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grappling with him; "how didst thou dare call me to witness this?" "Sir, I thought your good opinion of some value, and I called you to see me approve myself a man of justice." "A wild beast thou! say a fiend rather; but thou shalt answer for it." "Ha!" cried Marli, with desperate energy, casting himself free from Hume's hold; "hear me, sir, now my brother: Go, weep for the little wren that dies in a tussle with the blue cuckoo, but give not your sympathy to that carrion, for he was a wretch, whose heart-strings might, unscathed, have tied up the forked bundles of lightning, so callous were they, so wicked, so callous. For your wife's sake, my sister, do not. Moreover, you must leave this country instantly; and for your kindness to my sister I shall go with you wherever you go, and be your slave till death, because in that I shall be honouring her." "A discreet travelling companion, forsooth!" returned Hume. "Hark ye, sir: like fire and water I can be a good servant; but my mastery, if your negative to my proposal put it upon me, may be equally dangerous." "Grantedin the matters of Italian assassination," said Frederick. "But suppose, sir, that this very moment I dispute your mastery. Suppose I tell you that even now my eye is upon you, and that I do not mean to let you leave the churchyard without a desperate effort on my part to secure your person. "I shall not stay at present," said Cardo, "to show you how easily I can defy you, armed as I am. Let us come to the point. You love Signora Romelli, and she loves you. Well: but you shall never marry her for her vile father's sake. She shall never sit a bride on the throne of your heart, which my sister Charlotte could not gain. Nay, she shall never wear for you the comely garment of marriage which my sister Charlotte gained. She shall never be happy as a wife where my sister Charlotte could not be happy as a wife. I will flee this instant, and you will be suspected of Romelli's murder. I have put things in such a train that suspicion must naturally fall upon you. No one, save yourself, and another whom I can trust, has seen me in this visit to your neighbourhood. The deed has been done with your own pistol and dagger, with which, besides the key to open the aisle door, my knowledge of Mrs. Mather's premises enabled me secretly to provide myself a few nights ago. If you think it could serve you aught in the court of justice to produce my card of to-day inviting you hither, look at it again, and see that it is not signed. Moreover, on a more careful glance, you will find it a fair imitation of your own handwriting, so

that it would instantly be declared an ex post facto forgery-a poorly-conceived contrivance. That dead dog was honoured likewise with a note of invitation, but I took care to put such dangerous hints in it that he would not fail to burn it as soon as read. Moreover, on your way hither, you met two villagers, who, by a shrewd contrivance of mine, which it is needless at present to explain, were drawn to the road, notwithstanding the late hour, and who could not fail to recognize you, though they might not speak. Now, sir, do you see how you are beleaguered? You can hardly escape a condemning verdict; and even were it Not proven,' still the lurking suspicion against you, which such a niggardly acquittal implies, would for ever prevent the fine-souled Julia Romelli from becoming your wife. Now for your alternative of choice:-Shall I leave you and will you stay-to be confounded in this country? or will you not rather flee with me instantly, where both of us shall be safe, and where, because you so honoured and tried to save the twin-sister of my being, my beloved one, I shall tame my safety, and my pride, and my powers, to be with you day and night as your companion and friend? Remember, either alternative will equally well serve my ends." "I have listened to you well, you must allow," said Hume; "and I have come to the conclusion that your ingenuity and finesse are admirable; but what a pity it is that they should all go for nothing! To show you, sir, what an overweening fool you are, I will constrain myself to tell you that Julia Romelli is already married to Dr. Stewart, in consequence of my choosing a bride elsewhere. Now, sir, seeing what my connection with your family has already gained for me, can you still urge it upon me, as a very important acquisition, to secure your devoted and worshipful attendance? Faugh! your hand smells rankly, and I will not taste that bread which you have touched."

At this announcement of Miss Romelli's marriage Marli gave a sort of involuntary scream. With trembling earnestness he then drew forth his bloody handkerchief, tied one end round his neck, and proffered the other to Dr. Hume, with the following words: "Is it so, sir? is Julia lost to you? I knew not of this: and now I do not rejoice. But take the napkin, sir, and lead me away to justice: take it, sir, if you wish any triumph over our family. By the souls of all my race, I shall follow you quietly as a lamb, for you have suffered too much already from the Marlis. Not one hair of your noble head shall for this murder come.

into danger. Not one suspicion shall attach to your cloudless name. Had the law seized you, by my soul's being I would not have let you die, though I wished you never to get Julia Romelli for your wife. As it now is, you shall not for a moment be impeached. Lead me away."

Hume was puzzled what step now to take. He could have no wish to see Marli perish on the scaffold, even though he was a murderer; besides, that he would himself indirectly share the ignominy, from having been so allied to the family. But then, on the other hand, though life might now be of little value to him, he would not have his honour called in question, nor his name linked with the suspicions of his having had anything to do with such a vile deed of murder, which might assuredly happen to him were the real murderer to escape. He was, besides, though of a very ardent temperament, a man of a wise and well-constituted heart, and could not but think that Marli should be directly responsible to the laws of a wise country for his outrageous act. In something like a compromise betwixt these feelings, he said, "I shall endeavour, sir, to keep the blame from myself, and fix it upon the proper culprit:-Should you make your escape, I shall defend myself as well as possible."

"So the die is cast against me," said Marli, who, notwithstanding the sincere spirit of his surrender, had perhaps clung to the hope, that Hume might yet be disposed to save him, by leaving the country with him for ever. "But I shall abide it-take me now in tow, for I am impatient to grapple with my fate."

"Not at all," said Frederick, refusing the handkerchief, caring not for the outrageous effect of which the wild spirit of Marli seemed studious, in proposing the use of this bloody leading-string. He went close, however, by the side of the Italian, determined now to lay hold on him should he offer to escape. This, however, Antonio did not attempt; but, going quietly with Hume to the village, he himself roused the constables, stated to them his crime, and put himself under their care, to convey him to the jail of the neighbouring town, which was done without delay.

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one day he visited him in jail before his trial, again waited on the prisoner in his cell a few days before the appointed time of execution. The Italian boy was sitting on his low palletbed, apparently in deep abstraction, and he sat for a minute after Frederick entered. His face was calm and clearly pale, as if it had come out of the refiner's furnace; but his dark hair was raised a little above one of his temples, as if disordered by the wind; and there was an awful shadow and a trouble in the inner rooms of his eye. So soon as Hume named him, he arose, and, advancing, kissed his visitor on the cheek, exclaiming earnestly, "My brother! My brother!"

"Well, then, my poor Antonio Marli," said Hume, much moved, "I trust you repent of your crime?"

"Why? and wherefore?" answered the prisoner, with a gesture of impatience. "But you shall hear me: When you were last in the jail with me I was not in the vein for explanations, but now you shall hear and judge of Romelli's deserts. I would make you a prince, sir, if I could, but I have no other way of giving you honour, than by unfolding myself a little to you, which I would do were the confession to show my heart one molten hell.—My father, who, as you have already heard, was a clergyman in the north of Italy, was one stormy night returning home through a small village, about a mile from our house, when he heard a poor sailor begging at a door for a lodging during the night, which was refused him. My good old father, remembering that he himself had a son a sailor, who might come to equal want, brought home with him the rejected seaman, gave him food and dry raiment, and made him sit with us by the parlour fire. The man was of a talkative disposition, and being, moreover, cheered by the wine which was plentifully given him, began voluntarily to tell us of his having been lately shipwrecked. And how could it be otherwise?' continued the mariner; 'how could that ship thrive? You will hear why she could not; for I know the whole story. Well, before sailing from Genoa, on our last voyage, our captain, who was a widower, had fallen in love with a young lady. Now, it so happened, that his mate, a nice young chap, liked the same damsel; and she, in return, preferred him to the sulky captain, who, in consequence, was mightily huffed, and took every opportunity, after we had sailed from port, of venting his spleen against his rival. One day, being becalmed in the South Seas, near a beautiful green island abounding in wild game, the captain with a

and night I thought of Hugo, the gay and gallant sailor boy that all the maids of Italy loved, the pride and stay of my father's heart, who brought presents for Charlotte from far lands, and taught me to fish for minnows in the brook, and to pipe upon the jointed stems of the green wheat:-And all this was at an end for ever; and my father's heart was broken. Therefore the desire of revenge grew up and widened with my soul from day to day. I found a medium through which I traced all Romelli's movements, and when I learned distinctly that he was a prisoner in this country, I determined to pay him a visit. My father had left a small sum of money, but now it was nearly expended, having supported Charlotte and myself scarcely a year in the house of our maternal uncle, and we were likely soon to be entirely dependent upon him. On expressing my determination to go to England with my sister, I saw that he was very willing to get quit of us: and the better to insure our removal, he bought me a harp and paid our passage to this country."

"Allow me to ask," interrupted Hume"Did Charlotte know this wild purpose of yours?"

amall party went on shore to have some sport | left alone with my twin sister Charlotte. Day in shooting kangaroos. To the surprise of every one the young mate was allowed to go with us, and glad he was, for he was a lad of fine mettle and delighted in all sorts of amusement. But no sooner had we landed than the captain turned to him and said, peremptorily, 'Now, sir, you must watch the boat till we return.' Poor fellow, he knew his duty, though he felt the mean revenge, and folding his arms, he turned quickly round with his face from us, which was burning with anger, and began to hum a tune. After we had pursued our sport for some hours in the woods, we returned to the boat, and were surprised to find that the mate was not beside it. We saw him, however, about a hundred yards off (for he had probably been allured from his charge by seeing some game not far off), hasting towards us. The captain, trembling with malignant eagerness, ordered us all into the boat in a moment, and made us pull away as fast as possible from the poor young fellow, who, loudly demanding not to be left in such a wild place, dashed into the sea and swam after us. Be sure all of us used our oars with as little effect as possible to let him make his leeway. This he soon did and took hold of the edge of the boat; when the cruel captain drew his hanger and cut through his fingers, leaving him again to fall back into the sea. 'You disobeyed my orders, sir, in not staying beside the boat,' cried the heartless savage, whom every soul of us would gladly have tossed overboard, though the instinct of discipline kept us quiet. As for the poor mate, he cast a bitter and reproachful glance at the boat, folded his arms, and diving down into the sea, was never more seen. How could the ship, that bore us with the monster, be blessed after such doings? She was beat to pieces on the coast of Sicily, and the captain and I alone escaped. He used me very scurvily thereafter, and I am not ashamed to tell his misdeeds. But it was a pity for the good ship, the Arrow.' 'O, God! hold fast my head!' exclaimed my father, on hearing the name of the vessel'If-if-but tell me the captain's name.' 'Romelli.' 'And the mate's?' 'Hugo Marli; -a blythe sailor!' 'My Hugo!-my own boy!' cried my father; and the old man's head sunk down upon his breast. Never shall I forget the wild, strange manner in which our sailor-guest at this caught hold of the liquor that was standing on the table, drunk it all out of the bottle, and then fled from the house, leaving me alone, a little boy, to raise and comfort my father's heart. In a few days the old man died of a broken heart, and I was

"No; she was staying with our aunt for a while when the above scene with the sailor took place, and my father was dead ere she knew of his illness. The thoughts of revenge which had already occurred to me made me conceal the true cause of my father's death; or, perhaps, to speak more strictly, although it was well known that his having heard of his son Hugo's death struck the old man to the grave, yet I took care not to reveal through what channel the news had come, or the cruel mode of my brother's death. Had Charlotte known what was within me, she would have tried incessantly to break my purpose; but she could not possibly know it, and as my will was her law in indifferent matters, she readily followed me to this country. No sooner had we landed than I made her vow never to reveal our true name or distinct place of abode till I gave her leave: and, in the meantime, we assumed the name of Cardo. After wandering about in England till we learned to speak the language fluently, which we attained the more easily that our father had taught it to us grammatically, I led the way to Scotland, gradually drawing near my victim, whose place of stay I had taken care to ascertain in Italy, through the same means by which I had hitherto watched his movements. To make my soundings, I got into Romelli's house under a feigned

sickness. When you saw me first, I had in truth no complaint save that the nearness of my victim and purpose had made my heart so deeply palpitate, that a degree of irritable fever had come over me. The fair Julia was too kind and tender: I fell madly in love with her; I almost forgot my stern duty of revenge. You cannot guess the choking struggles between my two master passions. Yielding so far to the former, I compromised my pride in another point, and consented to be a dependant of Mrs. Mather's. By Heaven! I was not born with a soul to wait at palace doors-I would have rejoiced, under other circumstances, to live with my sister, free as the pretty little finches that hunt the bearded seeds of autumn; but love and revenge, mingled or separately, imposed it upon me to accede to your charity and Mrs. Mather's, that I might be near the two Romellis. In her playful mood, perhaps, Julia one evening prophesied that I should become a murderer. You cannot conceive the impression which this made upon me. I had begun to flag in my first great purpose, but now again I thought myself decreed to be an avenger; and to avoid stabbing Romelli that very night in your house, I had to keep myself literally away from him. Now, judge me, my friend. Was it not by him that I was shut up in a madhouse? Yet for your sake, and Mrs. Mather's, and Charlotte's, and Julia's, and perhaps mine own (for I have been too weak), again I refrained from slaying him in your house-nay, I left the place and neighbourhood altogether, and went to London. I engaged to sing and play in an opera-house, and made enough of money. My heart again grew up dangerous and revengeful. I returned to Scotland to pay Mrs. Mather for having kept us, to send Charlotte to a seaport town, whence a ship was to sail for the Continent on a given day, then to call Romelli to account, and thereafter to join my sister a few hours before the vessel sailed. On my arrival again in your neighbourhood to make preliminary inquiries, I called at the house of a young woman, who was Mrs. Mather's servant when I first came to the cottage; but who, about a year afterwards, went home to take care of her mother, an old blind woman. So, then, Charlotte was dead! My sister Charlotte! My young Charlotte Marli!-and all in my most damnable absence! I heard it all, and your own noble generosity: but nothing of Julia's marriage with Stewart, which my informant, in her remote dwelling, had doubtless not yet heard. All this might change my line of politics. In the first place, I imposed secrecy as to my arrival on my young hostess,

who readily promised to observe it, in virtue of having loved me for my music. I had now to concert not only how best to strike Romelli, but, at the same time, how to prevent for ever your marriage with Julia. You know my double scheme in one. The brother of my hostess had, in former years, been an organist, and one day I took his instrument, which the affectionate lass had carefully kept for his sake, and went to the remote churchyard to play a dirge over Charlotte's grave. You were there, and I found it an excellent opportunity of forwarding my scheme, by making you promise to meet me afterwards in the aisle; which you did, when Signor Romelli happened to be there. Ha! ha! how came he there, the foolish man? Before naming to you the precise night of our threefold meeting, I had been prudent enough to find out that the excellent signor had just come home from some jaunt, and in all probability would not again, for at least a few days, leave his house. To make sure, however, I instantly forwarded to him my letter of invitation. How expressed? how signed? I remember well (for nothing of that dreadful night will easily pass from my mind) the sailor's name whose story broke my father's heart. So, under his name, I scrawled a letter to Romelli, stating, that if the signor would know the immediate danger in which he stood in consequence of certain things which once happened in a boat in the South Seas, when he was captain of the Arrow, and if he would not have these points now brought publicly to light, he must meet the writer alone, at the door of the given aisle, on Saturday night, precisely at eleven o'clock. I was much afraid that he would guess the true writer of the letter, and so would not come. However, about ten o'clock on the appointed night I crouched me down, with a dark-lantern in my pocket, beneath Charlotte's tombstone, upon which, I may here mention, I had got a mason from the village, for a large bribe, to put a slight inscription relative to my brother, which he secretly executed between Friday evening and the dawn of Saturday. Almost contrary to my expectations, Romelli came; but I think somewhat after the hour appointed, with a darklantern in his hand; and, finding the door of the aisle open, he advanced into the interior, and began, I suppose, to read the inscription, which, to heighten the effect of my revenge, as above stated, I had caused to be written the preceding night. In a moment I started up, and ordered him to fall down on his knees and confess his crimes; but instead of obeying me, no sooner did he see who I was than he'drew

a pistol and shot at me, missing me, however. | My turn was next, and I missed not him. He fell: I locked the aisle-door that you might see through the grating, but not interfere. I had him now beneath my will and power. You know the rest! Hugo Marli is avenged: and I am willing to die.'

Such were the prisoner Marli's explanations, partly won by the cross-examinations of Hume, but in general given continuously, and of his own accord.

whose heart generosity was strongly mingled with worse passions, that he gave way to the infectious sorrow; and for many minutes the two young men mingled their tears as if they had been the children of one mother. At length Marli tore himself away, and flung himself violently down with his face upon his low bed.

CHAPTER VII.

The very next day word was brought to Frederick Hume that the Italian had killed himself in prison by striking his skull against the walls of his cell, and at the same time the following letter was put into Hume's hands:"I claim your promise-I forbore distinctly stating to you my purpose last night, because

ings and exhortations, which, despite of my
respect for your wisdom, could no more have
stayed me in my antique appropriation of
myself, than you could make a rain-proof gar-
ment from the torn wings of beautiful butterflies.
Did you think my soul could afford to give
such a spectacle to gaping boors? Well, we
must be buried in the first instance (for the law
and the surgeon have lost our limbs) among
nettles, in unconsecrated ground, at a respectful
distance from Christian bones, in the church-
yard of this town. But now for my request,
and your vow to fulfil it.
I demand that you
raise my body by night, and take it to your
aisle, and bury it beside Charlotte Marli's
beautiful body. This request, I think, implies
nothing contrary to the laws of your country,
or which can startle a wise heart free from
paltry superstitions about the last rites of
suicides. Moreover, you can do the thing with
great secrecy. Then shall I rest in peace
beside her whom my soul loved; and we shall
rise together at the last day: and you shall be
blessed for ever, for her sake and for my sake.
Farewell, my brother. "ANTONIO MARLI."

"And now, Frederick Hume," continued the prisoner, after a long pause of mutual silence, "you alone, of all the human race, are dear to me; will you promise to lay my head in the grave, despite of the ill which Charlotte and I have done you?" "Bethink you of some other reasonable request and II knew you would have teased me with warnshall do it for you to the utmost," answered Frederick; "you know the above is impossible." "No, no," cried Marli, impatiently; "you shall lay me beside her in your own aisle." "Antonio Marli," returned Frederick solemnly, "must I remind you of your sad sentence?" "O ho! you mean the dissection? The precious carnival for Dr. Pry and his pupils?" said the Italian, laughing grimly. "But if I can accomplish the half-If I can get quit of the claim of the law in that respect, would you so bury me, my brother?" "Talk not of this any more," said Hume, not comprehending what the prisoner meant; "but cry for the purifying mercy of Heaven ere you die." "You are from the point, sir," replied Antonio; "but hear me:-I will leave one request in a letter to you after my death, if you will promise, and swear-nay, merely promise (for I know your honour in all things) to fulfil the "Let me hear it, and judge," said Hume. "I will not," said the Italian; "but yet my request shall be simple and your accomplishment of it very easy. Moreover it shall be offensive neither to your country's laws nor to your own wise mind. Give me this one promise, and I die in peace." "Be it Hume prepared without delay to obey this so then," said Frederick; "I will do your re-letter, and providing himself with six men quest if I find it as you negatively characterize from the village of Holydean, on whose secrecy it." "Then leave me-leave me for ever!" he could well depend, he caused three of them cried Marli. "But if my heart, and body, by night to dig up the body of Marli from the and all my soul, could be fashioned into one graveyard where it had been buried, whilst the blessing, they would descend upon thy head other three, in the meanwhile, prepared another and thy heart, and all thy outgoings, thou grave for it in Mrs. Mather's aisle, as near as young man among a million.-Oh! my last possible to his sister Charlotte's. The combrother on earth!" So saying, Marli sprung plexion of the night suited well this strange upon Frederick's neck and sobbed aloud like a work, darkening earth and heaven with piled little child; and so overcome was Frederick by lofts of blackness. Frederick himself superinthe sense of his own unhappiness, but chiefly by tended the work of exhumation, which was pity for the fate of the poor Italian boy, in happily accomplished without interruption

same.

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