Mr. Raymond, who still retained his station at the pillaras to you, Sir,' glancing at Osmond, a chamber is, prepared for you in another part of the building.'

Osmond was concerned to hear this; nor were the ladies less so. Almost convinced, however, that to oppose the arrangement would be useless, they expressed, but by looks, the discontent it gave them.

Yes, noble Captain,' said the hag, replying to her master, and motioning at the same time to his fair prisoners to follow her.

As Mrs. Raymond rose to obey this motion, she kissed her hand, with a look of gratitude to Osmond; nor did her lovely daughter pass him without noticing him by a similar one.

He continued motionless on the spot where she had left him, gazing after her; and then when she had entirely disappeared from his view, amidst the remote and clustered pillars of the hall....invoking all those

Angels and seraphs who delight in goodness,
To forsake their skies, and to her couch descend,'

until roused from his abstraction by a violent pull by the sleeve, and the hoarse voice of one of the ruffians exclaiming.... D....mn me, Sir, are you deaf? I have been bawling in your ear this half hour to know whether you would chuse any supper?

Osmond sick at heart from the horrid fears which had taken possession of him respecting Miss Raymond, replied in the negative.

Then I presume,' the other rejoined, you have no objection to retiring to rest?'

Osmond bowed.

Here then, Ossuna,' beckoning to a man at some distance, here, I say; shew the Signor here to one of the chambers of the long gallery.'

Ossuna nodded, and approached with a lamp; and at the same moment the other went back to the suppertable, which by this time was covered, and about which most of the gang had taken their seats, all apparently in high glee.

But though anxious to retire from a scene of such

coarseness and riot as the present, Osmond was withheld from immediately quitting it, by the surprise he experienced at beholding Mactalla, just as Ossuna was approaching him, busily employed, and with an air of the greatest satisfaction, in attending on the robbers.

This sight revived his former suspicion concerning him, but which his entirely yielding to was still opposed by the consideration of the character he had received of him, and at length usurped by another, namely, of his brain being turned by terror....a suspicion in which the longer he attended to him the more he was confirmed, as nothing could possibly be stranger than his grimaces, or more curious than his replies to the questions which from time to time the robbers addressed to him.

'What's your name, fellow?' at last demanded the Captain, slightly glancing at him over his shoulder, as he stood behind his chair, with a golden goblet in his hand.

Mactalla, an please your reverence,' with a low bow, he replied, although at the moment the Captain's back was entirely turned to him.

Very well, then, I say Mr. Mac,' but without looking at him, and with his mouth half full, I say what are you good for?

Why, please your reverence, like my neighbours, perhaps not good for a great deal: but then (with quickness) I am willing.'

Ha....willingness makes amends in some degree for want of abilities; but I say....I suppose you could put your hands to something?'

Yes, please your reverence,' with a rather low bow, though still the eyes of the Captain were directed from him, to any thing you should wish me to lay it on.'

• Ha, very well, very well, that will do: we want assistants in the menial line, for instance in the stables. I suppose you could trim a horse?"

Yes, or an ass, please your reverence, if one fell in my way."

Ha, ha, well said, Mr. Mac,' shouted one of the party.... here's my service to you, and let me tell you 'tis not here you'll be likely to meet with one.'

VOL. II.

C

Yes, yes, it must be so,' said Osmond, mentally, and with a deep sigh, as he motioned Ossuna, to lead the way from the hall; yes, yes, 'tis too evident that fear has deranged his intellects. Unhappy creature! and yet he is not so great an object of compassion as at the first glance one might be led to imagine; for doubtless the keenness of his feelings is blunted by the state to which he is reduced.'

From the hall Osmond was conducted through several winding passages to a spacious staircase of oval form, terminating in a long gallery, near the extremity of which Ossuna opened a door, and bade him enter, presenting him at the same time with the lamp he had hitherto carried. Osmond obeyed, and immediately after heard the door locked on the outside. Left to himself, he elevated the lamp, in order to be better enabled to see about him, and found himself within a large bed-chamber, with two other doors half open in it. Curiosity and suspicion inducing him to examine beyond these, he found they merely led into small cabinets, to which there appeared no other means of obtaining admission than what they afforded. His axamination of these over, he resolved on admitting the light of day, if possible, into his apartment; but to his infinite mortification, soon found that all the spaces formerly occupied by lattices were now blocked up with closely-cemented stones.

Compelled to be content with the sickly light of the lamp, he placed it on an old-fashioned dressing-table, and threw himself into an equally old-fashioned chair beside it, unable to rest, or rather shuddering with horror at the thoughts of resigning himself to repose, from the dreadful apprehensions with which he was tormented about Miss Raymond.

Oh, should these soul-harrowing apprehensions be realized!' he wildly cried....he paused, he started.... Even now....even now,' with greater emotion, he exclaimed, they may be on the point of being so....even now some ruffian may be stalking to her chamber....even now, regardless of their mingling shrieks, be tearing her from the arms of her mother, the grasp of her father!"

His veins swelled, his temples throbbed, every limb

shook with agitation, as this dreadful idea suggested itself to his imagination. With a glaring eye he searched round the chamber, in hope of discovering some weapon of defence; but nothing met it but mouldering furniture and dark wainscotting, destitute of any ornament, but here and there a fragment of tapestry. He then proceeded to the door, and tried to force it, for the purpose of going in quest of the north tower, and risking his life, if necessary, in uniting with the father to try and preserve the daughter; but it resisted all his efforts to wrench it from the hinges.

ear.

With suspended-breath he then listened attentively at it; but no sigh, no scream, no shriek of distress met his A deathlike stillness prevailed throughout, but a stillness from which he derived no consolation, when he reflected that, from the magnitude of the building, the most atrocious deeds might be perpetrated at one end, without those at the other having the smallest intimation of them.

At length the impossibility of accomplishing his wishes in the present instance induced him to endeavour to calm the apprehensions to which they were owing. He called his reason, his religion, his fortitude to his aid. He reflected, that she for whose safety he was so agonized, was under the special protection of a divine Being....of Him, whose angels watch over the couch of innocence and virtue....of Him, whose eye, whose ear, was never closed; who was at once omniscient and omnipresent.

As his confidence in Heaven revived, the tumult of his spirits, the burning heat of his brain, subsided. He quitted the door; and though the appearance of the bed was extremely uninviting....its long dingy curtains of dark-green velvet, and moth-eaten coverlid of the same, giving it a sepulchral air, chilling to the feelings....threw himself upon it, but without taking off any of his cloaths.

But instead of courting sleep, he now busied himself in recalling to his recollection all that had passed between him and the fair Cordelia in the hall; in reflecting on the enquiries she must have made, the conversations she must have held respecting him, to be acquainted with his name, and render it also so familiar to her mother:

but the idea that to curiosity alone both might be owing, checked the hopes they might otherwise have given birth to.

That it was either from the Marchesa Morati or Lady Elizara she had learnt who he was, he could not doubt; and he felt happy at the idea, from his conviction of their favourable sentiments for him....until he reflected, that perhaps it was solely owing to the flattering terms in which he had been mentioned to her, and to no prepossession in his favour, that he was indebted for the notice she had taken of him.

But how ungenerous to wish her to feel such a prepossession....to wish her to harbour sentiments which could not fail of being productive of regret, of uneasiness to her, so great are the obstacles, so little the likelihood of their ever being overcome, which fortune has placed between us.' He reflected.... Henceforth it shall be my study to suppress such a wish, to avoid her society as much as possible. Ah Heavens! how idly do I talk! how strangely do I forget our present situation! Perhaps I shall be but too soon convinced that I shall never have another opportunity of beholding her.'

The anguish imparted by this thought, since he could not conquer, he at length strove to lose in sleep; but the repose he courted his perturbed imagination would not permit him to enjoy. Though his eyes were closed, frightful and disjointed visions harassed and perplexed him from one of these he was suddenly rouzed by a noise outside the chamber door, but which, for a minute or two, he knew not whether to imagine ideal or not.

At length convinced his ear had not deceived him, and that it was occasioned by some one endeavouring to unlock it in such a way as should prevent their being overheard, he softly quitted the bed, and, approaching the door, applied his eye to the keyhole, but involuntarily started back on doing so, in consequence of perceiving one apparently on fire, and of more than human size, glaring through it. A moment's reflection, however, by enabling him to account for the extraordinary appearance of this eye, which was entirely owing to an oblique light interposing between it and the door, made him smile at