m to secure the victim. He
drew a silken noose from his saddle-bow, and threw it over the panting
deer, who followed quietly on to his dwelling at Hapton Tower.

At midnight there was heard a wild and unearthly shriek from the high
turret, so pitiful and shrill that the inmates awoke in great alarm. The
loud roar of the wind came on like a thunder-clap. The tempest flapped
its wings, and its giant arms rocked the turret like a cradle. At this
hour Lord William, with a wild and haggard eye, left his chamber. The
last stroke of the midnight bell trembled on his ear as he entered the
western tower. A maiden sat there, a silken noose was about her head,
and she sobbed loud and heavily. She wrung her white hands at his
approach.

"Thy spells have been o'ermastered. Henceforth I renounce these unholy
rites; I would not pass nights of horror and days of dread any longer.
Maiden, thou art in my power. Unless thou wilt be mine,--renouncing
thine impious vows,--for ever shunning thy detested arts,--breaking that
accursed chain the enemy has wound about thee,--I will deliver thee up
to thy tormentors, and those that seek thy destruction. This done, and
thou art free."

The maiden threw her snake-like glance upon him.

"Alas!" she cried, "I am not free. This magic noose! remove it, and my
promise shall be without constraint."

"Nay, thou arch-deceiver,--deceiver of thine own self, and plotter of
thine own ruin,--I would save thee from thy doom. Promise, renounce, and
for ever forswear thy vows. The priest will absolve thee; it must be
done ere I unbind that chain."

"I promise," said the maiden, after a deep and unbroken silence. "I have
not been happy since I knew their power. I may yet worship this fair
earth and yon boundless sky. This heart would be void without an object
and a possession!"

She shed no tear until the holy man, with awful and solemn
denunciations, exorcised the unclean spirit to whom she was bound. He
admonished her, as a repentant wanderer from the flock, to shun the
perils of presumption, reminding her that HE, of whom it is written that
He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be _tempted_ of the
devil,--HE who won for us the victory in that conflict, taught _us_ in
praying to say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
She was rebaptized as one newly born, and committed again to the keeping
of the Holy Church. Shortly afterwards were united at the altar Lord
William and