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"I will stand here," said Euphoric, "out of sight of any one advancing, but close to you, and I can hand you the sword in a moment, should it be required; the baron might recognize it as mine, and the effect of your sudden appearance upon him would be spoiled."

The door of the room opened inwards, and all but Claudio placed themselves so that when it should be opened they would be completely hidden from observation behind it.

Claudio stood in the very entrance and within one pace of the threshold, and there calmly with his arms folded across his breast, he awaited the Baron of Zindorf�s appearance.

What Euphoric had heard among the domestics of the mansion was strictly true. The baron always did hurry with precipitation through those apartments which led to the chamber of Count Durlack.

Each room presented to his guilty imagination an aspect of fear. He trembled at the slightest breath of air that came through the broken windows. The very echo of his own footsteps in those apartments appalled his soul.

It was not surprising that the sight of those apartments should conjure up these awful feelings in the mind of the baron, when it is recollected that in that very apartment which the Count Durlack had chosen for his chamber, from its proximity to that of Caroline Mecklenburgh, the unfortunate Vileroy had breathed his last.

Through that long suite of chambers had his lifeless and half decomposed

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body been dragged by the baron and his vile associate in every species of guilt, the ruffian Roland.

Each room was thus to the soul of the Baron replete with horrors, and a cold perspiration of intense agony and fear broke upon his brow whenever he trod, which was rarely, their solitudes alone.

The page had been missed in the castle and sought for in vain, in order to accompany Roland to Caroline�s apartment with provisions, for Euphoric had been by the count entrusted with the key of the ante-room.

The baron had became uneasy at the circumstance, an uneasiness which was much increased by being told that Roland had knocked at the door of the ante-room without receiving any answer.

He had resolved, therefore, to seek Count Durlack, who he imagined to be in his own apartment, and inform him of the sudden disappearance of his most trusty and highly-prized page, Euphoric.

Maurice had closed instinctively every door after the little party of fugitives as they passed through the apartments, and the delay that this occasioned the baron in his progress, had given them time to mature their plan of endeavouring to play upon his superstitious fears; at the same time, that his mind became better fitted to be so attacked each moment that he was detained in those much-dreaded rooms.

Claudio�s anxiety on Caroline�s account imparted to his countenance a pale and care-worn expression, which materially aided the effect he wished to produce upon the baron, and which no act could have equalled.

Caroline�s heart beat more and more wildly as she heard this step approaching to the door at which Claudio stood.

There was not one of the little group in whose countenance intense and painful anxiety was not painted.

"He comes;" said Euphoric.

"Hush," said Claudio, "not a word�not a word! The spirit of my poor murdered brother, Alphonso Vileroy, would pardon me for thus attempting to personate it for the object I have in view."

"It is to save the miscreant," said Maurice.

"Hush! hush!" whispered Euphoric.

Now the step of the baron could be heard traversing the extent the next apartment. He approached the door�his hand touched the lock.

Calm and quiet stood Claudio, pale with excess of anxiety, not for himself, but for he whom he loved and those, who, to do him service had followed him into circumstances of so much risk and danger.

The baron opened the door without pausing, and his face before he could stop himself came within an inch of Claudio�s.

Claudio stirred not a muscle.

For one moment the Baron Zindorf seemed bereft of the power of motion or speech, and with eyes starting from their sockets, mouth open, and every vein in his face distended with horror, he glanced at Claudio as if he was turned to stone at the sight of him.

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With an effort which seemed awful he wrenched himself as it were from his fixed position and fell backwards.

The spell which chained his voice seemed broken, now that he had succeeded in withdrawing his eyes from Claudio�s face.

He sprung to his feet, and shrieked till the deserted apartments rung again with the fearful sounds.

"Mercy!�mercy!" he cried. "Oh, horror! horror! horror! �Tis he�he�that pale face. Mercy! mercy!"

With his hand stretched out before him, and his head averted from Claudio, he retreated backwards step by step, through the room towards the opposite door.

Claudio was pleased with the success of his scheme, but, much as he had cause to hold the Baron of Zindorf in detestation, he could not help feeling a sensation of pity for the man whose fears could inflict upon him such intense and horrible agony..

"Advance, Claudio," said the page, in a whisper.

Claudio now felt the necessity of carrying out his operations upon the baron�s nerves sufficiently to ensure his absence from the whole suite of apartments immediately.

Slowly he now advanced from the door-way, with a solemn measured step. Although the baron�s face was averted, yet he could not altogether withdraw his eyes from the figure before him, and when he saw it advancing, he burst into a scream of terror that made even Claudio involuntarily pause in his progress towards him.

"Oh, mercy!�mercy! " cried the baron. "Follow me not�follow me not!�In mercy stay!"

Claudio advanced another step.

"You are," cried the baron, "the spirit of�of�"

"The murdered!" cried Claudio, in a solemn sepulchral voice.

"I�I�know it!" cried the baron. "Too well I know that face!�That pale face, and those sunken eyes! Oh, hence, horrible vision, hence! Follow me not!�Oh, horror! horror!�You are�"

"Vileroy!" said Claudio.

"I�I�know it!�I know it!" gasped the baron, still retreating.

He had now nearly arrived at the door at the further end of the room. He dared not turn to open it, for then his back would have been towards Claudio, which he dreaded more than looking at him.

With his glaring eyes still fixed upon the supposed spirit of Vileroy, the baron stretched his arms behind him to feel for the door.

Claudio saw that this was the moment to give the climax to the fears of the baron, and with rapid strides he advanced.

"Repent!" he said; "Baron Zindorf, repent!"

The baron had just succeeded in opening the door.

With a wild shriek he darted through it, and Claudio could hear him

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rush shrieking through the rooms, till his voice and footsteps became lost in the increasing distance.

CHAPTER LIV.

CLAUDIO immediately returned to the room where those who were so much interested in the success of his scheme for ridding them of the troublesome presence of the Baron Zindorf, were anxiously waiting.

"He is gone," said Claudio, as he re-appeared among them.

"Thank Heaven!" cried Caroline.

"How true it is," remarked Claudio, "that guilt brings with it its own punishment. What human torments�what earthly vengeance could equal the mental sufferings of the Baron Zindorf?"

"The guilty," said Caroline, "may, indeed, be always pitied."

"Successful villany"� remarked Maurice, "means, in all cases, successful misery, and only exhibits an ingenuity in devising self-torments of the most horrible and lasting description."

"Yet," said Euphoric, "the murderer must meet his doom. The blood of the murdered cries out ever for vengeance."

"Oh, Euphoric," said Claudio, "to see a human being the prey of such horrible fancies as the Baron Zindorf�s teeming imagination presents to his mind�s eye, is, methinks, almost enough to melt the sternest vengeance and the strongest indignation into tears of pity for humanity."

Euphoric did not seem to like the discussion, and he only repeated,�

"Blood must be avenged!�Blood must be avenged!"

"Oh, let us leave this place," cried Caroline; "each moment that we stay here is fraught with many dangers. Come, Euphoric.�Come."

"The next chamber," said Euphoric, "is the Count Durlack�s. Come on, lady; you will soon now be in comparative safety."

The page opened a door, and Caroline found herself in a moment in a chamber, the horrors of which she knew full well.

She was in an agony of apprehension, lest the ghastly skull of the murdered Alphonso Vileroy should be visible, and attract the attention of Claudio, and it was an inexpressible relief to her upon casting a glance round the room, to find that it was not in sight.

Claudio seemed, from the impulse of some undefined feeling, to linger in the room, and examine it.

He looked around the room curiously, and fixed his gaze earnestly upon the bed and its folded hangings.

The front, on which the arms of Zindorf were embroidered, seemed to attract his eyes wonderfully, and Caroline was astonished and afflicted at

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the notice he was taking of the room, which had witnessed his brother�s murder, but which she was certain he had never seen before.

"Hasten�hasten, cried Euphoric. "Assist me, Claudio to remove the picture which hides the sliding panel."

"Stay yet a moment," said Claudio, musingly, and looking still more anxiously round the apartment.

"Why do you examine this room so curiously?" said Euphoric.

"Why, Claudio?" said Caroline, "oh, tell us why?"

"I scarcely know," said Claudio.

"It is new to you?" said Caroline.

"It seems to me," answered Claudio, "as if once before I had seen it. The bed�the hangings�the embroidered arms.�Yon immense picture,�all come before mine eyes like some dimly-remembered vision."

" �Tis most strange," said Caroline.

"Claudio," said Maurice, "when we were at Vienna you told me you had had a frightful dream�"

"Ha!" cried Claudio, starting, and striking his forehead; "True, Maurice. The dream�the dream at Vienna!"

"What dream?" said Caroline, much astonished.

"I dreamt of such a room as this," said Claudio. "Yon wardrobe�the hangings of the bed�the picture; all�all were presented to me�as I here see them�in that most fearful dream."

"Fearful dream?" repeated Caroline.

"Ay," continued Claudio, "most fearful. I thought I saw my brother, Alphonso Vileroy, in such a room as this. There was blood upon him from top to toe. It was smeared upon his face�his hands�his apparel!"

"Oh, Claudio," said Caroline, alarmed at his vehemence; "leave quickly a place that conjures up such frightful recollections."

"I started from my sleep," continued Claudio, "with the perspiration of intense horror starting upon my brow. Again I lay down and slept."

"But the vision had left you?" said Caroline.

"No, no, no;" cried Claudio; "again I saw this room; there was the same figure of my lost brother endeavouring to staunch a wound in his side, from whence the life blood was welling forth."

"Nay, Claudio," said Caroline, beseechingly; "torture not yourself thus; these are the very phantoms of the imagination."

"No, no, Caroline," said Claudio; "I saw it all as plainly as I now see you. But then a change came over my vision; I was no longer in this apartment, but in another, hung with faded purple hangings, on which was embroidered the conversion of Paul. I noticed the figures well,�there was a large white horse in the centre of the work;�a form was standing in the centre of the room,�it was but a skeleton."

"You could not recognise it," said Euphoric.

"Yes; yes," answered Claudio; "my heart told me that it was Alphonso Vileroy."

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"A chamber hung with purple hangings?" repeated Euphoric;�"it is strange,�most strange and inexplicable!"

"One horrible circumstance would fix this latter vision in my mind," said Claudio, "if nothing else had sufficed to do so."

"What was that?" said Caroline, faintly, dreading the answer.

"The form," answered Claudio, "was not perfect."

"Not perfect?" exclaimed Euphoric.

"No," continued Claudio; "it wanted�oh, Heavens!"

"Wanted what?" cried Caroline, in an agony of apprehension.

Claudio covered his face with his hands, and could not speak.

"I have heard him twice tell this fearful dream," said Maurice, "when his mind was calmer, and not so strangely acted upon as it is now, by the singular corroboration of his visions presented by this chamber."

"Tell, then!�Tell, then, Maurice!" said Claudio, faintly.

"The skeleton," said Maurice, "was without a head!"

Caroline was forced to lean against the wall for support, or she felt she must have fainted at the singular coincidence of Claudio�s dream with the actual fate of his brother, as worded on the manuscript of the murdered Baroness Sophia, which so vividly described the dreadful scene.

Claudio seemed for some few moments completely lost to his present situation, as recalling the particulars of the dream, which at the time of its occurrence he had treated as an idle fancy, which he ought not to permit to disturb his brain, or exercise any influence whatever upon his understanding.

Now, however, that it had gathered so much confirmation by the appearance of this chamber, which tallied so exactly with that represented in his vision, he began to fear that some circumstance would disclose to him that all was true, and that the hand of Providence had thus in his slumbers pointed out to him the fate of his brother.

"Is it not strange and horrible?" he said, addressing Caroline.

"As strange as horrible!" she replied, shuddering.

"When once the barriers of unbelief in visions and omens of the imagination is broken down, who can tell what a flood of superstitious fancies may not enter at the fatal breach?"

"Think not of it now, Claudio; recollect your own immediate safety demands your utmost care."

"Time is most precious now," said Euphoric.

"Yet �tis very strange," said Claudio, in a musing tone.

"Help me to remove the picture," cried Euphoric. "Come, Claudio, you and Maurice support it while I undo its fastenings."

Claudio still lost in deep thought, lent the required assistance mechanically, and the portrait was removed from before the sliding panel.

"Do you know the spring?" said Euphoric to Caroline.

"If it be similar to the one leading from my own chamber, I do know it," she replied. "It is�see!�It opens readily!"

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Caroline had touched the spring, an the panel immediately descended into the groove fitted to receive it.

"There is your own chamber, lady," said Euphoric. "Hasten through and give me the key from the lock."

Caroline sprung through the panel, and crossing the staircase which led to the turret, she entered her own chamber.

To remove the key from the lock of the ante-room door, and return with it to the page was but the work of a minute.

"Now, Claudio," cried the page, "we must instantly begone; the lady Caroline Mecklenburgh is now in safety."�

"Caroline! Caroline!" exclaimed Claudio, awakening at the sound of her name from the stupor which seemed to have come over him.

"Farewell, Claudio!" she said, controlling as much as possible her emotion. "Once more, Claudio, farewell. For a brief space only let us hope. May our next meeting be more permanent.

"And more happy, dear Caroline," cried Claudio, grasping her extended hand and pressing it fondly to his lips.

"Our period of expectation cannot be long now, Claudio," said Caroline, tenderly, "and I am consoled that I do not leave you as I did before an inhabitant of a gloomy dungeon."

"The thoughts of thee, dearest," said Claudio, "lit up that, dungeon with a glorious splendour. The mind can make a glittering palace of the meanest hovel that man was ever condemned to."

"Haste, haste," cried Euphoric. "We are wasting the precious moments on which hang life or death."

"Go, Claudio! Go!" cried Caroline. "Delay not another moment."

"Farewell!" he cried. "One last farewell."

Caroline waved her hand and started through the panel.

"Bless you, lady," cried Maurice. "You are safe and all is well."

The page drew up the panel, and the spring fixed it in its place.

It seemed to Claudio like putting up a shutter to hide the rays of the sun, for Caroline was his sun, and where she was there was light and beauty; and when she was gone, the light and beauty was gone, too, and I all was darkness and desolation.

Truly he might have said with the poet�

She was gone, and Claudio was once more desolate.

Hardly knowing what he did he assisted Euphoric to replace the picture, then casting one more glance of strange scrutiny around the room which had so much moved him, he slowly followed the steps of the page from the place which brought to his recollection so many horrors of excited fancy and heated imagination.

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"Must we again," said Maurice, "traverse all these rooms through which we have passed to come here?"

"I am not aware of any other outlet," answered Euphoric, "than that into the gallery through which we came to this suite of apartments. I believe the castle abounds with secret passages, but as yet I have not been able to discover any leading from the rooms."

"Euphoric," said Claudio, "should we encounter any one in our progress, let me beg you will be mindful of your own safety."

"Nay, think not of me," said Euphoric. "I would risk much to save you�you who have spoken words of kindness to me."

"But if anything could add a new pang to misfortune," said Claudio, "it would be the thought that I had plunged others in ruin for my sake. Be careful, good, Euphoric!"

"I will," answered Euphoric�"be assured, I will. At liberty myself, and unsuspected, I may do much for you. Otherwise I could but pity you, but assistance from other hands might come too late."

"I thank you, Euphoric," said Claudio. "It is sufficient that Maurice suffers for his attachment to me."

"Say not so, my dear Claudio," said Maurice. "I should suffer more to leave you now. No, no, I never can, desert you, I who have watched with a love more than a father�s your ripening years and many virtues. No, no�it would kill me to leave you, Claudio."

"You have, good, kind Maurice," said Claudio, "been more than a father to me. Heaven will surely bless you for your kindness to two orphans, myself and poor Alphonso, who do not know to whom even they are indebted for their kindness�an existence which has been preserved alone by you, and rendered happy by your kindness."

"Let us make more speed," said Euphoric. "Time presses. Recollect we have got to proceed the whole length of the gallery."

"Pardon my tardiness, Euphoric," said Claudio. "I will follow closely on your steps. On, Maurice, on�my friend and benefactor, on."

"The baron�s alarm," said Euphoric, as he walked rapidly through the rooms, may, or may not, have rendered our enterprise more dangerous. All depends upon what steps he has taken after leaving these rooms."

"I regret," said Claudio, "that he has had time for thought and action."

"He is, most probably," said Euphoric, "in his own, apartment, with the count, the latter of whom will assuredly repair hither, as soon as he has learned the full particulars of his alarm from the baron"

"The Count Durlack, then," said Maurice, "despises superstitious terrors?"

"He is a blackened ruffian," answered Euphoric, "who believes neither in heaven nor hell. He loves nothing�believes nothing�and fears nothing."

"Can there be such men?" said Maurice.

"Let us not say men," cried Euphoric. "Rather, for the honour of