fearful chance, it might illumine the watches of the midnight assassin. She listened anxiously, but no sound met her ear, save that of her own breath. With light and cautious steps she now approached the apartment from whence the light proceeded; for, as the door was partly open, she thought it possible that she might in security ascertain whether it were occupied. On reaching the door, she perceived a spacious and desolate room, faintly illumined by a dying fire, and a single lamp placed upon a table. Not a glimpse, however, of any inhabitant of that dreary looking chamber could Gertrude discover. Softly she now ventured to push back the door and enter. The apartment, as before observed, was spacious. It had been originally hung with tapestry, but this had now fallen into decay, and hung in tattered remnants from the walls. Two lofty and grated windows overlooked the moat and the forest beyond. At the upper end of the room stood a bed with a canopy of faded green stuff, and curtains of the same material drawn closely round it; and near the head of this bed was another half open door. Gertrude stole towards the bed and listened anxiously, but no sound of breathing betokened that it supported the form of a sleeper. The faint ray of the lamp, and the still fainter light of the fire trembling over the room, served rather to display than to dispel the darkness. This fire consisted of a few decaying embers smouldering on the hearth, over which projected the antique and curiously carved chimney. Actuated by the same irresistible impulse as had previously urged her on the doubtful and dangerous task, of exploring this ruined mansion, Gertrude now took the lamp, and again approaching the bed, drew back its curtains with a sudden and desperate grasp. There she perceived, stretched at its length, a human form, but its outline only was discernible beneath a counterpane of the same colour as the curtains, which was drawn up even over the face. She paused and shuddered, but the horror of uncertainty, the vague apprehension of that which might be concealed by the dark covering, was even more dreadful than to witness the thing, the thought of which awakened that horror. Once more then did the adventurous Gertrude put forth her hand, and drawing down the quilt she discovered the person of an old woman swathed in her winding-sheet. The face was ghastly to look upon, for the shadows of death had settled in their darkest horrors upon features in life remarkable for their ugliness. A witch-like aspect it was, the yellow tint of the cadaverous skin, deepening to absolute blackness in the circles round the sunken eyes and about the thin lips, which, drawn slightly open, displayed two or three wolfish fangs in the upper jaw.

But as Gertrude's eyes wandered with an unsettled frenzied expression over the corpse, how was her horror increased when she perceived upon those folds of the sheet which covered the left breast a deep, dark stain of blood. Here was confirmation of all her worst fears. This ruined dwelling was then the abode of murderers, and this wretched old woman was probably the last of their victims. Gertrude glanced round the

chamber, almost expecting to see at that moment the assassin with an upraised dagger glide from its dark recesses; then with a trembling hand she let fall the quilt, a sudden faintness overcame her, hastily she put back the lamp upon the table, and leaned for support against the wall. At that moment she caught the sound of footsteps and approaching voices in the corridor. Those sounds restored her failing consciousness, and eager only for concealment, she glided through that half open door at the bed's head which she had observed on entering the apart ment. The door admitted her to a long, dark passage, apparently constructed in the thickness of the wall. Within the chamber the tapestry had originally hung over this door, but here, as in other parts of the room, it had dropped from age, and through a crevice, in the planks of which the heavy oaken door was composed, Gertrude perceived two men enter the apartment. Their appearance, as far as the dim light of the lamp enabled her to judge, was wild and savage in the extreme.

"It were well," said one of these men in a grumbling tone, "if those who helped the old woman's soul to the other world would also help her body to a grave in this. May I be hanged if I like to touch her. 'Tis rather hard of Master Hugh to send us to bury an ugly old woman in the damp cold vaults below the moat, while he is swilling and feasting with the cowardly, ill-looking dog of a fellow who has brought him his fine message from his friends in London. A pretty blade it is, this new companion; I did but click a pistol in his ear by way of a joke, and he turned as pale

"As thou dost at the thought of touching poor old Barbara," said his companion with a rude laugh. "Why, 'tis only a shade of difference between you and our master's visitor. He is afraid of the living, and you are afraid of the dead; and I question whether he hath not more of reason in his fear; but bear a hand, boy. Have I not dug the grave by myself, and saved thee all trouble, except that of helping me to convey the dame to her new lodging, and thou knowest she cannot reach it without some assistance.

"Twas a hard, ungrateful deed of Master Hugh," said the first speaker, "to strike her down for so slight a fault; she served us faithfully."

"Tut, man," replied his companion, “it was a mere frolic in his drink, and for her service we will have a cherry-lipped damsel in her stead. But talk of ingratitude. Of a surety thou art an ungrateful wight thyself. For many a time have I watched the old wench slyly heaping thy trencher with the tit-bits; and now, forsooth, you hold it as too much trouble to lay her snugly in her grave."

With these words the man approached the bed, his companion following him with a sullen air. The moment, however, that he came nigh, and perceived the quilt half drawn from the bodyfor Gertrude, in her consternation, had not stayed to place it as before-he started back exclaiming that the devil had assuredly been playing his cantrips with the corpse, because it had been defrauded of the lyke wake.

"The devil play his cantrips with thee, thou fool!" said his bolder comrade, may not Master Hugh and the stranger have been here?" "No, no," answered the other, "for to tell the truth, Holmes, our master did order me to watch by the old dame while you got ready the grave; but the wind blew so dismally, and the firelight danced so on the bed, that though I had drawn the curtains round it I could not bear to stay in the room, and so crept down, and have been waiting for this hour past, where you found me, at the entrance of the vaults."

Reasoned like a doctor," answered Holmes; "why, thy blundering loon, because thou wast afraid of a dead old woman, does it therefore follow that Hugh did not return hither after thou hadst run away? I have myself a better opinion of the devil's taste than to suppose that he concerns himself much about so unsightly an acquisition as old Barbara; so no more tremblings, man, but help me carry her off, or I will promise thee a real spice of the devil in Master Hugh."

Gertrude meanwhile, concealed behind the door, had listened to this conversation with a horror that almost deprived her of reason. Better, she felt, it would be to sink in the woods under the fury of the tempest than to tempt the dangers of this terrible abode. In an agony of anxiety, therefore, she watched for the moment when the men would remove the corpse, resolving to avail herself of their absence to steal down to the porch where she had left her horse.

The terror, too, with which she had listened to the remarks made by the more cowardly of the ruffians respecting the condition of the body may be readily conceived. That these men were robbers as well as murderers she could not doubt, and should any of the band unfortunately pass by the great entrance ere she had effected her escape, the horse which she had fastened there would at once betray to them the fact that a stranger had sought shelter in the building.

The two had now wrapped the body of the old woman in the quilt which had been spread over her, and were preparing to raise her from the bed, when Holmes, turning to his companion, exclaimed with an oath that he had forgotten to bring out of Master Hugh's apartment the ropes which were to lower her into the grave. He then said that he would fetch them, but added in a sneering tone, Nay, I had better send thee, lest thou die of fright in my absence!" As he spoke this Gertrude heard him moving towards the door behind which she was concealed, and with footsteps made swift by terror she fled along the dark passage. Stretching out her hand she felt the sharp corner of a wall, from which the passage diverged to the left, and down this turning she ran with rapidity. When, however, she had proceeded some way she perceived a light gleaming through a chink in the wall, through which also proceeded the sound of voices.

After listening, without hearing any foot in pursuit, she crept more cautiously onward. This light, unlike that of the feeble lamp which burned in the chamber in which lay the corpse of the old woman, was strong and lively, and there appeared to be some hilarity among the occupants of the apartment from whence it proceeded. Stealthily

The

did Gertrude now advance; but what was her astonishment, when on looking through that chink, she perceived the infamous Ralph Adams seated at a table with a dark, fierce-looking man, whom he designated as Master Hugh-the murderer, no doubt, of the miserable old woman. table at which they sat was spread with provisions and wine, and the flushed face of Ralph betokened that of the latter, at least, he had been partaking pretty freely. His old look of malice and low cunning was still as marked as formerly, but mingled with it was a savage glare which Gertrude had never before observed.

"Ha, ha! Master Hugh," he said, with an idiot-like chuckle of self-applause, "it is well for you to say that I am clever, but in truth, it is a fact of which I am sensible. Look you, now, I have come down to the north with Sir Philip because he pays me well, and, ha, ha! poor youth, thinks I am entirely devoted to his service. Then there is the great lord who hates Papistry, as the godly ones should do, and his gold is as red as Sir Philip's, and truly he hath given me a noble sum to do his work here in the north; for hark, you, Master Hugh, he has had a whisper of the maiden, Gertrude, of whom I told you, and the queen has sought for her in London, but she found her not, nor how she had escaped; but the great lord knows better, ha, ha! he suspects who helped that maiden in her flight."

"And will thy great lord," inquired Hugh, "suffer those who so helped the maiden to escape themselves; for have they not disappointed him as well as the queen?"

"Do not attempt to fathom our councils thou vain man,' answered Ralph, with an air of drunken solemnity; then he went on in that strain of cant which made the atrocities of the Puritans so peculiarly revolting. "I tell thee, man, that the great lord and his servant Ralph are enlightened by the wisdom of the saints. Now, the great lord loveth the fair maiden, and he has no mind to see her delivered unto the mercies of the queen; therefore he sends me to trace her out, and I travel with Sir Philip who graciously pays me for labouring in the cause of his friend. Yet do I refer all my good fortune to Him above, who hath kindled in the heart of the earthly lord a knowledge of the righteousness of Ralph Adams."

"Truly thou art both fortunate and clever, Master Ralph," remarked Hugh.

"Aye, aye, thou mayest say so, thou mayest say so," answered Ralph, "but thou dost not yet know all the measure of my wit. Do I not bring thee a message from thy friend Miles, giving thee a surety of better sport, in joining the armies of the queen's grace at York, than thou canst possibly find in cutting the purses of of a few pitiful burghers will it not be better to sack their iron chests in the city? And then do I not tell thee that thy brethren from the forest of Needwood have repaired to York already? and are not those people of the north black Papists, whom verily it is a good deed to destroy?"

"But pray how didst thou persuade thy very honourable master, Sir Philip, to part with so valuable a servant?" asked Hugh.

"" Truly I told him that I had a brother at Leeds, whom I prayed permission to visit; so I rode roundly from Doncaster this morning, and, did not even stop at Wakefield for food, and, in sooth, for that must I again applaude mine own wisdom, seeing that therefore I arrived here before the bursting of the storm."

The heart of Gertrude throbbed heavily as she listened to the conversation of this wretch, the main object of whose journey seemed to be the pursuit of herself. From what he had said, however, she was led to hope that the generous Lord Morden was safe, even in consequence of the extent of villainy in the designs of the person by whom Ralph was employed.

Gertrude now remembered the mysterious visitor to her chamber at Whitehall, and that she had seen the same person in the palace court on the night of her escape. She now feared, that in spite of the female's assumed carelessness, she had been remembered; and with that female and the boasts of Ralph she connected the name of Lord Leicester.

In the meantime Ralph continued: "But thou hast not heard all, Master Hugh, not all the devices of my goodly wit. Look thou here," and as he spoke he unfastened the sling round his neck, and, stripping the bandages from his arm, held forth for the inspection of his companion a scarcely healed grizzly-looking handless stump. "Hark!" he said in a low guttural tone, "I hate that damsel Gertrude; I always hated her, with her fair face and proud step, and her looks that evened her with the greatest ladies of the land. I hate all faces that men call fair. But the night that we bore the maid Lucy Fenton away, there came a strong-armed stranger to the street of the Lombards, and he saved that hated Gertrude, and robbed me of my good right hand. Now, Master Hugh, from our friend Miles have I learned that 'tis that very man of Beelzebub against whom the lieutenant of York is to lead forth his legions; and oh! if I can but see him in the chains of bondage, and deliver over to the light love of the great lord, that proud, disdainful maiden, ha, ha! Master Hugh, I will think myself almost recompensed for the loss of my hand.'

With this remark Ralph raised a horn to his lips, and swallowed a large draught of wine. Gertrude's chief anxiety now was to effect her escape. During the conversation of Ralph she had listened anxiously for the step of the robber Holmes; but not hearing it, she concluded that he must have dispensed with the ropes, and that she might now possibly steal unobserved through the chamber in which the corpse had lain: at all events, in such an attempt consisted her only chance of escape, for her horse could not long remain in the porch undiscovered.

It appeared from what Ralph had said that he had been but a little behind her in her journey of the day, and that he must have passed through Wakefield during the time when she paused in that town for rest and refreshment. Resolved to risk the chance of escape, and nerving her mind to meet any extremity to which she might be driven, Gertrude now rose from the crouching position in

which she had seen and heard all that had passed between Ralph and his associate, and endeavoured to move softly from the spot. But alas! ere she had taken three steps her foot slipped upon a huge nail that had dropped from the decaying wainscot of the room in which Ralph sat, and falling against that wainscot, part of the rotten boards, which the robbers had put loosely up, gave way beneath even her slight weight, and she fell into the apartment occupied by her detestable enemy. Fortunately she escaped injury from the fragments of the broken boards that came tumbling down; but Ralph, who at the moment had started up, with something of terror mixed with his surprise, recognizing his victim, sprung forward to seize her. Gertrude, however, in this emergency was not wanting to herself. She had managed to keep her feet, and she now snatched from her girdle one of the loaded pistols, protesting that she would discharge it if he attempted to approach her. Ralph, who was well acquainted with her determined spirit, shrunk back; the robber, laughing at the threat, advanced.

Man," "shrieked Gertrude, "do not put thy blood upon my soul!"

Convinced in his turn by the wild expression of her countenance, the robber retreated, but in his retreat he also drew a pistol from his belt.

"Nay, nay," shouted Ralph, "do not hurt her, good Hugh, do not hurt her; she must not be slain!

But now a loud clashing of swords met the ears of Gertrude; the door burst open, and a figure covered with blood, which even in the agony of the moment, she knew for that of Holmes, staggered into the room, pursued by the cavalier whom she had met on the road to Wakefield, and by two of his armed attendants. But her mind was wrought into a sort of distraction, which refused more than a kind of bewildered sense of the horrors and confusion of the scene around her. She was sensible that her own life was in awful jeopardy, and that the wretch Hugh had levelled his weapon at the cavalier; some consciousness, too, she had of then discharging the pistol which she held in her hand, and that thereupon the robber groaned and fell. Then she was hurled to the ground, as the coward Ralph sprung past her, and fled down the long dark passage which she had previously traversed. But the scene grew indistinct before the failing eyes of Gertrude, and its sounds mingled strangely in her ears a female shriek, which had in it more of joy than sorrow, was mixed up with the moaning of the wounded Hugh, and his dark countenance, convulsed with pain as he staggered after Ralph, was displaced by the fair features of the gentle Blanche. The report of another pistol, succeeded by a wild yell in the voice of Hugh, for a moment roused Gertrude from her heavy swoon, but she was soon agaln insensible even to the surprise of beholding the symbol of her faitha crucifix of gold-dependent from the fair neck of the female who bent over her.

(To be continued.)

CHAPTER IV.

GAIN the glasses jingled harmoniously at Counsellor Hertel's; but there was one hand which held the glass, tremulous with emotion. It was the hand of the mistress of the house who wiped away a furtive tear..

The captain remarked it.

"Have I uncon

sciously given you pain dear lady?" he asked kindly. "Yes; I understand, you have an absent son. For a long time Ilma's letters have made no mention of her brother, you have no bad news of him I hope?"

With some difficulty Mrs. Hertel controlled her sobs and even her husband's jovial face looked grave.

"We have had no news of our son for some