and Leonard had little doubt, that before another sun went
down the whole of the ghastly assemblage before him would share their
fate. If the habitations he had recently gazed upon had appeared
plague-stricken, the sacred structure in which he was now standing
seemed yet more horribly contaminated. Ill-kept and ill-ventilated, the
air was loaded with noxious effluvia, while the various abominations
that met the eye at every turn would have been sufficient to produce the
distemper in any one who had come in contact with them. They were,
however, utterly disregarded by the miserable sufferers and their
attendants. The magnificent painted windows were dimmed by a thick
clammy steam, which could scarcely be washed off--while the carved oak
screens, the sculptured tombs, the pillars, the walls, and the flagged
floors were covered with impurities.

Satisfied with a brief survey of this frightful scene, Leonard turned to
depart, and was passing the entrance to Saint Faith's, which stood open,
when he caught sight of Judith standing at the foot of the broad stone
steps, and holding a lamp in her hand. She was conversing with a tall
richly-dressed man, whose features he fancied he had seen before, though
he could not at the moment call them to mind. After a brief
conversation, they moved off into the depths of the vault, and he lost
eight of them. All at once it occurred to Leonard that Judith's
companion was the unfortunate stranger whose child he had interred, and
who had been so strangely affected at the sight of Nizza Macascree.
Determined to ascertain the point, he hurried down the steps and plunged
into the vault. It was buried in profound darkness, and he had not
proceeded far when he stumbled over something lying in his path, and
found from the groan that followed that it was a plague-patient. Before
he could regain his feet, the unfortunate sufferer whom he had thus
disturbed implored him, in piteous accents, which, with a shudder, he
recognised as those of Blaize, to remove him. Leonard immediately gave
the poor porter to understand that he was near him, and would render him
every aid in his power.

"Your assistance comes too late, Leonard," groaned Blaize--"it's all
over with me now, but I don't like to breathe my last in this dismal
vault, without medicine or food, both of which I am denied by that
infernal hag Mother Malmayns, who calls herself a nurse, but who is in
reality a robber and murderess. Oh! the frightf