g the dreadful compunction and remorse which have long
preyed upon his heart, together with the incredible misery and deplorable
death which by this time he hath undergone. Though these sufferings and
sorrows cannot atone for his enormous guilt, perhaps they will excite the
compassion of the humane Count de Melvil; at least, this confession,
which my conscience dictates under all the terrors of death and futurity,
may be a warning for him to avoid henceforth a smiling villain, like the
execrable Fathom, upon whose miserable soul Almighty God have mercy."

Renaldo was deeply affected with the contents of this scroll, which
denoted such horror and despair. He saw there could be no dissimulation
or sinister design in this profession of penitence. He beheld the
condition of the writer, which put all his humane passions in commotion;
so that he remembered nothing of Fathom but his present distress. He
could scarce maintain those indications which might have been justly
deemed the effect of weakness and infirmity; and having desired the
physician and clergyman to contribute their assistance for the benefit of
that wretch's soul and body, he ran to the coach, and communicated the
letter to the ladies; at the same time drawing a picture of the object he
had seen, which brought tears into the eyes of the gentle Serafina, who
earnestly entreated her lord to use his endeavours for the relief and
recovery of the unhappy man, that he might, if possible, live to enjoy
the benefit of mature repentance, and not die in that dreadful despair
which he manifested in the letter.

Renaldo, returning to the house, found the pious clergyman reading
prayers with great fervency, while Don Diego stood with his right hand
upon his breast, looking steadfastly upon the agonising Fathom, and the
young woman kneeled, with her streaming eyes lifted up to heaven, in an
ecstasy of grief and devotion. The physician had run to an apothecary's
shop in the neighbourhood, from whence he soon returned with an
assistant, who applied a large blister to the back of the miserable
patient, while the female, by the doctor's direction, moistened his mouth
with a cordial which he had prescribed.

These charitable steps being taken, Count de Melvil entreated the
apothecary's servant to procure a tent-bed for the accommodation of the
sick person with all imaginable despatch; and, in less than an hour, one
was actually pitched, and Fathom lifted into it, after he h