Sorrow and Pain, the persecuting Powers,
Who make the melancholy day so long,
So long the anxious night."

"I look for thy approach,
O life-preserving Power! as one who strays
Alone in darkness o'er the pathless marsh,
Watches the dawn of day."
--_Southey_.

"ALL well so far," replied Ellis, in answer to my look of inquiry; "the
bleeding has ceased, and he is fast recovering consciousness. Where is
the room? We must get him into bed at once."

~221~~When we had placed him in the bed Oaklands lay for a short space
with his eyelids closed, uttering a low groan at intervals; at length
the quiet appeared in some measure to restore him, and, slowly opening
his eyes, he gazed languidly around, asking in a low voice, "Where am
I?"

"Let me beg you not to speak, Mr. Oaklands," said Ellis; "your safety
depends upon your keeping silence; you are at the cottage of your friend
Fairlegh."

As he heard these words Harry perceived me standing near the bed, and
smiled faintly in token of recognition; then, making a sign for me to
stoop down to him, he whispered, "My father--you must break this to
him--go, Frank".

"This instant," replied I, and I turned to leave the room, beckoning to
Ellis, as I did so, to follow me. "Tell me the truth," exclaimed I, as
he closed the door behind him, "will he live or die?"

"It is too early in the business to pronounce a decided opinion," was
the answer; "nor can I venture as yet to do so; everything depends
upon the course the ball may have taken, and that, as soon as the
other surgeon arrives, we must endeavour to ascertain; all I can say at
present is, that I have seen worse cases recover. There is one thing,"
he added, "which may be a satisfaction for you to know--if you had not
brought me, or some one in my profession, to the ground, he would have
bled to death where he fell; no one but a surgeon could have stopped
that bleeding."

"If we had been too late I should never have forgiven myself, and we
very nearly were so," returned I. "I cannot understand how it was."

"I can explain it," said Archer, who now joined us. "You left me up
at the village, you remember, Fairlegh, when you started to fetch Mr.
Ellis; well, just as I was leaving it to return to the Hall, a boy
ran past me at the top of his speed, and began knocking at one of the
cottage doors hard by; surprised to see any one about at so early an
hour i