He is eloquent and persuasive, and once his words had even power over my heart; but trust him not. His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiend-like malice.

Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to describe—gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions.

He asked a multitude of questions concerning the route which the dæmon, as he called him, had pursued.

Her hair was the brightest living gold, and despite the poverty of her clothing, seemed to set a crown of distinction on her head.

Oh! No mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch.

Nothing in human shape could have destroyed the fair child. _He_ was the murderer! I could not doubt it. The mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact.

"I know," continued the unhappy victim, "how heavily and fatally this one circumstance weighs against me, but I have no power of explaining it; and when I have expressed my utter ignorance, I am only left to conjecture concerning the probabilities by which it might have been placed in my pocket."

"God knows," she said, "how entirely I am innocent. But I do not pretend that my protestations should acquit me; I rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation of the facts which have been adduced against me, and I hope the character I have always borne will incline my judges to a favourable interpretation where any circumstance appears doubtful or suspicious."

The ballots had been thrown; they were all black, and Justine was condemned.

As I said this I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing towards me with superhuman speed. He bounded over the crevices in the ice, among which I had walked with caution; his stature, also, as he approached, seemed to exceed that of man.