thinking I had left you happy, by the assurance, that I consented to your bestowing your hand where you had already plighted your affections; but on this condition, that should your application to the throne for justice on my murderer be rejected, sir Eustace himself undertakes the office of avenging me.

"That so valiant a knight, and so ardent a lover, will have any hesitation in complying with this condition, I cannot believe. Should the result, however, prove me mistaken in my opinion of him, remember, your hand must be reserved for him who shall undertake your cause; for it is from knighthood you must seek for redress, should it be denied you by the king.

"From the hand of Ferdinand De Hara I have met my death. Filial piety, I know, will be urged in extenuation of the deed; but believe not the perfidious plea to rancour, malice, rage at my rejecting his addresses, and thus disappointing the ambitious and sordid views of himself and family, is it owing.

"Attend not, therefore, to the various statements which I am aware will be fabricated for your ear; but, as you hope to retain my last blessing, by the respect you owe my memory, and the regard you feel for your own reputation, I charge you to revenge my death: by your hopes of happiness, here and hereafter, swear to let no intercession, however exalted the station from which it proceeds, induce you to forego your just resentment."

"I swear," cried the trembling Elvina, raising her hands and eyes towards heaven.

"Enough," replied the duke; "I am satisfied," kissing her pale cheek, and solemnly blessing her; the peace you have given to my last moments, be thine, my sweet one, at the same awful hour. Long and happy may thy days be; and from the oblivion of the tomb, may thy name be rescued, by the repu

tation thou shalt leave behind thee. Keep ever in view thy origin, and then thou canst not fail of acting worthy of a descendant of the house of Lara.

"It is unnecessary, I know, to recommend to your kindness my faithful servants and dependants. Olivia I could have wished to have seen; but since denied that satisfaction, assure her I retained to the last a pleased remembrance of her fidelity and attachment." Then again kissing her, he averted his face, with a motion for her to retire.

Regardless of this, however, Elvina clung to him. "Oh! my father," she cried, "must I be denied the sad consolation of remaining with you?"

The duke, after a momentary pause, evidently occasioned by emotion, informed her he wished to be left alone with his confessor; but added, if able to bear her presence again, she should be sent for.

Compelled to withdraw, the sorrowing Elvina repaired to the oratory; where, sinking on her knees, her fervent prayers were offered up to heaven for his recovery; but prayers continually interrupted by tears, at the little probability there appeared of their proving availing-no, she already saw the tomb opening to receive him, already saw him mingling with the awful shades of his forefathers.

She started at every murmur, but a considerable time elapsed without any one appearing. Suspense at length becoming intolerable, she was on the point of descending from the oratory, when father Jerome, the abbot, suddenly appeared before her. His looks chilled her very soul, suspended the question that hovered on her lips.

"Daughter," he cried, in solemn accents, "resignation is our duty: your noble father has breathed his last peace to his soul, and consolation to those he has left to mourn him!"

The blow was expected, but this circumstance did not lessen the shock it gave her-like a lily bent to

the earth by the pitiless storm, she sunk fainting in the arms of the father.

On recovering, she found her sympathizing Olivia bending over her.

"Ah! my Olivia," she cried, "how sudden has been our loss!"

"Sudden indeed!" repeated Olivia; "but transient is the nature of all earthly joys, uncertain the tenure by which human life is held-ere we hear its distant murmur, the thunder bursts with appalling fury over our heads-while basking in the sunshine, we are often overtaken by the storm-the falling leaves, the withering face of nature, announce the expiration of the year; but man often sinks into the grave without any indication of his approaching end; ere we think the time of his fading near, the blast that shall scatter his leaves is gathering. These sudden strokes, these unexpected casualties, might well astonish and overwhelm us, but that we know they could not happen without the permission of him who, as he gives, so has a right to take away."

Elvina now required to be re-conducted to the chamber of death, but was peremptorily refused by the abbot; her father's last words were that she should not be indulged in any thing that had a tendency to enervate her mind, and thus retard the accomplishment of her vengeance; and the commands of the dead must ever be held sacred he added.

Elvina bowed her head-" Forever sacred will his be considered by me," she cried. "It would have afforded me a kind of melancholy pleasure to have gazed once more upon his countenance, to have bathed it with my tears: but the consolation which duty forbids, I am content to resign."

CHAP. VIII.

Speak on, and ease your labouring breast; it swells,
And sinks again, and then it swells so high,

It looks as it would break. I know 'tis big
With something you would utter.

BUSIRIS.

In an agony of impatience for the appearance of Don Julio, the wretched Ferdinand hurried, in the course of a few minutes, from the cell of father Anselm to the cloisters through which he had to pass in his way to it; with distracted steps he traversed these lonely walks of holy meditation, now darting forward, in consequence of fancying he heard an approaching step; now stopping short in an agony of disappointment at finding himself mistaken; for Don Julio had resolved on not rejoining him, until acquainted with the result of the duke's conference with his daughter.

Unconsciously he advanced towards the enclosure containing the tomb of the unfortunate lovers, whose story he had related to Elvina. The sight of it recalled a thousand dear ideas, awakened a thousand affecting recollections. A flood of tears gushed from him" And Oh!" he despairingly exclaimed, as the big drops coursed one another down his manly cheeks, and the thought of having lost her forever, of the anguish he had been the means of inflicting on her, obtruded itself on him-" will no kind friend. intercede in my behalf? will no voice do justice tois my feelings, or vindicate my crime against her!"

As he leant, almost exhausted by the violence of his emotions, against a pillar, he saw advancing from beneath an opposite arch the shadowy figure of a female, who, on drawing nearer, he discovered to be Olivia. Involuntarily pronouncing her name, he rushed forward, with something like a sensation of joy at seeing her; but to his unutterable dismay, instead of appearing to participate in this feeling, she instantly drew back and disappeared.

"Is misery then so contagious?" cried Don Ferdinand, in bitterness of soul, as he stood beneath the gloomy archway, whither he had involuntarily pursued her, as to occasion it to be thus shunned? or is it horror at the thoughts of my being the destroyer of her generous patron that makes her fly me? Oh! if such be her feelings, what will not those of Elvina be!"

Overwhelmed with anguish at the idea, he was retreating, when he again heard a step, and, impelled by a hope that it might be Olivia, repentant of her conduct towards him, returning, sprung forward; but instead of her, beheld Don Rodolph hastily passing.

Other sensations now took possession of his mind: rage, indignation, and jealousy, at his thus continually hovering about the castle; and convinced it was owing to some unworthy motive, he resolved to take an early opportunity of apprising the fair heiress of the circumstance.

In the mean while, urged by a restless impulse, he pursued his steps. After following him some time, at a sufficient distance not to be discovered, he at length lost sight of him near a ruined tower, at the extremity of the vale beneath the castle windows, and which had formerly united the outworks in this direction.

Under an idea that he might have entered it, he 'the door; but finding it locked, and convinced,