down. But the force of
habit was omnipotent; and in spite of her waning sanity, Sybil suddenly
recollected a duty never omitted, and said:

"Let me say my prayers first."

So she knelt down.

Beatrix Pendleton waited and watched for some time, for so long a time,
at last, that she suspected Sybil had fallen asleep. She went and looked
at her attentively, and then called her by name, and touched her, and so
finally discovered that she had, in the midst of her prayers, relapsed
into that fearful lethargy that was undermining her reason.

"Come, Sybil, dear, get into bed," said Beatrix, taking her hand and
lifting her up.

"Yes," said the docile creature, and immediately did as her friend
directed her.

There was no surer or sadder symptoms in Sybil's insanity, than the
perfect docility of her who had once been so difficult to manage.

She went quietly to bed.

Beatrix prepared to follow her.

But Miss Pendleton was faint from long fasting. Neither she nor Sybil
had tasted anything since their luncheon at two o'clock that day, when
the court had taken a recess. They had reached the prison sometime after
supper had been served; and in the awful crisis of Sybil's fate, no one
had thought of food. Sybil did not seem to require it; she lay in a
quiet lethargy, like death. But Beatrix was half-famished when she went
to bed.

Her hunger, however, was soon forgotten in the great anxiety of her
mind; and the sharpest point of it was this:

What effect would the night's repose have on Sybil's state? Would it
bring back her lost senses, and with them the consciousness of her awful
condition? Beatrix prayed that it might not--prayed that the shield of
insanity might still cover her from the surrounding and impending
horrors of her position.

At length both the friends fell asleep, and slept until nearly nine
o'clock the next morning.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE MERCIFUL INSANITY.

Every sense
Had been o'erstrung by pangs intense,
And each frail fibre of her brain,
(As bowstrings when, relaxed by rain,
The erring arrow launch aside,)
Sent forth her thoughts all wild and wide.--BYRON.

They were awakened by the drawing of bolts and turning of locks outside
their door, and by the voice of the warden, saying:

"Go in, Kitty, and see if they are up. I will stay outside and guard the
door."

And then the same middle-aged widow whom they had seen on the previous
night