e
heart heavings of indignant nature merely by the force of contempt. Now
she endeavoured to brace her mind to fortitude, and to ask herself what
was to be her employment in her dreary cell? Was it not to effect her
escape, to fly to the succour of her child, and to baffle the selfish
schemes of her tyrant--her husband?

These thoughts roused her sleeping spirit, and the self-possession
returned, that seemed to have abandoned her in the infernal solitude into
which she had been precipitated. The first emotions of overwhelming
impatience began to subside, and resentment gave place to tenderness, and
more tranquil meditation; though anger once more stopt the calm current
of reflection, when she attempted to move her manacled arms. But this
was an outrage that could only excite momentary feelings of scorn, which
evaporated in a faint smile; for Maria was far from thinking a personal
insult the most difficult to endure with magnanimous indifference.

She approached the small grated window of her chamber, and for a
considerable time only regarded the blue expanse; though it commanded a
view of a desolate garden, and of part of a huge pile of buildings, that,
after having been suffered, for half a century, to fall to decay, had
undergone some clumsy repairs, merely to render it habitable. The ivy had
been torn off the turrets, and the stones not wanted to patch up the
breaches of time, and exclude the warring elements, left in heaps in the
disordered court. Maria contemplated this scene she knew not how long; or
rather gazed on the walls, and pondered on her situation. To the master
of this most horrid of prisons, she had, soon after her entrance, raved
of injustice, in accents that would have justified his treatment, had not
a malignant smile, when she appealed to his judgment, with a dreadful
conviction stifled her remonstrating complaints. By force, or openly,
what could be done? But surely some expedient might occur to an active
mind, without any other employment, and possessed of sufficient
resolution to put the risk of life into the balance with the chance of
freedom.

A woman entered in the midst of these reflections, with a firm,
deliberate step, strongly marked features, and large black eyes, which
she fixed steadily on Maria's, as if she designed to intimidate her,
saying at the same time--"You had better sit down and eat your dinner,
than look at the clouds."

"I have no appetite," replied Maria, who had previo