e
into which she had been precipitated. The first emotions of overwhelming
impatience began to subside, and resentment gave place to tenderness,
and more tranquil meditation; though anger once more stopt the calm
current of reflection when she attempted to move her manacled arms. But
this was an outrage that could only excite momentary feelings of scorn,
which evaporated in a faint smile; for Maria was far from thinking
a personal insult the most difficult to endure with magnanimous
indifference.

She approached the small grated window of her chamber, and for a
considerable time only regarded the blue expanse; though it commanded
a view of a desolate garden, and of part of a huge pile of buildings,
that, after having been suffered, for half a century, to fall to decay,
had undergone some clumsy repairs, merely to render it habitable. The
ivy had been torn off the turrets, and the stones not wanted to patch up
the breaches of time, and exclude the warring elements, left in heaps
in the disordered court. Maria contemplated this scene she knew not how
long; or rather gazed on the walls, and pondered on her situation.
To the master of this most horrid of prisons, she had, soon after her
entrance, raved of injustice, in accents that would have justified his
treatment, had not a malignant smile, when she appealed to his judgment,
with a dreadful conviction stifled her remonstrating complaints. By
force, or openly, what could be done? But surely some expedient might
occur to an active mind, without any other employment, and possessed of
sufficient resolution to put the risk of life into the balance with the
chance of freedom.

A woman entered in the midst of these reflections, with a firm,
deliberate step, strongly marked features, and large black eyes, which
she fixed steadily on Maria's, as if she designed to intimidate her,
saying at the same time "You had better sit down and eat your dinner,
than look at the clouds."

"I have no appetite," replied Maria, who had previously determined to
speak mildly; "why then should I eat?"

"But, in spite of that, you must and shall eat something. I have had
many ladies under my care, who have resolved to starve themselves;
but, soon or late, they gave up their intent, as they recovered their
senses."

"Do you really think me mad?" asked Maria, meeting the searching glance
of her eye.

"Not just now. But what does that prove?--Only that you must be the more
carefully watched, fo