may not have the strength, but I have the heart, I am sure, to do all this that I promise."

"And wherefore not say more? Why, if you are willing to perform such duties, will you not give the right to claim them at your hands ?"

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'Urge me no more, Robert; but now I will not, I cannot. Wait the due season: when the war is over; when Carolina shall be free from hostile footsteps; and when the land is cleansed of its pollution;-come to me then, if you hold this same temper, and then, if there be no change in me, I shall give you my hand, perfectly and all your own, as fully as I give it to you this moment in sisterly regard. There, take it, and leave me, for the hour is growing late."

He carried the extended fingers to his lips, and without farther word was about to hurry from the apartment, when he was arrested in his purpose by the sudden appearance of his aunt bringing a message from his sister, requiring to see him, if he had not already departed. An unlooked-for change had come over her, according to the old lady's representations; she had grown sensibly weaker, and she thought her incoherent and slightly wandering. With palpitating heart and trembling footsteps, followed by the two ladies, he again ascended the stairs leading to the chamber of death; but remembering the reference of Emily to his pistols, and how their presence had disturbed her, he took them from his belt and placed them upon a table which stood fronting the gallery. The next moment, he resumed his seat beside the shadowy person of the maiden.

VOL. II.-E

་

CHAPTER VII.

"How the flame flickers in the lamp!-now bright,
With a strange beauty-and now, dim for ever."

AND two opposing and mighty principles were at fearful strife in that chamber. Death was there with power not to be withstood, and there life vainly endeavoured to combat him. Yet there were no shows of terror or of violence-no exhibition of the torturing pain, and of the spirit vainly resisting and striving to escape. All was gentleness, even in the murmurs which occasionally fell from the lips of the dying girl. Her cheek was transparent-her eye wore a sublimated light, as it quivered in its socket, and flickering in changing directions, seemed in search of some expected presence. Her pale lips were parted, and the even tops of the pearly teeth below were just perceptible. The gauze of her drapery was scarcely lifted by the heave of her bosom; and as her hand lay partially upon it, you might even trace out the smallest of her blue veins, like so many fibres, shining through the delicate skin. She was dying-dying without seeming pain; and well might her brother fancy, from the pleasant smile upon her countenance, that the whispering sound which reached his ears on entering the apartment, had fallen from the sister angels already busy around her.

He sat beside her, took her hand, pressed his lips upon her forehead, and for a few seconds remained without attracting her notice. Her eye at length glanced wildly upon him, and the lips, which had fallen apart, were reclosed as she recognised him. At last a faint smile enlivened them-a fond effulgence filled her eye-she laid one of her hands upon that

with which he had already clasped her own, and murmured something faintly which he could not understand. It was a strong effort which her mind had made to concentrate itself upon a single object, and some minutes elapsed before it was quite successful. At length she spake :-"Oh, Robert, I sent for you. I'm so glad you were not yet gone, for I feel that I am dying. I am not mistaken now. I know it to be death. This darkness-these shades that come across my eyes are its cloud, and it presses momently closer and closer upon them. It is so; and I have been afraid-very much afraid since you left me, that my thoughts were crowding and confused. They were strangely mixed up together-very strangely; and once I felt that they were escaping me; and then I grew terrified. I would not lose my senses-I would have them to the last; for I would speak to you and to Kate, even with my parting breath. It is sweet to die so; I could bear it then but not to know, not to say farewell, and pray for you in the moment of parting, would be terrible indeed-terrible, terrible !"

Her eyes closed, and her hands were clasped, as she concluded the sentence, while her lips separated, and her voice was heard in whispers, as if in prayer. When they were again opened, there was a wildness in their expression-a misty gleaming, that completely confirmed her fear. The mind was evidently wandering; but the strong will, still pre-eminent, enabled her to bring back the forgetting thoughts, and to bind them to the spot. Her words now were in broken mur

murs.

"Not my will, not my will, but thine, Father-yet for him-for Robert, my poor brother-could it only be-for him-for Robert!"

The name recalled her more vividly to him who sat beside her, and her eyes were again fixed upon his face.

"Old mommer- -is she here, Robert-where ?"

He shook his head negatively, but made no other reply.

"Be good to her for me; tell her—ah !"

She closed her eyes, and a slight distortion of the lips declared the pang which she felt at that moment, and from which it was several minutes before she was so far recovered as to be able to speak again. When she did, it was with a sweet smile of patient resignation.

"Strange that death cannot take his prey without inflicting pain! I am willing to go with him. I offer no resistance; yet he strikes and rends, the same as if I did. Life struggles still, even when you desire it not; but it does its duty-it holds on to its trust, and I must not complain. But, dear Robert, forget not old mommer. Give her all my things; and there is a new frock which I have made for her myself. Kate will give you the message that is to go along with it. And, Robert-the garden-the-ah, how cloudy, cloudyso very dark; and that is through sin-sin-"

The lips continued to mutter, though the words grew indistinct. The mind was again wandering-the soul was anxiously seeking to escape its earthly tabernacle; but the flesh struggled obstinately to detain its prisoner. Singleton on one side, and Kate upon the other, bent speechlessly over the dying maiden. The eyes of Kate were full of tears; but Singleton choked with the grief to which tears could give no utterance. She started while he lay in this position, and her head, with unusual vigour, was lifted from the pillow; while her eye, glancing with a strong light, looked down upon him with a bewildered glance, as if terror and astonishment prompted its expression. He was roused less by her movement, of which, as his face was buried in the pillow, he had been unconscious, than by the words which followed it.

"Oh, you are here? Well, take it; but it's a sin, and you know that it is sin. There were but two, and they both died; and-yes, they both died-one in the morning and the other in the evening, but all on the same day, and that was God's blessing. It's-"

She shook her head, as she checked herself in her

wandering expressions, and, with a sad look, remarked upon it

"It is so I feel it-I feel how uncertain my thoughts are; they are continually going from me, or putting on strange forms, and I only get them back with an effort which is painful."

She raised her right hand as she concluded, gazed upon it attentively, and then begged Kate to hand her a mirror. She looked in it for a few moments, and then put it away from her, with a melancholy but sweet smile.

"I shall not look in it again, I think. I do not wish it; for it tells me how young I am-how very young to die: but the less sorrow, the less sin! I have loved you all-you, Robert-you, and you, Kate-youdear aunt-forgive me all, if I have said a cross word, or done any thing unkindly. Forgive me-will you not?-for I would not thinkingly have pained you."

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Forgive you ! ay, that we do, my child; if there be any thing you have done needing forgiveness from us, or anybody, which I believe not, I forgive you from my soul, my blessed angel--God Almighty bless and forgive you !"

Her aunt was the only one about her who could reply; she understood the speechless sorrow in the faces of her brother and cousin, and the pressure of her hand in theirs had a sufficient answer. This pressure seemed to prompt a new feeling and desire; and with an eye turned pleadingly to Kate, she strove to carry her hand towards that of her brother. Without scruple, Kate freely extended it, and the hands of the cousins were clasped above the form of the sufferer. She nodded her head, and smiled in approbation. At this moment a servant from below beckoned Kate away, and she left the room. A sudden stir-a commotion, rather louder than usual, and certainly not desirable at such a place and hour, reached the ears of Singleton; and while he was wondering, Kate reappeared. Her face was full of alarm, and, hurriedly, she informed Singleton of the approach of enemies.