name of Colonel Forrester was distinctly audible to the ear of Gerald.  A retrograde movement was the immediate consequence of this interruption, and the party, came once more upon the open space they had so recently quitted.  Stupified with the excess of abjectness in which he had continued plunged, from the moment of his discovery of the identity of his intended victim, Gerald had moved unconsciously and recklessly whithersoever his conductors led; but now that he expected to be confronted face to face with the dying man, as the sudden alteration in the movement of the party gave him reason to apprehend, he felt for the first time that his position, bitter as it was, might be rendered even worse.  It was a relief to him, therefore, when he found that, instead of taking the course which led to the residence of Colonel Forrester, the head of the party, of which Matilda and himself were the centre, suddenly immerged into the narrow lane which conducted to the residence of that unhappy woman.  Instead, however, of approaching this, Gerald remarked that they made immediately for the fatal temple.  When they had reached this, the door was unlocked by the tall negro above described, who, with a deference in his manner not less at variance with the occasion than with the excited conduct of the whole party on their way to the prison, motioned both his prisoners to enter.  They did so, and the lock having been turned and the key removed, they silently withdrew.

CHAPTER XV.

Hours passed away without either of the guilty parties finding courage or inclination to address the other.  The hearts of both were too full for utterance—­and yet did they acknowledge no sympathy in common.  Remorse, shame, fear, regret, simultaneously assailed and weighed down the mind of Gerald.  Triumphant vengeance, unmixed with any apprehension of self, reigned exclusively in the bosom of Matilda.  The intense passion of the former, like a mist that is dissipated before the strong rays of the sun, had yielded before the masculine and practical display of the energetic hate of its object, while on the contrary she, whose beauty of person was now to him a thing without price, acknowledged no other feeling than contempt for the vacillating character of her associate.  In this only did they agree that each looked upon each in the light of a being sunk in crime—­steeped in dishonor—­and while the love of the one was turned to almost loathing at the thought, the other merely wondered how one so feeble of heart had ever been linked to so determined a purpose.