Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/302

 *tion of her own forfeited life, dwelt ever upon the future life of her darling, vainly striving to form some idea of what her existence would be after her own was ended, Alice's thoughts never wandered beyond that terrible event—that was to her the termination of all things. To her the world itself would end with the life of her only relative. After that, all was a blank to her. Up to that terrible hour, all was blind agony and useless prayer, and then—"after that—the deluge."

And so, while Mistress Campbell wasted away in prison, the dreadful day was fast approaching, and no voice was raised to plead for her, no hand was lifted to avert her terrible doom.

How, indeed, could there be, when Alice's warmest, steadiest, and most powerful friends were the various members of the Nurse family? They had tried, as we have seen, every expedient in their own case: by appeals to justice and clemency; by certificates and testimonials; by fervent entreaties for delay and a new trial; and they had all signally failed. They knew, and felt it was worse than useless to attempt it again in behalf of