f the drum boys of the grenadiers was made soon after you left the
fort. I saw her leap upon the coffin, and, standing over the body of
her unhappy husband, raise her hands to heaven in adjuration, and my
heart died within me. I recollected the words she had spoken on a
previous occasion, during the first examination of Halloway, and I felt
it to be the prophetic denunciation, then threatened, that she was now
uttering on all the race of De Haldimar. I saw no more, Blessington.
Sick, dizzy, and with every faculty of my mind annihilated, I turned
away from the horrid scene, and was again borne to my room. I tried to
give vent to my overcharged heart in tears; but the power was denied
me, and I sank at once into that stupefaction which you have since
remarked in me, and which has been increasing every hour. What
additional cause I have had for the indulgence of this confirmed
despondency you are well acquainted with. It is childish, it is
unsoldierlike, I admit: but, alas! that dreadful scene is eternally
before my eyes, and absorbs my mind, to the exclusion of every other
feeling. I have not a thought or a care but for the fate that too
certainly awaits those who are most dear to me; and if this be a
weakness, it is one I shall never have the power to shake off. In a
word, Blessington, I am heart-broken."

Captain Blessington was deeply affected; for there was a solemnity in
the voice and manner of the young officer that carried conviction to
the heart; and it was some moments before he could so far recover
himself as to observe,--

"That scene, Charles, was doubtless a heart-rending one to us all; for
I well recollect, on turning to remark the impression made on my men
when the wretched Ellen Halloway pronounced her appalling curse to have
seen the large tears coursing each other over the furrowed cheeks of
some of our oldest soldiers: and if THEY could feel thus, how much more
acute must have been the grief of those immediately interested in its
application!"

"THEIR tears were not for the denounced race of De Haldimar," returned
the youth,--"they were shed for their unhappy comrade--they were wrung
from their stubborn hearts by the agonising grief of the wife of
Halloway."

"That this was the case in part, I admit," returned Captain
Blessington. "The feelings of the men partook of a mixed character. It
was evident that grief for Halloway, compassion for his wife, secret
indignation and, it may be, disgust at the