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Rh of strange and majestic solemnity coming over me. I am sure an awful event is about to happen to one of us, if not to the other also. This place is either holy or cursed. Did anything remarkable ever happen here, Ubertus?'

'Nothing here that I know of, Julius,' I answered; 'but near the southern end of the lake, on the other side, there is a hill called Murderer's Hill It is covered with dead ghastly trees, and is said to have been the scene of a lamentable tragedy many years ago. It was a case of long cherished revenge. An overseer at Macquarie Harbour, an establishment for prisoners, gave evidence against a man, who, whether justly or unjustly, was sentenced to receive a severe flogging, as the custom was in those unhappy days. The former came, in after years, to live near that hill; the latter followed, and accomplished his fell purpose.'

'We are like travellers,' said Julius, 'in those flying carriages you have described, or in a fine ship bounding over the ocean. We dance, and laugh, and sing, and enjoy ourselves to the uttermost, not knowing, and evidently not caring, how soon we may, with a mighty crash, be hurled to destruction. I have died once, and I believe, Ubertus, I am about to die again; but a death of a different kind. Start not, my dear friend: tremble not! Your time is not come yet, but mine is very near. And I am glad of it. Oh, what agonies I have suffered! What depths of miseries I have endured! How my undying spirit within me groaned and shrieked with anguish, when it found itself cut off from that Eternal and Divine Essence from whom it derived its existence, and all that it ever knew of sweetness and pleasure. When will the foolish, proud, vain world learn wisdom and humility? When will the thoughtless and ignorant acquire knowledge? When will the wicked cease from their wickedness? But I have given you enough of my moral philosophy, and if you write a successful book,