f the forest. For crimes I then
committed I am doomed to wander within it, and I shall haunt it, unless
released, till the crack of doom."

"Liberate me!" cried Mabel; "liberate your other prisoner and we will
pray for your release."

"No more of this!" cried Herne fiercely. "If you would not call down
instant and terrible punishment on your head--punishment that I cannot
avert, and must inflict--you will mention nothing sacred in my hearing,
and never allude to prayer, I am beyond the reach of salvation."

"Oh, say not so!" cried Mabel, in a tone of commiseration. "I will tell
you how my doom was accomplished," rejoined Herne wildly. "To gain
her of whom I have just spoken, and who was already vowed to Heaven, I
invoked the powers of darkness. I proffered my soul to the Evil One if
he would secure her to me, and the condition demanded by him was that I
should become what I am--the fiend of the forest, with power to terrify
and to tempt, and with other more fearful and fatal powers besides."

"Oh!" exclaimed Mabel.

"I grasped at the offer," pursued Herne. "She I loved became mine. But
she was speedily snatched from me by death, and since then I have known
no human passion except hatred and revenge. I have dwelt in this forest,
sometimes alone, sometimes at the head of a numerous band, but always
exerting a baneful influence over mankind. At last, I saw the image
of her I loved again appear before me, and the old passion was revived
within my breast. Chance has thrown you in my way, and mine you shall
be, Mabel."

"I will die rather," she replied, with a shudder.

"You cannot escape me," rejoined He me, with a triumphant laugh; "you
cannot avoid your fate. But I want not to deal harshly with you. I love
you, and would win you rather by persuasion than by force. Consent to be
mine, then, and I give Wyat his life and liberty."

"I cannot--I cannot!" she replied.

"Not only do I offer you Wyat's life as the price of your compliance,"
persevered Herne; "but you shall have what ever else you may
seek--jewels, ornaments, costly attire, treasure--for of such I possess
a goodly store."

"And of what use would they be to me here?" said Mabel.

"I will not always confine you to this cave," replied Herne. "You shall
go where you please, and live as you please, but you must come to me
whenever I summon you."

"And what of my grandsire?" she demanded.

"Tristram Lyndwood is no relative of yours," replied Herne. "I wi