e," replied Philip, "indeed I
feel sure that you must be. No man can be so bad as you suppose your
father."

"You have not lived with him as I have; you have not seen what I have
seen," replied Amine. "You know not what gold will tempt people to do
in this world--but, however, I may be wrong. At all events, you must
go to sleep, and I shall watch you, dearest. Pray do not speak--I feel
I cannot sleep just now--I wish to read a little--I will lie down
by-and-bye."

Philip made no further objections, and was soon in a sound sleep, and
Amine watched him in silence till midnight long had passed.

"He breathes heavily," thought Amine; "but had I given him that
powder, who knows if he had ever awoke again? My father is so deeply
skilled in the Eastern knowledge, that I fear him. Too often has he,
I well know, for a purse well filled with gold, prepared the sleep of
death. Another would shudder at the thought; but he, who has dealt out
death at the will of his employers, would scruple little to do so even
to the husband of his own daughter; and I have watched him in his
moods, and know his thoughts and wishes. What a foreboding of mishap
has come over me this evening!--what a fear of evil! Philip is ill,
'tis true, but not so very ill. No! no! besides, his time is not yet
come; he has his dreadful task to finish. I would it were morning. How
soundly he sleeps! and the dew is on his brow. I must cover him
up warm, and watch that he remains so. Some one knocks at the
entrance-door. Now will they wake him. 'Tis a summons for my father."

Amine left the room, and hastened downstairs. It was, as she supposed,
a summons for Mynheer Poots to a woman taken in labour.

"He shall follow you directly," said Amine; "I will now call him up."
Amine went upstairs to the room where her father slept, and knocked;
hearing no answer, as usual, she knocked again.

"My father is not used to sleep in this way," thought Amine, when she
found no answer to her second call. She opened the door and went in.
To her surprise, her father was not in bed. "Strange," thought she;
"but I do not recollect having heard his footsteps coming up after he
went down to take away the lights." And Amine hastened to the parlour,
where, stretched on the sofa, she discovered her father apparently
fast asleep; but to her call he gave no answer. "Merciful Heaven! is
he dead?" thought she, approaching the light to her father's face.
Yes, it was so! his eyes were fixed