h of St. Nicholas.

"Villain!" cried Manfred in a tempest of rage, "how darest thou utter
such treason!"

At this moment there came news from the church that the helmet was
missing from Alfonso's statue. Manfred rushed frantically on the young
peasant, crying, "Sorcerer! 'tis thou hast done this!" Coming to
himself, he gravely declared that the young man was a necromancer, and
ordered that he should be kept prisoner under the helmet itself till the
church should take cognisance of the affair.

Conrad's mother, the Princess Hippolita, had been carried fainting to
her apartments, accompanied by her daughter Matilda, who smothered her
own grief in order to assist her afflicted parent, and by Isabella. To
his wife and daughter Manfred that day paid no attention; but as the
ladies sat together sorrowing at night, a servant of Manfred's arrived
and told Isabella that his lord demanded to speak with her.

"I sent for you on a matter of great moment," said he. "Isabella, the
line of Manfred calls for numerous supports; and since I cannot give you
my son, I offer you myself."

"Heavens!" cried Isabella. "You, my lord! the husband of the virtuous
and tender Hippolita!"

"Name not that woman to me!" said Manfred imperiously. "I shall divorce
her. My fate depends on having sons."

He seized the hand of Isabella, who shrieked and started from him. At
that instant the portrait of his grandfather, which hung in the
apartment, uttered a deep sigh and descended from its panel. Manfred in
his distraction released Isabella, who had not seen the portrait's
movement, and who made towards the door. The spectre marched sedately,
but dejectedly, into a chamber on the right hand. Manfred would have
followed; but the door was clapped to with violence, nor could he with
all his force re-open it.

As Isabella took flight, she recollected a subterraneous passage, which
led from the vaults of the castle to the church of St. Nicholas. She
determined, if no other means of deliverance offered, to shut herself up
forever among the holy virgins, whose convent was contiguous to the
cathedral. In this resolution, she seized a lamp that burned at the foot
of the staircase, and hurried towards the secret passage.

The lower part of the castle was hollowed into several intricate
cloisters, and it was not easy for one under so much anxiety to find the
door that opened into the cavern. When in that long labyrinth of
darkness a gust of wind extinguish