professed himself her

deliverer from the cruelties of Allan rod. She judged that it might have been possible, and she had often believed it to have been the case, that her father had been more culpable in regard to urging the addresses of Lord Rufus, than he had himself been ; and upon this belief she considered that he might desire, by his present protection, to repair to her the former injuries to which he had exposed her.

But even with this allowance for his present conduct, she felt it impossible to place immediate confidence in a man whose actions she knew to be veiled with that degree of mystery which clouded those of Lord Rufus. What but an evil one could be his tie to Allanrod, that he should fear to bring him to justice, and award to him the punishment due to his unwarranted depredations? could Allanrod be, that Lord Rufus should fear him? What motive could induce

Who

induce Allanrod, in any point, to yield to the entreaties of Lord Rufus ?

Again she reflected on, the strange conduct of Lord Rufus, during the time he had been an inmate of her father's castle; of his returning by moonlight to the castle, from some nightly ramble; of his still more extraordinary conversation with his page, in his bed-chamber, in the dead of the night, of which she had overheard a part, and that part of a most dreadful nature, bespeaking unfair death.

Every fresh idea, as it came across her mind, tended only to render her more dissatisfied with her present situation. There was but one point of view in which it appeared tolerable, and that was, that she was delivered by it from the brutality of a ferocious freebooter, and that for the present she was safe. She arose, and went to the window of her apartment; it looked upon a garden, gaily luxuriant in every blooming flower, which was enclosed within a square formed

VOL. II.

H

BOD

formed by a part of the castle walls: this alone, and the lofty turrets which bound it on every side, were visible from her apartment.

She wandered across her chamber, and an open door into an adjoining apartment drew her eye; within it, she beheld sitting Dame Edith, with a large folio volume on a table before her, and her hands clasped as in prayer.

"Good morrow," said Rosalind-"but I fear I disturb you.

The dame did not reply, and Rosalind, concluding her at her devotions, walked away from the door, and returned to the window. In a few minutes Dame Edith tripped into the room." Many pardons, my sweet lady," she said, "for not auswering your kind salutation just now: I hope you'll not take offence at me; but the first I address in the morning is always my Maker; for eighty years past, I have always said my prayers, and read two chapters in the Bible, as regularly as

the

the morning came, and then I am ready to attend to my business for the rest of the day."

The family of the castle, Rosalind learnt, were all risen; but the apartments appropriated to her use were too far removed from those which were occupied by them, for her to be'disturbed by their

movements.

Rosalind's breakfast was prepared for her in an elegant apartment, to which she passed through two other rooms, which Edith informed her were all set apart for her use, as were an equal number on the other side of her chamber, for the domestics which were appointed to attend upon her.

When her repast was removed, Lord Rufus requested permission to visit her. He entered the apartment in the most respectful manner, and enquired, with the greatest tenderness, after her health; informed her that the garden which she had beheld from the window of her cham

H 2

chamber was for her particular use; and that a part of the ramparts which commanded a view of the sea, had been prepared for her to walk upon at her pleasure. He particularly questioned her whether every attention had been shewn to her by Dame Edith and his domestics; urged her to inform him whether there were any means by which he could add to her happiness, or the tranquillity of her mind; and so great was the interest which he appeared to take in bestowing comfort on her, that Rosalind was half won to feel gratitude for his kindness.

In the same respectful manner, he enquired whether it would meet her inclination to join him at dinner, in the castleball, or whether she judged it most consonant with the delicacy of her present situation to dine alone in her own apartment? of which latter Rosalind made choice.

During the whole of the day Rosalind had been oppressed by a faintness and

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