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"Could you wonder if I was? (cried she); What we cannot account for, we can scarcely help ascribing to supernatural causes."

"Am I to infer, (said St. Julian, regarding her with earnestness) from what you say, that it is your opinion the groans proceeded from the spirit of the murdered Philippe?"

"With the Supreme nothing is impossible, (said Madeline), and I have been told that the spirits of the injured are sometimes permitted to revisit this world, for the purpose of obtaining retribution; and if 'tis true what the housekeeper once hinted to me,———"

St. Julian started,—"What did she hint?" asked he with eagerness.


Madeline paused for a minute; then with a faltering voice, and timidly raising her eyes to her father's face,

"She told me (said she) that Lord Philippe fell not by the hands of banditti, but—"

"By whom?" demanded St. Julian, in almost convulsive agitation.