"Then will I tear the secret from thy recreant soul." Before Trenton could have anticipated his intention, the Parliamentarian sprang across the space between them, and he felt himself wounded in the shoulder. A gleam crossed his eyes and his arm was raised only just in time to prevent the point of the stiletto from entering his throat. The contest was fierce, for it was for life itself. To be careful of the consequences to his foe, Trenton felt would be to throw away his own existence. But his foe was practised at his weapon, and possessed of far more power than his frame indicated, and Trenton was wounded again and again before he could wrench the weapon from his enemy's grasp. He felt himself bleeding from several places, and his strength began to fail fast; but, at last, clutching the throat of his adversary with one hand, he held his arm with the other. The gurgle and the gasp, as he partially loosed his hold, intimated the failing strength of the assassin. His head dropped on Trenton's hand, the dagger fell from his grasp, and, as the power of vision was fading, and Trenton felt his own faculties of mind departing, he threw himself on his bed, and the last sound he perceived, was the heavy fall of his opponent's body on the floor. When he again awoke to consciousness, his wounds were dressed, but every other trace of the affray had disappeared. CHAPTER IV. I have seen the day, That with this little arm, and this good sword, OTHELLO. How such an outrage as he had just endured could be perpetrated in such a place without meeting with a fitting reward, Trenton could not conceive, but believed, and rightly, that it arose out of some secret understanding with the rebel party, to whom the assassin must be of essential service. For himself, the days again passed in a wearisome round of listless gloom, enlivened only by the garbled statements of the movements of the soldiery, and the change of the commanders on both sides, which he obtained from his jailer. The surgeon, who now attended him, was a taciturn and ascetic enthusiast, who had, in his own mind, decided that Trenton was one of the lost, and for whom, as he was never, now or hereafter, to have any association with him, he need entertain no concern. Whatever attempts his patient made to draw him into conversation had entirely failed, for he felt his thoughts. to be too valuable to be wasted upon a reprobate. These circumstances had tended greatly to damp Trenton's spirit and that sickly indifference to life and its concerns, to which the best and strongest are liable, under long continued trial, began to creep over him, and increased in its oppression, just in proportion to the weak $ ness of his frame. But as the pain of his wounds ceased to disturb his nightly rest, his naturally robust system renewed its strength and energy, and his spirit became animated with fresh determination. The darkness that lowered on his spirit fled with returning health, like the mists before the morning sun. Escape seemed hopeless, and every inquiry after an opportunity of exchange had been surlily repulsed. Day wore on after day, and week after week, and the very absence of anything that might give rise to expectation, whether for good or evil, would in a man of weaker character have wrought the very evils which the worst lot might bring. Το one like Trenton, however, a contrary effect was occasioned, and whilst he schooled his mind to bear all, SO that his spirit should be none the worse after the trial, a passive resistance to the oppression of his position grew up within him every day, and eager watching for an opportu |