sess: I may soon die, and then all these beauties, as you call them, will surely perish." "But they are very pretty while they last, for all that," cried Beda, confining the long flowing tresses of her lovely mistress with a silver comb which she had taken, with other ornaments, out of the cabinet. "Shall I braid your hair, lady ?” but to this proposal Agatha objected: and being now completely arrayed in her borrowed plumes, she returned to the greendragon chamber with a more collected mind than might be imagined from the terrors of her situation and the perils which surrounded her. Meanwhile her little abigail was very active in preparing some coffee at an early hour, in hopes that it might remove the pain in her head of which Agatha had so heavily complained; and certainly the attentions of this good-humoured and obliging girl were not wholly thrown away on such a disposition as that of our lovely heroine, whose heart was moulded to the sweetest tone of sensibility, and never ungrateful for any kindness bestowed: with a smile of the most affable condescension she thanked Beda repeatedly for her endeavour, by every means in her power, to render her dreary abode less irksome; "but alas, my sweet child, I have nothing more than thanks to offer you in return for all your attentions towards me," uttered our heroine with a deep sigh. "To reward you more liberally I am now utterly deprived of the means. Ah! should a day yet arrive when I may escape from the walls of this prison; should it please Heaven once again to restore me to liberty, to friends, to home, to protection; then dear little Beda would be remembered by Agatha Singleton." Tears instantly started into the eyes of Beda, and the whole of her pretty round dimpled face changed to an expression in which hope and despair seemed alternately blended: and she mournfully exclaimed :— "Ah! Lady, and would you take poor little Beda along with you, should you indeed quit the walls of this terrible old Abbey? would you really let Beda go with you? say that you will, and you will make me so happy! night and day I will pray for your deli verance!" 'The affectionate girl had clasped her hands with an energy that perfectly convinced Agatha her professions were without hypocrisy or deceit, and that she had uttered the real sentiments of her youthful heart; and she answered in the following terms : "If this assurance only is wanting to make you happy, dear Beda, however far distant that day may now be which shall restore me to happiness and liberty, I solemnly promise that you shall be the companion of my journey hence if it is really your wish to place yourself under my protection; but will you feel no regret in parting with your grandmother, Beda?" "Oh no, no! dear lady!" uttered the little girl passionately, "for indeed, indeed, I have no cause to love her did you know how cruelly she has treated me ever since the day that my poor mother died! she died of a broken heart, lady!" : "And how old were you when your mother died, poor child?" enquired Agatha, feeling at this moment the tenderest concern in the sorrows of the little orphan. 66 Alas, lady! I had scarcely numbered ten years," replied the now almost weeping Beda; "and I am not yet fifteen. I knew my mother, for oh! she was a kind one! but I never knew my father; and mother never told me what he was, at which I have often wondered. He was the son of my grandmother, and that is all I know about him. Yet do you know, lady, that the Captain-hush, I must speak softly-for already do I hear voices loud and boisterous in the ancient hall!" and Beda, lowering her voice almost to a whisper, and putting her pretty face close to Agatha's, murmured :-" it is said, lady, that the Captain once loved my poor mother, and that I am his child!-yes, indeed, lady! Manfrida, when he was ill of the raging fever that I told you of, and did not know that any body heard him, he used to talk to him self strange things; and one night when he called for a drop of water to cool his parched lips, and I only remained by his bedside, he looked wildly at me, and exclaimed:" poor wronged offspring of an innocent maid! and art thou the only one that comes to aid my sufferings? while thy proud, ungrateful father avoids the presence of Manfrida; has then the only spark of gratitude I ever found him possessed of fled from his guilty breast?-But he is a Captain, a noble Captain! who dares to question the honour of the noble Captain? and then, lady, Manfrida grinned and laughed most horribly, for the fever was strong upon him! so I gave him the drink, and left him to slumber. But ah, lady! never to mortal ear, save yours, did I reveal the words that Manfrida uttered on that night. But I have often paused upon them; and wondered whether he had told a tale of truth." It was with no small symptoms of concern, and the tenderest sympathy, that Agatha listened to this artless girl, for whose situation she now felt more deeply interested than ever: yet she was by no means willing to encourage Beda to place any great reliance on the wild and incoherent ravings of a poor distracted being, under the influence of a disordered imagination and raging fever; and, after a moment's pause, she exclaimed : "Believe him not, dearest child, unless you have stronger evidence of so extraordinary a circumstance than the mere wanderings of a wild, distempered brain! Had Manfrida uttered truths, it is probable that they would long since have been disclosed to you by him who alone had a right to divulge them to you. Besides, a father could not so long conceal his natural feeling for his child!" At this moment the sound of voices issued from the vaulted roofs below, and mirth and revelry were very plainly distinguishable. The party which was going to meet in festive congratulation, and fully to enjoy their bacchanalian sports, it was pretty evident had already assembled in the ancient hall: a circumstance by no means desirable to the feelings of our agitated and delicate-minded heroine. But thus situated, and unable either to fly from her misfortunes or to seek redress for her manifold wrongs, she endeavoured patiently to resign herself to her adverse fate, never once losing sight of that confidence which she reposed in a higher power, and which could not be imparted to her by the assistance of mortals! and while offering up a fervent prayer for the safety of her beloved Wolf, she took her seat by the side of her innocent companion, whose glow of sprightliness sometimes even amused the drooping spirits of her lovely mistress; and Agatha not only smiled at her youthful pleasantry, but sat down to partake of the coffee which the little maid had so carefully prepared, with an appetite which she had never, till now felt, since she had been a constrained inhabitant within the walls of the solitary old Abbey. CHAPTER XXVIII. "What should we speak of When we are old as you? when we shall hear As the evening advanced, the sounds of mirth and revelry increased with each merry round among the boisterous seamen ; and when the circling glass and bumper toast had been many times filled to the health of the noble Captain, success to the Bold Buccaneer |