“Happy spirit, welcome in;
Hark! the song of seraphim
Hails thy presence at the throne—­
Earth is lost, and Heaven is won! 

                                            Enter in.”

The voice died away in faint indistinct murmurs; the eye lost the living fire; the prophetic lip paled to marble, quivered a moment, and was still for ever.  The spirit of Clary had passed the dark gateway, and was the new-born of heaven.

“My sister; oh, my sister!  Is she indeed gone from me for ever?” exclaimed Frederic, bursting into the room, and flinging himself upon the bed beside her.  “Clary! my angel!  Clary!  What! cold and dead?  Oh, my poor heart!”

“Oh, how I envy her this blessed change!” said Juliet.

“Aye, ’tis a sin to weep for her.  But grief is selfish, Miss Whitmore; it will have its way.  Oh! sister, dear sister, why did you leave me alone, the last survivor of an unfortunate race?”

And thus sorrow poured forth its querulous wailings into the cold ear of death.  The storm which bereaves us of our best affections passes over; the whirlwind, the thunder, and the shower, desolating our harvest of expected joys; but the sun bursts forth again.  Hope blossoms afresh in its beams, and the heart of man revives to form new schemes of future enjoyment.  Such is life.

CHAPTER XXIII.

    And hast thou sought me in this dreary cell,
    This dark abode of guilt and misery;
    To win my sadden’d spirit back to earth
    With words of blessed import?—­S.M.

The assizes were rapidly approaching.  Conscious of his innocence, as far as the murder of his father was concerned, Anthony Hurdlestone looked forward to his trial with firmness and composure.  There never was a greater mass of circumstantial evidence brought against a prisoner than in his memorable case.

Holding an elevated position in society, his trial created a great amount of interest and curiosity among all ranks, and the court was crowded to excess.  The youth of the criminal, his gentlemanly bearing, his fine expressive countenance, his thoughtful mild eye and benevolent brow excited surprise in the beholders, and gave rise to many doubts as to his being the murderer; and the calm dignified manner in which he listened to the evidence given against him tended greatly to increase the interest which was expressed by many in his awful situation.

Grenard Pike was the first witness called, and he deposed,

That on the evening of the tenth of October, between the hours of eight and nine, he and the elder Hurdlestone were seated at a table counting money into a mahogany brass-bound box.  He (Grenard) saw a tall figure pass the window.  Mr. Hurdlestone instantly called out, “Grenard, did you see that man?” and he (the witness) answered, “Yes, it is your son.”  Mr. Hurdlestone replied, in some