“Dear girl, be sure that there will be few things in this world so precious to me as the little creature that you loved. And now what else? Speak all your wishes; tell me all that I can do for you, for to obey all your commands will be the only course to save me from madness—the only purpose for which I shall bear to live—except one! yes, except one!”
“There is nothing else whatever, dear friend?”
“Nothing else? You ask nothing for yourself—nothing for your own memory! Even at this supreme hour your thoughts are all for the good of others. Yet, dear saint, though in your sweet resignation you have not asked it, here I make you one solemn promise, one binding oath, one sacred vow! Here, with my hand upon your martyred head—here, speaking to your innocent heart—here, in the sight of the all-seeing God—I pledge my whole life, fortune, and honor to the one sacred purpose of discovering the real criminal, redeeming your memory from all reproach, and establishing your innocence beyond all question!” said Malcolm, solemnly sealing his vow by pressing a kiss upon her forehead.
“Thanks, thanks for this devotion, dearest friend. And now bid me a gentle good-night and go.”
“So soon—has it come?” aspirated the young man, as all the blood in his veins seemed to turn back in its course, and roll in with annihilating force upon his heart. “Must I leave you?”
“It is my own tongue that bids you go, dear Malcolm. Go, while we still have some self-command left; go, and leave me to God!”
At this very moment also a warder appeared at the cell door. He did not speak, but the mere event of his appearance there announced that the moment of separation had arrived. She raised him and threw herself upon his bosom. He strained her to his heart in the unutterable agony of a last embrace. A moment thus, and then her arms relaxed, and she sank back fainting upon her pillow.
Malcolm, blinded, giddy, and stunned by despair, reeled from the cell.
The lobby, lighted only here and there at long intervals by lamps in high sconces, was very dusky. As he rushed along its gloom, he suddenly felt his wrist caught by a thin, fiery hand, that seemed to scorch into his flesh, while a fierce, hot whisper pierced his ear, saying:
“Be on the watch to-night at the appointed place!”