tention we paid to her culinary labours. I protest, however, we had no Welsh ale to accompany it. I have confessed the rabbits; I deny the cwrw.

The carriages of Lady Winifred and her friends had been diminished to one; and that at about half-past twelve o'clock conveyed my cousin homeward. Llewellyn had not returned; and I retired to my sleeping apartments. They were in a distant part of the house; and when I had dismissed my maid, I was almost as much alone as if I had been under a different roof. The room in which I seated myself, and began to read, was vast, and scarcely lighted by the brilliant argand set upon the table. I felt a troublesome sensation of loneliness. The very splendour of the furniture by which I was surrounded, only augmented the solitariness of my situation. Many hands, I thought, had been here busily employed, the ingenuity, the labour of many an hour set to work to produce what I dimly see all around; but the workman has departed, and his noise is hushed. I became excessively nervous. I was half afraid to look at the pictures, and the grotesquely carved cornices assumed in my eyes figures and appearances that were anything but agreeable. I got up, and walked about the room, and opened a window. This, except that it let in a draught of fresh air, which in some measure revived me, did me no service, for the back of our house opens upon a mews, the scanty lighting of which showed nothing but what was squalid and disgusting. I closed the sash, and returned to my hook; but the same class of ideas recurred. Addison's story of the great Egyptian temple, reared by all the skill of architecture, and adorned by all the gorgeousness of wealth, which, on being forced open by some angry conqueror, was found only to contain a mouse, occurred to my imagination. Here am I, I thought, in this large and splendid mansion, the solitary mouse, and, what is worse, I have no priests to guard me.

The volume I was reading-I do not recollect what it wascontained some dismal stories, and Lady Winifred had been entertaining us, among other « Tales about Wales, with awful narratives of domestic tragedies, in which murders, robberies,

ENGLISH REVIEW.

and housebreakers occupied no small space. I reflected how utterly defenceless I was, if any one should break into the house through the mews, into which I now regretted having looked. All this was weak enough, I admit; but my situation, then of a very delicate nature, made me fidgetty. I determined to call my maid, who slept not far off upon the same floor, and with her to pass the hours which might elapse before the return of Llewellyn.

I rose to do so, but my purpose was at once arrested, as I looked at the door. Was it magnetism? I saw the handle of the lock distinctly turn. There was no one nearer it than myself. I rubbed my eyes,-and looked with the most piercing scrutiny of gaze. It moved again. There was perfect silence all around. I sunk back in my chair; but my eyes could not remove themselves from the handle of the lock. It moved once more, and I all but fainted. I endeavoured to rise, for the purpose of ringing the bell, but I had not the power to stir, I essayed to call out, but my tongue refused its office. There I sat in a state of semi-consciousness, looking with fixed gaze at the door. I do not know how long this may have lasted; it could not, however, have been more than a quarter of an hour, perhaps not so much. The lock-handle in the mean time had not moved any more.

"

« It must be a mere delusion,

I said;

and I should be ashamed of giving way to such fancies. I'll go and call Martha, and she must help me in shaking them off. I mustered courage, therefore, to rise; but I honestly confess, 'when I came to turn that mysterious handle, my very heart sank within me. I conquered my apprehension, however, and turned it without encountering anything very direful or alarming in consequence. I hesitated a little about opening the door; but this feat too I summoned up sufficient energy to perform. I looked into the little antechamber outside. It was dark, but had been undisturbed. Everything was there as I left it; the windows were fastened, the door opposite mine closed, as usual. Ashamed of my silliness, I proceeded towards Martha's chamber, which I found locked, and my fair suivante afforded audible proof that she was lying in a

slumber from which it was not easy to awaken her. After calling and knocking rather loudly for some time I gave it up; and as the motion had somewhat braced my nerves, I thought I might as well return to my own room to laugh the terrors of the self-moving lock-handle to scorn.

I had to pass a landing-place of one of the staircases on my return, and I saw in a distant room on the floor beneath some flashings of a light, which seemed to be partially obscured. My alarms now returned, but they were supernatural no longer. The servants had long retired to rest, and no one could have placed a light there with any other than a felonious intent. What was I to do? The intruders lay between me and the servants' apartments, and giving an alarm would infallibly bring the enemy upon me. While I hesitated, the matter was decided; my lamp had attracted the notice of the people below, and they lost no time in running up stairs. In a moment I was surrounded by five men, disguised in immense great-coats, muffling handkerchiefs wrapped in thick profusion about their necks, slouched hats, and pieces of black crape disposed so as to perform the duty of masks.

It is needless to say that I was now alarmed indeed; but they did not do me any personal hurt. The tallest of my assailants knocked the lamp out of my hand, and we were left in the obscurity of their dark lantern. In uncouth and hoarse accents, one of the party assured me I vos as safe's if I vos in a chuch;' and in the same dialect, which I confess myself unable to imitate much farther, proceeded to inform me that they had not intended to molest me at all; but that as I had thrown myself in their way, they might as well do their business out and at once, and have an end of it. The meaning of this I soon ascertained to be, that though they had succeeded in sweeping the rooms of all that was valuable in their portable ornaments, and obtaining possession of so much of our plate as was in ordinary use, by breaking open the butler's pantry, success and impunity had given more ambitious impulse to their desires; and though one of the party (the tall one, who had knocked the lamp out of my hand) seemed to suggest, in a whisper quite inaudible to

VOL. III.

2

my ears, that enough had been done, and that the best policy would be to retreat as soon as possible, gold was too tempt, ing to be resisted. I was put under a hasty, but most rigorous cross-examination, to elicit from me where my husband's hidden wealth was to be found. The great bulk of our plate was safe at our banker's, but there was still no small quantity in size, if not of corresponding value, locked up in an iron safe in a closet next our bed-room. Thither I conducted them with trembling steps, and delivered up the keys. The plate there stored consisted chiefly of cups, bowls, flagons, tankards, salvers, and other dear-bought trophies of the racingstand or the hustings, and their gaudy splendour quite dazzled the eyes of the robbers. They would have turned from the finest work of Benvenuto Cellini with all the disdain of ignorance; but here they had some sympathies with what they saw before them. Like all other gentlemen of their profession, they were no doubt amateurs of sporting in all its branches, and the cups, as they trundled them forth, excited vast admiration, and afforded them many opportunities of displaying their knowledge of the turf. Their delight over these unsaleable baubles, and the delay which it occasioned, excited the impatience of the tall man, somewhat as we may imagine Caliban was moved when he found his associates wasting their time over the frippery in Prospero's cave, when valuables infinitely more precious lay unheeded at hand. Something seemed to agitate him, and at last, with a convulsive gripe, he caught me by the arm. I felt that he trembled from head to foot. I endeavoured to burst from him, and get at the bellhandle; but he pulled me back, and said, in a hoarse and evidently feigned voice, at the same time producing a pistol, which he passed along my cheek, I don't want to harm a hair of your head,-but resistance is death. Besides, it is useless to ring for your servants: some of them can't hear you, and some of them won't; >>-an observation which drew forth an approving chuckle of hearty laughter from his companions. A dreadful suspicion now flashed across my mind. Can these people, or any of them, belong to my household?and if they do, have they disposed of my faithful servants

by murder before they proceeded to rob the house? I was not allowed much leisure to pause on these reflections; for the man, who now seemed to have recovered his nerve, exclaimed, D--! shook me rather violently, and demanded to know where I had stowed away my jewel-case. His violence had an effect which he did not anticipate; it knocked the crape off his face, and I could not help crying out, «Oh, Philip! Philip! can it be you? He was an old silver-haired butler, or footman, or factotum of our family, who had dandled me a hundred times upon his knees, and who, I had every reason to believe, was at that moment in Wales.

»

He stood aghast for a moment, and his companions, evidently terrified at the turn affairs had taken, scrambled up as much booty as they could secure, and declaring that the game was up, scampered down stairs as hastily as they could, leaving Philip to complete the more dangerous part of the undertaking in what manner he thought best. I suppose they calculated, that as my murder was now perfectly certain, a chance of safety was open to at least one of the party (and each, of course, determined that he should be that one,) by turning King's evidence. I heard the hasty closing of the hall door, and I felt as if in the departure of these unprincipled villains I had lost the protection of trusted friends, upon whom I could rely for my life.

ས

This never will do, ma'am," said Philip: I didn't think it would come to this. I thought you were in bed, and tried the handle of the lock of your room; and when I found you were safe locked in, I took it for granted you were asleep in your bed, as you ought to have been, and I'd have moved these chaps away without molesting you. But now it's too late. It's now life for life. »

»

You'll not murder me, Philip? I asked, in an agony of fear.

Not if I can help it; but I have no notion to let you hang me if I can help that either. »

I swear- }}

"Nonsense. Your jewels, I know, lie somewhere hereabout, and if I had them, a few hours would, put me out of the