which you have since remarked in me, and which has been
increasing every hour. What additional cause I have had
for the indulgence of this confirmed despondency you are
well acquainted with. It is childish, it is unsoldierlike,
I admit: but, alas! that dreadful scene is eternally
before my eyes, and absorbs my mind, to the exclusion of
every other feeling. I have not a thought or a care but
for the fate that too certainly awaits those who are most
dear to me; and if this be a weakness, it is one I shall
never have the power to shake off. In a word, Blessington,
I am heart-broken."

Captain Blessington was deeply affected; for there was
a solemnity in the voice and manner of the young officer
that carried conviction to the heart; and it was some
moments before he could so far recover himself as to
observe,--

"That scene, Charles, was doubtless a heart-rending one
to us all; for I well recollect, on turning to remark
the impression made on my men when the wretched Ellen
Halloway pronounced her appalling curse to have seen the
large tears coursing each other over the furrowed cheeks
of some of our oldest soldiers: and if THEY could feel
thus, how much more acute must have been the grief of
those immediately interested in its application!"

"THEIR tears were not for the denounced race of De
Haldimar," returned the youth,--"they were shed for
their unhappy comrade--they were wrung from their stubborn