Far chequering o'er the pictured window plays And gay retainers gather round the hearth With tongues all loudness, and with eyes all mirth.'-pp. 3, 4. Why the chief of Lara had abandoned his country, his retainers did not know, and were not very solicitous to inquire. He had succeeded, almost in infancy, to his father's domains; had been left very much to the guidance of his own passions; and, following their impulse, had soon exhausted all the pleasures which his home afforded; had migrated in search of new ones; and was now returned. Why he had staid so long, whence he came, how he had passed his time, and what were his present projects, were questions that excited more general interest. Unfortunately Lara was not fond of answering questions, and least of all those which related to himself. Had he returned accompanied by a large train of menials, as befitted his rank, the reports of those menials might have afforded some little aliment to the cravings of general curiosity. But he was attended only by a single page, a youth of almost feminine beauty, but unluckily a foreigner, and no less silent and reserved than his master. Nothing, therefore, could be expected from inquiry; but something might be learnt from conjecture, and in the hope of discovering some reasonable grounds of conjecture, every eye was turned on the mysterious Lara, and on his equally mysterious page, Kaled;-in whom our readers will, of course, have recognised their old friends Conrad and Gulnare. The inferences, which it was natural to draw from the peculiarities of Lara's manners, were by no means favourable to his character. The passions which had agitated his early youth appeared to have subsided into apathy; but although the tempest was past, his countenance often told that memory was still brooding over the wreck of some pleasure, perhaps of some virtue, which that tempest had destroyed. By his inferiors, his voice was never heard, except in the utterance of some brief command. With his equals he conversed readily, but without seeming to sympathize in any of their pursuits. From men he would often fly to utter solitude, and wander amidst the wild scenery near his castle, apparently unconscious of the calls of hunger, of the storms which might deface the day, or of the cold and darkness of the night. Sometimes he would pore over his books, with more attention than was thought to befit his rank; or gaze upon a human skull which was placed beside his open volume, and which no good christian could have torn from its sepulchre. Possibly he conversed with it; at least there were those who had heard unearthly voices issuing, at very undue hours, from the crazy gallery, along which he was wont to pace whilst occupied in his nightly meditations. His attendants were soon convinced that their suspicions were not ill founded. 'Twas midnight-all was slumber; the lone light Cold as the marble where his length was laid, Some half form'd threat in utterance there had died, His eye was almost seal'd, but not forsook, That oft awake his aspect could disclose, And now was fix'd in horrible repose.-pp. 17, 18. At length he recovers from his trance, the blood recolours his cheeks, his eye opens, though its gaze is still wild and wandering; the hurried accents which escape from his lips are uttered in a tone of horror, and are evidently not directed to any of the persons who surround him; but they are delivered in that foreign language which Kaled, alone, is able to understand. In the same language the anxious Kaled endeavours to sooth the troubled spirit of his master, and ultimately restores him to tranquillity. If Kaled had not been impenetrably secret; or if the repetition of such visions had compelled Lara to call in the aid of a priest, or of a physician; or if he had been led to abstain from any of his customary occupations; or if he had lost, in any degree, that complete mastery of his features, which baffled all the eyes that were fixed upon him, some clue to the discovery of his former adventures might, perhaps, have been obtained. But the only result was, that bis mysterious dream, or trance, appeared to be forgotten by himself, but was remembered, from hour to hour, with more aggravated terror, by his attendants. XV. 'In trembling pairs (alone they dared not) crawl As evening saddens o'er the dark gray walls.'-p. 21. The immediate neighbour of Lara was Sir Otho, a wealthy and powerful Baron, who, on the four solemn festivals of the year, was accustomed to assemble, within his castle, all the nobles of the province. At these banquets and balls, and at these only, the monotonous dulness of feudal ceremony was, for a time, laid aside; and even age and formality partook of the infectious joy, which was communicated by the youth of both sexes, who were invited in crowds to the scene of revelry. Lara himself, who could not abstain from joining the assembly, did not wholly resist the seduction: even his heart appeared to expand with gladness, whilst leaning against a column," he surveyed the mazes of the dance, and watched the light footsteps of the blooming beauties, rendered more blooming by their present animation, who fluttered before him. So much was his attention absorbed, that he long failed to notice the stern and scrutinizing eye of a stranger knight, which was fixed on him, and never deviated to any other object. At length, however, he encountered the importunate gaze of the stranger, whom he seemed to contemplate with surprise, accom panied by some strong and gloomy, but indefinable emotion. XXII. "Tis be!" the stranger cried, and those that heard « "Tis he !”—“ 'Tis who?" they question far and near, Till louder accents rung on Lara's ear; So widely spread, few bosoms well could brook The general marvel, or that single look; But Lara stirr'd not, changed not, the surprise That sprung at first to his arrested eyes Seem'd now subsided, neither sunk nor rais'd Glanced his eye round, though still the stranger gaz'd; And drawing nigh, exclaim'd, with haughty sneer, ""Tis he!-how came he thence ?what doth he here?" XXIII. It were too much for Lara to pass by Such question, so repeated fierce and high; He turn'd, and met the inquisitorial tone- The unlook'd for courtesy of such a knight. 1 shun no question, and I wear no mask." "Thon shun'st no question! Ponder-is there none With slow and searching glance upon his face And half contemptuous turn'd to pass away.'--pp. 31-44. The stranger, however, arrested his steps, and addressing him in a tone of contumely, proceeded to put to him a series of interrogatories, which he interrupted with equal haughtiness, when Otho, interposing, besought them to terminate a dispute, so little suited to the time and to the company. On the morrow, he observed, the feud might be properly settled. He would, himself, become the pledge for the appearance of Sir Ezzelin, (such it, seems was the name of the stranger knight who, like Count Lara, was very lately, and after a long absence, returned home from a foreign country,) and he was convinced, that the noble Lara would not belie his birth, by refusing to meet any charge that could be alleged against him. Ezzelin accepted the condition, and Lara, on whom all eyes were fixed, but whose mind appeared, for a moment, to be lost in sudden abstraction, at length calmly replied, To-morrow! aye to-morrow!' He then slightly bowed to Sir Otho, and meeting, with a smile of self-possession, the angry frowns of Ezzelin, retired from the assembly. The mien of Kaled was by no means equally tranquil with that of Lara, whom he attended to the hall. He had early observed the inquisitive glance of Sir Ezzelin, had watched every cloud that passed over the features of Lara; had listened to the strife of the indignant chiefs, and to the comments of the spectators, who marvelled at the seeming forbearance of his haughty master; but, during the whole scene he had betrayed in hiscountenance no emotion, except that of a tender anxiety which he felt for one of the contending parties. When, however, he beheld the smile, with which Lara replied to the indignant looks of Sir Ezzelin, his fea-. tures spoke a deep and dreadful perturbation of soul, which he was unable to disguise. Meanwhile, the festivities of the night, having been interrupted by a contention, which foreboded the most tragical termination, could no longer be resumed. Every guest was engrossed by speculations on the probable guilt or innocence of Lara; every eye was fixed on Sir Ezzelin, as if to inquire into the nature of the charges which he intended to bring forward; and when he too, after an hour of silent and sullen meditation, took his leave of Sir Otho, all retired to their repose. CANTO II. On the following day, the barons assembled, at an early hour, in the hall of Sir Otho, and amongst them Lara, whose air of perfect unconcern formed a striking contrast with the anxious and inquisitive looks of his brother peer, and who seemed to be the only person in the assembly, to whom the cause of their meeting was wholly indifferent. Hour after hour passed away without bring ing Sir Ezzelin. It was strange that he should thus delay his accusation without deigning to send any excuse for his absence. Was this the effect of indolence, or of haughtiness, or of fear? Murmurs of impatience were heard on all sides. Otho alone, though much perplexed, retained bis confidence in the honour of his friend, for whose speedy appearance he again pledged himself. Lara had hitherto betrayed no symptom of impatience, but he now insisted that having been compelled to attend, for the purpose of repelling an accusation against his honour, he was entitled to demand that Sir Otho should either produce his babbling accuser, or redeem the pledge which he had given, by taking the quarrel on himself. Otho instantly accepted the latter alternative, and drawing his sabre, impetuously rushed upon his more temperate and skilful antagonist, whose weapon he received in his bosom, and fell bleeding to the ground. He disdained, however, to ask his life, and would have been speedily sacrificed by the now incensed Lara, had he not been rescued by the interposition of the surrounding barons, who had, before, vainly attempted to prevent the combat. The conqueror, leaving Sir Otho in their hands, strode out of the hall in stately silence, mounted his horse, and disappeared. VI. 'But where was he? that meteor of a night, |