The villain was soon gone, soon struck into the shades of Freston, sought the shore, and, with sturdy steps, bade defiance to pursuit. A cry, a lamentable cry, was soon heard, and all rushed from the lowest room into the air. The whole castle was on fire. Shrieks issued from the distance, and above their heads the lamentations of one voice was heard from the lofty tower. The men were in agony, between the hastening to the castle and the call from above. Six ran toward the mansion; two, with fearful agony, ascended the Tower. Ellen was so completely engrossed with her parent's state, that she cast not her glance over the battlements, but upon the leads, where her father's serene face was looking up as if his eyes would pierce the skies. She put the flask to his lips; she poured the wine into his mouth--he drank. For a moment he seemed to revive; he felt for his daughter's hands, he placed them in Latimer's, he kissed them; he was speechless; he looked up, and with a gentle smile upon his lips, he breathed his last. It was at that moment the cry from the castle reached their ears; but had it been a volcanic eruption it would not have attracted the rivetted, deep rivetted devotion of the affectionate beings who then knelt at the dead De Freston's feet. Cavendish alone, in an agony of horror, exclaimed-- 'The castle is on fire!' Nor had these words, nor the sudden spectacle, power to turn the souls of the true mourners from a greater object of their sorrow. The castle was on fire, and more, Cavendish beheld over the waters in the far distance, a blaze of light illumining the sky, and heard the distant bells of the town of Ipswich sounding their alarm to arouse the country. It was a spectacle so appalling, that what with the woe around and near him, even he, who had seen more sorrows than his years could have been supposed to have known, was completely unnerved. Latimer, recovering, bore his Ellen into the room beneath, where servants came screaming in wild dismay to her increased but solemn sorrowing. Latimer ordered De Freston's servants to remove their master's body into the astronomical room, and torches to be there lighted immediately. There was no occasion for ordering furniture, for the assembling people had been some time bringing across to the Tower whatever goods and chattels could be saved from the conflagration.