offer. But he wished to find the
disposition of Hippolita in the affair, and sought her apartments. He
found them empty; and concluding that she was in her oratory, he passed
on. On entering, he saw a person kneeling before the altar; not a woman,
but one in a long woollen weed, whose back was towards him.

"Reverend father," said Frederic, meaning to excuse his interruption, "I
sought the lady Hippolita."

"Hippolita!" replied a hollow voice; and then the figure, turning slowly
round, discovered to Frederic the fleshless jaws and empty sockets of a
skeleton, wrapped in a hermit's cowl.

"Angels of grace, protect me!" cried Frederic, recoiling.

"Deserve their protection!" said the spectre. "Remember the wood of
Joppa!"

"Art thou that holy hermit?" asked Frederic, trembling. "What is thy
errand to me?"

"Forget Matilda!" said the apparition--and vanished.

For some minutes Frederic remained motionless, his blood frozen in his
veins. Then, falling before the altar, he besought the intercession of
every saint for pardon.

On that night Matilda, whose passion for Theodore had increased, and who
abhorred her father's purpose of marrying her to Frederic, had by chance
met her lover as he was kneeling at the tomb of Alfonso in the great
church. Manfred was told by the domestic that Theodore and some lady
from the castle were in private conference at the tomb. Concluding in
his jealousy that the lady was Isabella, he hastened secretly to the
church.

The first sounds he could distinguish in the darkness were, "Does it,
alas! depend on me? Manfred will never permit our union--"

"No, this shall prevent it!" cried the tyrant, plunging his dagger into
the bosom of the woman that spoke.

"Inhuman monster!" cried Theodore, rushing on him.

"Stop! stop!" cried Matilda, "it is my father!"

Manfred, waking as from a trance, beat his breast and twisted his hands
in his locks. Theodore's cries quickly drew some monks to his aid, among
them Father Jerome.

"Now, tyrant," said Jerome, "behold the completion of woe fulfilled on
thy impious head!"

"Cruel man!" cried Matilda, "to aggravate the woes of a parent!"

"Oh, Matilda," said Manfred, "I took thee for Isabella. Oh, canst thou
forgive the blindness of my rage?"

"I can, and do," answered Matilda, "and may heaven confirm it!"

Matilda was carried back to the castle; and Hippolita, when she saw the
afflicted procession, ran weeping to her daughter, whose hands th