othing to foreshadow even
the slightest hope of redemption. A few days' intercourse with their
inhuman persecutor had demonstrated too plainly that he was equal to any
crime which his own safety demanded.

The female turned uneasily upon her rude and filthy bed. Her companion
bent over her, and, as a flood of tears poured from his sunken eyes, he
imprinted a kiss upon her pale cheek.

"Do you feel no better, Delia?" asked he, tenderly.

"Alas, no! The sands of life are fast ebbing out. O, for a single drop
of cold water!"

"God in heaven! must I see her die, with no power to save?" exclaimed
Dalhousie,--for it was he,--striking his hands violently upon his
forehead.

"Do not let me distress you, Francois! Let me die!--I am ready to die,"
said she, faintly.

Dalhousie could make no reply. His emotions were too powerful to permit
his utterance. Maddened by despair, into which the terrible situation of
his cherished wife had plunged him, he paced the jail with long strides,
gazing about him, as if to seek some desperate remedy for his woes.
Escape had scarcely presented itself to his mind. He had not the energy
of character which rises superior to every ill, and had bent himself
supinely to the fate which awaited him. To work through the solid walls
of the jail seemed to him an impossibility, even if provided with the
necessary implements. The scheme was too vast for his mind,
unaccustomed, as it was, to contend with great difficulties.

Despair seemed to create, at this moment, a new man within him, armed
with energy to break through every obstacle which might oppose him. His
feeble, suffering companion demanded an effort for her relief, and such
a demand even his supine nature could not resist.

Near one side of the jail was a shallow pit, which had, apparently, been
quite recently excavated. In it lay the shovel with which the earth had
been thrown out.

Dalhousie fixed his eyes upon the pit. A new thought animated him. "_I_
began to dig that pit for gold; I will continue it for water," muttered
he, as he seized the shovel, and commenced digging. Awhile he labored
with the energy of desperation; but, enfeebled by long fasting, and
unused to such severe toil, he soon felt his strength give way. It
appeared to be his only hope, the only ministration of comfort to the
loved one beside him, and he strove manfully against the weakness which
beset him. An hour he labored; but not a drop of moisture rewarded his
to