might still have a human being in his power to torment. “It was about this time, that the vaults above her prison became an object of examination: they were completely clogged up with rubbish, except one narrow passage conducting to the grate. She had often determined on ending her sufferings by a voluntary death, and for several days persisted in refusing sustenance; but now that she frequently heard a noise above her head, and even once or twice caught the gleam of distant torches through the iron opening, her fearful resolutions were laid aside, and their place occupied by the hope, that accident perhaps might effect her deliverance. “These hopes she concealed most sedulously from her tyrant; and so often had her sweetest dreams disappointed her, that despair still was able at times to regain his former influence over her mind. Yet she was now so accustomed to mark by some piteous sound, that there was a suffering creature buried in these caverns who implored assistance, that she continued her groans and cries, even when she had long given up the expectation of their reaching the ear of compassion. In truth, the workmen, during the intervals of their labours, had caught the faint murmurs of her complaints; but they put no other interpretations upon the sound, than such as were suggested by terror and superstition. Fortunately our enterprise necessarily brought us every day nearer the place of her seclusion; till at length some good Angel made me attentive to the cry of sorrow, and guided me to the performance of an action, which I shall never cease to consider as the most blessed and fortunate event of my whole life.”— Herman of Werdenberg here ended his long narrative; the emotions which it had produced in Helen were so violent, that every similitude would fall short of expressing their strength. —“Emmeline!” said she in that internal voice, which is only audible to the soul, “thou liv’st then, and I shall once more clasp to my bosom the poor forlorn orphan, the persecuted dove, the pious martyr of chastity and religion!—And Herman is your deliverer! that very Herman of Werdenberg, who once was unjust to your merits, and who now (if I may judge by every possible evidence) adores you with the warmest, purest affection, ever kindled in the bosom of a mortal! Oh! Helen, Helen, what unexpected joy! You will see two of the best of human beings made happy after long and cruel sufferings, and will yourself assist in forwarding their happiness! My own plans of worldly bliss have all been ruined; in reward for my not murmuring at their destruction, grant me, ye powers of mercy, that wisdom and that foresight, which may enable me to establish the felicity of my friend on the firmest foundations and with the least delay.”—