those dead walls--"

I could not resist the answer,--

"Like yon murdered man! murdered, and by whom?"

"By whom? I thought that was clearly proved."

"The hand was proved; what influence moved the hand?"

"Tush! the poor wretch spoke of a Demon. Who can tell? Nature herself is
a grand destroyer. See that pretty bird, in its beak a writhing worm!
All Nature's children live to take life; none, indeed, so lavishly as man.
What hecatombs slaughtered, not to satisfy the irresistible sting of
hunger, but for the wanton ostentation of a feast, which he may scarcely
taste, or for the mere sport that he finds in destroying! We speak with
dread of the beasts of prey: what beast of prey is so dire a ravager as
man,--so cruel and so treacherous? Look at yon flock of sheep, bred and
fattened for the shambles; and this hind that I caress,--if I were the
park-keeper, and her time for my bullet had come, would you think her life
was the safer because, in my own idle whim, I had tamed her to trust to
the hand raised to slay her?"

"It is true," said I,--"a grim truth. Nature, on the surface so loving
and so gentle, is full of terror in her deeps when our thought descends
into their abyss!"

Strahan now joined us with a party of country visitors. "Margrave is the
man to show you the beauties of this park," said he. "Margrave knows
every bosk and dingle, twisted old thorn-tree, or opening glade, in its