At length Matilda approached him.  She seated herself at his side, threw her arms around his neck, called him in those rich and searching tones which were so peculiarly her own—­her beloved and affianced husband; and bidding him be firm of purpose, as he valued the lives and happiness of both, placed in his hand a small dagger, the handle of which was richly mounted in silver.  Gerald clutched the naked weapon with a convulsive grasp, while a hoarse low groan escaped him, and again he sank his head in silence upon his chest.

Nearly an hour had passed in this manner, neither seeking to disturb the thoughts of the other, nor daring to break the profound silence that every where prevailed around them.  At length a distant and solitary footstep was heard, and Matilda sprang to her feet, and with her head thrown eagerly forward, while one small foot alone supported the whole weight of her inclined body, gazed intently out upon the open space, and in the direction whence the sounds proceeded.

“He comes, Gerald, he comes;” she at length whispered in a quick tone.

Gerald, who had also risen, and now stood looking over the shoulder of the American, was not slow in discovering the tall figure of a man, whose outline, cloaked even as it was, bespoke the soldier, moving in an oblique direction towards the building already described.

“It is he, too well do I know him,” continued Matilda, in the same eager yet almost inaudible whisper, “and mark how inflated with the incense which has been heaped upon him this night does he appear.  His proud step tells of the ambitious projects of his vile heart.  Little does he imagine that this arm (and she tightly grasped that which held the fatal dagger) will crush them for ever in the bud.  But hist!”

The officer was now within a few paces of the path, in the gloom of which the guilty pair found ample concealment, and as he drew nearer and nearer their very breathing was stayed to prevent the slightest chance of a discovery of their presence.  Gerald suffered him to pass some yards beyond the opening, and advanced with long yet cautious strides across the grass towards his victim.  As he moved thus noiselessly along, he fancied that there was something in the bearing of the figure that reminded him of one he had previously known, but he had not time to pause upon the circumstance, for the officer was already within ten yards of his own door, and the delay of a single moment would not only deprive him of the opportunity on which he had perilled all in this world and in the next, but expose himself and his companion to the ignominy of discovery and punishment.

A single foot of ground now intervened between him and the unhappy officer, whom wine, or abstraction, or both, had rendered totally unconscious of his danger.  Already was the hand of Gerald raised to strike the fatal blow —­another moment and it would have descended, but even in the very act he found his arm suddenly arrested.  Turning quickly to see who it was who thus interfered with his purpose, he beheld Matilda.