n. Shall it be less an evil because he by whom it is
perpetrated has neither the soul nor the sense to be conscious of his
error. The child who trifles with the powder-match is lessoned by the
explosion which destroys him. It must be so with him. I never yet
forgave a wrong, however slight and unimportant--I never will. It is not
in my nature to do so; and as long as this boy can sleep at night, I can
not. I will not seek to sleep until he is laid to rest for ever!"

The whole of this brief dialogue, which had passed directly beside the
recess in which the maiden and youth had taken shelter, was distinctly
audible to them both. The blood of Ralph boiled within him at this
latter speech of the ruffian, in which he avowed a spirit of such dire
malignity, as, in its utter disproportionateness to the supposed offence
of the youth, could only have been sanctioned by the nature which he had
declared to have always been his prompter; and, at its close, the arm of
the youth, grasping his weapon, was involuntarily stretched forth, and
an instant more would have found it buried in the bosom of the
wretch--but the action did not escape the quick eye of his companion,
who, though trembling with undiminished terror, was yet mistress of all
her senses, and perceived the ill-advised nature of his design. With a
motion equally involuntary and sudden with his own, her taper fingers
grasped his wrist, and her eyes bright with dewy lustres, were directed
upward, sweetly and appealingly to those which now bent themselves down
upon her. In that moment of excitement and impending terror, a
consciousness of her situation and a sense of shame which more than ever
agitated her, rushed through her mind, and she leaned against the side
of the closet for that support for which her now revived and awakened
scruples forbade any reference to him from whom she had so recently
received it. Still, there was nothing abrupt or unkind in her manner,
and the youth did not hesitate again to place his arm around and in
support of the form which, in reality, needed his strength. In doing so,
however, a slight noise was the consequence, which the quick sense of
Rivers readily discerned.

"Hark!--heard you nothing, Munro--no sound? Hear you no breathing?--It
seems at hand--in that closet."

"Thou hast a quick ear to-night, Guy, as well as a quick step. I heard,
and hear nothing, save the snorings of old Barton, whose chamber is just
beside you to the left. He