e had illustrated by several anecdotes not to be found in books,
that now suggested the design to the artist, and gave it reality and
force. He supposed a powerful and guilty king whom in life scarce a
whisper had dared to arraign, but against whom, now the breath was gone,
came the slave from his fetters, the mutilated victim from his dungeon,
livid and squalid as if dead themselves, invoking with parched lips the
justice that outlives the grave.

Strange fervour this, O artist! breaking suddenly forth from the mists
and darkness which the occult science had spread so long over thy
fancies,--strange that the reaction of the night's terror and the day's
disappointment should be back to thine holy art! Oh, how freely goes
the bold hand over the large outline! How, despite those rude materials,
speaks forth no more the pupil, but the master! Fresh yet from the
glorious elixir, how thou givest to thy creatures the finer life denied
to thyself!--some power not thine own writes the grand symbols on the
wall. Behind rises the mighty sepulchre, on the building of which repose
to the dead the lives of thousands had been consumed. There sit in a
semicircle the solemn judges. Black and sluggish flows the lake. There
lies the mummied and royal dead. Dost thou quail at the frown on
his lifelike brow? Ha!--bravely done, O artist!--up rise the haggard
forms!--pale speak the ghastly faces! Shall not Humanity after death
avenge itself on Power? Thy conception, Clarence Glyndon, is a sublime
truth; thy design promises renown to genius. Better this magic than the
charms of the volume and the vessel. Hour after hour has gone; thou hast
lighted the lamp; night sees thee yet at thy labour. Merciful Heaven!
what chills the atmosphere; why does the lamp grow wan; why does thy
hair bristle? There!--there!--there! at the casement! It gazes on thee,
the dark, mantled, loathsome thing! There, with their devilish mockery
and hateful craft, glare on thee those horrid eyes!

He stood and gazed,--it was no delusion. It spoke not, moved not, till,
unable to bear longer that steady and burning look, he covered his face
with his hands. With a start, with a thrill, he removed them; he felt
the nearer presence of the nameless. There it cowered on the floor
beside his design; and lo! the figures seemed to start from the wall!
Those pale accusing figures, the shapes he himself had raised, frowned
at him, and gibbered. With a violent effort that convulsed hi