draught as eagerly as Flatterwell held out the bottle to administer
it. "What a fool have I been," said Parley, "to deny myself so long."

"Will you now let me in?" said Flatterwell.

"Aye, that I will," said the deluded Parley. Though the train was now
increased to near a hundred robbers, yet so intoxicated was Parley,
that he did not see one of them, except his new friend. Parley eagerly
pulled down the bars, drew back the bolts, and forced open the locks,
thinking he could never let in his friend soon enough. He had,
however, just presence of mind to say, "My dear friend, I hope you are
alone." Flatterwell swore he was. Parley opened the door--in rushed,
not Flatterwell only, but the whole banditti, who always lurk behind
in his train. The moment they had got sure possession, Flatterwell
changed his soft tone, and cried out in a voice of thunder, "Down
with the castle; kill, burn, and destroy."

Rapine, murder, and conflagration by turns took place. Parley was the
very first whom they attacked. He was overpowered with wounds. As he
fell, he cried out, "O my master, I die a victim to my unbelief in
thee, and to my own vanity and imprudence. O that the guardians of all
other castles would hear me with my dying breath repeat my master's
admonition, that _all attacks from without will not destroy, unless
there is some confederate within_. O that the keepers of all other
castles would learn from my ruin, that he who parleys with temptation
is already undone. That he who allows himself to go to the very
bounds, will soon jump over the hedge; that he who talks out of the
window with the enemy, will soon open the door to him; that he who
holds out his hand for the cup of sinful flattery, loses all power of
resisting; that when he opens the door to one sin, all the rest fly in