able,
retained by the frantic grasp of the student, whose mind had yielded to
the awful character of the night.

The life of Il Maledetto had been one of great vicissitudes and peril. He
had often seen men pass suddenly into the other state of existence, and
had been calm himself amid the cries, the groans, and what is far more
appalling, the execrations of the dying, but never before had he witnessed
so brief and silent an end. For more than a minute, he hung suspended over
the dark and working water, expecting to see the student return; and, when
hope was reluctantly abandoned, he arose to his feet, a startled and
admonished man. Still discretion did not desert him. He saw the
uselessness, and even the danger, of distracting the attention of the
workmen, and the ill-fated scholar was permitted to pass away without a
word of regret or a comment on his fate. None knew of his loss but the
wary mariner, nor was his person missed by any of those who had spent the
day in his company. But she to whom he hud plighted his faith on the banks
of the Elbe long gazed at that pale star, and wept in bitterness that her
feminine constancy met with no return. Her true affections long outlived
their object, for his image was deeply enshrined in a warm female heart.
Days, weeks, months, and years passed for her in the wasting cheerlessness
of hope deferred, but the dark Leman never gave up its secret, and he to
whom her lover's fate alone was known little bethought him of an accident
which, if not forgotten, was but one of many similar frightful incidents
in his eventful career.

Maso re-appeared among the crowd, with the forced composure of one who
well knew that authority was most efficient when most calm. The command of
the vessel was now virtually with him, Baptiste, enervated by the
extraordinary crisis, and choking with passion, being utterly incapable of
giving a distinct or a useful order. It was fortunate for those in the
bark that the substitute was so good, for more fearful signs never
impended over the Leman than those which darkened the hour.

We have necessarily consumed much time in relating these events, the pen
not equalling the activity of the thoughts. Twenty minutes, however, had
not passed since the tranquillity of the lake was first disturbed, and so
great had been the exertions of those in the Winkelried, that the time
appeared to be shorter. But, though it had been so well employed, neither
had the powers of th