e may
not be penetrated."

In despite of his native courage,--and this had often been put to
honourable proof,--he, thus mysteriously addressed, felt his heart to
throb violently. There was something so appalled in the countenance of
his friend--something so alarming in the very caution he had
recommended--that a vague dread of the horrible reality rushed at once
to his mind, and for a moment his own cheek became ashy pale, and his
breathing painfully oppressed. It was the natural weakness of the
physical man, over which the moral faculties had, for an instant, lost
their directing power. Speedily recovering himself, the young man
prepared to encounter the alarming object which had already so greatly
intimidated his friend. Carefully drawing the blanket hood over his
head, he rose from his seat, and, with the energetic movement of one
who has formed some desperate determination, turned his back to the
fire-place, and threw his eyes rapidly and eagerly upon the window.
They fell only on the rude patchwork of which it was principally
composed. The female had quitted the room.

"You must have been deceived," he whispered, keeping his eye still bent
upon the window, and with so imperceptible a movement of the lips that
sound alone could have betrayed he was speaking,--"I see nothing to
justify your alarm. Look again."

The younger officer once more directed his glance towards the window,
and with a shuddering of the whole person, as he recollected what had
met his eye when he last looked upon it. "It is no longer there,
indeed," he returned in the same scarcely audible tone. "Yet I could
not be mistaken; it was between those two corner squares of wood in the
lower sash."

"Perhaps it was merely a reflection produced by the lamp on the centre
pane," rejoined his friend, still keeping his eye riveted on the
suspicious point.

"Impossible! but I will examine the window from the spot on which I
stood when I first beheld it."

Again he quitted his seat, and carelessly crossed the room. As he
returned he threw his glance upon the pane, when, to his infinite
horror and surprise, the same frightful vision presented itself.

"God of Heaven!" he exclaimed aloud, and unable longer to check the
ebullition of his feelings,--"what means this?--Is my brain turned? and
am I the sport of my own delusive fancy?--Do you not see it NOW?"

No answer was returned. His friend stood mute and motionless, with his
left hand grasping his g