s only to indulge in the fondest
imaginings that ever filled the heart of a devoted lover. Alas! (and
the dark warrior again sighed heavily) the day-dream of my happiness
was already fast drawing to a close.

"At half an hour before noon, I was again in the oasis; your mother was
at the wonted spot; and although she received me with her sunniest
smiles, there were traces of tears upon her cheek. I kissed them
eagerly away, and sought to dissipate the partial gloom that was again
clouding her brow. She observed it pained me to see her thus, and she
made a greater effort to rally. She implored me to forgive her
weakness; but it was the first time she was to be separated from her
parent; and conscious as she was that it was to be for ever, she could
not repress the feeling that rose, despite of herself, to her heart.
She had, however, prepared a letter, at my suggestion, to be left on
her favourite moss seat, where it was likely she would first be sought
by her father, to assure him of her safety, and of her prospects of
future happiness; and the consciousness that he would labour under no
harrowing uncertainty in regard to her fate, seemed, at length, to
soothe and satisfy her heart.

"I now led her to the aperture, where I had left the apparatus provided
for my purpose: this consisted of a close netting, about four feet in
depth, with a board for a footstool at the bottom, and furnished at
intervals with hoops, so as to keep it full and open. The top of this
netting was provided with two handles, to which were attached the ends
of a cord many fathoms in length; the whole of such durability, as to
have borne weights equal to those of three ordinary sized men, with
which I had proved it prior to my setting out. My first care was to
bandage the eyes of your mother, (who willingly and fearlessly
submitted to all I proposed,) that she might not see, and become faint
with seeing, the terrible chasm over which she was about to be
suspended. I then placed her within the netting, which, fitting closely
to her person, and reaching under her arms, completely secured her; and
my next urgent request was, that she would not, on any account, remove
the bandage, or make the slightest movement, when she found herself
stationary below, until I had joined her. I then dropped her gently
through the aperture, lowering fathom after fathom of the rope, the
ends of which I had firmly secured round the trunk of a tree, as an
additional safegua