his call was unregarded. In five minutes more they heard him rush from
the house; and anxious as she was to justify all the ways and doings
of her handsome lodger, old Juanna was this night compelled to lean
to her husband's ominously expressed belief, that no one would
voluntarily go forth on such an awful night, save for deeds of evil.

His rapid pace and open path were illumined every alternate minute
with, the vivid lightning, and the very excitement of the storm
partially removed the incomprehensible sensations under which Stanley
labored. He turned in the direction of the castle, perhaps with the
unconfessed hope of meeting some of his companions in arms returning
from the royal meeting, and in their society to shake off the spell
which chained him. As he neared the Calle Soledad the ground suddenly
became slippery, as with some thick fluid, of what nature the dense
darkness prevented his discovering, his foot came in contact with some
heavy substance lying right across his path. He stumbled and fell, and
his dress and hands became literrally dyed with the same hue as the
ground. He started up in terror; a long vivid flash lingering more
than a minute in the air, disclosed the object against which he had
fallen; and paralyzed with horror, pale, ghastly, as if suddenly
turned to stone, he remained. He uttered no word nor cry; but flash
after flash played around him, and still beheld him gazing in
stupefied and motionless horror on the appalling sight before him.




CHAPTER XIV.

1st MONK.--The storm increases; hark! how dismally