her whom a mother had missed. Their lamentable cries, as they
approached the city, forewarned the parents of some dreadful
catastrophe. ---To describe their grief would be impossible; but when
they ascertained the cause of their child's death, they looked at
Aubrey, and pointed to the corse. They were inconsolable; both died
broken-hearted.

Aubrey being put to bed was seized with a most violent fever, and was
often delirious; in these intervals he would call upon Lord Ruthven
and upon Ianthe---by some unaccountable combination he seemed to beg
of his former companion to spare the being he loved. At other times he
would imprecate maledictions upon his head, and curse him as her
destroyer. Lord Ruthven, chanced at this time to arrive at Athens,
and, from whatever motive, upon hearing of the state of Aubrey,
immediately placed himself in the same house, and became his constant
attendant. When the latter recovered from his delirium, he was
horrified and startled at the sight of him whose image he had now
combined with that of a Vampyre; but Lord Ruthven, by his kind words,
implying almost repentance for the fault that had caused their
separation, and still more by the attention, anxiety, and care which
he showed, soon reconciled him to his presence. His lordship seemed
quite changed; he no longer appeared that apathetic being who had so
astonished Aubrey; but as soon as his convalescence began to be rapid,
he again gradually retired into the same state of mind, and Aubrey
perceived no difference from the former man, except that at times he
was surprised to meet his gaze fixed intently upon him, with a smile
of malicious exultation playing upon his lips: he knew not why, but
this smile haunted him. During the last stage of the invalid's
recovery, Lord Ruthven was apparently engaged in watching the tideless
waves raised by the cooling breeze, or in marking the progress of