The certificate might be a forgery, her tale a lie; but this all but breathing picture, these indubitable words, were proofs of blasting power.

Cold, icy shiverings ran through my frame,--a cold, benumbing weight pressed down my heart,--a black abyss opened before me,--the earth heaved and gave way beneath me.

With a shriek that seemed to breathe out my life, I fell forward at the feet of her whom I had so guiltlessly wronged." * * * * * Thus far had I read, with clenching teeth and rigid limbs, and brow on which chill, deadly drops were slowly gathering, when my mother's shriek seemed suddenly to ring in my ears,--the knell of a broken heart, a ruined frame,--and I sprang up and looked wildly round me.

Where was I?
Who was I?
Were the heavens turned to brass and the sun to blood, or was yon saffron belt the gold of declining day,--yon crimson globe, the sun rolling through a hazy, sultry atmosphere?
What meant that long green mound stretching at my side, that broken shaft, twined with the cypress vine?
I clasped both hands over my temples, as these questions drifted through my mind, then bending my knees, I sunk lower and lower, till my head rested on the grave.

I was conscious of but one wish--to stay there and die.