his ungratefully undervaluing a prize too lightly won, sure you are displeased with me, though I cannot even or that his transient passion played around his heart guess on what account. Perhaps you think I have with the flitting radiance of a wintry sunbeam flash-been too free in venturing upon my visit to your friend. ing against an icicle, which may brighten it for a But then remember it was in your behalf, and that I moment, but cannot melt it. Neither of these was knew no better way to put you on your guard against precisely the case, though such fickleness of disposition the misfortunes and restraint which you have been might also have some influence in the change. subjected to, and are still enduring."

Dear lady" said Darsie, rallying his recollection, and suspicious of some error in apprehension,-a suspicion which his mode of address seemed at once to communicate to Lilias, for she interrupted him,Lady! dear lady!-For whom, or for what, in Heaven's name, do you take me, that you address me so formally?"

The truth is, perhaps, that the lover's pleasure, like that of the hunter, is in the chase; and that the brightest beauty loses half its merit, as the fairest flower its perfume, when the willing hand can reach it too easily. There must be doubt-there must be danger there must be difficulty; and if, as the poet says, the course of ardent affection never does run smooth, it is perhaps because, without some intervening obstacle, that which is called the romantic Had the question been asked in that enchanted hall passion of love, in its high poetical character and co-in Fairy-land, where all interrogations must be anlouring, can hardly have an existence; any more swered with absolute sincerity, Darsie had certainly than there can be a current in a river, without the replied that he took her for the most frank-hearted stream being narrowed by steep banks, or checked by and ultra-liberal lass that had ever lived since Mother opposing rocks. Eve eat the pippin without paring. But as he was still on middle-earth, and free to avail himself of a little polite deceit, he barely answered, that he believed he had the honour of speaking to the niece of Mr. Redgauntlet.

Let not those, however, who enter into a union for life without those embarrassments which delight a Darsie Latimer, or a Lydia Languish, and which are perhaps necessary to excite an enthusiastic passion in breasts more firm than theirs, augur worse of their future happiness, because their own alliance is formed under calmer auspices. Mutual esteem, an intimate knowledge of each other's character, seen, as in their case, undisguised by the mists of too partial passiona suitable proportion of parties in rank and fortune, in taste and pursuits-are more frequently found in a marriage of reason, than in a union of romantic attachment; where the imagination, which probably created the virtues and accomplishments with which it invested the beloved object, is frequently afterwards employed in magnifying the mortifying consequences of its own delusion, and exasperating all the stings of disappointment. Those who follow the banners of Reason are like the well-disciplined battalion which, wearing a more sober uniform, and making a less dazzling show, than the light troops commanded by Imagination, enjoy more safety, and even more honour, in the conflicts of human life. All this, however, is foreign to our present purpose.

"Surely," she replied; "but were it not as easy for you to have said, to your own only sister?" Darsie started in his saddle, as if he had received a pistol-shot.

My sister!" he exclaimed.

And you did not know it, then?" said she. "I thought your reception of me was cold and indifferent." A kind and cordial embrace took place betwixt the relatives; and so light was Darsie's spirit, that he really felt himself more relieved, by getting quit of the embarrassments of the last half hour, during which he conceived himself in danger of being persecuted by the attachment of a forward girl, than disappointed by the vanishing of so many day-dreams as he had been in the habit of encouraging during the time when the green-mantled maiden was goddess of his idolatry. He had been already flung from his romantic Pegasus, and was too happy at length to find himself with bones unbroken, though with his back on the ground. He was, besides, with all his whims and follies, a generous, kind-hearted youth, and was delighted to acknowledge so beautiful and amiable a relative, and to assure her in the warmest terms of his immediate affection and future protection, so soon as they should be extricated from their present situation. Smiles and tears mingled on Lilias's cheeks, like showers and sunshine in April weather.

Uncertain in what manner to address her whom he had been lately so anxious to meet with, and embarrassed by a tête-à-tète to which his own timid inexperience gave some awkwardness, the party had proceded more than a hundred yards before Darsie assumed courage to accost, or even to look at, his companion. Sensible, however, of the impropriety of his silence, he turned to speak to her; and observing that, although she wore her mask, there was something like disappointment and dejection in her man-ish as to cry at what makes me so sincerely happy! ner, he was moved by self-reproach for his own coldness, and hastened to address her in the kindest tone he could assume.

"You must think me cruelly deficient in gratitude, Miss Lilias, that I have been thus long in your company, without thanking you for the interest which you have deigned to take in my unfortunate affairs?"

"I am glad you have at length spoken," she said, "though I own it is more coldly than I expected.Miss Lilias! Deign to take interest-In whom, dear Darsie, can I take interest but in you? and why do you put this barrier of ceremony betwixt us, whom adverse circumstances have already separated for such a length of time?"

"Out on me," she said, "that I should be so child

since, God knows, family-love is what my heart has most longed after, and to which it has been most a stranger. My uncle says that you and I, Darsie, are but half Redgauntlets, and that the metal of which our father's family was made, has been softened to effeminacy in our mother's offspring."

"Alas!" said Darsie, "I know so little of our family story, that I almost doubted that I belonged to the House of Redgauntlet, although the chief of the family himself intimated so much to me.'

"The Chief of the family!" said Lilias. "You must know little of your own descent indeed, if you mean my uncle by that expression. You yourself, my dear Darsie, are the heir and representative of Darsie was again confounded at the extra candour, our ancient House, for our father was the elder broif we may use the term, of this frank avowal-"One ther-that brave and unhappy Sir Henry Darsie Redmust love partridge very well," thought he, "to ac- gauntlet, who suffered at Carlisle in the year 1746. cept it when thrown in one's face-if this is not plain He took the name of Darsie, in conjunction with his speaking, there is no such place as downright Dun-own, from our mother, heiress to a Cumberland famistable in being!" ly of great wealth and antiquity, of whose large estates you are the undeniable heir, although those of your father have been involved in the general doom of forfeiture. But all this must be necessarily unknown to you."

Embarrassed with these reflections, and himself of a nature fancifully, almost fastidiously, delicate, he could only in reply stammer forth an acknowledgment of his companion's goodness, and his own gratitude. She answered in a tone partly sorrowful and partly impatient, repeating, with displeased emphasis, the only distinct words he had been able to bring forth"And knew not that I was your sister?" said you "Goodness gratitude!-O Darsie, should these be Lilias. No wonder you received me so coldly. the phrases between you and me ?-Alas! I am too What a strange, wild, forward young person you must

"Indeed I hear it for the first time in my life," answered Darsie.

have thought me mixing myself in the fortunes of a stranger whom I had only once spoken to-corresponding with him by signs-Good Heaven! what can you have supposed me?"

"And how should I have come to the knowledge of our connexion?" said Darsie. "You are aware I was not acquainted with it when we danced together at Brokenburn."

"I saw that with concern, and fain I would have warned you," answered Lilias; "but I was closely watched, and before I could find or make an opportunity of coming to a full explanation with you on a subject so agitating, I was forced to leave the room. What I did say was, you may remember, a caution to leave the southern border, for I foresaw what has since happened. But since my uncle has had you in his power, I never doubted he had communicated to you our whole family history.'

"He has left me to learn it from you, Lilias; and assure yourself that I will hear it with more pleasure from your lips than from his. I have no reason to be pleased with his conduct towards me.'

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"Of that," said Lilias, you will judge better when you have heard what I have to tell you;" and the began her communication in the following

manner.

CHAPTER XVIII.

NARRATIVE OF DARSIE LATIMER, CONTINUED.

"You were not then born when my father suffered?" said Darsie.

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Alas, no!" she replied; "nor were you a twelvemonth old. It was no wonder that my mother, after going through such scenes of agony, became irresisti bly anxious for the sake of her children-of her son in particular; the more especially as the late Sir Henry, her husband, had, by a settlement of his affairs, confided the custody of the persons of her children, as well as the estates which descended to them, independently of those which fell under his forfeiture, to his brother Hugh, in whom he placed unlimited confidence."

"But my mother had no reason to fear the opera tion of such a deed, conceived in favour of an attainted man," said Darsie.

"True," replied Lilias; "but our uncle's attainder might have been reversed, like that of so many other persons, and our mother, who both feared and hated him, lived in continual terror that this would be the case, and that she should see the author, as she thought him, of her husband's death, come armed with legal powers, and in a capacity to use them, for the purpose of tearing her children from her protection. Besides, she feared, even in his incapacitated condition, the adventurous and pertinacious spint of her brother-in-law, Hugh Redgauntlet, and felt assured that he would make some attempt to possess himself of the persons of the children. On the other hand, our uncle, whose proud disposition might, perhaps, "THE House of Redgauntlet," said the young lady, have been soothed by the offer of her confidence, re"has for centuries been supposed to lie under a doom, volted against the distrustful and suspicious manner which has rendered vain their courage, their talents, in which Lady Darsie Redgauntlet acted towards their ambition, and their wisdom. Often making a him. She basely abused, he said, the unhappy cir figure in history, they have been ever in the situation, cumstances in which he was placed, in order to de of men striving against both wind and tide, who dis-prive him of his natural privilege of protecting and tinguish themselves by their desperate exertions of educating the infants, whom nature and law, and the strength, and their persevering endurance of toil, but will of their father, had committed to his charge, and without being able to advance themselves upon their he swore solemnly he would not submit to such an course, by either vigour or resolution. They pretend injury. Report of his threats was made to Lady Redto trace this fatality to a legendary history, which I gauntlet, and tended to increase those fears which may tell you at a less busy moment." proved but too well founded. While you and I, caildren at that time of two or three years old, were playing together in a walled orchard, adjacent to our mother's residence, which she had fixed somewhere in Devonshire, my uncle suddenly scaled the wall with several men, and I was snatched up and carried off to a boat which waited for them. My mother, however, flew to your rescue, and as she seized on and held you fast, my uncle could not, as he has since told me, possess himself of your person, without using unmanly violence to his brother's widow. Of this he was incapable; and, as people began to assemble upon my mother's screaming, he withdrew, after darting upon you and her one of those fearful looks, which, it is said, remain with our family, as a fatal bequest of Sir Alberick, our ancestor."

Darsie intimated, that he had already heard the tragic story of Sir Alberick Redgauntlet.

"I need only say, then," proceeded Lilias, "that our father and uncle felt the family doom in its full extent. They were both possessed of considerable property, which was largely increased by our father's marriage, and were both devoted to the service of the unhappy House of Stewart; but (as our mother at least supposed) family considerations might have withheld her husband from joining openly in the affair of 1745, had not the high influence which the younger brother possessed over the elder, from his more decided energy of character, hurried him along with himself into that undertaking,

"When, therefore, the enterprise came to the fatal conclusion, which bereaved our father of his life, and consigned his brother to exile, Lady Redgauntlet fled from the north of England, determined to break off all communication with her late husband's family, particularly his brother, whom she regarded as having, by their insane political enthusiasm, been the means of his untimely death; and determined that you, my brother, an infant, and that I, to whom she had just given birth, should be brought up as adherents of the present dynasty. Perhaps she was too hasty in this determination-too timidly anxious to exclude, if possible, from the knowledge of the very spot where we existed, a relation so nearly connected with us as our father's only brother. But you must make allowance for what she had suffered. See, brother," she said, pulling her glove off, "these five blood-specks on my arm are a mark by which mysterious Nature has impressed, on an unborn infant, a record of its father's violent death and its mother's miseries."*

* Several persons have brought down to these days the impressions which Nature had thus recorded, when they were yet babes unborn. One lady of quality, whose father was long under sentence of death, previous to the rebellion, was marked on the back of the neck by the sign of a broad axe. Another, Whose kinsmen had been slain in battle, and died on the seaf fold to the number of seven, bore a child spattered on the right shoulder, and down the arm, with scarlet drops, as if of blood. Many other instances might be quoted.

"I have some recollection of the scuffle which you mention," said Darsie; "and I think it was my uncle himself (since my uncle he is) who recalled the circumstance to my mind on a late occasion. I can now account for the guarded seclusion under which my poor mother lived-for her frequent tears, her starts of hys terical alarm, and her constant and deep melancholy. Poor lady! what a lot was hers, and what must have been her feelings when it approached to a close!"

"It was then that she adopted," said Lilias, "every precaution her ingenuity could suggest, to keep your very existence concealed from the person whom she feared-nay, from yourself; for she dreaded, as she is said often to have expressed herself, that the wildfire blood of Redgauntlet would urge you to unite your fortunes to those of your uncle, who was well known still to carry on political intrigues, which most other persons had considered as desperate. It was also possible that he, as well as others, might get his pardon, as government showed every year more lenity towards the remnant of the Jacobites, and then be might claim the custody of your person, as your legal guardian. Either of these events she considered as the direct road to your destruction."

"I wonder she had not claimed the protection of Chancery for me," said Darsie; or confided me to the care of some powerful friend."

The former is none of the most interesting, nor the latter the most safe or agreeable," answered Lilias; "but now, my dearest brother, I shall have the ines-nuity paid for my board formed a desirable addition. timable support of your countenance and affection; and were I but sure that we could weather the formidable crisis which I find so close at hand, I should have little apprehensions for the future."

her form from a distance as great as she can clear | more sombre, yet not less awful robes-with others by a spring, we made a forced march, and landed in private and obscure lodgings in a little old street in Westminster, not far distant from the Cloisters.

whose antique and striking costume announced their importance, though I could not even guess who they might be. But at length the truth burst on me at "On the morning of the day on which we arrived once-it was, and the murmurs around confirmed it, my uncle went abroad, and did not return for some the Coronation Feast. At a table above the rest, and hours. Mean time I had no other amusement than extending across the upper end of the hall, sat ento listen to the tumult of noises which succeeded throned the youthful Sovereign himself, surrounded each other, or reigned in confusion together, during by the princes of the blood, and other dignitaries, and the whole morning. Paris I had thought the most receiving the suit and homage of his subjects. Hernoisy capital in the world, but Paris seemed midnight alds and pursuivants, blazing in their fantastic yet silence compared to London. Cannon thundered splendid armorial habits, and pages of honour, gornear and at a distance-drums, trumpets, and milita-geously arrayed in the garb of other days, waited upon ry music of every kind, rolled, flourished, and pierced the princely banqueters. In the galleries with which the clouds, almost without intermission. To fill up this spacious hall was surrounded, shone all, and the concert, bells pealed incessantly from a hundred more than all, that my poor imagination could consteeples. The acclamations of an immense multi-ceive, of what was brilliant in riches, or captivating tude were heard from time to time, like the roaring of a mighty ocean, and all this without my being able to glean the least idea of what was going on, for the windows of our apartment looked upon a waste backyard, which seemed totally deserted. My curiosity became extreme, for I was satisfied, at length, that it must be some festival of the highest order which called forth these incessant sounds.

"My uncle at length returned, and with him a man of an exterior singularly unprepossessing. I need not describe him to you, for-do not look round-he rides behind us at this moment."

"That respectable person, Mr. Cristal Nixon, I suppose?" said Darsie.

The same," answered Lilias; "make no gesture that may intimate we are speaking of him." Darsie signified that he understood her, and she pursued her relation.

"They were both in full dress, and my uncle, taking a bundle from Nixon, said to me, 'Lilias, I am come to carry you to see a grand ceremony-put on as hastily as you can the dress you will find in that parcel, and prepare to attend me.' I found a female dress, splendid and elegant, but somewhat bordering upon the antique fashion. It might be that of England, I thought, and I went to my apartment full of curiosity, and dressed myself with all speed.

"My uncle surveyed me with attention-She may pass for one of the flower-girls,' he said to Nixon, who only answered with a nod.

"We left the house together, and such was their knowledge of the lanes, courts, and bypaths, that though there was the roar of a multitude in the broad streets, those which we traversed were silent and deserted; and the strollers whom we met, tired of gazing upon gayer figures, scarcely honoured us with a passing look, although, at any other time, we should, among these vulgar suburbs, have attracted a troublesome share of observation. We crossed at length a broad street, where many soldiers were at guard, while others, exhausted with previous duty, were eating, drinking, smoking, and sleeping beside their piled arms.

"One day, Nixon,' whispered my uncle, we will make these redcoated gentry stand to their muskets more watchfully.'

"Or it will be the worse for them,' answered his attendant, in a voice as unpleasant as his physiog

nomy.

"Unquestioned and unchallenged by any one, we crossed among the guards, and Nixon tapped thrice at a small postern door in a huge ancient building which was straight before us. It opened, and we entered without my perceiving by whom we were admitted. A few dark and narrow passages at length conveyed us into an immense Gothic hall, the magnificence of which baffles my powers of description.

It was illuminated by ten thousand wax lights, whose splendour at first dazzled my eyes, coming as we did from these dark and secret avenues. But when my sight began to become steady, how shall I describe what I beheld! Beneath were huge ranges of tables, occupied by princes and nobles in their robes of state-high officers of the crown, wearing their dresses and badges of authority-reverend prelates and judges, the sages of the church and law, in their

in beauty. Countless rows of ladies, whose diamonds, jewels, and splendid attire, were their least powerful charms, looked down from their lofty seats on the rich scene beneath, themselves forming a show as dazzling and as beautiful as that of which they were spectators. Under these galleries, and behind the banqueting tables, were a multitude of gentlemen, dressed as if to attend a court, but whose garb, although rich enough to have adorned a royal drawing-room, could not distinguish them in such a high scene as this. Amongst these we wandered for a few minutes, uncistinguished and unregarded. I saw several young persons dressed as I was, so was under no embarrassment from the singularity of my habit, and only rejoiced, as I hung on my uncle's arm, at the magical splendour of such a scene, and at his goodness for procuring me the pleasure of beholding it.

By and by, I perceived that my uncle had acquaintances among those who were under the galleries, and seemed, like ourselves, to be mere spectators of the solemnity. They recognised each other with a single word, sometimes only with a gripe of the handexchanged some private signs, doubtless-and gradually formed a little group, in the centre of which we were placed.

"Is it not a grand sight, Lilias?' said my uncle. 'All the noble, and all the wise, and all the wealthy of Britain, are there assembled.'

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"It is indeed,' said I, 'all that my mind could have fancied of regal power and splendour.'

"Girl,' he whispered, and my uncle can make his whispers as terribly emphatic as his thundering voice or his blighting look,-'ail that is noble and worthy in this fair land are there assembled-but it is to bend like slaves and sycophants before the throne of a new usurper.'

"I looked at him, and the dark hereditary frown of our unhappy ancestor was black upon his brow "For God's sake,' I whispered, consider where

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we are.

"Fear nothing,' he said; 'we are surrounded by friends.'-As he proceeded, his strong and muscular frame shook with suppressed agitation.-See,' be said, 'yonder bends Norfolk, renegade to his Catholic faith; there stoops the Bishop of traitor to the Church of England; and,-shame of shames! yonder the gigantic form of Errol bows his head before the grandson of his father's murderer! But a sign shall be seen this night amongst them-Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, shall be read on these walls, as distinctly as the spectral handwriting made them visible on those of Belshazzar!'

"For God's sake,' said I, dreadfully alarmed, 'it is impossible you can meditate violence in such a presence!'

"None is intended, fool,' he answered, 'nor can the slightest mischance happen, provided you will rally your boasted courage, and obey my directions. But do it coolly and quickly, for there are a hundred lives at stake.'

"Alas! what can I do? I asked in the utmost terror.

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Only be prompt to execute my bidding,' said he, 'it is but to lift a glove-Here, hold this in your hand-throw the train of your dress over it, be firm, composed, and ready-or, at all events, I step forward myself.'

"If there is no violence designed,' I said, taking | think of retreating. The matter was little known, mechanically, the iron glove he put into my hand. "I could not conceive his meaning; but, in the excited state of mind in which I beheld him, I was convinced that disobedience on my part would lead to some wild explosion. I felt, from the emergency of the occasion, a sudden presence of mind, and resolved to do any thing that might avert violence and bloodshed. I was not long held in suspense. A loud flourish of trumpets, and the voice of heralds, were mixed with the clatter of horse's hoofs, while a champion armed at all points, like those I had read of in romances, attended by squires, pages, and the whole retinue of chivalry, pranced forward, mounted upon a barbed steed. His challenge, in defiance of all who dared impeach the title of the new sovereign, was recited aloud-once and again.