The poor girl, overcome by her feelings, burst into a fit of hysterical weeping, and suffered the chaplain to lead her from the cell and place her under the protection of the jailor’s wife.

CONCLUSION.

Little now remains of my sad tale to be told.  Godfrey and his infamous accomplice Mathews were apprehended, convicted and condemned, and suffered for their crimes on the very spot which had witnessed the rescue of Anthony Hurdlestone from a death of unmerited infamy.

The sole survivor of a rich and powerful family, Anthony left the condemned cell in the county jail to take possession of his paternal estates.  But it was not on a spot haunted by such melancholy recollections that the last of the Hurdlestones thought fit to dwell.  The Hall was sold, and passed into the hands of strangers; and after remaining two years abroad, Anthony once more returned to his native shores, and led to the altar his betrothed bride—­the beautiful and talented Juliet Whitmore.

The young Squire’s character had been fully vindicated to the world, and his wealthy neighbors took every opportunity of courting his acquaintance; but a change had come over Mr. Hurdlestone, which the caresses of the great and the smiles of fortune could not remove.  He never forgot the sad lesson he had learned in ——­ jail, or the melancholy fate of his nearest relatives.  He had proved the instability of all earthly pursuits and enjoyments; and he renounced the gay world, and devoted his time and talents, and the immense riches which heaven had entrusted to his stewardship, in alleviating the wants and woes of suffering humanity.  In the wise and virtuous Juliet he found a partner worthy of his love.  One in heart and purpose, their unaffected piety and benevolence rendered them a great blessing to the poor in their neighborhood, who never spoke of the rich Squire and his wife without coupling their names with a blessing.

Amongst his peers, Anthony Hurdlestone was regarded as a singular wayward being, whose eccentricities were to be excused and accounted for by the strange circumstances in which he had been placed.  It was a matter of surprise to all, that the son of the miser, Mark Hurdlestone, should know how to use, without abusing, his wealth; that, avoiding the selfish idolatry of the Gold Worshipper and the folly and extravagance of the spendthrift, he dedicated to the service of God and his fellow-creatures the riches that, in his father’s case, had illustrated the truth of the heaven-taught proverb:—­

“How hardly shall a rich man enter the kingdom of God!”

THE END.