to the fate of a brother so tenderly loved, remained. He
had forced himself to believe as much as possible what
he wished, and the effort had, to a certain extent
succeeded; but there had been something so solemn and so
impressive in the scene that had passed when the prisoner
was first brought up for trial, something so fearfully
prophetic in the wild language of his unhappy wife, he
had found it impossible to resist the influence of the
almost superstitious awe they had awakened in his heart.

What the feelings of the young officer were subsequently,
when in the person of the murdered man on the common,
the victim of Sir Everard Valletort's aim, he recognised
that brother, whose disappearance had occasioned him so
much inquietude, we shall not attempt to describe: their
nature is best shown in the effect they produced--the
almost overwhelming agony of body and mind, which had
borne him, like a stricken plant, unresisting to the
earth. But now that, in the calm and solitude of his
chamber, he had leisure to review the fearful events
conspiring to produce this extremity, his anguish of
spirit was even deeper than when the first rude shock of
conviction had flashed upon his understanding. A tide of
suffering, that overpowered, without rendering him sensible
of its positive and abstract character, had, in the first
instance, oppressed his faculties, and obscured his
perception; but now, slow, sure, stinging, and gradually
succeeding each other, came every bitter thought and
reflection of which that tide was composed; and the
generous heart of Charles de Haldimar was a prey to