too well! But I fear thee not!"

"What! holdest thou a charmed life? Thou mayest fall into a broil as
well as other men. And who shall require thy blood at my hands?"

"Ere I left," said the divine, warily, "I whispered a word in your
cousin Beaumont's ear. Should I not return, he will be here anon.
Peradventure I am not misunderstood. Thou hadst need be careful of my
life, otherwise thine own may be in jeopardy!"

A fierce and terrible brightness, like the lurid flashes from his own
torment, burst from his eye. The very anger and malice he strove to
quell made it burn still hotter. His visage gathered blackness, cloud
hurrying on cloud, like the grim billows of the storm across a glowing
atmosphere. Rapid was the transition. Rage, apprehension,
abhorrence,--all that hate and malignity could express, threw their
appalling shadows over his features. Still the dark hints uttered by his
visitor seemed to hold him in check. Chafed, maddened, yet not daring to
execute the vengeance he desired, he strode through the apartment with
an uneasy and perturbed gait. He paused at times, darting a look at the
minister as if about to address him. Suddenly he stood still, nerving
his spirit to some awful question.

"My cousin John Harrington died in his own chamber. In this house, God
wot. Thou didst shrive him at his last shift, and how sayest thou he was
poisoned?"

"I said not aught so plainly; but thou hast spoken out. Behold
him!--There!"--The divine pointed his finger slowly round the apartment.
"Within a short space he cites thee to that bar where his presence will
be a swift witness to thy doom!"

Had the spirit of the unfortunate heir of Hornby suddenly appeared, the
Baron could not have followed the movement of the minister's hand with
greater dismay and astonishment. The strong barrier of guilt seemed
breaking down. Conscience aroused, as if at once the veil that concealed
his iniquities had been withdrawn, they rose in all their unmitigated
horror and enormity. An arrow, drawn at a venture, had pierced the
joints of the harness. He stood powerless and without defence--motionless
as the image of despair. By a strange coincidence a thick white cloud
seemed to coil itself heavily round the room. Whether to the heated
imaginations of the disputants this appearance might not present an
image of the form then visible to their minds, it would be impossible to
determine. Suffice it to say, the effect was memorable, from what