The Gypsy Queen's Vow

wondrous dark; de

llness take th

heads the black

. This surely

ill

ne dense pall of impenetrable gloom. A chill, penetrating rain was falling, and the w

st be felt; and its innumerable lights were shrouded in the deep gloom. Yet the solitary figure, flitting through the pelting rain and bleak wind, strained her eyes a

ing through the thick mantle she held closely around her. And still the woman fled on, stopping neither for wind, nor rain, nor storm-unheeding,

ncreasing storm, kept pedestrians within doors that cheerless March night. Now and then she would pass

face-the chill blasts fluttering her thin-worn garments and long, wild, black hair. Still on, pausing not,

ses' hoofs and the crash of approaching carriage wheels. Rapidly they came on, and the wom

the high, prominent cheek-bones; the gloomy, overhanging brows; the stern, set, unyielding mouth; the rigid, corrugated brow; the fierce, devouring, maniac, black eyes-it looked positively hideous. Such eyes!-such burning, blazing orbs of fire, never was seen in human head before! They glowed like two live coals in a bleached skull. There was utter misery, there was despair unspeakable, mingled with fierce determination, in those lurid, flaming eyes. And that dark, stern terrific face was stamped with the unmistakable impress of a despised, degraded race. The woman wa

of an instant was maddening, she started wildly up, and keeping her hungry, devouring