d was adding to the fury of the flames, and
Philip shouted with joy at the success of his attempt.

"Now, miserable despoiler of the dead--now, wretched thief, now you
shall feel my vengeance," cried Philip, with a loud voice. "If you
remain within, you perish in the flames; if you attempt to come out
you shall die by my hands. Do you hear, Mynheer Poots--do you hear?"

Hardly had Philip concluded this address when the window of the upper
floor furthest from the burning door was thrown open.

"Ay,--you come now to beg and to entreat; but no--no," cried
Philip--who stopped as he beheld at the window what seemed to be an
apparition, for, instead of the wretched little miser, he beheld
one of the loveliest forms Nature ever deigned to mould--an angelic
creature, of about sixteen or seventeen, who appeared calm and
resolute in the midst of the danger by which she was threatened. Her
long black hair was braided and twined round her beautifully-formed
head; her eyes were large, intensely dark, yet soft; her forehead high
and white, her chin dimpled, her ruby lips arched and delicately
fine, her nose small and straight. A lovelier face could not be well
imagined; it reminded you of what the best of painters have sometimes,
in their more fortunate moments, succeeded in embodying, when they
would represent a beauteous saint. And as the flames wreathed and the
smoke burst out in columns and swept past the window, so might she
have reminded you in her calmness of demeanour of some martyr at the
stake.

"What wouldst thou, violent young man? Why are the inmates of this
house to suffer death by your means?" said the maiden, with composure.

For a few seconds Philip gazed, and could make no reply; then the
thought seized him that, in his vengeance, he was about to sacrifice
so much loveliness. He forgot everything but her danger, and seizing
one of the large poles which he had brought to feed the flame, he
threw off and scattered in every direction the burning masses, until
nothing was left which could hurt the building but the ignited door
itself; and this, which as yet--for it was of thick oak plank--had not
suffered very material injury, he soon reduced, by beating it, with
clods of earth, to a smoking and harmless state. During these active
measures on the part of Philip, the young maiden watched him in
silence.

"All is safe now, young lady," said Philip. "God forgive me that I
should have risked a life so precious. I tho