tachment of Nicholas to him, was
insupportable agony. The picture of his deathbed, with Nicholas at his
side, tending and supporting him, and he breathing out his thanks, and
expiring in his arms, when he would have had them mortal enemies and
hating each other to the last, drove him frantic. He gnashed his teeth
and smote the air, and looking wildly round, with eyes which gleamed
through the darkness, cried aloud:

'I am trampled down and ruined. The wretch told me true. The night has
come! Is there no way to rob them of further triumph, and spurn their
mercy and compassion? Is there no devil to help me?'

Swiftly, there glided again into his brain the figure he had raised that
night. It seemed to lie before him. The head was covered now. So it
was when he first saw it. The rigid, upturned, marble feet too, he
remembered well. Then came before him the pale and trembling relatives
who had told their tale upon the inquest--the shrieks of women--the
silent dread of men--the consternation and disquiet--the victory
achieved by that heap of clay, which, with one motion of its hand, had
let out the life and made this stir among them--

He spoke no more; but, after a pause, softly groped his way out of
the room, and up the echoing stairs--up to the top--to the front
garret--where he closed the door behind him, and remained.

It was a mere lumber-room now, but it yet contained an old dismantled
bedstead; the one on which his son had slept; for no other had ever been
there. He avoided it hastily, and sat down as far from it as he could.

The weakened glare of the lights in the street below, shining through
the window which had no blind or curtain to intercept it, was enough to
show the character of the room, though not sufficient fully to reveal
the various articles of lumber, old corded trunks and broken furniture,
which were scattered about. It had a shelving roof; high in one part,
and at another descending almost to the floor. It was towards the
highest part that Ralph directed his eyes; and upon it he kept them
fixed steadily for some minutes, when he rose, and dragging thither an
old chest upon which he had been seated, mounted on it, and felt along
the wall above his head with both hands. At length, they touched a large
iron hook, firmly driven into one of the beams.

At that moment, he was interrupted by a loud knocking at the door below.
After a little hesitation he opened the window, and demanded who it was.

'I