“The family returned to their apartment, and for some hours sat in profound silence, interrupted only by the ticking of the clock, which was distinctly and solely heard, and which seemed too loud to their quickened ears, amid that deep stillness on which it broke incessantly,--or by the echoes of Walberg’s hurried step, as he started from his chair and traversed the apartment. At this sound they turned, as if expecting a messenger, then, glancing at the silent figure of Walberg, sunk on their seats again. The family sat up all that long night of unuttered, and indeed unutterable emotion. The lights burnt low, and were at length extinguished, but no one noticed them;--the pale light of the dawn broke feebly into the room, but no one observed it was morning. “God!--how long he lingers!” exclaimed Walberg involuntarily; and these words, though uttered under his breath, made all the listeners start, as at the first sounds of a human voice, which they had not heard for many hours. “At this moment a knock was heard at the door,--a step trod slowly along the passage that led to the room,--the door opened, and the priest appeared. He advanced into the room without speaking, or being spoken to. And the contrast of strong emotion and unbroken silence,--this conflict of speech that strangled thought in the utterance, and of thought that in vain asked aid of speech,--the agony and the muteness,--formed a terrible momentary association. It was but momentary,--the priest, as he stood, uttered the words--“All is over!” Walberg clasped his hands over his forehead, and in ecstatic agony exclaimed,--“Thank God!” and wildly catching at the object nearest him, as if imagining it one of his children, he clasped and hugged it to his breast. His wife wept for a moment at the thought of her brother’s death, but roused herself for her children’s sake to hear all that was to be told. The Priest could tell no more but that Guzman was dead,--seals had been put on every chest, drawer, and coffer in the house,--not a cabinet had escaped the diligence of the persons employed,--and the will was to be read the following day.