r John, without the least emotion, 'it
is very fortunate we have met to-night. Haredale, I have always despised
you, as you know, but I have given you credit for a species of brute
courage. For the honour of my judgment, which I had thought a good one,
I am sorry to find you a coward.'

Not another word was spoken on either side. They crossed swords, though
it was now quite dusk, and attacked each other fiercely. They were
well matched, and each was thoroughly skilled in the management of his
weapon.

After a few seconds they grew hotter and more furious, and pressing on
each other inflicted and received several slight wounds. It was directly
after receiving one of these in his arm, that Mr Haredale, making a
keener thrust as he felt the warm blood spirting out, plunged his sword
through his opponent's body to the hilt.

Their eyes met, and were on each other as he drew it out. He put his
arm about the dying man, who repulsed him, feebly, and dropped upon the
turf. Raising himself upon his hands, he gazed at him for an instant,
with scorn and hatred in his look; but, seeming to remember, even then,
that this expression would distort his features after death, he tried
to smile, and, faintly moving his right hand, as if to hide his bloody
linen in his vest, fell back dead--the phantom of last night.

Chapter the Last

A parting glance at such of the actors in this little history as it has
not, in the course of its events, dismissed, will bring it to an end.

Mr Haredale fled that night. Before pursuit could be begun, indeed
before Sir John was traced or missed, he had left the kingdom. Repairing
straight to a religious establishment, known throughout Europe for the
rigour and severity of its discipline, and for the merciless penitence
it exacted from those who sought its shelter as a refuge from the world,
he took the vows which thenceforth shut him out from nature and
his kind, and after a few remorseful years was buried in its gloomy
cloisters.

Two days elapsed before the body of Sir John was found. As soon as
it was recognised and carried home, the faithful valet, true to his
master's creed, eloped with all the cash and movables he could lay his
hands on, and started as a finished gentleman upon his own account. In
this career he met with great success, and would certainly have married
an heiress in the end, but for an unlucky check which led to his
premature decease. He sank under a contagious disorder,