un, and his right thrust into the waist of his
coat. His eye grew upon the window, and his chest heaved, and his cheek
paled and flushed alternately with the subdued emotion of his heart. A
human face was placed close to the unblemished glass, and every feature
was distinctly revealed by the lamp that still lay upon the table. The
glaring eye was fixed on the taller of the officers; but though the
expression was unfathomably guileful, there was nothing that denoted
any thing like a recognition of the party. The brightness of the wood
fire had so far subsided as to throw the interior of the room into
partial obscurity, and under the disguise of his hood it was impossible
for one without to distinguish the features of the taller officer. The
younger, who was scarcely an object of attention, passed comparatively
unnoticed.

Fatigued and dimmed with the long and eager tension of its nerves, the
eye of the latter now began to fail him. For a moment he closed it; and
when again it fell upon the window; it encountered nothing but the
clear and glittering pane. For upwards of a minute he and his friend
still continued to rivet their gaze, but the face was no longer visible.

Why is it that what is called the "human face divine" is sometimes
gifted with a power to paralyse, that the most loathsome reptile in the
creation cannot attain? Had a hyena or cougar of the American forest,
roaring for prey, appeared at that window, ready to burst the fragile
barrier, and fasten its talons in their hearts, its presence would not
have struck such sickness to the soul of our adventurers as did that
human face. It is that man, naturally fierce and inexorable, is alone
the enemy of his own species. The solution of this problem--this
glorious paradox in nature, we leave to profounder philosophers to
resolve. Sufficient for us be it to know, and to deplore that it is so.

Footsteps were now heard upon the stairs; and the officers, aroused to
a full sense of their danger, hastily and silently prepared themselves
for the encounter.

"Drop a bullet into your gun," whispered the elder, setting the example
himself. "We may be obliged to have recourse to it at last. Yet make no
show of hostility unless circumstances satisfy us we are betrayed;
then, indeed, all that remains for us will be to sell our lives as
dearly as we can. Hist! he is here."

The door opened; and at the entrance, which was already filled up in
the imaginations of the young m