"

Dere is nobody at all, said the German, dropping her arms and head in utter despondence, not one to see us! » And if there were, added a hollow voice, « what human help could avail us at this dreadful height ? »

The truth of this reflection was awfully apparent; but who when life is at stake can resign hope, or its last tearful contingency though frail as a spider's thread encumbered with dewdrops ?

The German, in spite of her misgiving, resumed her watch; till after a long, weary, dreary hour, a solitary figure issued from a spot but a little lower down on the opposite side of the Lahn, and stepping into a boat propelled it to the middle of the stream. It was one of the poor fishermen who rented the water, and rowing directly to the rapid, he made a cast or two with his net, immediately within the reflection of the Castle. But he was too distant to hear the cry that appealed to him, and too much absorbed in the success or failure of his peculiar lottery to look aloft. Like the deaf and dumb boy he passed on but in the opposite direction, and gradually disappeared.

It will never be seen!» ejaculated the German girl, again dropping her arm—a doubtful prophecy, however, for immediately afterwards the Rhenish steamboat crossed the mouth of the lesser river, and probably more than one telescope was pointed to the romantic ruin of Lahneck. But the distance was great, and even had it been less, the waving of a white handkerchief would have been taken for a merry or a friendly salute.

In the meantime the steamboat passed out of sight behind the high ground; but the long streamer of smoke was still visible, like a day-meteor, swiftly flying along and in a direction that made the English-woman stretch out her arms after the fleeting vapour as if it had been a thing sensible to human supplication.

. And

་

It is gone also! exclaimed her partner in misery. in a short while my liebe mutter will see it come to Coblenz!» The Englishwoman groaned.

It is my blame, continued the other, in an agony of

ས

self-reproach, it was my blame to come so wide-not one can tell where. Nobody shall seek at Lahneck-dey will think we are dropped into de Rhine. Yes we must die both! We must die of famishment-and de cornfields, and de vines is all round one! »

And thus hour passed after hour, still watching promises that budded and blossomed and withered and still flowered again and again without fruition- till the shades of evening began to fall, and the prospect became in every sense darker and darker.

Barge after barge had floated down the river, but the steersman had been intent on keeping his craft in the middle of the current in the most difficult part of his navigation—the miller had passed along the road at the base of the mountain, but his thoughts were fixed on the home within his view-the female peasant drove her cows from the pasturethe truant children returned to the village, and the fisherman drifting down the stream, again landed, and after hanging his nets up to dry between the trees on the opposite meadows, reentered his hut. But none saw the signal, none heard the cry, or if they did it was supposed to be the shrill squeak of the bat. There was even company at the inn, for the windows of Duquet's pavilion began to sparkle, but the enjoyments of the party had stopped short of the romantic and the picturesque-they were quaffing Rhein wein, and eating thick sour cream, sweetened with sugar, and flavoured with cinna

mon.

n

It is hard, mine friend, sobbed the German; not one thinks but for themselves. »

It is unjust, might have retorted the wife and mother, for I think of my husband and children, and they think of

me. »

Why else did her sobs so disturb the tranquil air, or wherefore did she paint her beloved Edward and her two fair-haired boys with their faces so distorted by grief? The present and the future for time is nothing in such visions-were almost simultaneously before her, and happy home of the one moment was transfigured at the next instant into the house of mourn

ing. The contrast was agonizing but unspeakable -- one of those stupendous woes which stupify the soul, as when the body is not pierced with a single wound, but mortally crushed. She was not merely stricken but stunned.

"Mein Gott! exclaimed the German girl, after a vain experiment on the passiveness of her companion, why do you not speak someting-what shall we do?»

"

Nothing, answered a shuddering whisper, except

die!

A long pause ensued, during which the German girl more than once approached and looked down the pitch-black orifice which had opened to the fallen stairs. Perhaps it looked less gloomy than by daylight in the full blaze of the sun,-perhaps she had read and adopted a melancholy, morbid tone of feeling too common to German works, when they hear of a voluntary death, or perhaps the Diabolical Prompter was him self at hand with the desperate suggestion, fatal alike to body and to soul, but the wretched creature drew nearer and nearer to the dangerous verge.

"

Her purpose, however, was checked. Although the air was perfectly still, she heard a sudden rustle amongst the ivy on that side of the Tower, which even while it made her start, had whispered a new hope in her ear. Was it possible that her signals had been observed-that her cries had been heard? And again the sound was audible, followed by a loud harsh cry, and a large Owl, like a bird of ill omen, as it is, fluttered slowly over the heads of the devoted pair, and again it shrieked and flapped round them, as if to involve them in a magical circle, and then with a third and wis and shriller screech sailed away like an Evil Spirit, in the direction of the Black Forest. Nor was that boding fowl without its sinister influence on human destiny. The disappointment it caused to the victim was moral. It was the drop that overbrimmed her cup.

n

No, she muttered, dere is no more hopes. For myself I will not starve up here- I know my best friend, and will cast my troubles on the bosom of my mother earth. »

Absorbed in her own grief the Englishwoman did not at first comprehend the import of these words; but all at once their meaning dawned on her with a dreadful significance. It

was

however, too late. Her eye caught a glimpse of the

skirt of a garment, her ear detected a momentary flutter-and

she was alone on that terrible tower !

And did she too perish? Alas! ask the peasants and the fishermen who daily worked for their bread in that valley or on its river; ask the ferryman who hourly passed to and fro, and the bargeman, who made the stream his thoroughfare, and they will tell you, one and all, that they heard nothing and saw nothing, for Labour looks downward and forward, and round about, but not upward. Nay, ask the angler himself, who withdrew his fly from the circling eddies of the rapids to look at the last beams of sunshine glowing on the lofty Ruin-and he answers that he never saw living creature on its summit, except once, when the Crow and the Raven were hovering about the building, and a screaming Eagle, although it had no nest there, was perched on the Tower of Lahneck.

4

Printed at the Office of the Journal de St. Petersbourg. "

"

A

BARNABY RUDGE.

(Concluded from page 365.)

CHAPTER THE FIFTIETH.

The time wore on ('), the noises in the streets became less frequent by degrees, until silence was scarcely broken save by the bells in the church towers, marking the progress-softer and more stealthy while the city slumbered of that Great Watcher with the hoary head, who never sleeps or rests. In the brief interval of darkness and repose which feverish towns enjoy, all busy sounds were hushed; and those who awoke from dreams lay listening in their beds, and longed for dawn, and wished the dead of the night were past.

Into the street outside the jail's main wall, workmen came straggling at this solemn hour, in groups of two or three, and meeting in the centre cast their tools upon the ground and spoke in whispers. Others soon issued from the jail itself, bearing on their shoulders, planks, and beams: these materials being all brought forth, the rest bestirred themselves, and the dull sound of hammers began to echo through the stillness.

(') A month has elapsed, and all the prisoners have been condemned to death. 65

VOL. II.