d asked--

'Where have the Franklin ladies gone, you infernal, obstinate fool?'

'To Boston,' gasped the miserable young man, and fainted. Ah! Simon, thy
faithfulness to thy worthless mistress was worthy of a better cause!

'Boston, hey?' growled the villain--'then, by G----, I must go to
Boston, too. Ah, I'm not at all surprised at their selecting that city
for their place of refuge--for it is the abode of hypocrisy and lust;
and they no doubt anticipate reaping a rich harvest there. But ere I
depart for that virtuous and Christian city, I must finish my business
here. And first to silence this fool's tongue forever!'

He drew forth his deadly knife, and plunged it up to the hilt in his
victim's throat. With scarce a groan or struggle, poor Simon yielded
his spirit into the hands of his Maker.

The murderer viewed his appalling work with satisfaction. His eyes
seemed to feast upon the purple stream that gushed from the wound, and
stained the carpet. It seemed as if, in the ferocity of his soul, he
could have _drank_ the gory flood!

'Would that the human race had but one single throat, and I could cut it
at a stroke,' he cried, adopting the sentiment of another: then, taking
a lamp, he left the room, with the intention of exploring the house.

One apartment he found carefully locked; and he was obliged to exert all
his strength to break in the door. This room was furnished in a style of
extravagant luxury; it was of great extent, and adorned with a multitude
of paintings and statues, all the size of life.

A silken curtain, suspended across the further end of the room, bore in
large gilt letters, the words 'Sanctuary of the Graces.' And behind the
curtain were collected a large number of figures, exquisitely made of
wax, representing males and females, large as life, and completely nude,
in every imaginable variety of posture, a few classical, others
voluptuous, and many positively obscene.

In this curious apartment--a perfect gallery of amorous
conceptions--Josephine and her mother were in the habit of consummating
those intrigues which they wished to invest with extraordinary _eclat_
and voluptuousness. Here they loved to feed their impure tastes by
contemplating every phase of licentious dalliance; and here they
indulged in extravagant orgies which will admit of no description.

The intruder into this singular scene noticed a small iron apparatus
attached to the wall; a sudden idea struck him--advancing,