g. The
feelings of both were too much oppressed to admit of the utterance of
their grief. The vampire of despair had banqueted on their hearts.
Their vitality had been sucked, as it were, by its cold and bloodless
lips; and little more than the withered rind, that had contained the
seeds of so many affections, had been left. Often had Sir Everard and
De Haldimar paused momentarily from the labour of their oars, to cast
an eye of anxious solicitude on the scarcely conscious girls, wishing,
rather than expecting, to find the violence of their desolation abated,
and that, in the full expansion of unreserved communication, they were
relieving their sick hearts from the terrible and crushing weight of
woe that bore them down. Captain de Haldimar had even once or twice
essayed to introduce the subject himself, in the hope that some fresh
paroxysm, following their disclosures, would remove the horrible
stupefaction of their senses; but the wild look and excited manner of
Madeline, whenever he touched on the chord of her affliction, had as
often caused him to desist.

Towards the evening, however, her natural strength of character came in
aid of his quiescent efforts to soothe her; and she appeared not only
more composed, but more sensible of the impression produced by
surrounding objects. As the last rays of the sun were tinging the
horizon, she drew up her form in a sitting position against the
bulwarks, and, raising her clasped hands to heaven, while her eyes were
bent long and fixedly on the distant west, appeared for some minutes
wholly lost in that attitude of absorption. Then she closed her eyes;
and through the swollen lids came coursing, one by one, over her
quivering cheek, large tears, that seemed to scald a furrow where they
passed. After this she became more calm--her respiration more free; and
she even consented to taste the humble meal which the young man now
offered for the third time. Neither Clara nor herself had eaten food
since the preceding morning; and the weakness of their frames
contributed not a little to the increasing despondency of their
spirits; but, notwithstanding several attempts previously made, they
had rejected what was offered them, with insurmountable loathing. When
they had now swallowed a few morsels of the sliced venison ham,
prepared with all the delicacy the nearly exhausted resources of the
vessel could supply, accompanied by a small portion of the cornbread of
the Canadian, Captain d