Edith’s endeavours to preserve her little darling were not unsuccessful. He reached the ground in safety; but scarcely had she parted with him, when the increasing heat (for by this time the balconies of the neighbouring buildings were in flames) and the volumes of smoke, which poured into her chamber, overpowered her senses, and she sank without animation on the floor. My situation was exactly similar. At the moment when I fainted, the only thought, which employed my mind, was the hope of an happy meeting with Edith in another better world; an hope which (I fully believed) was accomplished, when on once more unclosing my eyes, I found myself breathing pure air in a light and spacious chamber, and perceived by my side the friend whom I loved so tenderly, and for whose sight I had so long and so anxiously sighed in vain. —“Oh! Edith!”—“Urania! my Urania!”—we both exclaimed at once, while we sank into each others’ arms; “What has happened? are we rescued from captivity on earth, or released from the fetters of mortality? Where is it that we meet, in freedom, in captivity, or in the life beyond the grave?”— Too soon were our doubts removed: too soon were we compelled to feel, that we were rescued from death, but not restored to liberty. The still smoking ruins, which met our eyes from afar, told us but too plainly, that we were still within the walls of Ravenstein; and the unremitting vigilance, with which we were observed, made us well aware, that we had reaped no other advantage from the transactions of the night, except the delight of seeing and embracing a long-lost friend. But alas! what cruel reflections embittered this delight. Edith sorrowed for her son, and reproached herself for having suffered herself to part with him in despair, when had she detained him with her in the dungeon, he would have been preserved as well as his mother. I felt scarcely less sorrow for the loss of the beloved child, than Edith herself; I would gladly have comforted her, but alas! where was comfort to be found? Even should he have escaped from the flames, which were raging with such violence at the moment when he quitted his mother, how difficult still did his preservation appear! We failed not on the day after the fire to examine the place, whence Edith had caused him to descend. The opening was not situated very high in the tower; but close to the place, where he must have reached the ground, there yawned a tremendous precipice; the depth of which when we vainly endeavoured to measure with our eyes, the flesh crept upon our bones, and cold drops of terror chased each other down our foreheads.