es which filled my mind. In the darkest
recess of my soul I registered a vow to seek Reardon over the world,
until I had signally avenged her wrongs, my own blighted manhood, and
darkened future.

Alice then spoke of mercy and peace to all men, and conjured me for my
own sake to spare her destroyer. I heard without accurately
comprehending her. My future course was irrevocably determined, and with
that stupefaction which only the extreme of mental suffering can
produce, I listened to her dying words.

In two hours after my arrival the family was called in to receive her
last farewell. I supported her upon my breast, which no longer heaved
with the wild pulsations of anguish that had so long thrilled in every
throb of my heart. No; the worst was known, and above my great sorrow
arose the intense and burning desire for revenge. Two great emotions can
not exist together: one must succumb to the other.

Alice comprehended something of what was passing in my mind, and almost
with her last breath she murmured: "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."

I muttered: "Ay; but He often chooses earthly instruments by which to
accomplish it."

She died; and imprinting a last kiss upon her pale lips, I left the
house: I could not remain to perform the last rites to her precious
remains.

I wandered in the woods in communion with the spirit of the dead, until
the returning stage arrived. I was then borne to the scene of
anticipated retribution. It was midnight when I reached New York. I felt
that I could not rest: in such a condition of feverish excitement,
motion was the only state I could bear, and I hurriedly paced the
streets, arranging in my mind the means of discovering my doomed enemy.
Day was just beginning to dawn when I passed the open door of an
oyster-cellar, from which two men were emerging. A voice spoke which
made my blood bubble in my veins. It was Reardon. He said, "I shall
leave to-day, or that fool Purcel will be on my track. If that girl had
not played me such a trick, I should long since have been buried in the
far West, where I would have defied him to find me. I have fooled away
too much time in trying to seek her out."

He stepped on the pavement. At that moment a line of rosy light shot
upward from the rising sun, and streamed full on my pale and determined
countenance. Reardon recoiled and drew his knife from his breast. Not a
word was spoken; we rushed on each other, and I sheathed my dagger in
his trai