unintelligible. He looked like one who beheld a vision; and this
impression was produced upon the man, who half expected some awful shape
to reveal itself to him. But whatever it might be, spirit of good or
ill, it was visible to the Puritan alone.

After gazing at him for some minutes, in mixed wonderment and fright,
the halberdier ventured to draw near him. As he touched him, the Puritan
uttered a fearful cry, and attempted to spring forward, as if to grasp
some vanishing object, but being checked in the effort by the chain, he
fell heavily to the ground, and seemed to sustain severe injury; for
when the man raised him, and set him against the pillar, though he made
no complaint, it was evident he suffered excruciating pain. The
halberdier poured out a cup of wine, and offered it to him; but, though
well-nigh fainting, he peremptorily refused it.

From this moment a marked change was perceptible in his looks. The hue
of his skin became cadaverous; his eyes grew dim and glassy; and his
respiration was difficult. Everything betokened that his sufferings
would be speedily over, and that, however he might deserve it, Hugh
Calveley would be spared the disgrace of death by the hands of the
executioner. The halberdier was not unaware of his condition, and his
first impulse was to summon assistance; but he was deterred from doing
so by the earnest entreaty of the Puritan to be left alone; and thinking
this the most merciful course he could pursue under the circumstances,
he yielded to the request, scarcely expecting to behold him alive again.

It was by this same man that the door of the vault was opened to Sir
Jocelyn and Aveline.

The shock experienced by the maiden at the sight of her father had
well-nigh overcome her. She thought him dead, and such was Sir Jocelyn's
first impression. The unfortunate Puritan was still propped against the
pillar, as the halberdier had left him, but his head had fallen to one
side, and his arms hung listlessly down. With a piercing shriek his
daughter flew towards him, and kneeling beside him, raised his head
gently, and gazing eagerly into his face, perceived that he still lived,
though the spirit seemed ready to wing its flight from its fleshly
tabernacle.

The situation was one to call forth every latent energy in Aveline's
character. Controlling her emotion, she uttered no further cry, but set
herself, with calmness, to apply such restoratives as were at hand to
her father. After b