My men put a new handle to the pickaxe that evening, and sought for a dry spot to dig her grave! The sun had risen when I woke.

I had slept, and horrified as the idea flashed upon me that she must be dead and that I had not been with her, I started up.

She lay upon her bed, pale as marble, and with that calm serenity that the features assume when the cares of life no longer act upon the mind and the body rests in death.

The dreadful thought bowed me down; but as I gazed upon her in fear her chest gently heaved, not with the convulsive throbs of fever, but naturally.

She was asleep; and when at a sudden noise she opened her eyes, they were calm and clear.