th Marchdale's own weapon,
have easily taken his life.

The young man did, on the impulse of the moment, raise it in his hand,
but, on the impulse of another thought, he cast it from him,
exclaiming--

"No, no! not that; I should be as bad as he, or nearly so. This villain
has come to murder me, but yet I will not take his life for the deed.
What shall I do with him? Ha! a lucky thought--chains!"

He dragged Marchdale to the identical spot of earth on which he had lain
so long; and, as Sir Francis Varney had left the key of the padlock
which bound the chains together in it, he, in a few moments, had
succeeded in placing the villain Marchdale in the same durance from
which he had himself shortly since escaped.

"Remain there," he said, "until some one comes to rescue you. I will not
let you starve to death, but I will give you a long fast; and, when I
come again, it shall be along with some of the Bannerworth family, to
show them what a viper they have fostered in their hearts."

Marchdale was just sufficiently conscious now to feel all the realities
of his situation. In vain he attempted to rise from his prostrate
position. The chains did their duty, keeping down a villain with the
same means that they had held in ignominious confinement a true man.

He was in a perfect agony, inasmuch as he considered that he would be
allowed to remain there to starve to death, thus achieving for himself a
more horrible death than any he had ever thought of inflicting.

"Villain!" exclaimed Charles Holland, "you shall there remain; and, let
you have what mental sufferings you may, you richly deserve them."

He heeded not the cries of Marchdale--he heeded not his imprecations any
more than he did his prayers; and the arch hypocrite used both in
abundance. Charles was but too happy once more to look upon the open
sky, although it was then in darkness, to heed anything that Marchdale,
in the agony to which he was now reduced, might feel inclined to say;
and, after glancing around him for some few moments, when he was free of
the ruins, and inhaling with exquisite delight the free air of the
surrounding meadows, he saw, by the twinkling of the lights, in which
direction the town lay, and knowing that by taking a line in that path,
and then after a time diverging a little to the right, he should come to
Bannerworth Hall, he walked on, never in his whole life probably feeling
such an enjoyment of the mere fact of existence as at such