A NOVEL.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "GRANBY."

"La nature fait le mérite, et la fortune le met en œuvre."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,

NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1832.

ARLINGTON.

CHAPTER I.

"Fast came inquiry, which unfolded nought,
Except the absence of the chief it sought;
A chamber tenantless, a steed at rest,
His host alarm'd, his murm'ring squires distrest;
Their search extends, along, around the path,
In dread to meet the mark of prowlers' wrath."
BYRON.

TIME and place are not, among novel-readers, considered subjects of primary importance. It will therefore appear unnecessary to be minutely precise in these particulars, or to intimate more fully concerning them than that the period at which this tale commences, was subsequent to the year 1800, and that the scene is in