also
what misery have I known in this clime. But, doomed and fated being that
I am, such is my destiny; and so must I be, here or elsewhere, in
whichever land I may visit, in whatever part of the earth I may abide.
Oh! merciful Heaven, can no prayer, no self-mortification, remove the
ban--the curse--from my devoted head?

"Oh! just Heaven," he exclaimed, stretching forth his arms toward the
sky, and with ineffable anguish depicted on his upturned countenance;
"spare me! Have I not been punished enough! Oh! take away from me this
appalling doom--let me become old, wrinkled, forlorn, and poor once
more,--let me return to my humble cot in the Black Forest, or let me
die. Almighty power! if thou wilt--but spare me--spare me now!
Wretch--wretch that I was to be dazzled by the specious promises, O
Faust! But I am justly punished--thy vengeance, O Heaven, is well
deserved--sinner, sinner that I am!"

Those were the last human sounds he uttered for several hours; for,
scarcely had they escaped his lips, when the horrible change began, and
in a few moments a wild yell rent the air, and a monstrous wolf sprung
from the spot where Wagner had fallen down in such agonizi