ing-but paused abruptly in the midst, and with a deep sigh, and an expression as much of dejection as weariness, he sank down on the foot of the bed.

There needed not indeed a restless night, or dismal dreams, to enhance the disconsolate and depressing aspect of the apartment.

The orient sunflame flooding in at every point, through the wide projecting baywindows that boldly courted his approach, resembled a guest, who, invited to some high solemnity, comes in magnificent apparel, and finds himself at a funeral. Nothing did he smile upon that did not scowl in return;-nothing he caressed that did not loathe his lustrous touch.

The gallant oriels, which had been built in his honour, triumphal arches as it were for his morning march, now seemed ashamed of his approach. The heraldic panes that once flashed exulting in his rays, looked obstinately dull: and in short, as penetrating through their various colours, he advanced on the floor and walls,—the tattered arras, the swarthy pictures, the tarnished wainscot, the layers of dust and masses of cobwebs that hung on every ornament, as if spitefully to blacken what they could not efface; the disheartening apparatus of the fire-place, the very rushes on the floor withered and shrivelled, and the faint mist of motes that streamed athwart the room, impregnated with the varicoloured but ghastly radiance of the emblazoned windows,-altogether exhibited a combination of the gaudy and the disgusting, that must be seen to be conceived.

For some minutes after one long doleful look around, the page yielded passively to the depressing influence of his own thoughts, thus painfully embittered by the malicious art, that circumstance can always impart.

But only for a short space did this despondence endure. Youth, elastic lightsome courageous youth, was on his side.

"Foy! foy!" was his exclamation, as he resumed with activity the remainder of his clothes. "Shame on thee, Dorian! shall a few heavy dreams, well earned by a foolish revel, or a dismallooking dormitory, soon to be exchanged for sweet turf and blue sky-unman thee thus? and yet, Sancta Maria ora pro me! they were sore visions those of last night; and touching Gilbert Royson too, of all others-my beloved friend, my more than father! Ugh! how hideously he was changed! still 't was but a dream.

Ay, but I have heard Father Hubert say, that dreams are sometimes warnings. At all events the warning shall be given; and it shall go hard with me, Messieurs Grim;" here the page bowed with ironical reverence to the two pictures, "it shall go hard but if you are to have visiting acquaintance, you shall have it to yourselves for this night at least!"

Thus saying, the page hastened out of doors, and, having made his morning ablutions in the cold sparkling brook, that curled below the Tower bank,'Making sweet music with the enamelled stones, he offered his brief orisons on its flowery margent, while the melodious lowing of the full uddered cows, and the cheerful clarion of the sultan chanticleer mingled their strains with his devotions."

Soon then, were the glossy black curls shaken into "most admired disorder," soon was the scarlet barrette tossed upon them with artful carelessness; a single moment he stopped at the gateway to caress his Belphoebe, as he called the little Arabian, whose bridle Master Gilbert (already mounted) held ready, and who betrayed all the pretty pride and impatience of her sex.

Then promising instantaneous return, he sprang up the staircase, into the hall, and soon achieved very satisfactory advantages over sundry maple bowls remaining with rich milk and curds, loaves of hot bread, eggs flaky with freshness, and brown gravied beefsteaks.

The sun had not shifted over three quarries of the hall floor, ere Dorian had dispatched his breakfast, mounted his courser, and trotted merrily with his companions out of the Tower court.

And now Master Gilbert somewhat scoffingly requested to know the cause of Dorian's annoyance; " for well I wot," he added, "thou bearest a heart too gallant to grow cold with one night's indifferent lodging!"

Nay father dear, it was but a dream, yet it was of you, and a frightful dream it was-ay, and thrice repeated."

"Alack, and was it so my boy?" said Royson smiling; "then no marvel thou art jaded, for what saith the old saw, 'nothing so weary as a twice told tale,' and so thou hast had it thrice!”

"And what might this grim vision be, my fair sir?" asked Master Farrent, with an assumed raillery of tone, that suited ill with the anxiety of his face.

"O, methought you were both sleeping in yonder weary bed and I was watching you by that great manteltree

;

where the queen's arms are painted. You were already fast asleep, and I too began to nod; for the fire blazed comfortably warm, and the wind and rain made drowsy serenades on the lattice; when all on a sudden the fire went out, and in its place two candles of strange unearthly light appeared flaring lividly through the room, from those pictures of the Warrior and the Burning Heretic.

"While I gazed bewildered, a volume of black smoke rolled heavily down the chimney, and shaped itself into the very counterfeit of the armed knight. Ere I could draw another breath, fresh billows of vapour emerged from the vaulted chimney as if from the gulf of Erebus itself, and behold, the awful form and sable garments of the monk, stood in the centre of the floor. Oh Master Royson," continued the page, with a look of dreariment that belied his assertion

66

"I can smile now at any terror; but it is one thing to recount a story when you are borne along like a gale of summer on your favourite steed, over breezy hills, under a sunny sky-and another to encounter it in the fetters of sleep, on a gloomy bed, and in a dismantled and perhaps haunted room!"

Master Gilbert, as the page paused, turned his round blue eyes on him, and pushed back his flat cap from the thick light curls that clustered over the bullet intended for his head; more, it is to be confessed with the air of one whose wits have been wool-gathering, than with that becoming expression of dismay which was so reasonably to be anticipated, and, with a hasty, Likely, likely, my lad! I marvel if we be laggards at the tryste?" seemed either forgetful of the beginning, or careless of the conclusion of Dorian's tale of terror. Not so Master Farrent; he had inclined more seriously to the story, and now with nervous eagerness he pressed Dorian to finish it.

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Nay," said the page, slightly colouring at Royson's inattention, "I speak but what I saw ;--and if the knight and the priest did not glide up to each side of the bed, if they did not seize you both by the throat-and never relax their gripe till your eyes started forth of their sockets, and your limbs beat the bed till they were stiffit was bad enough, in conscience, to dream it, and especially to dream the same thing thrice!"

Even bluff Gilbert's ruddy face grew shadowy at this sequel to the tale, while Farrent's features betrayed unequivocal symptoms of the impression it had made on him.

But when the page, observing the effect he wished, in so fair a train for accomplishment, began somewhat prematurely to entreat that they would relinquish all idea of passing the next night at the Tower; or, at any rate, would suffer him to join their couchee by the hall fire; Gilbert Royson broke in with an abrupt execration upon his own folly in exposing his favourite to the antiquated dismalities of the state chamber; and ended by proclaiming his resolution of passing the night there himself. It would be but a light penance for his fault, he said, to sleep in a brocaded bed with soft mattress and coverlid,—and as for the apparitions—the fire he would kindle, should exorcise them from the chimney vault at least.

All who knew Master Gilbert were fully aware that his impracticable obstinacy precluded the least chance of successfully combating a resolution he had once taken. Not the ambrosial curls of Jove himself formed a more irrevocable fiat, than the emphatic nod of a head not half so well furnished as his heart, which generally ratified the worthy yeoman's determinations.

Honest Matt. Farrent saw this at once, and being (despite of a proneness to superstition) of a kindly, as well as courageous heart, he checked the vain expostulations of the less experienced page, and asseverated, with something very like an oath, that if Master Gilbert had set his bold heart on this freak, Matt. Farrent would never be the lad to desert his friend, in short, that he would take his share in the perils (if perils there were) of the Chamber of Dais.

To this Master Gilbert heartily assented; and by the time they reached the trysting place of the hunt, Dorian's spirits were so thoroughly renovated by the fresh air and brisk ride, that without much reluctance he gave in his adhesion to their plans. He consented that, after the day's hunting, he should pass the night, as usual, at the neighbouring castle of his lord, from whence he was to dispatch such additional supplies to DTower, as should effectually fortify the northern brains of our two gallant hunters for the adventures of the state chamber.

He promised to be at their door, by sunrise on the morrow, and summon them thence,

"to fresh fields, and pastures new."

"A wannion on the churlish logs!" was Master Gilbert's drowsy exclamation that night, as he, and his friend Matthew entered, yawning, the Chamber of Dais. Their eyes were dull; their steps unsteady,-they were weary with the fatigues of the day, and heavy with their antidotes against the terrors of the night; for their libations had been superabundant, and threatened, like other treacherous allies, to betray them at the crisis, when their assistance was most needful.

“A wannion, I say, on them! saw ever man a better flame than we kindled some three hours agone? and lo! ye hear, it hath died of spite!"

"Well!" growled honest Matt. with a lazy chuckle, "I'll forgive the death of the fire, so I but 'scape its ghost, the smoke. Faith, but mine eyes smart shrewdly!"

Thus dreamily grumbling, Master Farrent undressed himself, and quickly deposited his stork head within the curtains; his eyes closing in deep, hard-breathed slumber, almost before he touched the bolster. And Master Royson only delayed following his example till he had brought in a huge flaming heap of fuel, from the hall, and mixed it with the wood upon the capacious hearth. He then proceeded, carefully, to stop every cranny against the night wind; closed the massy door, cloaked up the wide windows with gaudy remains of tarnished arras, and at last, with many a murmur at the smouldering hearth, whose dense volumes of smoke threatened once more to overpower the flame, he made the pondrous bedstead groan and tremble under the bulk he flung upon it, and was instantly asleep.

No eye saw the black and demon clouds that murkily surged, and crept, and volumed, and soared through the Chamber of Dais that night: no ear heard the choaked groan, the night-mare struggle: no hand aided the heaving, gasping impotence of the unconscious victims: no warning voice aroused them to escape from the Formless Destroyer!

The next morning, an unnatural and alarming silence astonished the young Dorian when he came to call up his friends. His single strength proving ineffectual to obtain an entrance, he hastened for assistance. The heavy barricaded door was with difficulty forced

open.

A murderous pitch-black vapour literally swallowed up every feature of the apartment. Dorian however, rushed in, tore down the arras from the windows, and, in his frantic effort to obtain air,

dashed out some score of the little diamond panes, to strew the Tower court below with their shattered blazonries. Forth from the very first outlet that presented itself,-forth like some noxious and enormous reptile escaping from its pursuers, forth rushed the darkly wreathing vapour, and vanished guiltily in the pure morning sky.

The bed was now seen, with its funereal curtains closely drawn.

Dorian's first impulse was to spring towards it; his hand had already grasped the stiff unwieldly drapery-but his heart failed him, he staggered back and leaned faint and averted against a pilaster of the wainscot.

Other hands effected what his could not;-the dark-red curtains were undrawn, their horrid secret unveiled!

The bold and brawny Gilbert was found a stark corpse :-his companion though not dead, was but a gasping libel upon life. Aid was summoned to him in vain. In two hours he died, speechless and convulsed. Gilbert's chest and throat were black, swelled, and writhen; and the appearance of both the bodies in short, was horribly revolting.

The immediate cause of their shocking deaths was soon ascertained; and though it painfully reminds me of a certain ridiculus Mus,' yet the fact cannot be concealed.

A colony of jackdaws had for years blocked up the great chimney with their nests. The fire which, after so many failures, poor Royson had at length so fatally succeeded in kindling, unable to find an exit by the usual vent, disembogued its direful smoke into the room.

Wine and wassail had prepared the way for its effects on the two devoted hunters, and while

"in swinish sleep

Their drenched natures lay as in a death,”— the insidious foe flung around them closer and closer toils, heavier and heavier fetters, till it advanced and stormed the citadel of life itself.

This melancholy story is true as to its main features; and, if I might presume to hold my taper to the sun, I would in profound reverence, conclude it with those fine words of Isaiah the son of Amos, which strike me as remarkably applicable to the catastrophe.

"Behold! all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand. Ye shall lie down in sorrow!"

H.G.

THE PYPE-HALL YEW TREES.

BY HORACE GUILFORD.

(For the Parterre).

THE sun, slow sinking, o'er his coloured crest Wrapt the dun storm-clouds that beseem him best;

Down thy deep hollows glared his angry hue, Thou sepulchre of light!-thou stern grandæval yew!

But glared in vain :-the eternal gulf of shade Closed, on his march, his awful barricade; O'er the red pavement climbed the lab'ring trunk,

Down on each side the curtained foliage sunk.

Now, surging to the plaintive evening gale, Black glooms invest the vegetable veil, Mass poised on mass, each anarch branch upheaves,

With pencilled fringe, its Erebus of leaves.

Yet (pale explorers of that dæmon's hall), A few faint, fluttering, umbered sparkles fall; So strange, the raven wakens on his nest; So soft, he soon returns him to his rest.

The air is still and warm; you may descry The merry gnats' moresco revelry. No other sound from Cannock on the west, Fondling her hamlets in her heathery nest; To eastern Lichfield, whose tiara looms,

Distinct, but dismal, through the twilight glooms.

Oh, strength of limb! oh, energy of mind! How, at such moments, are your aids resigned!

NOT AWAKE. Two collegians slept in the same room. Says one to the other, early in the morning, "Jack, are you awake?" "Why?" asked the other. "Because, if you are, I will borrow half-a-crown of you." "Is that all?" replied Jack, "Then I am not awake."

THE ANGLO-SPANISH BRIDE. AN HISTORIC TALE.

[From the untranslated works of Cervantes.] (For the Parterre).

CHAP. II. WHILE upon his voyage, Ricaredo was agitated by two conflicting and distracting considerations. One of them was, that it behoved him to perform deeds which should make him worthy of Isabella; the other, that he could perform none whatever if he was to be true to his catholic conscience, which forbade him to draw his sword against catholics; and if he did not draw it, then he must be set down either as a catholic at heart or as a coward—all which tended to endanger his life and obstruct his love suit.

At length, however, he resolved to make his duty as a catholic yield to his inclination as a lover; and in his heart he prayed heaven to grant him opportunities in which, while shewing his valour,

he might fulfil his christian obligations, at the same time giving satisfaction to his queen, and meriting the hand of Isabella.

For six days, the two ships proceeded with a favourable wind, steering for the Azores a station where there are always to be found either Portuguese vessels from the East Indies, or some from the West Indies, driven thither by stress of weather. At the six days' end there sprung up a violent side wind, which in the ocean goes by a different name from that of mediodia, or noonday wind, which it bears in the Mediterranean. This gale blew with such fury and obstinacy, that, preventing them entirely from making the islands, it compelled them to run for Spain.

Close to the Spanish coast, and at the mouth of the Straits of Gibraltar, they descried three ships; one of great size, and the other two quite small. Ricare

do's vessel hove to, in order to learn tended to bear down upon the three ships from his commander whether he injust discovered; but before he could come up, he saw a black flag hoisted on the topmast; and as he came nearer he heard the note of trumpets hoarsely sounded, clearly announcing the death either of the commander, or of some other person of consequence on board.

In this alarm they came near enough to speak the other vessel, which they had never before done since they came out of port. They of the flag-ship called out for Captain Ricaredo to come aboard of her, for that the commander had died of apoplexy the night before. All felt sorrow at this news, excepting Ricaredo, who was gladdened, not at the fate of his commander, but at finding himself left in full command of both ships; for such were the queen's orders-that should any thing befal the commander, the command should devolve upon Ricaredo. Accordingly, he went promptly aboard the flag-ship; where he found some lamenting for the dead commander, and others rejoicing with the living one. However, all immediately tendered him their obedience, and proclaimed him their commander, with brief ceremonies only, for they were obliged to dispatch, observing that two of the three vessels they had discovered, having parted from the larger one, were now approaching them.

They immediately recognized the advancing vessels as galleys, and as Turk. ish, by the crescents on their flags; at which Ricaredo was greatly pleased, as

he deemed that this prize, should heaven vouchsafe it to him, would be one of importance, obtained without injury to a single catholic.

The two Turkish galleys came up and reconnoitred the English ships, which bore the colours, not of England, but of Spain, in order to deceive such as should approach to reconnoitre them, and should not take them to be Corsairs. The Turks thought they were weatherbeaten ships from the Indies, and that they should capture them with ease. They kept gradually nearing them; and Ricaredo purposely let them approach until they were within the range of his guns, which he ordered to be discharged so precisely at the right moment, that he struck one of the galleys so furiously between wind and water, that he shot it through and through; it heeled immediately, and as nothing could stop the breach, it began to fill with water.

The other galley, seeing this disaster, took its companion in tow, and moved off to place it under the side of the large vessel. But Ricaredo, keeping his own ships on the alert, and working them so well that they turned and wheeled as easily as if they had been moved by oars, had his guns reloaded, and followed them up until they reached their large vessel, showering balls upon them all the way. The men of the sinking galley had no sooner arrived at the great ship's side, than they proceeded in all haste to quit their galley, and take refuge in the ship. Ricaredo, observing this, and that the second galley was occupied with attending to the damaged one, bore down upon it so quick and close with both his ships, giving it no time either to go round or even to work the oars, that the Turks on board were compelled likewise to seek refuge in the great ship, not so much to make a defence there, as to save their lives for the

moment.

The christian captives at the oar in the galleys, forcing out the rings to which their chains were fastened, and breaking the chains themselves, mingling with the Turks, also sought shelter in the ship; and as, while they were ascending its side, the musketry from the two hostile vessels kept playing upon them pointblank-upon Christians as well as Turks - Ricaredo gave orders that no one should fire upon the Christians. Thus nearly all the remaining Turks were killed; and those who had entered the ship were, by the christian captives, mingling among them and using their

own weapons, cut to pieces;-for the dejected brave are stronger than the faint-hearted proud. Their courage being moreover inflamed by thinking that the English ships were Spanish, the captives achieved wonders for their liberty.

When, at length, they had slain nearly all the Turks, some of the Spaniards on deck presented themselves at the ship's side, and in a loud voice called out to those whom they took for Spaniards, to come on board and enjoy the reward of their victory.

Ricaredo asked them in Spanish, what ship that was.

They answered him, that it was one from the Portuguese Indies, laden with spices, and with so many pearls and diamonds, that it was worth above a million in gold; that a storm had driven it in that direction, quite disabled and without artillery, as they had been obliged to throw it overboard, the crew almost dying of hunger and thirst;—that those two galleys, which belonged to the famous corsair, Arnaute Mami, had captured her the day before without any resistance ;— and that, as they had heard said, it was because their two small vessels could not take in so rich a cargo, that they had taken the ship in tow, to carry her into the river of Larache, on the African coast, which lay not far off.

Ricaredo replied, that if they thought those two ships were Spanish, they were mistaken; for that they belonged to no other than the queen of England ;which intelligence gave occasion, not only of reflection, but of apprehension to those who heard it; fearing, as well they might, that they had escaped one snare only to fall into another. But Ricaredo told them not to apprehend any mischief; for they might rest assured of their liberation, provided they did not attempt any resistance.

"There is no possibility of our attempting it," returned they; "for, as we have already said, this ship has no guns, nor we any arms; so that we must needs yield ourselves to the graciousness and generosity of your commander. And it will be but fair that he who has delivered us from the intolerable bondage of the Turks, should make so signal a favour and benefit complete, as it will suffice to make him renowned in all places, and they will be manifold, that shall hear of this memorable victory, and of his generosity, on which we rely with hope rather than apprehension.'

Ricaredo thought the Spaniards' ap