But it will be no barrier between my ladies and the marauder, should we cross the river, and travel on the right bank," answered the Scot. "Heaven will protect its own, young man," said the friar; "for it were hard to think that the Kings of yonder blessed city of Cologne, who will not endure that a Jew or Infidel should even enter within the walls of their town, could be oblivious enough to permit their worshippers, coming to their shrine as true pilgrims, to be plundered and misused by such a miscreant dog as this Boar of Ardennes, who is worse than a whole desert of Saracen heathens, and all the ten tribes of Israel to boot." been highly pleased and interested by the grace, yet naivete, of his general behaviour and conversation and the mixture of shrewd intelligence which naturally belonged to him, with the simplicity arising from his secluded education and distant country. He let them understand, that it would be necessary that they should prepare for their journey this morning rather earlier than usual; and, accordingly, they left the convent immediately after a morning repast, for which, as well as the other hospitalities of the House, the ladies made acknowledgment by a donation to the altar, befitting rather their rank than their appearance. But this excited no suspicion, as they Whatever reliance Quentin, as a sincere Catholic, were supposed to be English women; and the attriwas bound to rest upon the special protection of Mel- bute of superior wealth attached at that time to the chior, Caspar, and Balthasar, he could not but re-insular character as strongly as in our own day. collect, that the pilgrim habits of the ladies being assumed out of mere earthly policy, he and his charge could scarcely expect their countenance on the present occasion; and therefore resolved, as far as possible, to avoid placing the ladies in any predicament where miraculous interposition might be necessary; whilst, in the simplicity of his good faith, he himself vowed a pilgrimage to the Three Kings of Cologne in his own proper person, provided the simulate design of those over whose safety he was now watching, should be permitted by those reasonable and royal, as well as sainted personages, to attain the desired effect. That he might enter into this obligation with all solemnity, he requested the friar to show him into one of the various chapels which opened from the main body of the church of the convent, where, upon his knees, and with sincere devotion, he ratified the vow which he had made internally. The distant sound of the choir, the solemnity of the deep and dead hour which he had chosen for this act of devotion, the effect of the glimmering lamp with which the little Gothic building was illuminated-all contributed to throw Quentin's mind into the state when it most readily acknowledges its human frailty, and seeks that supernatural aid and protection, which, in every worship, must be connected with repentance for past sins, and resolutions of future amendment. That the object of his devotion was misplaced, was not the fault of Quentin; and, its purpose being sincere, we can scarce suppose it unacceptable to the only true Deity, who regards the motives, and not the forms of prayer, and in whose eyes the sincere devotion of a heathen is more estimable than the specious hypocrisy of a Pharisee. Having commended himself and his helpless companions to the Saints, and to the keeping of Providence, Quentin at length retired to rest, leaving the friar much edified by the depth and sincerity of his devotion. The Prior blessed them as they mounted to depart, and congratulated Quentin on the absence of his heathen guide; "for," said the venerable man, "better stumble in the path, than be upheld by the arm of a thief or robber.' Quentin was not quite of his opinion; for, dangerous as he knew the Bohemian to be, he thought he could use his services, and, at the same time, baffle his treasonable purpose, now that he saw clearly to what it tended. But his anxiety upon this subject was soon at an end, for the little cavalcade was not an hundred yards from the monastery and the village, before Maugrabin joined it, riding as usual on his little active and wild-looking jennet. Their road led them along the side of the same brook where Quentin had overheard the mysterious conference of the preceding evening, and Hayraddin had not long rejoined them, ere they passed under the very willow-tree which had afforded Durward the means of concealment, when he became an unsuspected hearer of what then passed betwixt that false guide and the lanzknecht. The recollections which the spot brought back stirred Quentin to enter abruptly into conversation with his guide, whom hitherto he had scarce spoken to. "Where hast thou found night-quarter, thou profane knave?" said the Scot. "Your wisdom may guess, by looking on my gaberdine," answered the Bohemian, pointing to his dress, which was covered with the seeds of hay. "A good haystack," said Quentin, " is a convenient bed for an astrologer, and a much better than a heathen scoffer at our blessed religion, and its ministers, ever deserves." "It suited my Klepper better than me, though," said Hayraddin, patting his horse on the neck; "for he had food and shelter at the same time. The old bald fools turned him loose, as if a wise man's horse could have infected with wit or sagacity a whole convent of asses. Lucky that Klepper knows my whistle, and follows me as truly as a hound, or we had never met again, and you in your turn might have whistled for a guide." "I have told thee more than once," said Durward, sternly, "to restrain thy ribaldry when thou chancest to be in worthy men's company, a thing which, I believe, hath rarely happened to thee in thy life before now; and I promise thee, that, did I hold thee as faithless a guide as I esteem thee a blasphemous and worthless caitiff, my Scottish dirk and thy heathenish heart had ere now been acquainted, although the doing such a deed were as ignoble as the sticking of swine. By peep of day Quentin Durward had forsaken his little cell, had roused the sleepy grooms, and, with more than his wonted care, seen that every thing was prepared for the day's journey. Girths and bridles, A wild boar is near akin to a sow," said the Bothe horse-furniture, and the shoes of the horses them-hemian, without flinching from the sharp look with selves, were carefully inspected with his own eyes, which Quentin regarded him, or altering, in the that there might be as little chance as possible of the slightest degree, the caustic indifference which he afoccurrence of any of those casualties, which, petty as fected in his language; "and many men," he subthey seem, often interrupt or disconcert travelling. joined, "find both pride, pleasure, and profit, in stickThe horses were also, under his own inspection, care-ing them." fully fed, so as to render them fit for a long day's journey, or, if that should be necessary, for a hasty flight. Quentin then betook himself to his own chamber, armen nimself with unusual care, and belted on his sword with the feeling at once of approaching danger, ang of stern determination to dare it to the uttermost. These generous feelings gave him a loftiness of step, and a dignity of manner, which the ladies of Croye had not yet observed in him, though they had VOL. IV. 2 X Astonished at the man's ready confidence, and uncertain whether he did not know more of his own history and feelings than was pleasant for him to converse upon, Quentin broke off a conversation in which he had gained no advantage over Maugrabin, and fell back to his accustomed post beside the ladies. We have already observed, that a considerable degree of familiarity had begun to establish itself between them. The elder Countess treated him (being once, well assured of the nobility of his birth) like a favoured equal; and though her niece showed her regard to their protector less freely, yet, under every disadvantage of bashfulness and timidity, Quentin thought he could plainly perceive, that his company and conversation were not by any means indifferent to her. Nothing gives such life and soul to youthful gayety as the consciousness that it is successfully received; and Quentin had accordingly, during the former period of their journey, amused his fair charge with the liveliness of his conversation, and the songs and tales of his country, the former of which he sung in his native language, while his efforts to render the latter into his foreign and imperfect French, gave rise to a hundred little mistakes and errors of speech, as diverting as the narratives themselves. But on this anxious morning, he rode beside the ladies of Croye without any of his usual attempts to amuse them, and they could not help observing his silence as something remarkable. Our young companion has seen a wolf," said the Lady Hameline, alluding to an ancient superstition, "and he has lost his tongue in consequence." "To say I had tracked a fox were nearer the mark," thought Quentin, but gave the reply no utterance. "Are you well, Seignior Quentin?" said the Countess Isabelle, in a tone of interest at which she herself blushed, while she felt that it was something more than the distance between them warranted. that our swords can compel these rich productions, as tribute from our wealthier neighbours. But for the unblemished faith and unfaded honour of Scotland, I must now put to the proof how far you can repose trust in them, however mean the individual who can offer nothing more as a pledge of your safety." "You speak mysteriously-you know of some pressing and present danger," said the Lady Hameline. "I have read it in his eye for this hour past!" exclaimed the Lady Isabelle, clasping her hands. cred Virgin, what will become of us?" 66 "Sa "Nothing, I hope, but what you would desire," answered Durward. And now I am compelled to ask -Gentle ladies, can you trust me?" "Trust you?" answered the Countess Hameline"certainly-But why the question? Or how far do you ask our confidence?" I, on my part," said the Countess Isabelle, "trust you implicitly, and without condition. If you can deceive us, Quentin, I will no more look for truth, save in Heaven." "Gentle lady," replied Durward, highly gratified, 'you do me but justice. My object is to alter our route, by proceeding directly by the left bank of the Maes to Liege, instead of crossing at Namur. This differs from the order assigned by King Louis, and the instructions given to the guide. But I heard news in the monastery of marauders on the right bank of the Maes, and of the march of Burgundian soldiers to suppress them. Both circumstances alarm me for your safety. Have I your permission so far to devifrom the route of your journey?" "He hath sat up carousing with the jolly friars," said the Lady Hameline; "the Scots are like the Germans, who spend all their mirth over the Rhein-ate wein, and bring only their staggering steps to the dance in the evening, and their aching heads to the ladies' bower in the morning." 66 "My ample and full permission," answered the younger lady. Cousin," said the Lady Hameline, "I believe with Nay, gentle ladies," said Quentin, "I deserve not you, that the youth means us well; but bethink you your reproach. The good friars were at their devo--we transgress the instructions of King Louis, so potions almost all night; and for myself, my drink was sitively iterated." barely a cup of their thinnest and most ordinary wine." แ It is the badness of his fare that has put him out of humour," said the Countess Isabelle. Cheer up, Seignior Quentin; and should we ever visit my ancient Castle of Bracquemont together, if I myself should stand your cup-bearer, and hand it to you, you shall have a generous cup of wine, that the like never grew upon the vines of Hochheim or Johannisberg." A glass of water, noble lady, from your hand" Thus far did Quentin begin, but his voice trembled; and Isabelle continued, as if she had been insensible of the tenderness of the accentuation upon the personal pronoun. "The wine was stocked in the deep vaults of Bracqpuemont, by my great-grandfather the Rhinegrave Godfrey," said the Countess Isabelle. "Who won the hand of her great-grandmother," interjected the Lady Hameline, interrupting her niece, "by proving himself the best son of chivalry, at the great tournament of Strasbourg-ten knights were slain in the lists. But those days are over, and no one now thinks of encountering peril for the sake of honour, or to relieve distressed beauty." To this speech, which was made in the tone in which a modern beauty, whose charms are rather on the wane, may be heard to condemn the rudeness of the present age, Quentin took upon him to reply, "that there was no lack of that chivalry which the Lady Hameline seemed to consider as extinct, and that, were it eclipsed every where else, it would still glow in the bosoms of the Scottish gentlemen." "Hear him!" said the Lady Hameline; "he would have us believe, that in his cold and bleak country still lives the noble fire which has decayed in France and Germany! The poor youth is like a Swiss mountaineer, mad with partiality to his native land-he will next tell us of the vines and olives of Scotland." No, madam," said Durward; "of the wine and the oil of our mountains I can say little, more than Vox quoque Morim Jam fugit ipsa; lupi Marim videre priores. VIRGILII, ix. ecloga. The commentators add, in explanation of this passage, the opinion of Pliny: "The being beheld by a wolf in Italy is accounted noxious, and is supposed to take away the speech of a man, if these animals behold him ere he sees them." "And why should we regard his instructions?" said the Lady Isabelle. "I am, I thank Heaven for it, no subject of his; and, as a suppliant, he has abused the confidence he induced me to repose in him. would not dishonour this young gentleman by weighing his word for an instant against the injunctions of yonder crafty and selfish despot." "Now, may God bless you for that very word, lady," said Quentin, joyously; "and if I deserve not the trust it expresses, tearing with wild horses in this life, and eternal tortures in the next, were e'en too good for my deserts." So saying, he spurred his horse, and rejoined the Bohemian. This worthy seemed of a remarkably passive, if not a forgiving temper. Injury or threat never dwelt, or at least seemed not to dwell, on his recollection; and he entered into the conversation which Durward presently commenced, just as if there had been no unkindly word betwixt them in the course of the morning. "The dog," thought the Scot, "snarls not now, because he intends to clear scores with me at once and for ever, when he can snatch me by the very throat; but we will try for once whether we cannot foil a traitor at his own weapons.-Honest Hayraddin," he said, "thou hast travelled with us for ten days, yet hast never shown us a specimen of your skill in fortune-telling; which you are, nevertheless, so fond of practising, that you must needs display your gifts in every convent at which we stop, at the risk of being repaid by a night's lodging under a haystack." You have never asked me for a specimen of my skill," said the gipsy. "You are like the rest of the world, contented to ridicule those mysteries which they do not understand." "Give me then a present proof of your skill," said Quentin: and, ungloving his hand, he held it out to the Zingaro. Hayraddin carefully regarded all the lines which crossed each other on the Scotchman's palm, and noted, with equally scrupulous attention, the little risings or swellings at the roots of the fingers, which were then believed as intimately connected with the disposition, habits, and fortunes of the individual, as the organs of the brain are pretended to be in our own time. "Here is a hand," said Hayraddin, "which speaks of toils endured, and dangers encountered. I read in it an early acquaintance with the hilt of the sword; and yet some acquaintance also with the clasps of the mass-book." "This of my past life you may have learned elsewhere," said Quentin; "tell me something of the fu ture.' "If we are challenged on that account," said Quentin, we will say that alarms of the wicked Duke of Gueldres, or of William de la Marck, or of the Ecorcheurs and lanzknechts, on the right side of the river, justify our holding by the left, instead of our intended route." "As you will, my good seignior," replied the Bohemian-"I am, for my part, equally ready to guide "This line from the hill of Venus," said the Bohe- you down the left as down the right side of the Maes mian, "not broken off abruptly, but attending and-Your excuse to your master you must make out accompanying the line of life, argues a certain and for yourself." large fortune by marriage, whereby the party shall be raised among the wealthy and the noble by the influence of successful love." แ ་་ Such promises you make to all who ask your advice," said Quentin; "they are part of your art.' "What I tell you is as certain," said Hayraddin, as that you shall in a brief space be menaced with mighty danger; which I infer from this bright bloodred line cutting the table-line transversely, and intimating stroke of sword, or other violence, from which you shall only be saved by the attachment of a faithful friend." "Thyself, ha?" said Quentin, somewhat indignant that the chiromantist should thus practise on his credulity, and endeavour to found a reputation by predicting the consequences of his own treachery. "My art," replied the Zingaro, "tells me nought that concerns myself." "In this, then, the seers of my land," said Quentin, "excel your boasted knowledge; for their skill teaches them the dangers by which they are themselves beset. I left not my hills without having felt a portion of the double vision with which their inhabitants are gifted; and I will give thee a proof of it, in exchange for thy specimen of palmistry. Hayraddin, the danger which threatens me lies on the right bank of the river-I will avoid it by travelling to Liege on the left bank." The guide listened with an apathy, which, knowing the circumstances in which Maugrabin stood, Quentin could not by any means comprehend.. "If you accomplish your purpose," was the Bohemian's reply, "the dangerous crisis will be transferred from your lot to mine." "I thought," said Quentin, "that you said but now, that you could not presage your own fortune?" "Not in the manner in which I have but now told you yours," answered Hayraddin; "but it requires little knowledge of Louis of Valois, to presage that he will hang your guide, because your pleasure was to deviate from the road which he recommended." "The attaining with safety the purpose of the journey, and ensuring its happy termination," said Quentin, must atone for a deviation from the exact line of the prescribed route." "Ay," replied the Bohemian, "if you are sure that the King had in his own eye the same termination of the pilgrimage which he insinuated to you." "And of what other termination is it possible that he could have been meditating? or why should you suppose he had any purpose in his thought, other than was avowed in his direction?" inquired Quentin. "Simply," replied the Zingaro, "that those who know aught of the Most Christian King, are aware, that the purpose about which he is most anxious, is always that which he is least willing to declare. Let our gracious Louis send twelve embassies, and I will forfeit my neck to the gallows a year before it is due, if in eleven of them there is not something at the bottom of the ink-horn more than the pen has written in the letters of credence." Quentin, although rather surprised, was at the same time pleased with the ready, or at least the unrepugnant acquiescence of Hayraddin in their change of route, for he needed his assistance as a guide, and yet had feared that the disconcerting of his intended act of treachery would have driven him to extremity. Besides, to expel the Bohemian from their society, would have been the ready mode to bring down William de la Marck, with whom he was in correspondence, upon their intended route; whereas, if Hayraddin remained with them, Quentin thought he could manage to prevent the Moor from having any communication with strangers, unless he was himself aware of it. Abandoning, therefore, all thoughts of their origi nal route, the little party followed that by the left bank of the broad Macs, so speedily and successfully, that the next day early brought them to the purposed end of their journey. They found that the Bishop of Liege, for the sake of his health, as he himself alleged, but rather, perhaps, to avoid being surprised by the numerous and mutinous population of the city, had established his residence in his beautiful Castle of Schonwaldt, about a mile without Liege. Just as they approached the Castle, they saw the Prelate returning in long procession from the neighbouring city, in which he had been officiating at the performance of High Mass. He was at the head of a splendid train of religious, civil, and military men, mingled together, or, as the old ballad-maker expresses it, "With many a cross-bearer before, The procession made a noble appearance, as, winding along the verdant banks of the broad Maes, it wheeled into, and was as it were, devoured by, the huge Gothic portal of the Episcopal residence. But when the party came more near, they found that circumstances around the Castle argued a doubt and sense of insecurity, which contradicted that display of pomp and power which they had just witnessed. Strong guards of the Bishop's soldiers were heedfully maintained all around the mansion and its immediate vicinity; and the prevailing appearances in an ecclesiastical residence, seemed to argue a sense of danger in the reverend Prelate, who found it necessary thus to surround himself with all the defensive precautions of war. The ladies of Croye, when announced by Quentin, were reverently ushered into the great Hall, where they met with the most cordial reception from the Bishop, who met them there at the head of his little Court. He would not permit them to kiss his hand, but welcomed them with a salute, which had something in it of gallantry on the part of a prince to fine women, and something also of the holy affection of a pastor to the sisters of his flock. Louis of Bourbon, the reigning Bishop of Liege, was in truth a generous and kind-hearted prince; "I regard not your foul suspicions," answered whose life had not indeed been always confined, with Quentin; my duty is plain and peremptory--to con- precise strictness, within the bounds of his clerical vey these ladies in safety to Liege; and I take it on profession; but who, notwithstanding, had uniformme to think that I best discharge that duty in chang-ly maintained the frank and honourable character of ing our prescribed route, and keeping the left side of the House of Bourbon, from which he was descended. the river Maes. It is likewise the direct road to Liege. In later times, as age advanced, the Prelate had By crossing the river, we should lose time, and incur adopted habits more beseeming a member of the fatigue, to no purpose-Wherefore should we do so?" hierarchy than his early reign had exhibited, and was Only because pilgrims, as they call themselves, loved among the neighbouring princes, as a noble destined for Cologne," said Hayraddin, "do not ecclesiastic, generous and magnificent in his ordinary asually descend the Maes so low as Liege; and that mode of life, though preserving no very ascetic sevethe route of the ladies will be accounted contradic-rity of character, and governing with an easy indiffer tory of their professed destination." ence, which, amid his wealthy and mutinous subjects, which he had not yet experienced in any of the vicissitudes to which his life had subjected him. No doubt the cessation of the close and unavoidable intercourse and intimacy betwixt them was the necessary consequence of the Countess having obtained a place of settled her residence; for, under what pretext could she, had she meditated such an impropriety have had a gallant young squire, such as Quentin, in constant attendance upon her? rather encouraged than suodued rebellious purposes. I felt a strange vacancy and chillness of the heart, The Bishop was so fast an ally of the Duke of Burgundy, that the latter claimed almost a joint sovereignty in his bishopric, and repaid the good-natured ease with which the Prelate admitted claims which he might easily have disputed, by taking his part on all occasions, with the determined and furious zeal which was a part of his character. He used to say, he considered Liege as his own, the Bishop as his brother, (indeed they might be accounted such, in consequence of the Duke having married for his first But the shock of the separation was not the more wife, the Bishop's sister,) and that he who annoyed welcome that it seemed unavoidable, and the proud Louis of Bourbon, had to do with Charles of Bur- heart of Quentin swelled at finding he was partgundy; a threat which, considering the charactered with like an ordinary postilion, or an escort whose and the power of the prince who used it, would have duty is discharged; while his eyes sympathized so been powerful with any but the rich and discontent- far as to drop a secret tear or two over the ruins of ed city of Liege, where much wealth had, according all those airy castles, so many of which he had emto the ancient proverb, made wit waver. ployed himself in constructing during their too interesting journey. He made a manly, but, at first a vain effort, to throw off this mental dejection; and so, yielding to the feelings he could not suppress, he sat him down in one of the deep recesses formed by a window which lighted the great Gothic hall of Schonwaldt, and there mused upon his hard fortune, which had not assigned him rank or wealth sufficient to prosecute his daring suit. The Prelate, as we have said, assured the Ladies of Croye of such intercession as his interest at the Court of Burgundy, used to the uttermost, might gain for them, and which, he hoped, might be the more effectual, as Campo-Basso, from some late discoveries, stood rather lower than formerly in the Duke's personal favour. He promised them also such protection as it was in his power to afford; but the sigh with which he gave the warrant, seemed to allow that his power was more precarious than in words he was willing to admit. arms; "At every event, my dearest daughters," said the Bishop, with an air in which, as in his previous salute, a mixture of spiritual unction qualified the hereditary gallantry of the House of Bourbon, "Heaven forbid should abandon the lamb to the wicked wolf, or noble ladies to the oppression of faitours. I am a man of peace, though my abode now rings with but be assured I will care for your safety as for my own; and should matters become yet more distracted here, which, with our Lady's grace, we trust will be rather pacified than inflamed, we will provide for your safe-conduct to Germany; for not even the will of our brother and protector, Charles of Burgundy, shall prevail with us to dispose of you in any respect contrary to your own inclinations. We cannot comply with your request of sending you to a convent; for, alas! such is the influence of the sons of Belial among the inhabitants of Liege, that we know no retreat to which our authority extends, beyond the bounds of our own castle, and the protection of our soldiery. But here you are most welcome, and your train shall have all honourable entertainment; especially this youth, whom you recommend so particularly to our countenance, and on whom in especial we bestow our blessing." Quentin kneeled, as in duty bound, to receive the Episcopal benediction. "For yourselves," proceeded the good Prelate, 06 you shall reside here with my sister Isabelle, a Canoness of Triers, and with whom you may dwell in all honour, even under the roof of so gay a bachelor as the Bishop of Liege." He gallantly conducted the ladies to his sister's apartment, as he concluded the harangue of welcome; and his Master of the Household, an officer, who, having taken Deacon's orders, held something between a secular and ecclesiastical character, entertained Quentin with the hospitality which his master enjoined, while the other personages of the retinue of the Ladies of Croye were committed to the inferior departments. In this arrangement Quentin could not help remarking, that the presence of the Bohemian, so much objected to in country convents, seemed, in the household of this wealthy, and perhaps we might say worldly prelate, to attract neither objection nor remark. CHAPTER XIX. THE CITY. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up SEPARATED from the Lady Isabelle, whose looks had been for so many days his load-star, Quentin Quentin tried to dispel the sadness which overhung him by dispatching Charlet, one of the valets, with letters to the court of Louis, announcing the arrival of the Ladies of Croye at Liege. At length his natural buoyancy of temper returned, much excited by the title of an old romaunt which had been just printed at Strasbourg, and which lay beside him in the window, the title of which set forth, gone!" I want what all men want, though few are satisfied with it," said Hayraddin; "I want my due; my ten crowns of gold for guiding the ladies hither." "With what face darest thou ask any guerdon beyond my sparing thy worthless life?" said Durward, fiercely; "thou knowest that it was thy purpose to have betrayed them on the road." "But I did not betray them," said Hayraddin; "if I had, I would have asked no guerdon from you or from them, but from him whom their keeping upon the right-hand side of the river might have benefited. The party that I have served is the party who must pay me.' "Thy guerdon perish with thee, then, traitor!" said Quentin, telling out the money. Get thee to the Boar of Ardennes, or to the devil! but keep hereafter out of my sight, lest I send thee thither before thy time." The Boar of Ardennes!" repeated the Bohemian, with a stronger emotion of surprise than his features usually expressed; "it was then no vague guess-no general suspicion-which made you insist on changing the road?-Can it be-are there really in other lands arts of prophecy more sure than those of our wandering tribes? The willow tree under which we spoke could tell no tales. But no-no-no-Dolt that I was!-I have it-I have it!-The willow by the brook near yon convent-I saw you look towards it as you passed it, about half a mile from yon hive of drones that could not indeed speak, but it might hide one who could hear! I will hold my councils in an open plain henceforth; not a bunch of thistles shall be near me for a Scot to shroud amongst-Ha! ha! the Scot hath beat the Zingaro at his own subtle weapons. But know, Quentin Durward, that you have foiled me to the marring of thine own fortune -Yes! the fortune I told thee of, from the lines on thy hand, had been richly accomplished but for thine own obstinacy." "By Saint Andrew," said Quentin, " thy impudence makes me laugh in spite of myself-How, or in what, should thy successful villany have been of service to me? I heard, indeed, that you did stipulate to save my life, which condition your worthy allies would speedily have forgotten, had we once come to blows-but in what thy betrayal of these ladies could have served me, but by exposing me to death or captivity, is a matter beyond human brains to conjecture." "No matter thinking of it, then," said Hayraddin, "for I mean still to surprise you with my gratitude. Had you kept back my hire, I should have held that we were quit, and had left you to your own foolish guidance. As it is, I remain your debtor for yonder matter on the banks of the Cher." "Methinks I have already taken out the payment in cursing and abusing thee," said Quentin. "Hard words, or kind ones,' ," said the Zingaro, 'are but wind, which make no weight in the balance. Had you struck me, indeed, instead of threatening" "I am likely enough to take out payment in that way, if you provoke me longer." "I would not advise it," said the Zingaro; "such payment, made by a rash hand, might exceed the debt, and unhappily leave a balance on your side, which I am not one to forget or forgive. And now farewell, but not for a long space-I go to bid adieu to the Ladies of Croye." "Thou?" said Quentin in astonishment-"thou be admitted to the presence of the ladies, and here, where they are in a manner recluses under the protection of the Bishop's sister, a noble canoness? It is impossible." "Marthon, however, waits to conduct me to their presence," said the Zingaro, with a sneer; "and I must pray your forgiveness if I leave you something abruptly." He turned as if to depart, but instantly coming back, said, with a tone of deep and serious emphasis, "I know your hopes-they are daring, yet not vain, if I aid them. I know your fears-they should teach prudence, not timidity. Every woman may be won. A count is but a nickname, which will befit Quentin as well as the other nickname of duke befits Charles, or that of king befits Louis." Ere Durward could reply, the Bohemian had left the hall. Quentin instantly followed; but, better acquainted than the Scot with the passages of the house, Hayraddin kept the advantage which he had gotten; and the pursuer lost sight of him as he descended a small back staircase. Still Durward followed, though without exact consciousness of his own purpose in doing so. The staircase terminated by a door opening into the alley of a garden, in which he again beheld the Zingaro hastening down a pleached walk. On two sides, the garden was surrounded by the buildings of the castle-a huge old pile, partly castellated, and partly resembling an ecclesiastical building; on the other two sides, the enclosure was a high embattled wall. Crossing the alleys of the garden to another part of the building, where a postern-door opened behind a large massive buttress, overgrown with ivy, Hayraddin looked back, and waved his hand in signal of an exulting farewell to his follower, who saw that in effect the postern-door was opened by Marthon, and that the vile Bohemian was admitted into the precincts, as he naturally concluded, of the apartment of the Countesses of Croye. Quentin bit his lips with indignation, and blamed himself severely that he had not made the ladies sensible of the full infamy of Hayraddin's character, and acquainted with his machinations against their safety. The arrogating manner which the Bohemian had promised to back his suit, added to his anger and his disgust; and he felt as if even the hand of the Countess Isabelle would be profaned, were it possible to attain it by such patronage.. But it is all a deception," he said-"a turn of his base juggling artifice. He has procured access to these ladies upon some false pretence, and with some mischievous intention. It is well I have learned where they lodge. I will watch Marthon, and solicit an interview with them, were it but to place them on their guard. It is hard that I must use artifice and brook delay, when such as he have admittance openly and without scruple. They shall find, however, that though I am excluded from their presence, Isabelle's safety is still the chief subject of my vigilance." While the young lover was thus meditating, an aged gentleman of the Bishop's household approached him from the same door by which he had himself entered the garden, and made him aware, though with the greatest civility of manner, that the garden was private, and reserved only for the use of the Bishop, and guests of the very highest distinction. Quentin heard him repeat this information twice ere he put the proper construction upon it; and then, starting as from a reverie, he bowed, and hurried out of the garden, the official person following him all the way, and overwhelming him with formal apologies for the necessary discharge of his duty. Nay, so pertinacious was he in his attempts to remove the offence which he conceived Durward to have taken, that he offered to bestow his own company upon him, to contribute to his entertainment; until Quentin, internally cursing his formal foppery, found no better way of escape, than pretending a desire of visiting the neighbouring city, and setting off thither at such a round pace as speedily subdued all desire in the gentleman-usher to accompany him farther than the drawbridge. In a few minutes, Quentin was within the walls of the city of Liege, then one of the richest in Flanders, and of course in the world. Melancholy, even love-melancholy, is not so deeply seated, at least in minds of a manly and elastic character, as the soft enthusiasts who suffer under it are fond of believing. It yields to unexpected and striking impressions upon the senses, to change of place, to such scenes as create new trains of association, and to the influence of the busy hum of mankind. In a few minutes, Quentin's attention was as much engrossed by the variety of objects presented in rapid succession by the busy streets of Liege, as if there had neither been a Countess Isabelle, nor a Bohemian, in the world. The lofty houses,-the stately, though narrow and gloomy streets,-the splendid display of the richest goods and most gorgeous armour in the warehouses and shops around,-the walks crowded by busy citizens of every description, passing and repassing with faces of careful importance or eager bustle, the huge wains, which transported to and fro the subjects of export and import, the former consisting of broad cloths and serge, arms of all kinds, nails and iron work, while the latter comprehended every article of use or luxury, intended either for the consumption of an opulent city, or received in barter, and destined to be transported elsewhere, all these objects combined to form an engrossing picture of wealth, bustle, and splendour, to which Quentin had been hitherto a stranger. He admired also the various streams and canals, drawn from and communicating with the Maes, which, traversing the city in various directions, offered to every quarter the commercial facilities of water-carriage, and he failed not to hear a mass in the venerable old Church of Saint Lambert, said to have been founded in the eighth century. It was upon leaving this place of worship that Quentin began to observe, that he, who had been hitherto gazing on all around him with the eagerness of unrestrained curiosity, was himself the object of attention to several groups of substantial-looking burghers, who seemed assembled to look upon him as he left the church, and amongst whom arose a buzz and whisper, which spread from one party to another; while the number of gazers continued to |