ay, through the involuntary,
restore a degree of health, and put the creature he has formed for
happiness in a new condition of mental and moral freedom.

Blessed sleep! Who has not felt and acknowledged thy sweet
influences? Who has not wondered at thy power in the tranquil
waking, after a night that closed around the spirit in what seemed
the darkness of coming despair?

Markland slept; and in his sleep, guided by angels, there came to
him the spirits of his wife and children, clothed in the beauty of
innocence. How lovingly they gathered around him! how sweet were
their words in his ears! how exquisite the thrill awakened by each
tender kiss! Now he was with them in their luxurious home; and now
they were wandering, in charmed intercourse, amid its beautiful
surroundings. Change after change went on; new scenes and new
characters appeared, and yet the life seemed orderly and natural.
Suddenly there came a warning of danger. The sky grew fearfully
dark; fierce lightning burned through the air, and the giant tempest
swept down upon the earth with resistless fury. Next a flood was
upon them. And now he was seized with the instinct of self-preservation,
and in a moment had deserted his helpless family, and was fleeing,
alone to a place of safety. From thence he saw wife and children borne
off by the rush of waters, their white, imploring faces turned to him,
and their hands stretched out for succour. Then all his love returned;
self was forgotten; he would have died to save them. But it was too
late! Even while he looked, they were engulfed and lost.

From such a dream Markland was awakened into conscious life. The
shadowy twilight had been succeeded by darkness. He started up,
confused and affrighted. Some moments passed before his bewildered
thoughts were able to comprehend his real position; and when he did
so, he fell back, with a groan, horror-stricken, upon the bed. The
white faces and imploring hands of his wife and children were still
vividly before him.

"Poor, weak, coward heart!" he at last murmured to himself. "An evil
spirit was thy counsellor. I knew not that so mean and base a
purpose could find admittance there. What! Beggar and disgrace my
wife and children, and then, like a skulking coward, leave them to
bear the evil I had not the courage to face! Edward Markland! Can
this, indeed, be true of thee?"

And the excited man sprang from the bed. A feeble light came in
through the window-panes above t