esult of Harry's intemperance, the bloody
offence hath been upon my soul--heavier, I do fear, than upon his own.
But unless he repent, and turn aside from his sinful courses, there
will, there must, come a fearful recompense!"

"Do not sentence him unheard," said Eleanor; but her words were
quivering and indistinct. "It was in his own defence, maybe, however
bitterly the tidings were dropped into your ear. Sure I am," said she,
more firmly, "that Harry was too kind, too gentle, to slay the
innocent, and in cold blood!"

"Nay, Eleanor, excuse him not. It may be that the foul deed was done
through excess of wine, the fiery heat of debauch, and amid the
beastly orgies of intemperance; but is he the less criminal? I tell
thee nay; for he hath added crime to crime, and drawn down, perchance,
a double punishment. He is my brother, and thou knowest, if possible,
I would palliate his offence; but hath it not been told, and the very
air of yon polluted city was rife and reeking with the deed, that
Harry Downes, the best-beloved of his father, and the child of many
hopes, did wantonly, and unprovoked, rush forth hot and intemperate
from the stews. Drawing his sword, did he not swear--ay, by that
Heaven he insulted and defied, that he would kill the first man he
met, and--oh, horror!--was not that fearful oath fulfilled?"

Eleanor had covered her face with her hands--a convulsive sob shook
her frame; but though her heart was on the rack, she uttered no
complaint. Maria, inflexible, and, as some might think, rigid, in
those principles of virtue wherein she had been educated, yet sorrowed
deeply for her cousin, who from a child had been her brother Harry's
playmate, and the proofs of mutual affection had been too powerful,
too early, and too long continued, to be ever effaced. Timid as the
frighted fawn, and tender as the wild flower that scarce bent beneath
her step, she lay, a bruised reed; the stem that supported her was
broken. Her fondest, her only hopes were withered, and the desolating
blast of disappointment had passed upon her earliest affections. Her
little bark, freighted with all a woman's care and tenderness, lay
shivered with the stroke, disabled and a wreck!

Just as the short and murky twilight was expiring, and other lights
were substituted, there came a loud summons at the outer gate, where a
strong barrier was built across the moat. The females started, as
though rendered more than usually apprehensive that ev