came--clear and distinct the voice of the clock below reached that
chamber.

"Hush!" cried Lucilla, starting. "Hush!" and just at that moment,
through the window opposite, the huge clouds, breaking in one spot,
discovered high and far above them a solitary star.

"Thine, thine, Godolphin!" she shrieked forth, pointing to the lonely orb;
"it summons thee;--farewell, but not for long!"

* * * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *

The Moor rushed forward with a loud cry; she placed her hand on Lucilla's
bosom; the heart was still, the breath was gone, the fire had vanished
from the ashes: that strange unearthly spirit was perhaps with the stars
for whose mysteries it had so vainly yearned.

Down fell the black rain in torrents; and far from the mountains you might
hear the rushing of the swollen streams, as they poured into the bosom of
the valleys. The sullen, continued mass of cloud was broken, and the
vapours hurried fast and louring over the heavens, leaving now and then a
star to glitter forth ere again "the jaws of darkness did devour it up."
At the lower verge of the horizon, the lightning flashed fierce, but at
lingering intervals; the trees rocked and groaned beneath the rain and
storm; and, immediately above the bowed head of a solitary horseman, broke
the thunder that, amidst the whirl of his own emotions, he scarcely heard.

Beside a stream, which the rains had already swelled, was a gipsy