The Midnight Queen ...........................................................................................................................................1

The plague raged in the city of London. The destroying angel had gone forth, and kindled with its fiery breath

the awful pestilence, until all London became one mighty lazarhouse. Thousands were swept away daily;

grass grew in the streets, and the living were scarce able to bury the dead. Business of all kinds was at an end,

except that of the coffinmakers and drivers of the pestcarte. Whole streets were shut up, and almost every

other house in the city bore the fatal red cross, and the ominous inscription. "Lord have mercy on us." Few

people, save the watchmen, armed with halberts, keeping guard over the stricken houses, appeared in the

streets; and those who ventured there, shrank from each other, and passed rapidly on with averted faces.

Many even fell dead on the sidewalk, and lay with their ghastly, discolored faces, upturned to the mocking

sunlight, until the deadcart came rattling along, and the drivers hoisted the body with their pitchforks on the

top of their dreadful load. Few other vehicles besides those same deadcarts appeared in the city now; and

they plied their trade busily, day and night; and the cry of the drivers echoed dismally through the deserted

streets: "Bring out your dead! bring out your dead!" All who could do so had long ago fled from the devoted

city; and London lay under the burning heat of the June sunshine, stricken for its sins by the hand of God.

The pesthouses were full, so were the plaguepits, where the dead were hurled in cartfuls; and no one knew

who rose up in health in the morning but that they might be lying stark and dead in a few hours. The very

churches were forsaken; their pastors fled or lying in the plaguepits; and it was even resolved to convert the

great cathedral of St. Paul into a vast plaguehospital. Cries and lamentations echoed from one end of the city

Yet in the midst of all this, many scenes of wild orgies and debauchery still went on within its gates as, in

our own day, when the cholera ravaged Paris, the inhabitants of that facetious city made it a carnival, so now,

in London, they were many who, feeling they had but a few days to live at the most, resolved to defy death,

and indulge in the revelry while they yet existed. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die!" was

their motto; and if in the midst of the frantic dance or debauched revel one of them dropped dead, the others

only shrieked with laughter, hurled the livid body out to the street, and the demoniac mirth grew twice as fast

and furious as before. Robbers and cutpurses paraded the streets at noonday, entered boldly closed and

deserted houses, and bore off with impunity, whatever they pleased. Highwaymen infested Hounslow Heath,

and all the roads leading from the city, levying a toll on all who passed, and plundering fearlessly the flying

citizens. In fact, farfamed London town, in the year of grace 1665, would have given one a good idea of

It was drawing to the close of an almost tropical June day, that the crowd who had thronged the precincts of

St. Paul's since early morning, began to disperse. The sun, that had throbbed the livelong day like a great

heart of fire in a sea of brass, was sinking from sight in clouds of crimson, purple and gold, yet Paul's Walk

was crowded. There were courtgallants in ruffles and plumes; balladsingers chanting the not overdelicate

ditties of the Earl of Rochester; usurers exchanging gold for bonds worth three times what they gave for

them; quackdoctors reading in dolorous tones the bills of mortality of the preceding day, and selling

plaguewaters and antipestilential abominations, whose merit they loudly extolled; ladies too, richly

dressed, and many of them masked; and booksellers who always made St. Paul's a favorite haunt, and even to

this day patronize its precincts, and flourish in the regions of Paternoster Row and Ave Maria Lane; court

pages in rich liveries, pert and flippant; servingmen out of place, and pickpockets with a keen eye to

business; all clashed and jostled together, raising a din to which the Plain of Shinar, with its confusion of

Moving serenely through this discordant sea of his fellow creatures came a young man booted and spurred,

whose rich doublet of cherry colored velvet, edged and spangled with gold, and jaunty hat set slightly on one

side of his head, with its long black plume and diamond clasp, proclaimed him to be somebody. A profusion

of snowy shirtfrill rushed impetuously out of his doublet; a blackvelvet cloak, lined with ambersatin, fell

picturesquely from his shoulders; a sword with a jeweled hilt clanked on the pavement as he walked. One

hand was covered with a gauntlet of canarycolored kid, perfumed to a degree that would shame any belle of

today, the other, which rested lightly on his swordhilt, flashed with a splendid opal, splendidly set. He was

a handsome fellow too, with fair waving hair (for he had the good taste to discard the ugly wigs then in

vogue), dark, bright, handsome eyes, a thick blonde moustache, a tall and remarkably graceful figure, and an

expression of countenance wherein easy goodnature and fiery impetuosity had a hard struggle for mastery.

That he was a courtier of rank, was apparent from his rich attire and rather aristocratic bearing and a crowd of

hangerson followed him as he went, loudly demanding spurmoney. A group of timbrilgirls, singing

shrilly the songs of the day, called boldly to him as he passed; and one of them, more free and easy than the

rest, danced up to him striking her timbrel, and shouting rather than singing the chorus of the then popular

The darling in question turned his bright blue eyes on that dashing streetsinger with a cool glance of

"Very sorry, Nell," he said, in a nonchalant tone, "but I'm afraid I must. How long have you been here, may I

"A full hour by St. Paul's; and where has Sir Norman Kingsley been, may I ask? I thought you were dead of

With which Sir Norman Kingsley dropped a gold piece into the girl's extended palm, and pushed on through

the crowd up Paul's Walk. A tall, dark figure was leaning moodily with folded arms, looking fixedly at the

ground, and taking no notice of the busy scene around him until Sir Norman laid his ungloved and jeweled

"Good morning, Ormiston. I had an idea I would find you here, and but what's the matter with you, man?

Have you got the plague? or has your mysterious inamorata jilted you? or what other annoyance has

happened to make you look as woebegone as old King Lear, sent adrift by his tender daughters to take care of

The individual addressed lifted his head, disclosing a dark and rather handsome face, settled now into a look

of gloomy discontent. He slightly raised his hat as he saw who his questioner was.

"Ah! it's you, Sir Norman! I had given up all notion of your coming, and was about to quit this confounded

"Oh, certainly! La Masque is at home to visitors at all hours, day and night. I believe in my soul she doesn't

"And you are still as much in love with her as ever, I dare swear! I have no doubt, now, it was of her you

were thinking when I came up. Nothing else could ever have made you look so dismally woebegone as you

Sir Norman favored him with a halfamused, halfcontemptuous stare for a moment; then stopped at a

huckster's stall to purchase some cigarettes; lit one, and after smoking for a few minutes, pleasantly

"The idea," said Sir Norman, knocking the ashes daintily off the end of his cigar with the tip of his little

finger "the idea of falling in love with a woman whose face you have never seen! I can understand a man a

going to any absurd extreme when he falls in love in proper Christian fashion, with a proper Christian face;

but to go stark, staring mad, as you have done, my dear fellow, about a black loo mask, why I consider that

Nodding easily to his numerous acquaintances as he went, Sir Norman Kingsley sauntered leisurely down

Paul's Walk, and out through the great door of the cathedral, followed by his melancholy friend. Pausing for a

moment to gaze at the gorgeous sunset with a look of languid admiration, Sir Norman passed his arm through

that of his friend, and they walked on at rather a rapid pace, in the direction of old London Bridge. There

were few people abroad, except the watchmen walking slowly up and down before the plaguestricken

houses; but in every street they passed through they noticed huge piles of wood and coal heaped down the

centre. Smoking zealously they had walked on for a season in silence, when Ormiston ceased puffing for a

"What are all these for? This is a strange time, I should imagine, for bonfires."

"They're not bonfires," said Sir Norman; "at least they are not intended for that; and if your head was not

fuller of that masked Witch of Endor than common sense (for I believe she is nothing better than a witch),

you could not have helped knowing. The Lord Mayor of London has been inspired suddenly, with a notion,

that if several thousand fires are kindled at once in the streets, it will purify the air, and check the pestilence;

so when St. Paul's tolls the hour of midnight, all these piles are to be fired. It will be a glorious illumination,

no doubt; but as to its stopping the progress of the plague, I am afraid that it is altogether too good to be true."

"No. But Lilly, the astrologer, who predicted its coming, also foretold that it would last for many months yet;

and since one prophecy has come true, I see no reason why the other should not."

"Except the simple one that there would be nobody left alive to take it. All London will be lying in the

"A pleasant prospect; but a true one, I have no doubt. And, as I have no ambition to be hurled headlong into

one of those horrible holes, I shall leave town altogether in a few days. And, Ormiston, I would strongly

"Not I!" said Ormiston, in a tone of gloomy resolution. "While La Masque stays, so will I."

"So be it! I don't fear the plague half as much as I do the thought of losing her!"

"Oh, I see! It's a hopeless case! Faith, I begin to feel curious to see this enchantress, who has managed so

"Yesterday," said Ormiston, with a deep sigh. "And if she were made of granite, she could not be harder to

"Not she! She has a little Blenheim lapdog, that she loves a thousand times more than she ever will me!"

"Then what an idiot you are, to keep haunting her like her shadow! Why don't you be a man, and tear out

"Ah! that's easily said; but if you were in my place, you'd act exactly as I do."

"I don't believe it. It's not in me to go mad about anything with a masked face and a marble heart. If I loved

any woman which, thank Fortune! at this present time I do not and she had the bad taste not to return it, I

should take my hat, make her a bow, and go directly and love somebody else made of flesh and blood, instead

"Kingsley, you know nothing about it!" said Ormiston, impatiently. "So stop talking nonsense. If you are

Sir Norman slightly shrugged his shoulders, and flung his smokedout weed into a heap of firewood.

"And yonder is the house," replied Ormiston, pointing to a large ancient building ancient even for those

times with three stories, each projecting over the other. "See! while the houses on either side are marked as

peststricken, hers alone bears no cross. So it is: those who cling to life are stricken with death: and those

"Why, my dear Ormiston, you surely are not so far gone as that? Upon my honor, I had no idea you were in

"I am nothing but a miserable wretch! and I wish to Heaven I was in yonder deadcart, with the rest of them

Ormiston spoke with such fierce earnestness, that there was no doubting his sincerity; and Sir Norman

became profoundly shocked so much so, that he did not speak again until they were almost at the door.

"Nothing good; no fear of there being anything in store for such an unlucky dog as I am."

"In the East, I believe. She has been there and all over the world; and now visits England for the first time."

"She has chosen a sprightly season for her visit. Is she not afraid of the plague, I wonder?"

"No; she fears nothing," said Ormiston, as he knocked loudly at the door. "I begin to believe she is made of

"Which is a rib, I believe," observed Sir Norman, thoughtfully. "And that accounts, I dare say, for their being

of such a crooked and cantankerous nature. They're a wonderful race women are; and for what Inscrutable

The opening of the door brought to a sudden end this little touch of moralizing, and a wrinkled old porter

The old man nodded, and pointed up stairs; and with a "This way, Kingsley," Ormiston sprang lightly up,

"You seem pretty well acquainted with the latitude and longitude of this place," observed that young

"I ought to be; I've been here often enough," said Ormiston. "This is the common waitingroom for all who

wish to consult La Masque. That old bag of bones who let us in has gone to announce us."

Sir Norman took a seat, and glanced curiously round the room. It was a commonplace apartment enough,

with a floor of polished black oak, slippery as ice, and shining like glass; a few old Flemish paintings on the

walls; a large, round table in the centre of the floor, on which lay a pair of the old musical instruments called

"virginals." Two large, curtainless windows, with minute diamondshaped panes, set in leaden casements,

"For the receptionroom of a sorceress," remarked Sir Norman, with an air of disappointed criticism, "there

is nothing very wonderful about all this. How is it she spaes fortunes any way? As Lilly does by maps and

charts; or as these old Eastern mufti do it by magic mirrors and all each fooleries?"

"Neither," said Ormiston, "her style in more like that of the Indian almechs, who show you your destiny in a

well. She has a sort of magic lake in her room, and but you will see it all for yourself presently."

"I have always heard," said Sir Norman, in the same meditative way, "that truth lies at the bottom of a well,

and I am glad some one has turned up at last who is able to fish it out. Ah! Here comes our ancient Mercury

The door opened, and the "old bag of bones," as Ormiston irreverently styled his ladylove's ancient

domestic, made a sign for them to follow him. Leading the way down along a corridor, he flung open a pair

of shining foldingdoors at the end, and ushered them at once into the majestic presence of the sorceress and

her magic room. Both gentlemen doffed their plumed hats. Ormiston stepped forward at once; but Sir

Norman discreetly paused in the doorway to contemplate the scene of action. As he slowly did so, a look of

deep displeasure settled on his features, on finding it not half so awful as he had supposed.

In some ways it was very like the room they had left, being low, large, and square, and having floors, walls

and ceiling paneled with glossy black oak. But it had no windows a large bronze lamp, suspended from the

centre of the ceiling, shed a flickering, ghostly light. There were no paintings some grim carvings of skulls,

skeletons, and serpents, pleasantly wreathed the room neither were there seats nor tables nothing but a

huge ebony caldron at the upper end of the apartment, over which a grinning skeleton on wires, with a scythe

in one hand of bone, and an hourglass in the other, kept watch and ward. Opposite this cheerfullooking

guardian, was a tall figure in black, standing an motionless as if it, too, was carved in ebony. It was a female

figure, very tall and slight, but as beautifully symmetrical as a Venus Celestis. Her dress was of black velvet,

that swept the polished floor, spangled all over with stars of gold and rich rubies. A profusion of shining

black hair fell in waves and curls almost to her feet; but her face, from forehead to chin, was completely

hidden by a black velvet mask. In one hand, exquisitely small and white, she held a gold casket, blazing (like

her dress) with rubies, and with the other she toyed with a tame viper, that had twined itself round her wrist.

This was doubtless La Masque, and becoming conscious of that fact Sir Norman made her a low and courtly

bow. She returned it by a slight bend of the head, and turning toward his companion, spoke

"You here, again, Mr. Ormiston! To what am I indebted for the honor of two visits in two days?"

Her voice, Sir Norman thought, was the sweetest he had ever heard, musical as a chime of silver bells, soft as

"Madam, I am aware my visits are undesired," said Ormiston, with a flushing cheek and, slightly tremulous

voice; "but I have merely come with my friend, Sir Norman Kingsley, who wishes to know what the future

Thus invoked, Sir Norman Kingsley stepped forward with another low bow to the masked lady.

"Yes, madam, I have long heard that those fair fingers can withdraw the curtain of the future, and I have

"Sir Norman Kingsley is welcome," said the sweet voice, "and shall see what he desires. There is but one

condition, that he will keep perfectly silent; for if he speaks, the scene he beholds will vanish. Come

Sir Norman compressed his lips as closely am if they were forever hermetically sealed, and came forward

accordingly. Leaning over the edge of the ebony caldron, he found that it contained nothing more dreadful

than water, for he labored under a vague and unpleasant idea that, like the witches' caldron in Macbeth, it

might be filled with serpents' blood and children's' brains. La Masque opened her golden casket, and took

from it a portion of red powder, with which it was filled. Casting it into the caldron, she murmured an

invocation in Sanscrit, or Coptic, or some other unknown tongue, and slowly there arose a dense cloud of

darkred smoke, that nearly filled the room. Had Sir Norman ever read the story of Aladdin, he would

probably have thought of it then; but the young courtier did not greatly affect literature of any kind, and

thought of nothing now but of seeing something when the smoke cleared away. It was rather long in doing so,

and when it did, he saw nothing at first but his own handsome, half serious, halfincredulous face; but

gradually a picture, distinct and clear, formed itself at the bottom, and Sir Norman gazed with bewildered

eyes. He saw a large room filled with a sparkling crowd, many of them ladies, splendidly arrayed and

flashing in jewels, and foremost among them stood one whose beauty surpassed anything he had ever before

dreamed of. She wore the robes of a queen, purple and ermine diamonds blazed on the beautiful neck,

arms, and fingers, and a tiara of the same brilliants crowned her regal head. In one hand she held a sceptre;

what seemed to be a throne was behind her, but something that surprised Sir Norton most of all was, to find

himself standing beside her, the cynosure of all eyes. While he yet gazed in mingled astonishment and

incredulity, the scene faded away, and another took its place. This time a dungeoncell, damp and dismal;

walls, and floor, and ceiling covered with green and hideous slime. A small lamp stood on the floor, and by

its sickly, watery gleam, he saw himself again standing, pale and dejected, near the wall. But he was not

alone; the same glittering vision in purple and diamonds stood before him, and suddenly he drew his sword

and plunged it up to the hilt in her heart! The beautiful vision fell like a stone at his feet, and the sword was

drawn out reeking with her lifeblood. This was a little too much for the real Sir Norman, and with an

expression of indignant consternation, he sprang upright. Instantly it all faded away and the reflection of his

"I told you not to speak," said La Masque, quietly, "but you must look on still another scene."

Again she threw a portion of the contents of the casket into the caldron, and "spake aloud the words of

power." Another cloud of smoke arose and filled the room, and when it cleared away, Sir Norman beheld a

third and less startling sight. The scene and place he could not discover, but it seemed to him like night and a

storm. Two men were lying on the ground, and bound fast together, it appeared to him. As he looked, it faded

"If you cannot tell that, neither can I. If there is anything further you wish to see, I am quite willing to show it

"I'm obliged to you," said Sir Norman, stepping back; "but no more at present, thank you. Do you mean to

say, madam, that I'm some day to murder a lady, especially one so beautiful as she I just now saw?"

"I have said nothing all you've seen will come to pass, and whether your destiny be for good or evil, I have

nothing to do with it, except," said the sweet voice, earnestly, "that if La Masque could strew Sir Norman

"Madam, you are too kind," said that young gentleman, laying his hand on his heart, while Ormiston scowled

darkly "more especially as I've the misfortune to be a perfect stranger to you."

"Not so, Sir Norman. I have known you this many a day; and before long we shall be better acquainted.

At this gentle hint, both gentlemen bowed themselves out, and soon found themselves in the street, with very

different expressions of countenance. Sir Norman looking considerably pleased and decidedly puzzled, and

Mr. Ormiston looking savagely and uncompromisingly jealous. The animated skeleton who had admitted

them closed the door after them; and the two friends stood in the twilight on London Bridge.

"Think? Don't ask me yet." said Sir Norman, looking rather bewildered. "I'm in such a state of mystification

that I don't rightly know whether I'm standing on my head or feet. For one thing, I have come to the

"Have I not told you that a thousand times, O thou of little faith? But why have you come to such a

"Because no woman with such a figure, such a voice and such hands could be otherwise."

"Oh! as to loving her," said Sir Norman, coolly, "that's quite another thing. I could no more love her or her

hands, voice, and shape, than I could a figure in wood or wax; but I admire her vastly, and think her

extremely clever. I will never forget that face in the caldron. It was the most exquisitely beautiful I ever saw."

"In love with the shadow of a face! Why, you are a thousandfold more absurd than I."

"No," said Sir Norman, thoughtfully, "I don't know as I'm in love with it; but if ever I see a living face like it,

"You had better ask her," said Ormiston, bitterly. "She seems to have taken an unusual interest in you at first

sight. She would strew your path with roses, forsooth! Nothing earthly, I believe, would make her say

"All a matter of taste, my dear fellow: and these women are noted for their perfection in that line. I begin to

admire La Masque more and more, and I think you had better give up the chase, and let me take your place. I

"I don't believe it myself," said Ormiston, with a desperate face "but until the plague carries me off I cannot

It was a piercing shriek no unusual sound; and as he spoke, the door of an adjoining house was flung open,

"That's a question I can't take it upon myself to answer," said Sir Norman; "and the only way to solve the

"It may be the plague," said Ormiston, hesitating. "Yet the house is not marked. There is a watchman. I will

The man with the halberd in his hand was walking up and down before an adjoining house, bearing the

"I don't know, sir," was his answer to Ormiston. "If any one there has the plague, they must have taken it

"I never heard of any one screaming in that fashion about a wedding," said Ormiston, doubtfully. "Do you

"No, sir. I only came here, myself, yesterday, but two or three times today I have seen a very beautiful

"A beautiful young lady!" said Sir Norman, with energy. "Then I mean to go directly up and see about it, and

So saying, Sir Norman entered the open doorway, and found himself in a long hall, flanked by a couple of

doors on each side. These he opened in rapid succession, finding nothing but silence and solitude; and

Ormiston who, upon reflection, chose to follow ran up a wide and sweeping staircase at the end of the

hall. Sir Norman followed him, and they came to a hall similar to the one below. A door to the right lay open;

The room was spacious, and richly furnished. Just enough light stole through the oriel window at the further

end, draped with crimson satin embroidered with gold, to show it. The floor was of veined wood of many

colors, arranged in fanciful mosaics, and strewn with Turkish rugs and Persian mats of gorgeous colors. The

walls were carved, the ceiling corniced, and all fretted with gold network and gilded mouldings. On a couch

covered with crimson satin, like the window drapery, lay a cithren and some loose sheets of music. Near it

was a small marble table, covered with books and drawings, with a decanter of wine and an exquisite little

goblet of Bohemian glass. The marble mantel was strewn with ornaments of porcelain and alabaster, and a

beautifullycarved vase of Parian marble stood in the centre, filled with brilliant flowers. A great mirror

reflected back the room, and beneath it stood a toilettable, strewn with jewels, laces, perfumebottles, and

an array of costly little feminine trifles such as ladies were as fond of two centuries ago as they are today.

Evidently it was a lady's chamber; for in a recess near the window stood a great quaint carved bedstead, with

curtains and snowy lace, looped back with golden arrows and scarlet ribbons. Some one lay on it, too at

least, Ormiston thought so; and he went cautiously forward, drew the curtain, and looked down.

"Great Heaven! what a beautiful face!" was his cry, as he bent still further down.

"You have said it," said Ormiston, recoiling. "The plague is the matter. There lies one dead of it!"

Curiosity proving stronger than fear, Sir Norman stepped forward to look at the corpse. It was a young girl

with a face as lovely as a poet's vision. That face was like snow, now; and, in its calm, cold majesty, looked

as exquisitely perfect as some ancient Grecian statue. The low, pearly brow, the sweet, beautiful lips, the

delicate oval outline of countenance, were perfect. The eyes were closed, and the long dark lashes rested on

the ivory cheeks. A profusion of shining dark hair fell in elaborate curls over her neck and shoulders. Her

dress was that of a bride; a robe of white satin brocaded with silver, fairly dazzling in its shining radiance,

and as brief in the article of sleeves and neck as that of any modern belle. A circlet of pearls were clasped

round her snowwhite throat, and bracelets of the same jewels encircled the snowy taper arms. On her head

she wore a bridal wreath and veil the former of jewels, the latter falling round her like a cloud of mist.

Everything was perfect, from the wreath and veil to the tiny sandaled feet and lying there in her mute repose

she looked more like some exquisite piece of sculpture than anything that had ever lived and moved in this

groveling world of ours. But from one shoulder the dress had been pulled down, and there lay a great livid

"Come away!" said Ormiston, catching his companion by the arm. "It is death to remain here!"

Sir Norman had been standing like one in a trance, from which this address roused him, and he grasped

"Look there, Ormiston! There lies the very face that sorceress showed me, fifteen minutes ago, in her infernal

"Are you sure?" said Ormiston, glancing again with new curiosity at the marble face. "I never saw anything

"Look there," said Ormiston pointing to the plaguespot. "There is the fatal token! For Heaven's sake let us

But Sir Norman did not move could not move; he stood there rooted to the spot by the spell of that lovely,

Usually the plague left its victims hideous, ghastly, discolored, and covered with blotches; but in this case

then was nothing to mar the perfect beauty of the satinsmooth skin, but that one dreadful mark.

There Sir Norman stood in his trance, as motionless as if some genii out of the "Arabian Nights" had

suddenly turned him into stone (a trick they were much addicted to), and destined him to remain there an

ornamental fixture for ever. Ormiston looked at him distractedly, uncertain whether to try moral suasion or to

take him by the collar and drag him headlong down the stairs, when a providential but rather dismal

circumstance came to his relief. A cart came rattling along the street, a bell was loudly rang, and a hoarse

Ormiston rushed down stair to intercept the deadcart, already almost full on it way to the plaguepit. The

driver stopped at his call, and instantly followed him up stairs, and into the room. Glancing at the body with

"A bride, I should say; and an uncommonly handsome one too. We'll just take her along as she is, and strip

So saying, he wrapped her in the sheet, and directing Ormiston to take hold of the two lower ends, took the

upper corners himself, with the air of a man quite used to that sort of thing. Ormiston recoiled from touching

it; and Sir Norman seeing what they were about to do, and knowing there was no help for it, made up his

mind, like a sensible young man as he was, to conceal his feelings, and caught hold of the sheet himself. In

this fashion the dead bride was carried down stairs, and laid upon a shutter on the top of a pile of bodies in

It was now almost dark, and as the cart started, the great clock of St. Paul's struck eight. St. Michael's, St

Alban's, and the others took up the sound; and the two young men paused to listen. For many weeks the sky

had been clear, brilliant, and blue; but on this night dark clouds were scudding in wild unrest across it, and

"No!" said Sir Norman, rather dejectedly, turning to follow the pestcart. "I am for the plaguepit in Finsbury

"Nonsense, man!" exclaimed Ormiston, energetically, "what will take you there? You surely are not mad

"Oh! if you are determined, I will go with you, of course; but it is the craziest freak I ever heard of. After this,

"I never will," said Sir Norman, moodily; "for if you love a face you have never seen, I love one I have only

looked on when dead. Does it not seem sacrilege to throw any one so like an angel into that horrible

"I never saw an angel," said Ormiston, as he and his friend started to go after the deadcart. "And I dare say

there have been scores as beautiful as that poor girl thrown into the plaguepit before now. I wonder why the

house has been deserted, and if she was really a bride. The bridegroom could not have loved her much, I

"But, Ormiston, what an extraordinary thing it is that it should be precisely the same face that the

fortuneteller showed me. There she was alive, and here she is dead; so I've lost all faith in La Masque for

"Quite sure?" said Sir Norman, indignantly. "Of course I am! Do you think I could be mistaken is such a

case? I tell you I would know that face at Kamschatka or, the North Pole; for I don't believe there ever was

"So be it, then! Your object, of course, in following that cart is, to take a last look at her?"

Ormiston smiled to himself, and did not talk, accordingly; and in silence the two friends followed the gloomy

deadcart. A faint young moon, pale and sickly, was struggling dimly through drifts of dark clouds, and

lighted the lonesome, dreary streets with a wan, watery glimmer. For weeks, the weather had been brilliantly

fine the days all sunshine, the nights all moonlight; but now Ormiston, looking up at the troubled face of

the sky, concluded mentally that the Lord Mayor had selected an unpropitious night for the grand

illumination. Sir Norman, with his eyes on the pestcart, and the long white figure therein, took no heed of

anything in the heaven above or in the earth beneath, and strode along in dismal silence till they reached, at

As the cart stopped the two young men approached the edge of the plaguepit, and looked in with a shudder.

Truly it was a horrible sight, that heaving, putrid sea of corruption; for the bodies of the miserable victims

were thrown in in cartfuls, and only covered with a handful of earth and quicklime. Here and there, through

the cracking and sinking surface, could be seen protruding a fair white arm, or a baby face, mingled with the

long, dark tresses of maidens, the golden curls of children, and the white hairs of old age. The pestilential

effluvia arising from the dreadful mass was so overpowering that both shrank back, faint and sick, after a

moment's survey. It was indeed as Sir Norman had, said, a horrible grave wherein to lie.

Meantime the driver, with an eye to business, and no time for such nonsense as melancholy moralizing, had

laid the body of the young girl on the ground, and briskly turned his cart and dumped the remainder of his

load into the pit. Then, having flung a few handfuls of clay over it, he unwound the sheet, and kneeling

beside the body, prepared to remove the jewels. The rays of the moon and his dark lantern fell on the lovely,

snowwhite face together, and Sir Norman groaned despairingly as he saw its deathcold rigidity. The man

had stripped the rings off the fingers, the bracelets off the arms; but as he was about to perform the same

operation toward the necklace, he was stopped by a startling interruption enough. In his haste, the clasp

entered the beautiful neck, inflicting a deep scratch, from which the blood spouted; and at the same instant

the dead girl opened her eyes with a shrill cry. Uttering a yell of terror, as well he might, the man sprang back

and gazed at her with horror, believing that his sacrilegious robbery had brought the dead to life. Even the

two young menalbeit, neither of them given to nervousness nor cowardice recoiled for an instant, and

stared aghast. Then, as the whole truth struck them, that the girl had been in a deep swoon and not dead, both

simultaneously darted forward, and forgetting all fear of infection, knelt by her side. A pair of great, lustrous

black eyes were staring wildly around, and fixed themselves first on one face and then on the other.

"Where am I?" she exclaimed, with a terrified look, as she strove to raise herself on her elbow, and fell

instantaneously back with a cry of agony, as she felt for the first time the throbbing anguish of the wound.

You are with friends, dear lady!" said Sir Norman, in a voice quite tremulous between astonishment and

The great black eyes turned wildly upon him, while a fierce spasm convulsed the beautiful face.

"O, my God, I remember! I have the plague!" And, with a prolonged shriek of anguish, that thrilled even to

the hardened heart of the deadcart driver, the girl fell back senseless again. Sir Norman Kingsley sprang to

his feet, and with more the air of a frantic lunatic than a responsible young English knight, caught the cold

form in his arms, laid it in the deadcart, and was about springing into the driver's seat, when that individual

"Come, now; none of that! If you were the king himself, you shouldn't run away with my cart in that fashion;

"My dear Kingsley, what are you about to do?" asked Ormiston, catching his excited friend by the arm.

"Do!" exclaimed Sir Norman, in a high key. "Can't you see that for yourself! And I'm going to have that girl

cured of the plague, if there is such a thing as a doctor to be had for love or money in London."

"You had better have her taken to the pest house at once, then; there are chirurgeons and nurses enough

"To the pesthouse! Why man, I might as well have her thrown into the plaguepit there, at once! Not I! I

shall have her taken to my own house, and there properly cared for, and this good fellow will drive her there

Sir Norman backed this insinuation by putting a broad goldpiece into the driver's hand, which instantly

"Certainly, sir," he began, springing into his seat with alacrity. "Where shall I drive the young lady to?"

"Follow me," said Sir Norman. "Come along, Ormiston." And seizing his friend by the arm, he hurried along

with a velocity rather uncomfortable, considering they both wore cloaks, and the night was excessively sultry.

"What do you mean to do with her?" asked Ormiston, as soon as he found breath enough to speak.

"After that! After that! How do I know what after that!" exclaimed Sir Norman, rather fiercely. "Ormiston,

"That's true!" said Sir Norman, in a subdued tone, "and if such should unhappily be the case, nothing will

"Pray Heaven that we may not be carried off by it ourselves!" said Ormiston, with a slight shudder. "I shall

dream of nothing but that horrible plaguepit for a week. If it were not for La Masque, I would not stay

"Here we are," was Sir Norman's rather inapposite answer, as they entered Piccadilly, and stopped before a

large and handsome house, whose gloomy portal was faintly illuminated by a large lamp. "Here, my man just

He unlocked the door as he spoke, and led the way across a long hall to a sleeping chamber, elegantly fitter

up. The man placed the body on the bed and departed while Sir Norman, seizing a handbell, rang a peal that

brought a staidlooking housekeeper to the scene directly. Seeing a lady, young and beautiful, in bride robes,

lying apparently dead on her young master's bed at that hour of the night, the discreet matron, over whose

virtuous head fifty years and a snowwhite cap had passed, started back with a slight scream.

"My dear Mrs. Preston," began Sir Norman blandly, this young lady is ill of the plague, and "

But all further explanation was cut short by a horrified shriek from the old lady, and a precipitate rush from

the room. Down stairs she flew, informing the other servants as she went, between her screams, and when Sir

Norman, in a violent rage, went in search of her five minutes after, he found not only the kitchen, but the

"Well," said Ormiston, as Sir Norman strode back, looking fiery hot and savagely angry.

"Well, they have all fled, every man and woman of them, the " Sir Norman ground out something not quite

proper, behind his moustache. "I shall have to go for the doctor, myself. Doctor Forbes is a friend of mine,

and lives near; and you," looking at him rather doubtfully, "would you mind staying here, lest she should

"To tell you the truth," said Ormiston, with charming frankness, "I should! The lady is extremely beautiful, I

must own; but she looks uncomfortably corpselike at this present moment. I do not wish to die of the

plague, either, until I see La Masque once more; and so if it is all the same to you, my dear friend, I will have

Sir Norman, though he did not much approve of this, could not very well object, and the two sallied forth

together. Walking a short distance up Piccadilly, they struck off into a bye street, and soon reached the house

they were in search of. Sir Norman knocked loudly at the door, which was opened by the doctor himself.

Briefly and rapidly Sir Norman informed him how and where his services were required; and the doctor being

always provided with everything necessary for such cases, set out with him immediately. Fifteen minutes

after leaving his own house, Sir Norman was back there again, and standing in his own chamber. But a

simultaneous exclamation of amazement and consternation broke from him and Ormiston, as on entering the

A dead pause followed, during which the three looked blankly at the bed, and then at each other. The scene,

no doubt, would have been ludicrous enough to a third party; but neither of our trio could saw anything

"Some one has been here," said Sir Norman, turning very pale, "and carried her off while we were gone."

"Let us search the house," said the doctor; "you should have locked your door, Sir Norman; but it may not be

Acting on the hint, Sir Norman seized the lamp burning on the table, and started on the search. His two

No, though there was not the slightest trace of robbers or intruders, neither was there the slightest trace of the

beautiful plaguepatient. Everything in the house was precisely as it always was, but the silver shining vision

The search was given over at last in despair, and the doctor took his hat and disappeared. Sir Norman and

"What can it all mean?" asked Ormiston, appealing more to society at large than to his bewildered

"I haven't the faintest idea," said Sir Norman, distractedly; "only I am pretty certain, if I don't find her, I shall

"If she has!" exclaimed Sir Norman, "and I find out the abductor, he won't have a whole bone in his body two

"And yet more impossible that she can have gone off herself," pursued Ormiston with the air of one entering

upon an abstruse subject, and taking no heed whatever of his companion's marginal notes.

"Gone off herself! Is the man crazy?" inquired Sir Norman, with a stare. "Fifteen minutes before we left her

dead, or in a dead swoon, which is all the same in Greek, and yet he talks of her getting up and going off

"In fact, the only way to get at the bottom of the mystery," said Ormiston, "is to go in search of her. Sleeping,

They passed out, and Sir Norman this time took the precaution of turning the key, thereby fulfilling the adage

of locking the stabledoor when the steed was stolen. The night had grown darker and hotter; and as they

"I should recommend visiting the house we found her first; if not there, then we can try the pesthouse."

"Heaven forefend she should be there! It is the most mysterious thing ever I heard of!"

"I can't tell you I am fairly bewildered. If we don't find the lady st her own house, I have half a mind to

"The wisest thing you could do, my dear fellow. If any one knows your unfortunate beloved's whereabouts, it

"That's settled then; and now, don't talk, for conversation at this smart pace I don't admire."

Ormiston, like the amiable, obedient young man that he was, instantly held his tongue, and they strode along

at a breathless pace. There was an unusual concourse of men abroad that night, watching the gloomy face of

the sky, and waiting the hour of midnight to kindle the myriad of fires; and as the two tall, dark figures went

rapidly by, all supposed it to be a case of life or death. In the eyes of one of the party, perhaps it was; and

neither halted till they came once more in sight of the house, whence a short time previously they had carried

the deathcold bride. A row of lamps over the doorportals shed a yellow, uncertain light around, while the

"There is the house," cried Ormiston, and both paused to take breath; "and I am about at the last gasp. I

wonder if your pretty mistress would feel grateful if she knew what I have come through tonight for her

"There are no lights," mad Sir Norman, glancing ,anxiously up at the darkened front of the house; "even the

"That remains to be seen, though I'm very doubtful about it myself. Ah I who have we here?"

The door of the house in question opened, as he spoke, and a figure a man's figure, wearing a slouched hat

and long, dark cloak, came slowly out. He stopped before the house and looked at it long and earnestly; and,

by the twinkling light of the lamps, the friends saw enough of him to know he was young and distinguished

"I should not wonder in the least it that were the bridegroom," whispered Ormiston, maliciously.

Sir Norman turned pale with jealousy, and laid his hand on his sword, with a quick and natural impulse to

make the bride a widow forthwith. But he checked the desire for an instant as the brigandishlooking

gentleman, after a prolonged stare at the premises, stepped up to the watchman, who had given them their

information an hour or two before, and who was still at his post. The friends could not be seen, but they could

"Can you tell me, my friend," began the cloaked unknown, "what has become of the people residing in

The watchman, held his lamp up to the face of the interlocutor a handsome face by the way, what could be

"Well!" said the gentleman, impatiently, "have you no tongue, fellow? Where are they, I say?"

"Blessed if I know," said the watchman. "I, wasn't set here to keep guard over them was I? It looks like it,

though," said the man in parenthesis; "for this makes twice tonight I've been asked questions about it."

"Two young gentlemen; lords, I expect, by their dress. Somebody ran screaming out of the house, and they

"And then, as I couldn't tell them they went in to see for themselves, and shortly after came out with a body

wrapped in a sheet, which they put in a pestcart going by, and had it buried, I suppose, with the rest in the

The stranger fairly staggered back, and caught at s pillar near for support. For nearly ten minutes, he stood

perfectly motionless, and then, without a word, started up and walked rapidly away. The friends looked after

"So she is not there," said Ormiston; "and our mysterious friend in the cloak is as much at a loss as we are

"She may be there, nevertheless; and under present circumstances, it is the beat place for her."

"Don't talk of it!" said Sir Norman, impatiently. "I do not and will not believe she is there! If the sorceress

shows her to me in the caldron again, I verily believe I shall jump in head foremost."

"And I verily believe we will not find La Masque at home. She wanders through the streets at all hours, but

The house of the sorceress was but a short distance from that of Sir Norman's plaguestricken ladylove's;

and shod with a sort of sevenleague boots, they soon reached it. Like the other, it was all dark and deserted.

"This is the home," said Ormiston, looking at it doubtfully, "but where is La Masque?"

"Here!" said a silvery voice at his elbow; and turning round, they saw a tall, slender figure, cloaked, hooded,

"Fortune favors us," said Sir Norman. "Yes, madam, it is even so; once again tonight we would tax your

"Will you not have the goodness to permit us to enter?" said Sir Norman, inclined to feel offended. "How can

"That is my secret," said the sweet voice. "Probably Sir Norman Kingsley wishes to know something of the

"A rapid flame," said the musical voice, in a tone that had just a thought of sarcasm; "for one of whose very

"Madame La Masque," said Norman, flushed sad haughty, "love is not a question of time."

"Sir Norman Kingsley," said the lady, somewhat sadly, "I am aware of that. Tell me what you wish to know,

Ls Masque hesitated and seemed uncertain whether or not to reply. Sir Norman passionately broke in:

"Two miles from London beyond Newgate," said the mask. "There stand the ruins of what was long ago a

huntinglodge, now a crumbling skeleton, roofless and windowless, and said, by rumor, to be haunted.

"I have seen it a hundred times," broke in Sir Norman. "Surely, you do not mean to say she is there?"

"Go there, and you will see. Go there tonight, and lose no time that is, supposing you can procure a

"I have one already. I have a pass from the Lord Mayor to come and go from the city when I please."

"I will go. I might as well do that as anything else, I suppose; but it is quite impossible," said Sir Norman,

"Very well you'll see. You had better go on horseback, if you desire to be back in time to witness the

"I don't particularly desire to see the illumination, as I know of; but I will ride, nevertheless. What am I to do

"You will enter the ruins, and go on till you discover a spiral staircase leading to what was once the vaults.

The flags of these vaults are loose from age, and if you should desire to remove any of them, you will

"Why should I desire to remove them?" asked Sir Norman, who felt dubious, and disappointed, and inclined

"Why, you may see a glimmering of light hear strange noises; and if you remove the stones, may possibly

see strange sights. As I told you before, it is rumored to be haunted, which is true enough, though not in the

"And if I am discovered peeping like a rascally valet, what will be the consequences?"

"Very unpleasant ones to you; but you need not be discovered if you take care. Ah! Look there!"

She pointed to the river, and both her companions looked. A barge gayly painted and gilded, with a light in

prow and stern, came gliding up among less pretentious craft, and stopped at the foot of a flight of stairs

leading to the bridge. It contained four persons the oarsman, two cavaliers sitting in the stern, and a lad in

the rich livery of a courtpage in the act of springing out. Nothing very wonderful in all this; and Sir Norman

"Certainly," replied Sir Norman, promptly; "one is the Duke of York, the other the Earl of Rochester."

"The page!" said Sir Norman, with a stare, as he leaned forward to look; "pray, madam, what has the page to

The two peers has ascended the stairs, and were already on the bridge. The page loitered behind, talking, as it

"He wears the livery of the Earl of Rochester," said Ormiston, speaking for the first time, "but I cannot see his

"He will follow presently, and be sure you see it then! Possibly you may not find it entirely new to you."

She drew back into the shadow as she spoke; and the two nobles, as they advanced, talking earnestly, beheld

Sir Norman and Ormiston. Both raised their hats with a look of recognition, and the salute was courteously

"Goodnight, gentlemen," said Lord Rochester; "a hot evening, is it not? Have you come here to witness the

"Hardly," said Sir Norman; "we have come for a very different purpose, my lord."

"The fires will have one good effect," said Ormiston laughing; "if they clear the air and drive away this

"Pray God they drive away the plague!" said the Duke of York, as he and his companion passed from view.

The page sprang up the stairs after them, humming as he came, one of his master's love ditties songs, saith

tradition, savoring anything but the odor of sanctity. With the warning of La Masque fresh in their mind, both

looked at him earnestly. His gay livery was that of Lord Rochester, and became his graceful figure well, as he

marched along with a jaunty swagger, one hand on his aide, and the other toying with a beautiful little

spaniel, that frisked in open violation of the Lord Mayor's orders, commanding all dogs, great and small, to

be put to death as propagators of the pestilence. In passing, the lad turned his face toward them for a moment

a bright, saucy, handsome face it was and the next instant he went round an angle and disappeared.

Ormiston suppressed an oath. Sir Norman stifled a cry of amazement for both recognized that beautiful

colorless face, those perfect features, and great, black, lustrous eyes. It was the face of the lady they had

"Am I sane or mad?" inquired Sir Norman, looking helplessly about him for information. Surely that is she

"Satan and La Masque only know; for they both seem to have united to drive me mad. Where is she?"

"Where, indeed?" said Ormiston; "where is last year's snow?" And Sir Norman, looking round at the spot

The two friends looked at each other in impressive silence for a moment, and spake never a word. Not that

they were astonished they were long past the power of that emotion: and if a cloud had dropped from the

sky at their feet, they would probably have looked at it passively, and vaguely wonder if the rest would

follow. Sir Norman, especially, had sank into a state of mind that words are faint and feeble to describe.

"Upon my honor, Sir Norman, this is the most astonishing thing ever I heard of. That certainly was the face

of our halfdead bride! What, in the name ad all the gods, can it mean, I wonder?"

"I have given up wondering," said Sir Norman, in the same helpless tone. "And if the earth was to open and

swallow London up, I should not be the least surprised. One thing is certain: the lady we are seeking and that

"And yet La Masque told you she was two miles from the city, in the haunted ruin; and La Masque most

"I have no doubt she is there. I shall not be the least astonished if I find her in every street between this and

"Really, it is a most singular affair! First you see her in the magic caldron; then we find her dead; then, when

within an ace of being buried, she comes to life; then we leave her lifeless as a marble statue, shut up in your

room, and fifteen minutes after, she vanishes as mysteriously as a fairy in a nursery legend. And, lastly, she

turns up in the shape of a courtpage, and swaggers along London Bridge at this hour of the night, chanting a

love song. Faith! it would puzzle the sphinx herself to read this riddle, I've a notion!"

"I, for one, shall never try to read it," said Sir Norman. "I am about tired of this labyrinth of mysteries, and

"Not exactly. I love this mysterious beauty too well to do that; and when next I find her, be it where it may, I

"I cannot forget that page," said Ormiston, musingly. "It is singular, since, he wears the Earl of Rochester's

livery, that we have never seen him before among his followers. Are you quite sure, Sir Norman, that you

"Seen him? Don't be absurd, Ormiston! Do you think I could ever forget such a face as that?"

"It would not be easy, I confess. One does not see such every day. And yet and yet it is most

"I shall ask Rochester about him the first thing tomorrow; and unless he is an optical illusion which I vow

I half believe is the case I will come at the truth in spite of your demoniac friend, La Masque!"

"Look for him? I might as well look for a needle in a haystack. No! I have promised La Masque to visit the

"I think not. I have a word to say to La, Masque, and you and she kept talking so busily, I had no chance to

"Besides, I have no doubt it is a word you would not like to utter in the presence of a third party, even though

that third party be your friend and Pythias, Kingsley. Do you mean to stay here like a plaguesentinel until

"Possibly; or if I get tired I may set out in search of her. When do you return?"

"The Fates, that seem to make a football of my best affections, and kick them as they please, only know. If

nothing happens which, being interpreted, means, if I am still in the land of the living I shall surely be

"And I shall be anxious about that time to hear the result of your night's adventure; so where shall we meet?"

"Goodnight, and God speed you!" said Ormiston. And wrapping his cloak close about him, he leaned

against the doorway, and, watching the dancing lights on the river, prepared to await the return of La Masque.

With his head full of the adventures and misadventures of the night, Sir Norman walked thoughtfully on until

he reached the King's Arms a low inn on the bank of the river. To his dismay he found the house shut up,

and bearing the dismal mark and inscription of the pestilence. While he stood contemplating it in perplexity,

a watchman, on guard before another plague stricken house, advanced and informed him that the whole

family had perished of the disease, and that the landlord himself, the last survivor, had been carried off not

"But," added the man, seeing Sir Norman's look of annoyance, and being informed what he wanted, "there

are two or three horses around there in the stable, and you may as well help yourself, for if you don't take

This philosophic logic struck Sir Norman as being so extremely reasonable, that without more ado he stepped

round to the stables and selected the best it contained. Before proceeding on his journey, it occurred to him

that, having been handling a plague patient, it would be a good thing to get his clothes fumigated; so he

stepped into an apothecary's store for that purpose, and provided himself also with a bottle of aromatic

vinegar. Thus prepared for the worst, Sir Norman sprang on his horse like a second Don Quixote striding his

good steed Rozinante, and sallied forth in quest of adventures. These, for a short time, were of rather a dismal

character; for, hearing the noise of a horse's hoofs in the silent streets at that hour of the night, the people

opened their doors as he passed by, thinking it the pestcart, and brought forth many a miserable victim of

the pestilence. Averting his head from the revolting spectacles, Sir Norman held the bottle of vinegar to his

nostrils, and rode rapidly till he reached Newgate. There he was stopped until his bill of health was examined,

and that small manuscript being found all right, he was permitted to pass on in peace. Everywhere he went,

the trail of the serpent was visible over all. Death and Desolation went hand in hand. Outside as well as inside

the gates, great piles of wood and coal were arranged, waiting only the midnight hour to be fired. Here,

however, no one seemed to be stirring; and no sound broke the silence but the distant rumble of the

deathcart, and the ringing of the driver's bell. There were lights in some of the houses, but many of them

It was a gloomy scene and hour, and Sir Norman's heart turned sick within him as he noticed tho ruin and

devastation the pestilence had everywhere wrought. And he remembered, with a shudder, the prediction of

Lilly, the astrologer, that the paved streets of London would be like green fields, and the living be no longer

able to bury the dead. Long before this, he had grown hardened and accustomed to death from its very

frequence; but now, as he looked round him, he almost resolved to ride on and return no more to London till

the plague should have left it. But then came the thought of his unknown ladylove, and with it the reflection

that he was on his way to find her; and, rousing himself from his melancholy reverie, he rode on at a brisker

pace, heroically resolved to brave the plague or any other emergency, for her sake. Full of this laudable and

loverlike resolution, he had got on about half a mile further, when he was suddenly checked in his rapid

During the last few yards, Sir Norman had come within sight of another horseman, riding on at rather a

leisurely pace, considering the place and the hour. Suddenly three other horsemen came galloping down upon

him, and the leader presenting a pistol at his head, requested him in a stentorial voice for his money or his

life. By way of reply, the stranger instantly produced a pistol of his own, and before the astonished

highwayman could comprehend the possibility of such an act, discharged it full in his face. With a loud yell

the robber reeled and fell from his saddle, and in a twinkling both his companions fired their pistols at the

traveler, and bore, with a simultaneous cry of rage, down upon him. Neither of the shots had taken effect, but

the two enraged highwaymen would have made short work of their victim had not Sir Norman, like a true

knight, ridden to the rescue. Drawing his sword, with one vigorous blow he placed another of the assassins

hors de combat; and, delighted with the idea of a fight to stir his stagnant blood, was turning (like a second

St. George at the Dragon), upon the other, when that individual, thinking discretion the better part of valor,

instantaneously turned tail and fled. The whole brisk little episode had not occupied five minutes, and Sir

"Short, sharp, and decisive!" was the stranger's cool criticism, as he deliberately wiped his blood=stained

sword, and placed it in a velvet scabbard. "Our friends, there, got more than they bargained for, I fancy.

Though, but for you, Sir," he said, politely raising him hat and bowing, "I should probably have been ere this

Sir Norman, deeply edified by the easy sangfroid of the speaker, turned to take a second look at him. There

was very little light; for the night had grown darker as it wore on, and the few stars that had glimmered

faintly had hid their diminished heads behind the piles of inky clouds. Still, there was a sort of faint

phosphorescent light whitening the gloom, and by it Sir Norman's keen bright eyes discovered that he wore a

long dark cloak and slouched hat. He discovered something else, too that he had seen that hat and cloak,

and the man inside of them on London Bridge, not an hour before. It struck Sir Norman there was a sort of

fatality in their meeting; and his pulses quickened a trifle, as he thought that he might be speaking to the

husband of the lady for whom he had so suddenly conceived such a rash and inordinate attachment. That

personage meantime having reloaded his pistol, with a selfpossession refreshing to witness, replaced it in

his doublet, gathered up the reins, and, glancing slightly at his companion, spoke again

"I should thank you for saving my life, I suppose, but thanking people is so little in my line, that I scarcely

know how to set about it. Perhaps, my dear sir, you will take the will for the deed."

"An original, this," thought Sir Norman,"whoever he is." Then aloud: "Pray don't trouble yourself about

thanks, sir, I should have dome precisely the same for the highwaymen, had you been three to one over

"I don't doubt it in the least; nevertheless I feel grateful, for you have saved my life all the same, and you

"There you are mistaken," said Sir Norman, quietly "I had the pleasure of seeing you scarce an hour ago."

"Do you know me?" said the stranger; and Sir Norman could see he was gazing at him sharply from under the

"It was quite dark when you saw me on the bridge how comes it, then, that you recollect me so well?"

"I have always been blessed with an excellent memory," said Sir Norman carelessly, "and I knew your dress,

"My voice! Then you heard me speak, probably to the watchman guarding a plaguestricken house?"

"Exactly! and the subject being a very interesting one, I listened to all you said."

"Indeed I and what possible interest could; the subject have for you, may I ask?"

"A deeper one than you think!" said Sir Norman, with a slight tremor in his voice as he thought of the lady,

"the watchman told you the lady you sought for had been carried away dead, and thrown into the plaguepit!"

"Only partly. She was carried away in the pestcart sure enough, but she was not thrown into the

"Then," exclaimed Sir Norman, in a tone almost as excited as his own, "she was brought to the house of a

friend, and left alone for a few minutes, while that friend went in search of a doctor. On returning they found

"Gone!" said Sir Norman emphatically, "spirited away by some mysterious agency; for she was dying of the

"Dying of the plague, O Leoline!" said the stranger, in a voice full of pity and horror, while for a moment he

"So her name is Leoline?" said Sir Norman to himself. "I have found that out, and also that this gentleman,

whatever he may be to her, is as ignorant of her whereabouts as I am myself. He seems in trouble, too. I

The stranger suddenly lifted his head and favored Sir Norman with a long and searching look.

"And how come you to know my name?" demanded Sir Norman, very much amazed, notwithstanding his

"That is of no consequence! Tell me how you've learned all this?" repeated the stranger, in a tone of almost

Sir Norman started and stared. That voice I have had heard it a thousand times! It had evidently been

disguised before; but now, in the excitement of the moment, the stranger was thrown off his guard, and it

became perfectly familiar. But where had he heard it? For the life of him, Sir Norman could not tell, yet it

was as well known to him as his own. It had the tone, too, of one far more used to command than entreaty;

and Sir Norman, instead of getting angry, us he felt he ought to have done, mechanically answered:

"The watchman told you of the two young men who brought her out and laid her in the deadcart I was one

"Ah! I know him! Pardon my abruptness, Sir Norman," said the stranger, once more speaking in his assumed

suave tone, "but I feel deeply on this subject, and was excited at the moment. You spoke of her being brought

to the house of a friend now, who may that friend be, for I was not aware that she had any?"

"So I judged," said Sir Norman, rather bitterly, or she would not have been left to die alone of the plague. She

was brought to my house, sir, and I am the friend who would have stood by her to the last!"

Sir Norman sat up very straight and haughty on his horse; and had it been daylight, he would have seen a

"I have always heard that Sir Norman Kingsley was a chivalrous knight," he said; "but I scarcely dreamed his

gallantry would have carried him go far as to brave death by the pestilence for the sake of an unknown lady

"No doubt! Those who could desert her at such a time would probably be capable of that or any other

"My good friend," said the stranger, calmly, "your insinuation is not overcourteous, but I can forgive it,

"I'm obliged to you! And now, sir, as you have seen fit to question me in this free and easy manner, will you

pardon me if I take the liberty of returning the compliment, and ask you a few in return?"

"Certainly; pray proceed, Sir Norman," said the stranger, blandly; "you are at liberty to ask as many questions

"I answered all yours unhesitatingly, and you owe it to me to do the same," said Sir Norman, somewhat

haughtily. "In the first place, you have an advantage of me which I neither understand, nor relish; so, to place

"Most assuredly! My name," said the stranger, with glib airiness, "is Count L'Estrange."

"A name unknown to me," said Sir Norman, with a piercing look, "and equally unknown, I believe, at

Whitehall. There is a Lord L'Estrange in London; or you and he are certainly not one and the same."

"My friend does not believe me," said the count, almost gayly "a circumstance I regret, but cannot help. Is

"If you do not answer my questions truthfully, there to little use in my asking them," said Sir Norman,

"Sir Norman Kingsley is at perfect liberty to answer that question as he pleases," replied the stranger, with

Sir Norman's eye flashed, and his hand fell on his sword; but, reflecting that the count might find it

inconvenient to answer any more questions if he ran him through, he restrained himself and went on.

"Sir, you are impertinent, but that is of no consequence, just now. Who was that lady what was her name?"

The stranger paused for a moment, as if reflecting whether she was or not, and then said, meditatively

Sir Norman felt as if a ton weight had been suddenly hoisted from the region of his heart.

"I think not. I'm inclined to think that, except myself, she did not know another man in London."

"Was she? My poor Leoline!" said the stranger, sadly. "Because " he hesitated, "because in short, Sir

Norman," said the stranger, decidedly, "I decline answering any more questions!"

"I shall find out, for all that," said Sir Norman, "and here I shall bid you goodnight, for this bypath leads to

"Goodnight," said the stranger, "and be careful, Sir Normanremember, the plague is abroad."

"And so are highwaymen!" called Sir Norman after him, a little maliciously; but a careless laugh from the

The bypath down which Sir Norman rode, led to an inn, "The Golden Crown," about a quarter of a mile

from the ruin. Not wishing to take his horse, lest it should lead to discovery, he proposed leaving it here till

his return; and, with this intention, and the strong desire for a glass of wine for the heat and his ride made

him extremely thirsty he dismounted at the door, and consigning the animal to the care of a hostler, he

entered the barroom. It was not the most inviting place in the world, this same barroom being

illylighted, dim with tobaccosmoke, and pervaded by a strong spirituous essence of stronger drinks than

malt or cold water. A number of men were loitering about, smoking, drinking, and discussing the

allabsorbing topic of the plague, and the fires that might be kindled. There was a moment's pause, as Sir

Norman entered, took a seat, and called for a glass of sack, and then the conversation went on as before. The

landlord hastened to supply his wants by placing a glass and a bottle of wine before him, and Sir Norman fell

to helping himself, and to ruminating deeply on the events of the night. Rather melancholy these ruminations

were, though to do the young gentleman justice, sentimental melancholy was not at all in his line; but then

you will please to recollect he was in love, and when people come to that state, they are no longer to be held

responsible either for their thoughts or actions. It is true his attack had been a rapid one, but it was no less

severe for that; and if any evilminded critic is disposed to sneer at the suddenness of his disorder, I have

only to say, that I know from observation, not to speak of experience, that love at first sight is a lamentable

Love is not a plant that requires time to flourish, but is quite capable of springing up like the gourd of Jonah

full grown in a moment. Our young friend, Sir Norman, had not been aware of the existence of the object of

his affections for a much longer space than two hours and a half, yet he had already got to such a pitch, that if

he did not speedily find her, he felt he would do something so desperate as to shake society to its utmost

foundations. The very mystery of the affair spurred him on, and the romantic way in which she had been

found, saved, and disappeared, threw such a halo of interest round her, that he was inclined to think

sometimes she was nothing but a shining vision from another world. Those dark, splendid eyes; that lovely

marblelike face; those wavy ebon tresses; that exquisitely exquisite figure; yes, he felt they were all a great

deal too perfect for this imperfect and wicked world. Six Norman was in a very bad way, beyond doubt, but

no worse than millions of young men before and after him; and he heaved a great many profound sighs, and

drank a great many glasses of sack, and came to the sorrowful conclusion that Dame Fortune was a malicious

jade, inclined to poke fun at his best affections, and make a shuttlecock of his heart for the rest of his life. He

thought, too, of Count L'Estrange; and the longer he thought, the more he became convinced that he knew

him well, and had met him often. But where? He racked his brain until, between love, Leoline, and the count,

he got that delicate organ into such a maze of bewilderment and distraction, that he felt he would be a case of

congestion, shortly, if he did not give it up. That the count's voice was not the only thing about him assumed,

he was positive; and he mentally called over the musterroll of his past friends, who spent half their time at

Whitehall, and the other half going through the streets, making love to the honest citizens' pretty wives and

daughters; but none of them answered to Count L'Estrange. He could scarcely be a foreigner he spoke

English with too perfect an accent to be that; and then he knew him, Sir Norman, as if he had been his

brother. In short, there was no use driving himself insane trying to read so unreadable a riddle; and inwardly

consigning the mysterious count to Old Nick, he swallowed another glass of sack, and quit thinking about

So absorbed had Sir Norman been in his own mournful musings, that he paid no attention whatever to those

around him, and had nearly forgotten their very presence, when one of them, with aloud cry, sprang to his

feet, and then fell writhing to the floor. The others, in dismay, gathered abut him, but the ne=t instant fell

back with a cry of, "He has the plague!" At that dreaded announcement, half of them scampered off

incontinently; and the other half with the landlord at their head, lifted the sufferer whose groans and cries

were heartrendering, and carried him out of the house. Sir Norman, rather dismayed himself, had risen to his

feet, fully aroused from his reverie, and found himself and another individual sole possessors of the premises.

His companion he could not very well make out; for he was sitting, or rather crouching, in a remote and

shadowy corner, where nothing was clearly visible but the glare of a pair of fiery eyes. There was a great

redundancy of hair, too, about his head and face, indeed considerable more about the latter than there seemed

any real necessity for, and even with the imperfect glimpse he caught of him the young man set him down in

his own mind as about as hardlooking a customer as he had ever seen. The fiery eyes were glaring upon him

like those of a tiger, through a jungle of bushy hair, but their owner spoke never a word, though the other

stared back with compound interest. There they sat, beaming upon each other one fiercely, the other

curiously, until the reappearance of the landlord with a very lugubrious and woebegone countenance. It

struck Sir Norman that it was about time to start for the ruin; and, with an eye to business, he turned to

"Sent him to the pesthouse," replied the landlord, resting his elbows on the counter and his chin in his

hands, and staring dismally at the opposite wall. "Ah! Lord 'a' mercy on us I these be dreadful times!"

"Dreadful enough!" said Sir Norman, sighing deeply, as he thought of his beautiful Leoline, a victim of the

"You seem rather disheartened," said Sir Norman, pouring out a glass of wine and handing it to him. Just

drink this, and don't borrow trouble. They say sack is a sure specific against the plague."

"If I thought that, sir, I'd not be sober from one week's end to t'other; but I know well enough I will be in a

"Amen!" said Sir Norman, impatiently. "If fear has not taken away your wits, my good sir, will you tell me

The man started from his trance of terror, and glanced, first at the fiery eyes in the corner, and then at Sir

"That ruin, sir? You must be a stranger in this place, surely, or you would not need to ask that question."

"But I do not, you see? So fill your glass again, and while you are drinking it, just tell me what that

Again the landlord glanced fearfully st the fiery eyes in the corner, and again hesitated.

"Well!" exclaimed Sir Norman, at once surprised and impatient at his taciturnity, "Can't you speak man? I

"There is nothing to tell, sir," replied the host, goaded to desperation. "It is an old, deserted ruin that's been

While, he spoke, the crouching shape in the corner reared itself upright, and keeping his fiery eyes still

glaring upon Sir Norman, advanced into the light. Our young knight was in the act of raising his glass to his

lips; but as the apparition approached, he laid it down again, untasted, and stared at it in the wildest surprise

and intensest curiosity. Truly, it was a singularlooking creature, not to say a rather startling one. A dwarf of

some. four feet high, and at least five feet broad across the shoulders, with immense arms and head a giant

in everything but height. His immense skull was set on such a trifle of a neck as to be scarcely worth

mentioning, and was garnished by a violent mat of coarse, black hair, which also overran the territory of his

cheeks and chin, leaving no neutral ground but his two fiery eyes and a broken nose all twisted awry. On a

pair of short, stout legs he wore immense jackboots, his Herculean shoulders and chest were adorned with a

leathern doublet, and in the belt round his waist were conspicuously stuck a pair of pistols and a dagger.

Altogether, a more ugly or sinister gentleman of his inches it would have been hard to find in all broad

England. Stopping deliberately before Sir Norman, he placed a hand on each hip, and in a deep, guttural

"So, sir knight for such I perceive you are you are anxious to know something of that old ruin yonder?"

"Well," said Sir Norman, so far recovering from his surprise as to be able to speak, "suppose I am? Have you

"Oh, not in the least!" said the dwarf, with a hoarse chuckle. Only, instead of wasting your breath asking this

good man, who professes such utter ignorance, you had better apply to me for information."

Again Sir Norman surveyed the little Hercules from head to foot for a moment, in silence, as one, nowadays,

"You think so do you? And what may you happen to know about it, my pretty little friend?"

"O Lord!" exclaimed the landlord, to himself, with a frightened face, while the dwarf "grinned horribly a

"So much, my good sir, that I would strongly advise you not to go near it, unless you wish to catch something

worse than the plague. There have been others our worthy host, there, whose teeth, you may perceive, are

chattering in his head, can tell you about those that have tried the trick, and "

"And have never returned to tell what they found!" concluded the little monster, with a diabolical leer. And as

the landlord fell, gray and gasping, back in his seat, he broke out into a loud and hyenalike laugh.

"My dear little friend," said Sir Norman, staring at him in displeased wonder, "don't laugh, if you can help it.

You are unprepossessing enough at best, but when you laugh, you look like the very (a downward gesture)

Unheeding this advice, the dwarf broke again into an unearthly cachinnation, that frightened the landlord

nearly into fits, and seriously discomposed the nervous system even of Sir Norman himself. Then, grinning

like a baboon, and still transfixing our puissant young knight with the same tigerlike and unpleasant glare,

he nodded a farewell; and in this fashion, grinning, and nodding, and backing, he got to the door, and

concluding the interesting performance with a third hoarse and hideous laugh, disappeared in the darkness.

For fully ten minutes after he was gone, the young man kept his eyes blankly fixed on the door, with a vague

impression that he was suffering from an attack of nightmare; for it seemed impossible that anything so

preposterously ugly as that dwarf could exist out of one. A deep groan from the landlord, however, convinced

him that it was no disagreeable midnight vision, but a brawny reality; and turning to that individual, he found

"Now, who in the name of all the demons oat of Hades may that ugly abortion be?" inquired Sir Norman.

"O Lord I be merciful! sir, it's Caliban; and the only wonder is, he did not leave you a bleeding corpse at his

"I should like to see him try it. Perhaps he would have found that is a game two can play at! Where does he

The landlord leaned over the counter, and placed a very pale and startled face close to Sir Norman's.

"That's just what I wanted to tell you, sir, but I was afraid to speak before him. I think he lives up in that same

old ruin you were inquiring about at least, he is often seen hanging around there; but people are too much

afraid of him to ask him any questions. Ah, sir, it's a strange place, that ruin, and there be strange stories

"Well, sir, for one thing, some folks say it is haunted, on account of the queer lights and noises abort it,

sometimes; but, again, there be other folks, sir, that say the ghosts are alive, and that he" nodding toward

"Lord only knows, sir. I'm sure I don't. I never go near it myself; but there are others who have, and some of

them tell of the most beautiful lady, all in white, with long, black hair, who walks on the battlements

"A beautiful lady, all in white, with long, black hair! Why, that description applies to Leoline exactly."

And Sir Norman gave a violent start, and arose to proceed to the place directly.

"Don't you go near it, sir!" said the host, warningly. "Others have gone, as he told you, and never come back;

for these be dreadful times, and men do as they please. Between the plague and their wickedness, the Lord

"If I should return here for my horse in an hour or two, I suppose I can get him?" sad Sir Norman, as he

"It's likely you can, sir, if I'm not dead by that time," said the landlord, as he sank down again, groaning

The night was now profoundly dark; but Sir Norman knew the road and ruin well, and, drawing his sword,

walked resolutely on. The distance between it and the ruin was trifling, and in less than ten minutes it loomed

up before him, a mass of deeper black in the blackness. No white vision floated on the broken battlements

this night, as Sir Norman looked wistfully up at them; but neither was there any ungainly dwarf, with

twoedged sword, guarding the ruined entrance; and Sir Norman passed unmolested in. He sought the spiral

staircase which La Masque had spoken of, and, passing carefully from one ancient chamber to another,

stumbling over piles of rubbish and stones as he went, he reached it at last. Descending gingerly its tortuous

steepness, he found himself in the mouldering vaults, and, as he trod them, his ear was greeted by the sound

of faint and faroff music. Proceeding farther, he heard distinctly, mingled with it, a murmur of voices and

laughter, and, through the chinks in the broken flags, he perceived a few faint rays of light. Remembering the

directions of La Masque, and feeling intensely curious, he cautiously knelt down, and examined the loose

flagstones until he found one he could raise; he pushed it partly aside, and, lying flat on the stones, with his

"Love is like a dizziness," says the old song. Love is something else it is the most selfish feeling in

existence. Of course, I don't allude to the fraternal or the friendly, or any other such nonsensical

oldfashioned trash that artless people still believe in, but to the real genuine article that Adam felt for Eve

when he first saw her, and which all who read this above the innocent and unsusceptible age of twelve

have experienced. And the fancy and the reality are so much alike, that they amount to about the same thing.

The former perhaps, may be a little shortlived; but it is just as disagreeable a sensation while it lasts se its

more enduring sister. Love is said to be blind, and it also has a very injurious effect on the eyesight of its

victims an effect that neither spectacles nor oculists can aid in the slightest degree, making them see

I don't know whether these were Mr. Malcolm or Ormiston's thoughts, as he leaned against the doorway,

and folded his arms across his chest to await the shining of his daystar. In fact, I am pretty sure they were

not: young gentlemen, as a general thing, not being any more given to profound moralizing in the reign of

His Most Gracious Majesty, Charles II., than they are at the present day; but I do know, that no sooner was

his bosom friend and crony, Sir Norman Kingsley, out of eight, than he forgot him as teetotally an if he had

never known that distinguished individual. His many and deep afflictions, his love, his anguish, and his

provocations; his beautiful, tantalizing, and mysterious ladylove; his errand and its probable consequences,

all were forgotten; and Ormiston thought of nothing or nobody in the world but himself and La Masque. La

Masque! La Masque! that was the theme on which his thoughts rang, with wild variations of alternate hope

and fear, like every other lover since the world began, and love was first an institution. "As it was in the

beginning, is now, and ever shall be," truly, truly it is an odd and wonderful thing. And you and I may thank

our stars, dear readers, that we are a great deal too sensible to wear our hearts in our sleeves for such s

bloodthirsty dew to peck at. Ormiston's flame was longerlived than Sir Norman's; he had been in love a

whole month, and had it badly, and was now at the very crisis of a malady. Why did she conceal her face

would she ever disclose it would she listen to him would she ever love him? feverishly asked Passion;

and Common Sense (or what little of that useful commodity he had left) answered probably because she

was eccentric possibly she would disclose it for the same reason; that he had only to try and make her

I can't say whether the adage! "Faint heart never won fair lady!" was extant in his time; but the spirit of it

certainly was, and Ormiston determined to prove it. He wanted to see La Masque, and try his fate once again;

and see her he would, if he had to stay there as a sort of ornamental prop to the house for a week. He knew he

might as well look for a needle in a haystack as his whimsical beloved through the streets of London dismal

and dark now as the streets of Luxor and Tadmor in Egypt; and he wisely resolved to spare himself and his

Spanish leathers boots the trial of a onehanded game of "hideandgotoseek." Wisdom, like Virtue, is its

own reward; and scarcely had he come to this laudable conclusion, when, by the feeble glimmer of the

houselamps, he saw a figure that made his heart bound, flitting through the nightgloom toward him. He

would have known that figure on the sands of Sahara, in an Indian jungle, or an American forest a tall,

slight, supple figure, bending and springing like a bow of steel, queenly and regal as that of a young empress.

It was draped in a long cloak reaching to the ground, in color as black as the night, and clasped by a jewel

whose glittering flash, he saw even there; a velvet hood of the same color covered the stately head; and the

mask the tiresome, inevitable mask covered the beautiful he was positive it was beautiful face. He had

seen her a score of times in that very dress, flitting like a dark, graceful ghost through the city streets, and the

sight sent his heart plunging against his side like an inward sledgehammer. Would one pulse in her heart stir

ever so faintly at sight of him? Just as he asked himself the question, and was stepping forward to moot her,

feeling very like the country swain in love "hot and dry like, with a pain in his side like" he suddenly

stopped. Another figure came forth from the shadow of an opposite house, and softly pronounced her name.

It was a short figure a woman's figure. He could not see the face, and that was an immense relief to him,

and prevented his having jealousy added to his other pains sad tribulations. La Masque paused as well as he,

"Ah! I am glad to meet you. I have been searching the city through for you. Where have you been?"

"Madame, I was so frightened that I don't know where I fled to, and I could scarcely make up my mind to

come back at all. I did feel dreadfully sorry for her, poor thing! but you know, Madame Masque, I could do

"You did wrong, Prudence," said La Masque, sternly, or at least as sternly as so sweet a voice could speak;

"you did very wrong to leave her in such a way. You should have come to me at once, and told me all."

"Bah! You are nothing but a coward. Come into this doorway, and tell me all about it."

Ormiston drew back as the twain approached, and entered the deep portals of La Masque's own doorway. He

could see them both by the aforesaid faint lamplight, and he noticed that La Masque's companion was a

wrinkled old woman, that would not trouble the peace of mind of the most jealous lover in Christendom.

Perhaps it was not just the thing to hover aloof and listen; but he could not for the life of him help it; and

stand and listen he accordingly did. Who knew but this nocturnal conversation might throw some light on the

dark mystery he was anxious to see through, and, could his ears have run into needlepoints to hear the

better, he would have had the operation then and there performed. There was a moment's silence after the two

entered the portal, during which La Masque stood, tall, dark, and commanding, motionless as a marble

column; and the little withered old specimen of humanity beside her stood gazing up at her with something

"Do you know what has become of your charge, Prudence?" asked the low, vibrating voice of La Masque, at

"How could I, madame? You know I fled from the house, and I dared not go back. Perhaps she is there still."

"Perhaps she is not? Do you suppose that sharp shriek of yours was unheard? No; she was found; and what do

The old woman looked up, and seemed to read in the dark, stern figure, and the deep solemn voice, the fatal

"Oh! I know, I know; they have put her in the deadcart, and buried her in the plaguepit. O my dear, sweet

"If you had stayed by your dear, sweet young mistress, instead of running screaming away as you did, it

might not have happened," said La Masque, in a tone between derision and contempt.

"Madame," sobbed the old woman, who was crying, "she was dying of the plague, and how could I help it?

"She was not dead; there was your mistake. She was as much alive as you or I at this moment."

"Prudence, you did no such thing; you left her fainting, and in that state she was found and carried to the

The old woman stood silent for a moment, with a face of intense horror, and then she clasped both hands with

"O my God! And they buried her alive buried her alive in that dreadful plaguepit!"

La Masque, leaning against a pillar, stood unmoved; and her voice, when she spoke, was as coldly sweet as

"Not exactly. She was not buried at all, as I happen to know. But when did you discover that she had the

"That I do not know, madam. She seemed well enough all day, though not in such high spirits as a bride

should be. Toward evening die complained of a headache and a feeling of faintness; but I thought nothing of

it, and helped her to dress for the bridal. Before it was over, the headache and faintness grew worse, and I

gave her wine, and still suspected nothing. The last time I came in, she had grown so much worse, that

notwithstanding her wedding dress, she had lain down on her bed, looking for all the world like a ghost, and

told me she had the most dreadful burning pain in her chest. Then, madame, the horrid truth struck me I

tore down her dress, and there, sure enough, was the awful mark of the distemper. `You have the plague!' I

shrieked; and then I fled down stairs and out of the house, like one crazy. O madame, madame! I shall never

forget it it was terrible! I shall never forget it! Poor, poor child; and the count does not know a word of it!"

La Masque laughed a sweet, clear, deriding laugh, "So the count does not know it, Prudence? Poor man! he

will be in despair when he finds it out, won't he? Such an ardent and devoted lover as he was you know!"

"Yes, madame, I think so. He seemed very fond of her; a great deal fonder than she ever was of him. The fact

is, madame," said Prudence, lowering her voice to a confidential stage whisper, "she never seemed fond of

him at all, and wouldn't have been married, I think, if she could have helped it."

"Why, madame, she was not exactly forced, perhaps; but you know you know you told me "

"To do what I could," cried Prudence, in a sort of desperation; "and I did it, madame, and harassed her about

it night and day. And then the count was there, too, coaxing and entreating; and he was handsome and had

such ways with him that no woman could resist, much less one so little used to gentlemen as Leoline. And so,

Madame Masque, we kept at her till we got her to consent to it at last; but in her secret heart, I know she did

not want to be married at least to the count," said Prudence, on serious afterthought.

"Well, well; that has nothing to do with it. The question is, where it she to be found?"

"Of coarse she has, you old simpleton! How could she help it, and she dead, with no one to look after her?"

said La Masque, with something like a half laugh. "She was carried to the plaguepit in her bridalrobes,

jewels and lace; and, when about to be thrown in, was discovered, like Moses is the bulrushes, to be all

"Well, O most courageous of guardians! she was carried to a certain house, and left to her own devices, while

her gallant rescuer went for a doctor; and when they returned she was missing. Our pretty Leoline seems to

There was a pause, during which Prudence looked at her with a face fall of mingled fear and curiosity. At

"Madame, I dare not go into that house again. I am afraid of taking the plague."

"Prudence, you are a perfect idiot! Are you not liable to take the plague in the remotest quarter of this

plagueinfested city? And even if you do take it, what odds? You have only a few years to live, at the most,

"What matter?" repeated Prudence, in a high key of indignant amazement. "It may make no matter to you,

Madame Masque, but it makes a great deal to me; I can tell you; and into that infected house I'll not put one

"Just as you please, only in that case there is no need for further talk, so allow me to bid you goodnight!"

"What have I to tell? I have told you all I know. If you want to find her, you must search in the city or in the

"O, my poor darling! so good and so beautiful. Heaven might surely have spared her! Are you going to do

"What can I do? I have searched for her and have not found her, and what else remains?"

"Madame, you know everything surely, surely you know where my poor little nursling is, among the rest."

"No such thing, Prudence. If I did, I should have her here in a twinkling, depend upon it. However, it all

comes to the same thing in the end. She is probably dead by this time, and would have to be buried in the

plaguepit, anyhow. If you have nothing further to say, Prudence, you had better bid me goodnight, and let

"Goodnight, madame!" said Prudence, with a sort of groan, as she wrapped her cloak closely around her,

La Masque stood for a moment looking after her, and then placed a key in the lock of the door. But there is

many a slip she was not fated to enter as soon as she thought; for just at that moment a new step sounded

beside her, a new voice pronounced her name, and looking around, she beheld Ormiston. With what feelings

that young person had listened to the neat and appropriate dialogue I have just had the pleasure of

immortalizing, may be to use a phrase you may have heard before, once or twice better imagined than

described. He knew very well who Leoline was, and how she had been saved from the plaguepit; but where

in the world had La Masque found it out. Lost in a maze of wonder, and inclined to doubt the evidence of his

own ears, he had stood perfectly still, until his ladylove had so coolly dismissed her company, and then

rousing himself just in time, he had come forward and accosted her. La Masque turned round, regarded him

in silence for a moment, and when she spoke, her voice had an accent of mingled surprise and displeasure.

"You, Mr. Ormiston! How many more times am I to have the pleasure of seeing you again tonight?"

"Must I? Very well, then; if I must, you had better begin at once, for the nightair is said to be unhealthy, and

"In that case, perhaps you had better let me enter, too. I hate to talk on the street, for every wall has ears."

"I am aware of that. When I was talking to my old friend, Prudence, two minutes ago, I saw a tall shape that I

have reason to know, since it haunts me, like my own shadow, standing there and paying deed attention. I

"Oh, don't blush; there is quite light enough from yonder lamp to show that. Besides," added the lady, easily,

"I don't know as I had any objection; you are interested in Leoline, and must feel curious to know something

"Oh, I know all that. There is no need to apologize, and I don't think any the worse of you for it. Will you

come to business, Mr. Ormiston? I think I told you I wanted to go in. What may you want of me at this

"I am not aware that it does! And to tell you the truth, Mr. Ormiston, I don't know that I even have a heart! I

"Is that all? If my memory serves me, you have told me that little fact several times before. Is there anything

Ormiston groaned out an oath between his teeth, and La Masque raised one jeweled, snowy taper finger,

"Madame, you are enough to drive a man mad. Is the love I bear you worthy of nothing but mockery!"

"No, Mr. Ormiston, it is not; that is, supposing you really love me, which you don't."

"Oh, you needn't flash and look indignant; it is quite true! Don't be absurd, Mr. Ormiston. How is it possible

"My face, I mean. I don't consider that you can see a person without looking in her face. Now you have never

"Madame, I do not believe you are; you are all too perfect not to have a perfect face; and even were it

"You do! O man, how wise thou art! I tell you, if I took off this mask, the sight would curdle the very blood

in your veins with horror would freeze the lifeblood in your heart. I tell you!" she passionately cried, "there

are sights too horrible for human beings to look on and live, and this this is one of them!"

"You think me mad," she said, in a less fierce tone, "but I am not; and I repeat it, Mr. Ormiston, the sight of

what this mask conceals would blast you. Go now, for Heaven's sake, and leave me in peace, to drag out the

rest of my miserable life; and if ever you think of me, let it be to pray that it might speedily end. You have

She made a desperate gesture, and turned to leave him, but he caught her hand and held her fast.

"Never!" he cried, fiercely. "Say what you will! let that mask hide what it may! I will never leave you till life

"Madame, hear me. There is but one way to prove my love, and my sanity, and that is "

"Raise your mask and try me! Show me your face and see if I do not love you still!"

"Truly I know how much love you will have for me when it is revealed. Do you know that no one has looked

"It is so, Mr. Ormiston; and in my heart I have vowed a vow to plunge headlong into the most loathsome

plaguepit in London, rather than ever raise it again. My friend, be satisfied. Go and leave me; go and forget

"I can do neither until I have ceased to forget every thing earthly. Madame, I implore you, hear me!"

"Mr. Ormiston, I tell you, you but court your own doom. No one can look on me and live!"

"I will risk it," he said with an incredulous smile. "Only promise to show me your face."

"Be it so then!" she cried almost fiercely. "I promise, and be the consequences on your own head."

"Who knows! What must be done, had best be done quickly; but I tell thee it were safer to play with the

"No, no I cannot! But yet, I may before the sun rises. My face" with bitter scorn "shows better by

"Then meet me here an hour after midnight, and the face so long hidden shall be revealed. But, once again, on

"There is no such word for me!" he fiercely and exultingly cried. "I have your promise, and I shall hold you

to it! And, madame, if, at last, you discover my love is changeless as fate itself, then then may I not dare to

"Yes; then you may hope," she said, with cold mockery. "If your love survives the sight, it will be mighty,

"My darling!" he cried, rapturously "for you are mine already how can I ever thank you for this? If s

whole lifetime devoted and consecrated to your happiness can repay you, it shall be yours!"

During this rhapsody, her hand had been on the handle of the door. Now she turned it.

Shocks of joy, they tell me, seldom kill. Of my own knowledge I cannot say, for I have had precious little

experience of such shocks in my lifetime, Heaven knows; but in the present instance, I can safely aver, they

had no such dismal effect on Ormiston. Nothing earthly could have given that young gentleman a greater

shock of joy than the knowledge he was to behold the long hidden face of his idol. That that face was ugly, he

did not for an instant believe, or, at least, it never world be ugly to him. With a form so perfect a form a

sylph might have envied a voice sweeter than the Singing Fountain of Arabia, hands and feet the most

perfectly beautiful the sun ever shone on, it was simply a moral and physical impossibility, then, they could

be joined to a repulsive face. There was a remote possibility that it was a little less exquisite than those

ravishing items, and that her morbid fancy made her imagine it homely, compared with them, but he knew he

never would share in that opinion. It was the reasoning of lover, rather, the logic; for when love glides

smiling in at the door, reason stalks gravely, not to say sulkily, out of the window, and, standing afar off, eyes

disdainfully the didos and antics of her late tenement. There was very little reason, therefore, in Ormiston's

head and heart, but a great deal of something sweeter, joy joy that thrilled and vibrated through every nerve

within him. Leaning against the portal, in an absurd delirium of delight for it takes but a trifle to jerk those

lovers from the slimiest depths of the Slough of Despond to the topmost peak of the mountain of ecstasy he

uncovered his head that the nightair might cool its feverish throbbings. But the nightair was as hot as his

heart; and, almost suffocated by the sultry closeness, he was about to start for a plunge in the river, when the

sound of coming footsteps and voices arrested him. He had met with so many odd ad ventures tonight that

he stopped now to see who was coming; for on every hand all was silent and forsaken,

Footsteps and voices came closer; two figures took shape in the gloom, and emerged from the darkness into

the glimmering lamp light. He recognised them both. One was the Earl of Rochester; the other, his

darkeyed, handsome page that strange page with the face of the lost lady! The earl was chatting familiarly,

and laughing obstreperously at something or other, while the boy merely wore a languid smile, as if anything

"Silence and solitude," said the earl, with a careless glance around, " I protest, Hubert, this night seems

"An hour and a half at least, I should fancy," answered the boy, with a strong foreign accent. "I know it struck

"This grand bonfire of our most worshipful Lord Mayor will be a sight worth seeing," remarked the earl.

"A slight foretaste of what most of its inhabitants will behold in another world," said the page, with a French

shrug. "I have heard Lilly's prediction that London is to be purified by fire, like a second Sodom; perhaps it is

"Not unlikely; the dome of St. Paul's would be an excellent place to view the conflagration."

"We will have a chance of knowing that presently," said the earl, as he and his page descended to the river,

As they passed from sight Ormiston came forth, and watched thoughtfully after them. The face and figure

were that of the lady, but the voice was different; both were clear and musical enough, but she spoke English

with the purest accent, while his was the voice of a foreigner. It most have been one of those strange,

unaccountable likenesses we sometimes see among perfect strangers, but the resemblance in this ease was

something wonderful. It brought his thoughts back from himself sad his own fortunate love, to his

violentlysmitten friend, Sir Norman, and his plaguestricken beloved; and he began speculating what he

could possibly be about just then, or what he had discovered in the old ruin. Suddenly he was aroused; a

moment before, the silence had been almost oppressive but now on the wings of the night, there came a

"Stop her! Stop her!" was cried by many voices; and the next instant a fleet figure went flying past him with a

A slight female figure, with floating robes of white, waving hair of deepest, blackness, with a sparkle of

jewels on neck and arms. Only for an instant did he see it; but he knew it well, and his very heart stood still.

"Stop her! stop her! she is ill of the plague!" shouted the crowd, preying panting on; but they came too late;

"Who is it? What is it? Where is it?" cried two or three watchmen, brandishing their halberds, and rushing up;

and the crowda small mob of a dozen or soanswered all at once: "She is delirious with the plague; she was

running through the streets; we gave chase, but she outstepped us, and is now at the bottom of the Thames."

Ormiston, waited to hear no more, but rushed precipitately down to the waters edge. The alarm has now

reached the boats on the river, and many eyes within them were turned in the direction whence she had gone

down. Soon she reappeared on the dark surface something whiter than snow, whiter than death; shining like

silver, shone the glittering dress and marble face of the bride. A small batteau lay close to where Ormiston

stood; in two seconds he had sprang in, shoved it off, and was rowing vigorously toward that snow wreath in

the inky river. But he was forestalled, two hands white and jeweled as her own, reached over the edge of a

gilded barge, and, with the help of the boatmen, lifted her in. Before she could be properly established on the

cushioned seats, the batteau was alongside, and Ormiston turned a very white and excited face toward the

"I know that lady, my lord! She is a friend of mine, and you must give her to me!"

"Is it you, Ormiston? Why what brings you here alone on the river, at this hour?"

"I have come for her," said Ormiston, pressing over to lift the lady. "May I beg you to assist me, my lord, in

"You must wait till I see her first," said Rochester, partly raising her head, and holding a lamp close to her

face, "as I have picked her out, I think I deserve it. Heavens! what an extraordinary likeness!"

The earl had glanced at the lady, then at his page, again at the lady, and lastly at Ormiston, his handsome

countenance fall of the most unmitigated wonder. "To whom?" asked Ormiston, who had very little need to

"To Hubert, yonder. Why, don't you see it yourself? She might be his twinsister!"

"She might be, but as she is not, you will have the goodness to let me take charge of her. She has escaped

He half lifted her as he spoke; and the boatman, glad enough to get rid of one sick of the plague, helped her

into the batteau. The lady was not insensible, as might be supposed, after her cold bath, but extremely

wideawake, and gazing around her with her great, black, shining eyes. But she made no resistance; either

she was too faint or frightened for that, and suffered herself to be hoisted about, "passive to all changes."

Ormiston spread his cloak in the stern of the boat, and laid her tenderly upon it, and though the beautiful,

wistful eyes were solemnly and unwinkingly fixed on his face, the pale, sweet lips parted not uttered never

a word. The wet bridal robes were drenched and dripping about her, the long dark hair hung in saturated

masses over her neck and arms, and contrasted vividly with a face, Ormiston thought at once, the whitest,

Rochester, who had been leaning from the barge, gazing in mingled curiosity, wonder, and admiration at the

But Ormiston only laughed, and rowed energetically for the shore. The crowd was still lingering; and half a

dozen hands were extended to draw the boat up to the landing. He lifted the light form in his arms and bore it

from the boat; but before he could proceed farther with his armful of beauty, a faint but imperious voice

Ormiston was so surprised, or rather dismayed, by this unexpected address, that he complied at once, and

placed her on her own pretty feet. But the young lady's sense of propriety was a good deal stronger than her

physical powers; and she swayed and tottered, and had to cling to her unknown friend for support.

"You are scarcely strong enough, I am afraid, dear lady," he said, kindly. "You had better let me carry you. I

assure you I am quite equal to it, or even a more weighty burden, if necessity required."

"Thank you, sir," said the faint voice, faintly; "but I would rather walk. Where are you taking me to?"

"I do not suffer at all, she said, wearily; "only I am so tired. Oh, I wish I were home!"

She half lifted her languid eyes, but did not speak. Leaning panting on his arm, he drew her gently on until

they reached her door. It was still unfastened. Prudence had kept her word, and not gone near it; and he

Ormiston knew where that was, and assisted her there as tenderly as he could have done La Masque herself.

"There is a lamp and a tinderbox on the mantel," said the faint, sweet voice, "if you will only please to find

Ormiston crowed the room fortunately he knew the latitude of the place and moving his hand with

gingerly precaution along the mantelshelf, lest he should upset any of the gimcracks thereon, soon obtained

the articles named, and struck a light. The lady was leaning wearily against the doorpost, but now she came

"Is there anything I can do for you, madame?" began Ormiston, with as solicitous an air as though he had

been her father. "A glass of wine would be of use to you, I think, and then, if you wish, I will go for a

"You are very kind. You will find wine and glasses in the room opposite this, and I feel so faint that I think

Ormiston moved across the passage, like the good, obedient young man that he was, filled a glass of

Burgundy, and as he was returning with it, was startled by s cry from the lady that nearly made him drop and

"What under heaven has come to her now?" he thought, hastening in, wondering how she could possibly have

She was sitting upright on the sofa, her dress palled down off her shoulder where the plaguespot had been ,

and which, to his amazement, he saw now pure and stainless, and free from every loathsome trace.

"Thank God!" she exclaimed, fervently clasping her hands. "But oh! how can it have happened? It mast be a

"No, it was your plunge into the river; I have heard of one or two such cases before, and if ever I take it," said

Ormiston, half laughing, half shuddering, "my first rush shall be for old Father Thames. Here, drink this, I am

The girl she was nothing but a girl drank it off and sat upright like one inspired with new life. As she set

down the glass, she lifted her dark, solemn, beautiful eyes to his face with a long, searching gaze.

"It was the Earl of Rochester who reserved you from the river; but I would have done it a moment later."

"I do not mean that. I mean" with a slight shudder "are you not one of those I saw at the plaguepit? Oh!

that dreadful, dreadful plaguepit!" she cried, covering her face with her hands.

"Sir Norman Kingsley?" she softly repeated, with a sort of recognition in her voice and eyes, while a faint

roseate glow rose softly over her face and neck. Ah! I thought was it to his house or yours I was brought?"

"To his," replied Ormiston, looking at her curiously; for he had seen that rosy glow, and was extremely

puzzled thereby; "from whence, allow me to add, you took your departure rather unceremoniously."

"Did I?" she said, in a bewildered sort of way. "It is all like a dream to me. I remember Prudence screaming,

and telling me I had the plague, and the unutterable horror that filled me when I heard it; and then the next

thing I recollect is, being at the plaguepit, and seeing your face and his bending over me. All the horror

came back with that awakening, and between it and anguish of the plaguesore I think I fainted again."

(Ormiston nodded sagaciously), "and when I next recovered I was alone in a strange room, and in bed. I

noticed that, though I think I must have been delirious. And then, halfmad with agony, I got out to the street,

somehow and ran, and ran, and ran, until the people saw and followed me here. I suppose I had some idea of

reaching home when I came here; but the crowd pressed so close behind, and I felt though all my delirium,

that they would bring me to the pesthouse if they caught me, and drowning seemed to me preferable to that.

So I was in the river before I knew it and you know the rest as well as I do. But I owe you my life, Mr.

"Madame, you are too grateful; and I don't know as we have done anything much to deserve it."

"You have saved my life; and though you may think that a valueless trifle, not worth speaking of, I assure

"Lady, your life is invaluable; but as to our saving it, why, you would not have us throw you alive into the

"It would have been rather barbarous, I confess, but there are few who would risk infection for the sake of a

mere stranger. Instead of doing as you did, you might have sent me to the pest house, you know."

"Oh, as to that, all your gratitude is due to Sir Norman. He managed the whole affair, and what is more, fell

but I will leave that for himself to disclose. Meantime, may I ask the name of the lady I have been so

"Then I am so unfortunate an only to possess half a name, for I never had any other."

"No other! you must have had a father some time in your life; most people have," said the young gentleman,

"I never had, that I know of, either father or mother, or any one but Prudence. And by the way," she said, half

starting up, "the first thing to be done is, to see about this same Prudence. She must be somewhere in the

"Prudence is nowhere in the house," said Ormiston, quietly; "and will not be, she says, far a month to come.

"Is she?" said Leoline, fixing her eyes on him with a powerful glance. "How do you know that?"

"I heard her say so not half an hour ago, to a lady a few doors distant. Perhaps you know her La Masque."

"That singular being! I don't know her; but I have seen her often. Why was Prudence talking of me to her, I

"That I do not know; but talking of you the was, and she said she was coming back here no more. Perhaps

"Oh no, I am used to being alone," she said, with a little sigh, "but where" hesitating and blushing vividly, "

Ormiston saw the blush and the eyes that dropped, and it puzzled him again beyond measure.

"By sight I know many of the nobles of the court," she answered evasively, and without looking up: "they

pass here often, and Prudence knows them all; and so I have learned to distinguish them by name and sight,

"I would like to thank him," retorted the lady, with some asperity: "you have told me how much I owe him,

"Without doubt it is, and it will save Sir Norman much fruitless labor; for even now he is in search at you,

"In search of me!" she said softly, and with that rosy glow again illumining her beautiful face; "he is indeed

"I will bring him here in two hours, then," said Ormiston, with energy; "and though the hour may be a little

unseasonable, I hope you will not object to it; for if you do, he will certainly not survive until morning."

"Rather than that, Mr. Ormiston, I will even see him tonight. You will find me here when you come."

"You will not run away again, will you?" said Ormiston, looking at her doubtfully. "Excuse me; but you have

By way of reply, Ormiston took his hat and started for the door. There he paused, with his hand upon it.

"How long have you known Sir Norman Kingsley?" was his careless, artful question.

But Leoline, tapping one little foot on the floor, and looking down at it with hot cheeks and humid ayes,

When Sir Norman Kingsley entered the ancient ruin, his head was fall of Leoline when he knelt down to

look through the aperture in the flagged floor, head and heart were full of her still. But the moment his eyes

fell on the scene beneath, everything fled far from his thoughts, Leoline among the rest; and nothing

Right below him he beheld an immense room, of which the flag he had raised seemed to form part of the

ceiling, in a remote corner. Evidently it was one of a range of lower vaults, and as he was at least fourteen

feet above it, and his corner somewhat in shadow, there was little danger of his being seen. So, leaning far

down to look at his leisure, he took the goods the gods provided him, and stared to his heart's content.

Sir Norman had seen some queer sights daring the fourandtwenty years he had spent in this queer world,

but never anything quite equal to this. The apartment below, though so exceedingly large, was lighted with

the brilliance of noonday; and every object it contained; from one end to the other, was distinctly revealed.

The floor, from glimpses he had of it in obscure corners, was of stone; but from end to end it was covered

with richest rugs and mats, and squares of velvet of as many colors as Joseph's coat. The walls were hung

with splendid tapestry, gorgeous in silk and coloring, representing the wars of Troy, the exploits of Coeur de

Lion among the Saracens, the death of Hercules, all on one side; and on the other, a more modern

representation, the Field of the Cloth of Gold. The illumination proceeded from a range of wax tapers in

silver candelabra, that encircled the whole room. The air was redolent of perfumes, and filled with strains of

softest and sweetest music from unseen hands. At one extremity of the room was a huge door of glass and

gilding; and opposite it, at the other extremity, was a glittering throne. It stood on a raised dais, covered with

crimson velvet, reached by two or three steps carpeted with the same; the throne was as magnificent as gold,

and satin, and ornamentation could make it. A great velvet canopy of the same deep, rich color, cut in antique

points, and heavily hang with gold fringe, was above the seat of honor. Beside it, to the right, but a little

lower down, was a similar throne, somewhat lees superb, and minus a canopy. From the door to the throne

was a long strip of crimson velvet, edged and embroidered with gold, and arranged in a sweeping

semicircle, on either side, were a row of great carved, gilded, and cushioned chairs, brilliant, too, with

crimson and gold, and each for everyday Christians, a throne in itself. Between the blaze of illumination, the

flashing of gilding and gold, the tropical flush of crimson velvet, the rainbow dyes on floor and walls, the

intoxicating gushes of perfume, and the delicious strains of unseen music, it is no wonder Sir Norman

Was he sane was he sleeping? Had he drank too much wine at the Golden Crown, and had it all gone to his

head? Was it a scene of earnest enchantment, or were fairytales true? Like Abou Hasson when he awoke in

the palace of the facetious Caliph of Bagdad, he had no notion of believing his own eyes and ears, and quietly

concluded it was all an optical illusion, as ghosts are said to be; but he quietly resolved to stay there,

nevertheless, and see how the dazzling phantasmagoria would end. The music was certainly ravishing, and it

seemed to him, as he listened with enchanted ears, that he never wanted to wake up from so heavenly a

One thing struck him as rather odd; strange and bewildered as everything was, it did not seem at all strange to

him, on the contrary, a vague idea was floating mistily through his mind that he had beheld precisely the

same thing somewhere before. Probably at some past period of his life he had beheld a similar vision, or had

seen a picture somewhere like it in a tale of magic, and satisfying himself with this conclusion, he began

wondering if the genii of the place were going to make their appearance at all, or if the knowledge that human

While still ruminating on this important question, a portion of the tapestry, almost beneath him, shriveled up

and up, and out flocked a glittering throng, with a musical mingling of laughter and voices. Still they came,

more and more, until the great room was almost filled, and a dazzling throng they were. Sir Norman had

mingled in many a brilliant scene at Whitehall, where the gorgeous court of Charles shown in all its splendor,

with the "merry monarch" at their head, but all he had ever witnessed at the king's court fell far short of this

pageant. Half the brilliant flock were ladies, superb in satins, silks, velvets and jewels. And such jewels!

every gem that ever flashed back the sunlight sparkled and blazed in blending array on those beautiful

bosoms and arms diamonds, pearls, opals, emeralds, rubies, garnets, sapphires, amethysts every jewel

that ever shone. But neither dresses nor gems were half so superb as the peerless forms they adorned; and

such an army of perfectly beautiful faces, from purest blonde to brightest brunette, had never met and

Each lovely face was unmasked, but Sir Norman's dazzled eyes in vain sought among them for one he knew.

All that "rosebud garden of girls" were perfect strangers to him, but not so the gallants, who fluttered among

them like moths around meteors. They, too, were in gorgeous array, in purple and fine linen, which being

interpreted, signifieth in silken hose of every color under the sun, spangled and embroidered slippers radiant

with diamond buckles, doublets of as many different shades as their tights, slashed with satin and

embroidered with gold. Most of them wore huge powdered wigs, according to the hideous fashion then in

vogue, and under those same ugly scalps, laughed many a handsome face Sir Norman well knew. The

majority of those richlyrobed gallants were strangers to him as well as the ladies, but whoever they were,

whether mortal men or "spirits from the vasty deep," they were in the tallest sort of clover just then. Evidently

they knew it, too, and seemed to be on the best of terms with themselves and all the world, and laughed, and

flirted, and flattered, with as mach perfection as so many ballroom Apollos of the present day.

Still no one ascended the golden and crimson throne, though many of the ladies and gentlemen fluttering

about it were arrayed as royally as any common king or queen need wish to be. They promenaded up and

down, arm in arm; they seated themselves in the carved and gilded chairs; they gathered in little groups to

talk and laugh, did everything, in short, but ascend the throne; and the solitary spectator up above began to

grow intensely curious to know who it was for. Their conversation he could plainly hear, and to say that it

amazed him, would be to use a feeble expression, altogether inadequate to his feelings. Not that it was the

remarks they made that gave his system each a shook, but the names by which they addressed each other.

One answered to the aspiring cognomen of the Duke of Northumberland; another was the Earl of Leicester;

another, the Duke of Devonshire; another, the Earl of Clarendon; another, the Duke of Buckingham; and so

on, ad infinitum, dukes and earls alternately, like bricks and mortar in the wall of a house. There were other

dignitaries besides, some that Sir Norman had a faint recollection of hearing were dead for some years

Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, the Earl of Bothwell, King Henry Darnley, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Duke

of Norfolk, the Earl of Southampton, the Duke of York, and no end of others with equally sonorous titles. As

for mere lords and baronets, and such small deer, there was nothing so plebeian present, and they were

evidently looked upon by the distinguished assembly, like small beer in thunder, with pity and contempt. The

ladies, too, were all duchesses, marchionesses, countesses, and looked fit for princesses, Sir Norman thought,

though he heard none of them styled quite so high as that. The tone of conversation was light and easy, but at

the same time extremely ceremonious and courtly, and all seemed to be enjoying themselves in the moat

delightful sort of a way, which people of, such distinguished rank, I am told, seldom do. All went merry as a

marriagebell, and sweetly over the gay jingle of voices rose the sweet, faint strains of the unseen music.

Suddenly all was changed. The great door of glass and gilding opposite the throne was flung wide, and a

grand usher in a grand court livery flourished a mighty grand wand, and shouted, in a stentorian voice

Instantly the unseen band thundered forth the national anthem. The splendid throng fell back on either hand

in profoundest silence and expectation. The grand usher mysteriously disappeared, and in his place there

stalked forward a score of soldiers, with clanking swords and fierce moustaches, in the gorgeous uniform of

the king's bodyguard. These showy warriors arranged themselves silently on either side of the crimson

throne, and were followed by half a dozen dazzling personages, the foremost crowned with mitre, armed with

crozier, and robed in the ecclesiastical glory of an archbishop, but the face underneath, to the deep surprise

and scandal of Sir Norman, was that of the fastest young rou of Charles court, after him came another

pompous dignitary, in such unheard of magnificence that the unseen lookeron set him down for a prime

minister, or a lord high chancellor, at the very least. The somewhat gaudylooking gentlemen who stepped

after the pious prelate and peer wore the stars and garters of foreign courts, and were evidently embassadors

extraordinary to that of her midnight majesty. After them came a snowy flock of fair young girls, angels all

but the wings, slender as sylphs, and robed in purest white. Each bore on her arm a basket of flowers, roses

and rosebuds of every tint, from snowy white to darkest crimson, and as they floated in they scattered them

lightly as they went. And then after all came another vision, "the last, the brightest, the best "the Midnight

Queen" herself. One other figure followed her, and as they entered, a shout arose from the whole assemblage,

"Long live Queen Miranda!" And bowing gracefully and easily to the right end left, the queen with a queenly

>From the first moment of his looking down, Sir Norman had been staring with all the eyes in his head,

undergoing one shock of surprise after another with the equanimity of a man quite need to it; but now a cry

arose to his lips, and died there in voiceless consternation. For he recognized the queen well he might! he

As she mounted the stairs, she stood there for a moment crowned and sceptred, before sitting down, and in

that moment he recognized the whole scene. That gorgeous room and its gorgeous inmates; that regal throne

and its regal owner, all became palpable as the sun at noonday; that slender, exquisite figure, robed in royal

purple and ermine; the uncovered neck and arms, snowy and perfect, ablaze with jewels; that lovely face, like

snow, like marble, in its whiteness end calm, with the great, dark, earnest eyes looking out, and the waving

wealth of hair falling around it. It was the very scene, and room, and vision, that La Masque had shown him

While he looked, the beautiful queen bowed low, and amid the profoundest and most respectful silence, took

her seat. In her robes of purple, wearing the glittering crown, sceptre in hand, throned and canopied, royally

beautiful she looked indeed, and a most vivid contrast to the gentleman near her, seated very much at his

ease, on the lower throne. The contrast was not of dress for his outward man was resplendent to look at; but

in figure and face, or grace and dignity, he was a very mean specimen of the lords of creation, indeed. In

stature, he scarcely reached to the queen's royal shoulder, but made up sideways what he wanted in length

being the breadth of two common men; his head was in proportion to his width, and was decorated with a wig

of long, flowing, flaxen hair, that scarcely harmonized with a profusion of the article whiskers, in hue most

unmitigated black; his eyes were small, keen, bright, and piercing, and glared on the assembled company as

they had done half an hour before on Sir Norman Kingsley, in the barroom of the Golden Crown; for the

royal little man was no other than Caliban, the dwarf. Behind the thrones the flock of floral angels grouped

themselves; archbishop, prime minister, and embassadors, took their stand within the lines of the soldiery,

and the music softly and impressively died sway in the distance; dead silence reigned.

"My lord Duke," began the queen, in the very voice he had heard at the plaguepit, as she turned to the

stylish individual next the archbishop, "come forward and read us the roll of mortality since our last

His grace, the duke, instantly stepped forward, bowing so low that nothing was seen of him for a brief space,

but the small of his back, and when he reared himself up, after this convulsion of nature, Sir Norman beheld a

face not entirely new to him. At first, he could not imagine where he had seen it, but speedily she recollected

it was the identical face of the highwayman who had beaten an inglorious retreat from him and Count

L'Estrange, that very night. This ducat robber drew forth a roll of parchment, and began reading, in

lachrymose tones, a select litany of defunct gentlemen, with hifalutin titles who had departed this life during

the present week. Most of them had gone with the plague, but a few had died from natural causes, and among

"My lords Craven and Ashley dead!" exclaimed the queen, in tones of some surprise, but very little anguish;

"that is singular, for we saw them not two hours ago, in excellent health and spirits."

"True, poor majesty," said the duke, dolefully, "and it is not an hour since they quitted this vale of tears. They

and myself rode forth at nightfall, according to Custom, to lay your majesty's tax on all travelers, and soon

chanced to encounter one who gave vigorous battle; still, it would have done him little service, had not

another person come suddenly to his aid, and between them they clove the skulls of Ashley and Craven; and

"Were either of the travelers young, and tall, and of courtly bearing?" exclaimed the dwarf with sharp

"Both were, your highness," replied the duke, bowing to the small speaker, "and uncommonly handy with

"I saw one of them down at the Golden Crown, not long ago," said the dwarf; "a forward young popinjay, and

mighty inquisitive about this, our royal palace. I promised him, if he came here, a warm reception a

"You may stand aside, my lord duke," said the queen, with a graceful wave of her hand, "and if any new

subjects have been added to our court since our last weekly meeting, let them come forward, and be sworn."

A dozen or mare courtiers immediately stepped forward, and kneeling before the queen, announced their

name and rank, which were both ambitiously high. A few silverytoned questions were put by that royal lady

and satisfactorily answered, and then the archbishop, armed with a huge tome, administered a severe and

searching oath, which the candidates took with a great deal of sang frond, and were then permitted to kiss the

"Let any one who has any reports to make, make them immediately," again commanded her majesty.

A number of gentlemen of high rank, presented themselves at this summons, and began relating, as a certain

sect of Christians do in church, their experience! Many of these consisted, to the deep disapproval of Sir

Norman, of accounts of daring highway robberies, one of them perpetrated on the king himself, which

distinguished personage the duplicate of Leoline styled "our brother Charles," and of the sums thereby

attained. The treasurer of state was then ordered to show himself, and give an account of the said moneys,

which he promptly did; and after him came a number of petitioners, praying for one thing and another, some

of which the queen promised to grant, and some she didn't. These little affairs of state being over, Miranda

"I believe, your highness, it a on this night the Earl of Gloucester is to be tried on a charge of high treason, in

"Then let him be brought before us," said the queen. "Go, guards, and fetch him."

Two of the soldiers bowed low, and backed from the royal presence, amid dead and ominous silence. At this

interesting stage of the proceedings, as Sir Norman was leaning forward, breathless and excited, a footstep

sounded on the flagged floor beside him, and some one suddenly grasped his shoulder with no gentle hand.

In one instant Sir Norman was on his feet and his hand on his sword. In the tarry darkness, neither the face

nor figure of the intruder could be made out, but he merely saw a darker shadow beside him standing in the

sea of darkness. Perhaps he might have thought it a ghost, but that the hand which grasped his shoulder was

unmistakably of flesh, and blood, and muscle, and the breathing of its owner was distinctly audible by his

"Who are you?" demanded Sir Norman, drawing out his sword, and wrenching himself free from his unseen

"Ah! it is you, is it? I thought so," said a not unknown voice. "I have been calling you till I am hoarse, and at

"You, Ormiston!" exclaimed Sir Norman, in the last degree astonished. "How when what are you doing

"What are you doing here? that's more to the purpose. Down flat on your face, with your head stuck through

"Never mind," said Sir Norman, hastily, who, for some reason quite unaccountable to himself, did not wish

Ormiston to see. "There's nothing therein particular, but a lower range of vaults. Do you intend telling me

"Pshaw! You don't say so?" exclaimed Sir Norman, incredulously. "But I presume you had some object in

taking such a gallop? May I ask what? Your anxious solicitude on my account, very likely?"

"Not precisely. But, I say, Kingsley, what light is that shining through there ? I mean to see."

"No, you won't," said Sir Norman, rapidly and noiselessly replacing the flag. "It's nothing, I tell you, but a

number of willo'wisps having a ball. Finally, and for the last time, Mr. Ormiston, will you have the

"Come out to the air, then. I have no fancy for talking in this place; it smells like a tomb."

"There is nothing wrong, I hope?" inquired Sir Norman, following his friend, and threading his way gingerly

"Nothing wrong, but everything extremely right. Confound this place! It would be easier walking on live eels

than through these winding and lumbered passages. Thank the fates, we are through them, at last! for there is

the daylight, or, rather the nightlight, and we have escaped without any bones broken."

They had reached the mouldering and crumbling doorway, shown by a square of lighter darkness, and

exchanged the damp, chill atmosphere of the vaults for the stagnant, sultry open air. Sir Norman, with a

notion in his head that his dwarfish highness might have placed sentinels around his royal residence,

endeavored to pierce the gloom in search of them. Though he could discover none, he still thought discretion

"I don't wish to talk here; there is no telling who may be listening. Come along."

Ormiston glanced back at the gloomy rain looming up like a black spectre in the blackness.

"Well, they most have a strong fancy for eavesdropping, I must say, who world go to that haunted heap to

"I told you before," said Sir Norman, rather impatiently, "I that I have seen nothing at least, nothing you

"Very well, we have no time to lose; so get there as fast as you can, and mount him and ride as if the demon

"Back to London? Is the man crazy? I shall do no such thing, let me tell you, tonight."

"Oh, just as you please," said Ormiston, with a great deal of indifference, considering the urgent nature of his

former request. "You can do as you like, you know, and so can I which translated, means, I will go and tell

"Tell her? Tell whom? What are you talking about? Hang it, man!" exclaimed Sir Norman, getting somewhat

excited and profane, "what are you driving at? Can't you speak out and tell me at once?"

"I have told you!" said Ormiston, testily: "and I tell you again, she sent me in search of you, and if you don't

This was a little too mach for Sir Norman's overwrought feelings, and in the last degree of exasperation, he

laid violent hands on the collar of Ormiston's doublet let, and shook him as if be would have shaken the name

"I tell you what it is, Ormiston, you had better not aggravate me! I can stand a good deal, but I'm not exactly

Moses or Job, and you had better mind what you're at. If you don't come to the point at once, and tell me who

Halfindignant, and wholly laughing, Ormiston stepped back out of the way of his excited friend.

"I cry you mercy! In one word, then, I have been dispatched by a lady in search of you, and that lady is

It has always been one of the inscrutable mysteries in natural philosophy that I never could fathom, why men

do not faint. Certain it is, I never yet heard of s man swooning from excess of surprise or joy, and perhaps

that may account for Sir Norman's not doing so on the present occasion. But he came to an abrupt standstill

in their rapid career; and if it had not been quite so excessively dark, his friend would have beheld a

countenance wonderful to look on, in its mixture of utter astonishment and sublime consternation.

"Leoline!" he faintly gasped. "Just atop a moment, Ormiston, and say that again will you?"

"No," said Ormiston, hurrying unconcernedly on; "I shall do no such thing, for there is no time to lose, and if

there were I have no fancy for standing in this dismal road. Come on, man, and I'll tell you as we go."

Thus abjured, and seeing there was no help for it, Sir Norman, in a dazed and bewildered state, complied; and

"You see, my dear fellow, to begin at the beginning, after you left, I stood at ease at La Masque's door,

awaiting that lady's return, and was presently rewarded by seeing her come up with an old woman called

Prudence. Do you recollect the woman who rushed screaming out of the home of the dead bride?"

"Well, that was Prudence. She and La Masque were talking so earnestly they did not perceive me, and I

well, the fast is, Kingsley, I stayed and listened. Not a very handsome thing, perhaps, but I couldn't resist it.

They were talking of some one they called Leoline, and I, in a moment, knew that it was your flame, and that

"And yet La Masque told me to come here in search of her," interrupted Sir Norman.

"Very true! That was odd wasn't it? This Prudence, it appears, was Leoline's nurse, and La Masque, too,

seemed to have a certain authority over her; and between them, I learned she was to have been married this

very night, and died or, at least, Prudence thought so an hour or two before the time."

"Not a bit of it; and what is more, didn't want to be; and judging from the remarks of Prudence, I should say,

"Ah, but I do, though! Prudence owned it with the most charming candor in the world."

"Did you hear the name of the person she was to have married?" asked Sir Norman, with kindling eyes.

"I think not; they called him the count, if my memory serves me, and Prudence intimated that he knew

nothing of the melancholy fate of Mistress Leoline. Moat likely it was the person in the cloak and slouched

Sir Norman said nothing, but he thought a good deal, and the burden of his thoughts was an ardent and

heartfelt wish that the Court L'Estrange was once more under the swords of the three robbers, and waiting for

"La Masque urged Prudence to go back," continued Ormiston; "but Prudence respectfully declined, and went

her way bemoaning the fate of her darling. When she was gone, I stepped up to Madame Masque, and that

lady's first words of greeting were an earnest hope that I had been edified and improved by what I had

"See me? I believe you! She has more eyes than ever Argus had, and each one is as sharp as a cambric

needle. Of course I apologized, and so on, and she forgave me handsomely, and then we fell to discoursing

"Yes, mingled with entreaties to take off her mask that would have moved a heart of atone. It moved what

was better the heart of La Masque; and, Kingsley, she has consented to do it; and she says that if, after

"Thank you! After that she left me, and I walked away in such a frenzy of delight that I couldn't have told

whether I was treading this earth or the shining shares of the seventh heaven, when suddenly there flew past

me a figure all in white the figure of a bride, Kingsley, pursued by an excited mob. We were both near the

river, and the first thing I knew, she was plump into it, with the crowd behind, yelling to stop her, that she

"No, though it was not her fault. The Earl of Rochester and his page you remember that page, I fancy

were out in their barge, and the earl picked her up. Then I got a boat, set out after her, claimed her for I

recognized her, of course brought her ashore, and deposited her safe and sound in her own house. What do

"Ormiston," said Norman, catching him by the shoulder, with a very excited face, "is this true?"

"True as preaching, Kingsley, every word of it! And the most extraordinary part of the business is, that her

dip in cold water has effectually cured her of the plague; not a trace of it remains."

Sir Norman dropped his hand, and walked on, staring straight before him, perfectly speechless. In fact, no

known language in the world could have done justice to his feelings at that precise period; for three times that

night, in three different shapes, had he seen this same Leoline, and at the same moment he was watching her

decked out in royal state in the rain, Ormiston had probably been assisting her from her cold bath in the river

Astonishment and consternation are words altogether too feeble to express his state of mind; but one idea

remained clear and bright amid all his mental chaos, and that was, that the Leoline he had fallen in love with

"Think! I can't think I've got past that long ago!" replied his friend, hopelessly. "Did you really say Leoline

"And waiting for you yes, I did, and I repeat it; and the sooner you get back to town, the sooner you will

"Yes, it is; the dear creature is waiting for you even now. You see, after we got to the house, and she had

consented to become a little rational, mutual explanations ensued, by which it appeared she had ran away

from Sir Norman Kingsley's in a state of frenzy, had jumped into the river in a similarly excited state of mind,

and was most anxious to go down on her pretty knees and thank the aforesaid Sir Norman for saving her life.

What could any one as gallant as myself do under these circumstances, but offer to set forth in quest of that

gentleman? And she promptly consented to sit up and wait his coming, and dismissed me with her blessing.

And, Kingsley, I've a private notion she is as deeply affected by you as you are by her; for, when I mentioned

your name, she blushed, yea, verily to the roots of her hair; and when she spoke of you, couldn't so much as

"Nonsense!" said Sir Norman, energetically. And had it been daylight, his friend would have seen that he

"Ah, doesn't she, though? That shows all you know about it! She has seen you go past the window many and

many a time; and to see you," said Ormiston, making a grimace undercover of the darkness, "is to love! She

"What! That she loved me!" exclaimed Sir Norman, his notions of propriety to the last degree shocked by

"Not altogether, she only looked that; but she said she knew you well by sight, and by heart, too, as I inferred

from her countenance when she said it. There now, don't make me talk any more, for I have told you

"No, except that her name was Leoline, and nothing else which struck me as being slightly improbable.

Doubtless, she will tell you everything, and one piece of advice I may venture to give you, which is, you may

propose as soon as you like without fear of rejection. Here we are at the Golden Crown, so go in and get your

All this time Ormiston had been leading his own horse by the bridle, and as Sir Norman silently complied

with this suggestion, in five minutes more they were in their saddles, and galloping at breakneck speed

toward the city. To tell the truth, one was not more inclined for silence than the other, and the profoundest

and thoughtfulest silence was maintained till they reached it. One was thinking of Leoline, the other of La

Masque, and both were badly in love, and just at that particular moment very happy. Of course the happiness

of people in that state never lasts longer than half an hour at a stretch, and then they are plunged back again

into misery and distraction; but while it does last, it in, very intense and delightful indeed.

Our two friends having drained the bitten, had got to the bottom of the cup, and neither knew that no sooner

were the sweets swallowed, than it was to be replenished with a doublybitter dose. Neither of them

dismounted till they reached the house of Leoline, and there Sir Norman secured his horse, and looked up at it

with a beating heart. Not that it was very unusual for his heart to beat, seeing it never did anything else; but

on that occasion its motion was so mush accelerated, that any doctor feeling his pulse might have justly set

him down as a bad case of heartdisease. A small, bright ray of light streamed like a beacon of hope from an

upper window, and the lover looked at it as a clouded mariner might at the shining of the North Star.

"Are you coming in, Ormiston?" he inquired, feeling, for the first time in his life, almost bashful. "It seems to

"I don't mind going in and introducing` you," said Ormiston; "but after you have been delivered over, you

The door was unfastened, and Ormiston sprang upstairs with the air of a manquite at home, followed more

decorously by Sir Norman. The door of the lady's room stood ajar, as he had left it, and in answer to his

Ormiston promptly obeyed, and the next instant they were in the room, and in the presence of the dead bride.

Certainly she did not look dead, but very much alive, just then, as she sat in an easychair, drawn up before

the dressingtable, on which stood the solitary lamp that illumed the chamber. In one hand she held a small

mirror, or, as it was then called, a "sprunkingglass," in which she was contemplating her own beauty, with

as much satisfaction as any other pretty girl might justly do. She had changed her drenched dress during

Ormiston's absence, and now sat arrayed in a swelling amplitude of rosecolored satin, her dark hair clasped

and bound by a circle of milkwhite pearls, and her pale, beautiful face looking ten degrees more beautiful

than ever, in contrast with the bright rosesilk, shining dark hair, and rich white jewels. She rose up as they

entered, and came forward with the same glow on her face and the same light in her eyes that one of them had

seen before, and stood with drooping eyelashes, lovely as a vision in the centre of the room.

"You see I have lost no time in obeying your ladyship's commands," began Ormiston, bowing low. "Mistress

Sir Norman Kingsley bent almost as profoundly before the lady as the lord high chancellor had done before

Queen Miranda; and the lady courtesied, in return, until her pinksatin skirt ballooned out all over the floor.

It was quite an affecting tableau. And so Ormiston felt, as he stood eyeing it with preternatural gravity.

"I owe my life to Sir Norman Kingsley," murmured the faint, sweet voice of the lady, "and could not rest

until I had thanked him. I have no words to say how deeply thankful and grateful I am."

"Fairest Leoline! one word from such lips would be enough to repay me, had I done a thousandfold more,"

"Very pretty indeed!" remarked Ormiston to himself, with a little approving nod; "but I'm afraid they won't

be able to keep it up, and go on talking on stilts like that, till they have finished. Perhaps they may get on all

the better if I take myself off, there being always one too many in a case like this." Then aloud: "Madame, I

regret that I am obliged to depart, having a most particular appointment; but, doubtless, my friend will be

able to express himself without my assistance. I have the honor to wish you both goodnight."

With which neat and appropriate speech, Ormiston bowed himself out, and was gone before Leoline could

detain him, even if she wished to do so. Probably, however, she thought the care of one gentleman sufficient

responsibility at once; and she did not look very seriously distressed by his departure; and, the moment he

It is very discomposing to the feelings to make love in the presence of a third party; and Sir Norman had no

intention of wasting his time on anything, and went at it immediately. Taking her hand, with a grace that

would have beaten Sir Charles Grandison or Lord Chesterfield all to nothing, he led her to a couch, and took

a seat as near her as was at all polite or proper, considering the brief nature of their acquaintance. The

curtains were drawn; the lamp shed a faint light; the house was still, and there was no intrusive papa to

pounce down upon them; the lady was looking down, and seemed in no way haughty or discouraging, and Sir

"I'm afraid, Sir Norman, you must think this a singular hour to come here; but, in these dreadful times, we

cannot tell if we may live from one moment to another; and I should not like to die, or have you die, without

my telling, and you hearing, all my gratitude. For I do assure you, Sir Norman," said the lady, lifting her dark

eyes with the prettiest and moat bewitching earnestness, "that I am grateful, though I cannot find words to

"Madame, I would not listen to you it you would; for I have done nothing to deserve thanks. I wish I could

"A thousand thanks, dear Leoline!" exclaimed Sir Norman, raising her hand to his lips, and quite beside

"Ah, I did not tell you to say that!" she cried, with a gay laugh and vivid blush. "I never said you were to call

"It arose from my heart to my lips," said Sir Norman, with thrilling earnestness and fervid glance; "for you

The flush grew a deeper glow on the lady's face; but, singular to relate, she did not look the least surprised or

displeased; and the hand he had feloniously purloined lay passive and quite contented in his.

"Sir Norman Kingsley is pleased to jest," said the lady, in a subdued tone, and with her eyes fixed

pertinaciously on her shining dress; "for he has never spoken to me before in his life!"

"That has nothing to do with it, Leoline. I love you as devotedly as if I had known you from your birthday;

and, strange to say, I feel as if we had been friends for years instead of minutes. I cannot realize at all that you

"I have seen you go past so often, you know; and Prudence told me who you were; and so I need I used "

"Well, dearest," said Sir Norman, getting from the positive to the superlative at a jump, and diminishing the

"To watch for you!" said Leoline, in a sly whisper. "And so I have got to know you very well!"

"My own darling! And, O Leoline! may I hope dare I hope that you do not altogether hate me?"

Leoline looked reflective; though her bleak eyes were sparkling under their sweeping lashes.

"Why, no," she said, demurely, "I don't know as I do. It's very sinful and improper to hate one's

"Ah! you are given to piety, I see. In that case, perhaps you are aware of a precept commanding us to love our

neighbors. Now, I'm your nearest neighbor at present; so, to keep up a consistent Christian spirit, just be good

Again Leoline laughed; and this time the bright, dancing eyes beamed in their sparkling darkness fall upon

"I am afraid your theology is not very sound, my friend, and I have a dislike to extremes. There is a middle

"I will have no middle courses either hating or loving it must be! Leoline! Leoline!" (bending over her, and

"I am captive in your hands, so I must, I suppose. Yes, Sir Norman, I do love you!"

Every man hearing that for the first time from a pair of loved lips is privileged to go mad for a brief season,

and to go through certain manoeuvers much more delectable to the enjoyers than to society at large. For fully

ten minutes after Leoline's last speech, there was profound silence. But actions sometimes speak louder than

words; and Leoline was perfectly convinced that her declaration had not fallen on insensible ears. At the end

of that period, the space between them on the couch had so greatly diminished, that the ghost of a zephyr

would have been crushed to death trying to get between them; and Sir Norman's face was fairly radiant.

Leoline herself looked rather beaming; and she suddenly, and without provocation, burst into a merry little

"Well, for two people who were perfect strangers to each other half an hour ago, I think we have gone on

remarkably well. What will Mr. Ormiston and Prudence say, I wonder, when they hear this?"

"They will say what is the truth that I am the luckiest man in England. O Leoline! I never thought it was in

"I am very glad to hear it; but I knew that it was in me long before I ever dreamed of knowing you. Are you

"It will all come in good time; it is not well to have a surfeit of joy in one night.

"I do not know that this will add to your joy; but it had better be told and be done with, at once and forever.

In the first place, I presume I am an orphan, for I have never known father or mother, and I have never had

"My first recollection is of Prudence; she was my nurse and governess, both in one; and we lived in a cottage

by the sea I don't know where, but a long way from this. When I was about ten years old, we left it, and

came to London, and lived in a house in Cheapside, for five or six years; and then we moved here. And all

this time, Sir Norman you will think it strange but I never made any friends or acquaintances, and knew no

one but Prudence and an old Italian professor, who came to our lodgings in Cheapside, every week, to give

me lessons. It was not because I disliked society, you must know; but Prudence, with all her kindness and

goodness and I believe she truly loves me has been nothing more or less all my life than my jailer."

She paused to clasp a belt of silver brocade, fastened by a pearl buckle, close around her little waist, and Sir

"Ah! you know him?" she cried eagerly, lifting her eyes with a bright look; "do do tell me who he is?"

"Upon my honor, my dear," said Sir Norman, considerably taken aback, "it strikes me you are the person to

answer that question. If I don't greatly mistake, somebody told me you were going to marry him."

"Oh, so I was," said Leoline, with the utmost simplicity. "But I don't know him, for all that; and more than

that, Sir Norman, I do not believe his name is Count L'Estrange, any more than mine in!"

"Precisely my opinion; but why, in the name of no, I'll not swear; but why were you going to marry him,

"Because I couldn't help it that's why. He coaxed, and coaxed; and I said no, and no, and no, until I got tired

of it. Prudence, too, was as bad as he was, until between them I got about distracted, and at last consented to

"My poor, persecuted little darling! Oh," cried Sir Norman, with a burst of enthusiasm, "how I should admire

to have Count L'Estrange here for about tea minutes, just now! I world spoil his next wooing for him, or I am

"No, no!" said Leoline, looking rather alarmed; "you must not fight, you know. I shouldn't at all like either of

you to get killed. Besides, he has not married me; and so there's no harm done."

Sir Norman seemed rather struck by that view of the case, and after a few moments reflection on it, came to

"For many reasons. First he is disguised; wears false whiskers, moustache, and wig, and even the voice he

uses appears assumed. Then Prudence seems in the greatest awe of him, and she is not one to be easily awed.

I never knew her to be in the slightest degree intimidated by any human being but himself and that

"Not personally; but I have seen her as I did you, you remember," with an arch glance; "and, like you, being

"Little flatterer! I can almost forgive Count L'Estrange for wanting to marry you; for I presume he it only a

man, and not quite equal to impossibilities. How long is it since you knew him first?"

"Not two months. My courtships," said Leoline, with a gay laugh, "seem destined to be of the shortest. He

saw me one evening in the window, and immediately insisted on being admitted; and after that, he continued

"He cannot be mach of a gentleman, or he would not attempt to force a lady against her will. And so, when

"Yes, Sir Norman; and horrible as that was I do assure you I almost preferred it to marrying him."

"You shall you must I insist upon it. Did you love me before you met the count? Out with it."

"My darling! But I will reserve my raptures, for it is growing late, and I know you mast want to go to rest. I

have a thousand things to tell you, but they must wait for daylight; only I will promise, before parting, that

"Tomorrow morning," went on Sir Norman, impressively, and with dignity, "you will be up and dressed by

sunrise, and shortly after that radiant period, I will make my appearance with two horses one of which I

shall ride, and the other I shall lead: the one I lead you shall mount, and we will ride to the nearest church,

and be married without any pomp or pageant; and then Sir Norman and Lady Kingsley will immediately

leave London, and in Kingsley Castle, Devonshire, will enjoy the honeymoon and blissful repose till the

"Sir Norman, I should like to see Prudence. I want Prudence. How can I leave her behind?"

"My dear child, she made nothing of leaving you when she thought you were dying; so never mind Prudence,

"That is my good little Leoline. Now give me a kiss, Lady Kingsley, and goodnight."

Lady Kingsley dutifully obeyed; and Sir Norman went out with a glow at his heart, like a halo round a full

The night was intensely dark when Sir Norman got into it once more; and to any one else would have been

intensely dismal, but to Sir Norman all was bright as the fair hills of Beulah. When all is bright within, we see

no darkness without; and just at that moment our young knight had got into one of those green and golden

glimpses of sunshine that here and there checker life's rather dark pathway, and with Leoline beside him

It was now near midnight, and there was an unusual concourse of people in the sheets, waiting for St. Paul's

to give the signal to light the fires. He looked around for Ormiston; but Ormiston was nowhere to be seen

horse and rider had disappeared. His own horse stood tethered where he had left him. Anxious as he was to

ride back to the ruin, and see the play played out, he could not resist the temptation of lingering a brief period

in the city, to behold the grand spectacle of the myriad fires. Many persons were hurrying toward St. Paul's to

witness it from the dome; and consigning his horse to the care of the sentinel on guard at the house opposite,

he joined them, and was soon striding along, at a tremendous pace, toward the great cathedral. Ere he reached

it, its longtongued clock tolled twelve, and all the other churches, one after another, took up the sound, and

the witching hour of midnight rang and rerang from end to end of London town. As if by magic, a thousand

forked tongues of fire shot up at once into the blind, black night, turning almost in an instant the darkened

face of the heavens to an inflamed, glowing red. Great fires were blazing around the cathedral when they

reached it, but no one stopped to notice them, but only hurried on the faster to gain their point of observation.

Sir Norman just glanced at the magnificent pile for the old St. Paul's was even more magnificent than the

new, and then followed after the rest, through many a gallery, tower, and spiral staircase till the dome was

reached. And there a grand and mighty spectacle was before him the whole of London swaying and

heaving in one great sea of fire. From one end to the other, the city seemed wrapped in sheets of flame, and

every street, and alley, and lane within it shone in a lurid radiance far brighter than noonday. All along the

river fires were gleaming, too; and the whole sky had turned from black to bloodred crimson. The streets

were alive and swarming it could scarcely be believed that the plagueinfested city contained half so many

people, and all were unusually hopeful and animated; for it was popularly believed that these fires would

effectually check the pestilence. But the angry fiat of a Mighty Judge had gone forth, and the tremendous arm

It has been said the weather for weeks was unusually brilliant, days of cloudless sunshine, nights of cloudless

moonlight, and the air was warm and sultry enough for the month of August in the tropics. But now, while

they looked, a vivid flash of lightning, from what quarter of the heavens no man knew, shot athwart the sky,

followed by another and another, quick, sharp, and blinding. Then one great drop of rain fell like molten lead

on the pavement, then a second and a third quicker, faster, and thicker, until down it crashed in a perfect

deluge. It did not wait to rain; it fell in floods in great, slanting sheets of water, an if the very floodgates of

heaven had opened for a second deluge. No one ever remembered to have seen such torrents fall, and the

populace fled before it in wildest dismay. In five minutes, every fire, from one extremity of London to the

other, was quenched in the very blackness of darkness, and on that night the deepest gloom and terror reigned

throughout the city. It was clear the hand of an avenging Deity was in this, and He who had rained down fire

on Sodom and Gomorrah had not lost His might. In fifteen minutes the terrific flood was over; the dismal

clouds cleared away, a pale, fair, silver moon shone serenely out, and looked down on the black, charred

heaps of ashes strewn through the streets of London. One by one, the stars that all night had been obscured,

glanced and sparkled over the sky, and lit up with their soft, pale light the doomed and stricken town.

Everybody had quitted the dome in terror and consternation; and now Sir Norman, who had been lost in awe,

suddenly bethought him of his ride to the ruin, and hastened to follow their example. Walking rapidly, not to

say recklessly, along, he abruptly knocked against some one sauntering leisurely before him, and nearly

pitched headlong on the pavement. Recovering his centre of gravity by a violent effort, he turned to see the

cause of the collision, and found himself accosted by a musical and foreignaccented voice.

"Pardon," paid the sweet, and rather feminine tones; "it was quite an accident, I assure you, monsieur. I had

Sir Norman looked at the voice, or rather in the direction whence it came, and found it proceeded from a lad

in gay livery, whose clear, colorless face, dark eyes, end exquisite features were by no means unknown. The

boy seemed to recognize him at the same moment, and slightly touched his gay cap.

"Ah! it is Sir Norman Kingsley! Just the very person, but one, in the world that I wanted most to see."

"Indeed! And, pray, whom have I the honor of addressing?" inquired Sir Norman, deeply edified by the cool

"They call me Hubert for want of a better name, I suppose," said the lad, easily. "And may I ask, Sir

Norman, if you are shod with sevenleagued boots, or if your errand is one of life and death, that you stride

"And what is that to you?" asked Sir Norman, indignant at his freeandeasy impudence.

"Nothing; only I should like to keep up with you, if my legs were long enough; and as they're not, and as

company is not easily to be had in these forlorn streets, I should feel obliged to you if you would just slacken

The boy's face in the moonlight, in everything but expression, was exactly that of Leoline, to which softening

circumstance may be attributed Sir Norman's yielding to the request, and allowing the page to keep along

"I've met you once before tonight?" inquired Sir Norman, after a prolonged and wondering stare at him.

"Yes; I have a faint recollection of seeing you and Mr. Ormiston on London Bridge, a few hours ago, and, by

"Just a little information of a private character perhaps you can direct me to his whereabouts."

"Should be happy to oblige you, my dear boy, but, unfortunately, I cannot. I want to see him myself, if I

"Very there is a lady in the case; and such business, you are aware, is always pressing. Probably you have

heard of her a youthful angel, in virgin white, who took a notion to jump into the Thames, not a great while

"Ah!" said Sir Norman, with a start that did not escape the quick eyes of the boy. "And what do you want of

"Perhaps you know her yourself, sir Norman? If so, you will answer quite as well as your friend, as I only

"I have been out of town tonight," said Sir Norman, evasively, "and there may have been more ladies than

one jumped into the Thames, daring my absence. Pray, describe your angel in white."

"I did not notice her particularly myself," said the boy, with easy indifference, "as I am not in the habit of

paying much attention to young ladies who run wild about the streets at night and jump promiscuously into

rivers. However, this one was rather remarkable, for being dressed as a bride, having long black hair, and a

great quantity of jewelry about her, and looking very much like me. Having said she looks like me, I need not

"Vanity of vanities, all in vanity !" murmured Sir Norman, meditatively. "Perhaps she is a relative of yours,

Master Hubert, since you take such an interest in her, and she looks so much like you."

"Not that I know of," said Hubert, in his careless way. "I believe I was born minus those common domestic

afflictions, relatives; and I don't take the slightest interest in her, either; don't think it!"

"My Lord Rochester," said that nobleman's page, waving off the insinuation by a motion of his hand and a

little displeased frown; "he picked her up adrift, and being composed of highly inflammable materials, took a

hot and vehement fancy for her, which fact he did not discover until your friend, Mr. Ormiston, had carried

"Exactly so; and now you perceive the reason why it is quite important that I find Mr. Ormiston. We do not

"You do? I tell you what it is, my boy," exclaimed Sir Norman, suddenly and in an elevated key, "the best

thing you can do is, to go home and go to bed, and never mind young ladies. You'll catch the plague before

"Monsieur is excited," lisped the lad raining his hat end running his taper fingers through his glossy, dark

"Handsome!" cried Sir Norman, lighting up with quite a new sensation at the recollection. "I tell you

handsome doesn't begin to describe her! She is beautiful, lovely, angelic, divine " Here Sir Norman's litany

of adjectives beginning to give out, he came to a sudden halt, with a face as radiant as the sky at sunrise.

"Ah! I did not believe them, when they told me she was so much like me; but if she in as near perfection as

you describe, I shall begin to credit it. Strange, is it not, that nature should make a duplicate of her greatest

"You conceited young jackanapes!" growled Sir Norman, in deep displeasure. "It is far stranger how such a

bundle of vanity can contrive to live in this workaday world. You are a foreigner, I perceive?"

Sir Norman eyed the slender specimen of foreign manhood, uttering this sentiment is the sincerest of tones,

"My good youth, be careful! I happen to be a native, and not altogether used to this sort of talk. How long

have you been here? Not long, I know myself at least, not in the Earl of Rochester's service, or I would

"Right! I have not been here a month; but that month hag seemed longer than a year elsewhere. Do you know,

I imagine when the world was created, this island of yours must have been made late on Saturday night, and

Sir Norman paused in his walk, and contemplated the speaker a moment in severest silence. But Master

Hubert only lifted up his saucy face and laughing black eyes, in dauntless sang froid.

"Master Hubert," began Master Hubert's companion, in his deepest and sternest base, "I don't know your

other name, and it would be of no consequence if I did just listen to me a moment. If you don't want to get

run through (you perceive I carry a sword), and have an untimely end put to your career, just keep a civil

"Thought is free, however, so I can have my own opinion in spite of everything. Will you tell me, monsieur,

"You will have it, will you?" exclaimed Sir Norman, half drawing his sword. "Don't ask questions, but

"Monsieur, I object to that term," said Hubert, with calm dignity. "Master is a vulgarism that I dislike; so, in

"I do not like to be impertinently inquisitive in addressing so dignified a gentleman, but perhaps you would

"Monsieur shall ask as many questions as he pleases, and it shall not be considered the slightest liberty," said

the young gentleman, politely. "I had been roaming at large about the city and the palace of his majesty

whom may Heaven preserve, and grant a little more wisdom! in search of a situation; and among that of all

nobles of the court, the Earl of Rochester's livery struck me as being the moat becoming, and so I concluded

"What an honor for his lordship! Since you dislike England so much, however, you will probably soon throw

"Perhaps! I rather like Whitehall, however. Old Rowlie has taken rather a fancy to me," said the boy speaking

with the same easy familiarity of his majesty as he would of a lapdog. " And what is better, so has Mistress

Stewart so much so, that Heaven forefend the king should become jealous. This, however, is strictly entra

"Your secret shall be preserved at the risk of my life," said Sir Norman, laying his hand on the left side of his

doublet; "and in return, may I ask if you have any relatives living any sisters for instance?"

"I see I you have a suspicion that the lady in white may be a sister of mine. Well, you may set your mind at

rest on that point for if she is, it is news to me, as I never saw her in my life before tonight. Is she a

"Never you mind that, my dear boy; but take my advice, and don't trouble yourself looking for her; for, most

"Much obliged," said Hubert, touching his cap, "but nevertheless, I shall risk it. She had the plague, though,

when she jumped into the river, and perhaps the beat place to find her world be the pesthouse. I shall try."

"Go, and Heaven speed you! Yonder is the way to it, and my road lies here. Good night, master Hubert."

"Good night, Sir Norman," responded the page, bowing airily; "and if I do not find the lady tonight, most

Turning along a road leading to the pesthouse, and laughing as he went, the boy disappeared. Fearing lest

the page should follow him, and thereby discover a clue to Leoline's abode, Sir Norman turned into a street

some distance from the house, and waited in the shadow until he was out of sight. Then he came forth, and,

full of impatience to get back to the ruin, hurried on to where he had left his horse. He was still in the care of

the watchman, whom he repaid for his trouble; and as he sprang on his back, he glanced up at the windows of

Leoline's house. It was all buried in profound darkness but that one window from which that faint light

streamed, and he knew that she had not yet gone to rest. For a moment he lingered and looked at it in the

absurd way lovers will look, and was presently rewarded by seeing what he watched for a shadow flit

between him and the light. The sight was a strong temptation to him to dismount and enter, and, under

pretence of warning her against the Earl of Rochester and his "pretty page," see her once again. But

reflection, stepping rebukingly up to him, whispered indignantly, that his ladylove was probably by this time

in her night robe, and not at home to lovers; and Sir Norman respectfully bowed to reflection's superior

wisdom. He thought of Hubert's words,"If I do not find her tonight, I shall most assuredly tomorrow," and a

"Tomorrow," he said, as he turned to go. "Who knows what tomorrow may bring forth! Fairest and dearest

He rode away in the moonlight, with the stars shining peacefully down upon him. His heart at the moment

was a divided one one half being given to Leoline, and the other to the Midnight Queen and her mysterious

court. The farther he went away from Leoline, the dimmer her star became in the horizon of his thoughts; and

the nearer he came to Miranda, the brighter and more eagerly she loomed up, until he spurred his horse to a

most furious gallop, lest he should find the castle and the queen lost in the regions of space when he got there.

Once the plaguestricken city lay behind him, his journey was short; and soon, to his great delight, he turned

Tying his horse to a stake in the crumbling wall, he paused for a moment to look at it in the pale, wan light of

the midnight moon. He had looked at it many a time before, but never with the same interest as now; and the

ruined battlements, the fallen roof, the broken windows, and mouldering sides, had all a new and weird

interest for him. No one was visible far or near; and feeling that his horse was secure in the shadow of the

wall, he entered, and walked lightly and rapidly along in the direction of the spiral staircase. With more haste,

but the same precaution, he descended, and passed through the vaults to where he knew the loose flagstone

was. It was well he did know; for there was neither strain of music nor ray of light to guide him now; and his

heart sank to zero as he thought he might raise the stone and discover nothing. His hand positively trembled

with eagerness as he lifted it; and with unbounded delight, not to be described, looked down on the same

titled assembly he had watched before. But there had been a change since half the lights were extinguished,

and the great vaulted room was comparatively in shadow the music had entirely died away and all was

solemnly silent. But what puzzled Sir Norman most of all was, the fact that there seemed to be a trial of acme

A long table, covered with green velvet, and looking not unlike a modern billiard table, stood at the right of

the queen's crimson throne; and behind it, perched in a high chair, and wearing a long, solemn, black robe, sat

a small, thick personage, whose skin Sir Norman would have known on a bush. He glanced at the lower

throne and found it as he expected, empty; and he saw at once that his little highness was not only prince

consort, but also supreme judge in the kingdom. Two or three similar blackrobed gentry, among whom was

recognizable the noble duke who so narrowly escaped with his life under the swords of Sir Norman and

Count L'Estrange. Before this solemn conclave stood a man who was evidently the prisoner under trial, and

who wore the whitest and most frightened face Sir Norman thought he had ever beheld. The queen was

lounging negligently back on her throne, paying very little attention to the solemn rites, occasionally

gossiping with some of the snowwhite sylphs beside her, and often yawning behind her pretty fingertips,

The rest of the company were decorously seated in the crimson and gilded armchairs, some listening with

interest to what was going on, others holding whispered teteatetes, and all very still and respectful.

Sir Norman's interest was aroused to the highest pitch; he imprudently leaned forward too far, in order to bear

and see, and lost his balance. He felt he was going, and tried to stop himself, but in vain; and seeing there was

no help for it, he made a sudden spring, and landed right in the midst of the assembly.

In an instant all was confusion. Everybody sprang to their feet ladies shrieked in chorus, gentlemen swore

and drew their swords, and looked to see if they might not expect a whole army to drop from the sky upon

them, as they stood. No other battalion, however, followed this forlorn hope; and seeing it, the gentlemen

took heart of grace and closed around the unceremonious intruder. The queen had sprung from her royal seat,

and stood with her bright lips parted, and her brighter eyes dilating in speechless wonder. The bench, with the

judge at their head, had followed her example, and stood staring with all their might, looking, truth to tell, as

much startled by the sudden apparition as the fair sex. The said fair sex were still firing off little volleys of

screams in chorus, and clinging desperately to their cavaliers; and everything, in a word, was in most admired

Tam O'Shanter's cry, "Weel done, Cutty sark!" could not have produced half such a commotion among his

"hellish legion" as the emphatic debut of Sir Norman Kingsley among these human revelers. The only one

who seemed rather to enjoy it than otherwise was the prisoner, who was quietly and quickly making off,

when the malevolent and irrepressible dwarf espied him, and the one shock acting as a counterirritant to the

other, he bounced fleetly over the table, and grabbed him in his crablike claws.

This brisk and laudable instance of selfcommand had a wonderful and inspiriting effect on the rest; and as

he replaced the pale and palsied prisoner in his former position, giving him a vindictive shake and vicious

kick with his royal boots as he did so, everybody began to feel themselves again. The ladies stopped

screaming, the gentlemen ceased swearing, and more than one exclamation of astonishment followed the

"Sir Norman Kingsley! Sir Norman Kingsley!" rang from lip to lip of those who recognized him; and all

drew closer, and looked at him as if they really could not make up their mind to believe their eyes. As for Sir

Norman himself, that gentleman was destined literally, if not metaphorically, to fall on his legs that night, and

had alighted on the crimson velvetcarpet, catlike, on his feet. In reference to his feelings his first was one

of frantic disapproval of going down; his second, one of intense astonishment of finding himself there with

unbroken bones; his third, a disagreeable conviction that he had about put his foot in it, and was in an

excessively bad fix; and last, but not least, a firm and rooted determination to make the beet of a bad bargain,

His first act was to take off his plumed hat, and make a profound obeisance to her majesty the queen, who

was altogether too much surprised to make the return politeness demanded, and merely stared at him with her

"Ladies and gentlemen!" said Sir Norman, turning gracefully to the company; "I beg ten thousand pardons for

this unwarrantable intrusion, and promise you, upon my honor, never to do it again. I beg to assure you that

my coming here was altogether involuntary on my part, and forced by circumstances over which I had no

control; and I entreat you will not mind me in the least, but go on with the proceeding, just as you did before.

Should you feel my presence here any restraint, I am quite ready and willing to take my departure at any

moment; and as I before insinuated, will promise, on the honor of a gentleman and a knight, never again to

This reference to the ceiling seemed to explain the whole mystery; and everybody looked up at the corner

whence he came from, and saw the flag that had been removed. As to his speech, everybody had listened to it

with the greatest of attention; and sundry of the ladies, convinced by this time that he was flesh and blood,

and no ghost, favored the handsome young knight with divers glances, not at all displeased or unadmiring.

The queen sank back into her seat, keeping him still transfixed with her darklysplendid eyes; and whether

she admired or otherwise, no one could tell from her still, calm face. The prince consort's feelings for such

there could be no doubt he was were involved in no such mystery; and he broke out into a hyenalike

scream of laughter, as he recognized, upon a second look, his young friend of the Golden Crown.

"So you have come, have you?" he cried, thrusting his unlovely visage over the table, till it almost touched sir

"Perhaps you don't know me, my dear young sir your little friend, you know, of the Golden Crown."

"Oh, I perfectly recognize you! My little friend," said Sir Norman, with bland suavity, and unconsciously

Upon this, his highness net up such another screech of mirth that it quite woke an echo through the room; and

all Sir Norman's friends looked grave; for when his highness laughed, it was a very bad sign.

"My little friend will hurt himself," remarked Sir Norman, with an air of solicitude, "if he indulges in his

exuberant and gleeful spirits to such an extent. Let me recommend you, as a wellwisher, to sit down and

Instead of complying, however, the prince, who seemed blessed with a lively sense of the ludicrous, wan so

struck with the extreme funniness of the young man's speech, that he relaxed into another paroxysm of levity,

shriller and more unearthly, if possible, than any preceding one, and which left him so exhausted, that he was

forced to sink into his chair and into silence through sheer fatigue. Seizing this, the first opportunity,

Her tone was neither very sweet nor suave; but it was much pleasanter to be crossexamined by the owner of

such a pretty face than by the ugly little monster, for the moment gasping and extinguished; and Sir Norman

"Madame, I am Sir Norman Kingsley, very much at your service; and I beg to assure you I did not come here,

but fell here, through that hole, if you perceive, and very much against my will."

"Equivocation will not serve you in this case, sir," said the queen, with an austere dignity. "And, allow me to

observe, it is just probable you would not have fallen through that hole in our royal ceiling if you had kept

"And why did you do so?" demanded her majesty, with far more sharp asperity than Sir Norman dreamed

"The rumor of Queen Miranda's charms has gone forth; and I fear I must own that rumor drew me hither,"

responded Sir Norman, inventing a polite little work of fiction for the occasion; "and, let me add, that I came

to find that rumor had underrated instead of exaggerated her majesty's said charms."

Here Sir Norman, whose spine seemed in danger of becoming the shape of a rainbow, in excess of good

breeding, made another genuflection before the queen, with his hand over the region of his heart. Miranda

tried to look grave, and wear that expression of severe solemnity I am told queens and rich people always do;

but, in spite of herself, a little pleased smile rippled over her face; and, noticing it, and the bow and speech,

the prince suddenly and sharply set up such another screech of laughter as no steamboat or locomotive, in the

"Will your highness have the goodness to hold your tongue?" inquired the queen, with much the air and look

of Mrs. Caudle, "and allow me to ask this stranger a few questions uninterrupted? Sir Norman Kingsley, how

"Madame, I was not there five minutes when I suddenly, and to my great surprise, found myself here."

"A lie! a lie!" exclaimed the dwarf, furiously. "It is over two hours since I met you at the bar of the Golden

"My dear little friend," said Sir Norman, drawing his sword, and flourishing it within an inch of the royal

nose, "just make that remark again, and my sword will cleave your pretty head, as the cimetar of Saladin

clove the cushion of down! I earnestly assure you, madame, that I had but just knelt down to look, when I

discovered to my dismay, that I was no longer there, but in your charming presence."

"In that case, my lords and gentlemen," said the queen, glancing blandly round the apartment, "he has

"Permit me, your majesty," said the duke, who had read the roll of death, and who had been eyeing Sir

Norman sharply for some time, "permit me one moment! This is the very individual who slew the Earl of

Ashley, while his companion was doing for my Lord Craven. Sir Norman Kingsley," said his grace, turning,

"Quite as well as I wish to," answered Sir Norman, with a cool and rather contemptuous glance in his

direction. "You look extremely like a certain highwayman, with a most villainous countenance, I encountered

a few hours back, and whom I would have made mince most of if he lead not been coward enough to fly.

"Cut him down!" "Dash his brains out!" "Run him through!" "Shoot him!" were a few of the mild and

pleasant insinuations that went off on every side of him, like a fierce volley of popguns; and a score of

bright blades flashed blue and threatening on every side; while the prince broke out into another shriek of

Sir Norman drew his own sword, and stood on the defence, breathed one thought to Leoline, gave himself up

for lost; but before quite doing so to use a phrase not altogether as original as it might be "determined to

sell his life as dearly as possible." Angry eyes and fierce faces were on every hand, and his dreams of

matrimony and Leoline seemed about to terminate then and there, when luck came to his side, in the shape of

her most gracious majesty the queen. Springing to her feet, she waved her sceptre, while her black eyes

flashed as fiercely as the best of them, and her voice rang out like a trumpettone.

"Sheathe your swords, my lords, and back every man of you! Not one hair of his head shall fall without my

permission; and the first who lays hands on him until that consent is given, shall die, if I have to shoot him

myself! Sir Norman Kingsley, stand near, and fear not. At his peril, let one of them touch you: "

Sir Norman bent on one knee, and raised the gracious hand to his lips. At the fierce, ringing, imperious tone,

all involuntarily fell back, as if they were accustomed to obey it; and the prince, who seemed tonight in an

"What are your majesty's commands?" asked the discomfited duke, rather sulkily. "Is this insulting interloper

"That is no affair of yours, my lord duke!" answered the spirited voice of the queen. "Be good enough to

finish Lord Gloucester's trial; and until then I will be responsible for the safekeeping of Sir Norman

"And after that, he is to go free eh, your majesty?" said the dwarf, laughing to that extent that he ran the risk

"After that, it shall be precisely as I please!" replied the ringing voice; while the black eyes flashed anything

but loving glances upon him. "While I am queen here, I shall be obeyed; when I am queen no longer, you

may do as you please! My lords" (turning her passionate, beautiful face to the hushed audience), am I or am I

"Then, when I condescend to command, you shall obey! Do you, your highness, and you, lord duke, go on

"She is right," said the dwarf, his fierce little eyes gleaming with a malignant light; "let us do one thing before

another; and after we have settled Gloucester here, we will attend to this man's case. Guards keep a sharp eye

on your new prisoner. Ladies and gentlemen, be good enough to resume your seats. Now, your grace,

"Where did we leave off?" inquired his grace, looking rather at a loss, and scowling vengeance dire at the

"The earl was confessing his guilt, or about to do so. Pray, my lord," said the dwarf, glaring upon the pallid

A breathless silence followed the question everybody seemed to hold his very breath to listen. Even the

queen leaned forward and awaited the answer eagerly, and the many eyes that had been riveted on Sir

Norman since his entrance, left him now for the first time and settled on the prisoner. A piteous spectacle that

prisoner was his face whiter than the snowy nymphs behind the throne, and so distorted with fear, fury, and

guilt, that it looked scarcely human. Twice he opened his eyes to reply, and twice all sounds died away in a

"Do you hear his highness?" sharply inquired the lord high chancellor, reaching over the great seal, and

giving the unhappy Earl of Gloucester a rap on the head with it, "Why do you not answer?"

"Pardon! Pardon!" exclaimed the earl, in a husky whisper. "Do not believe the tales they tell you of me. For

"Confess!" thundered the dwarf, striking the table with his clinched fist, until all the papers thereon jumped

spasmodically into the air"confess at once, or I shall run you through where you stand!"

The earl, with a perfect screech of terror, flung himself flat upon his face and hands before the queen, with

such force, that Sir Norman expected to see his countenance make a hole in the floor.

"O madame! spare me! spare me! spare me! Have mercy on me as you hope for mercy yourself!"

She recoiled, and drew back her very garments from his touch, as if that touch was pollution, eyeing him the

"There is no mercy for traitors!" she coldly said. "Confess your guilt, and expect no pardon from me!"

"Lift him up!" shouted the dwarf, clawing the air with his hands, as if he could have clawed the heart out of

his victim's body; "back with him to his place, guards, and see that he does not leave it again!"

Squirming, and writhing, and twisting himself in their grasp, in very uncomfortable and eellike fashion, the

earl was dragged back to his place, and forcibly held there by two of the guards, while his face grew so

ghastly and convulsed that Sir Norman turned away his head, and could not bear to look at it.

"Confess!" once more yelled the dwarf in a terrible voice, while his still more terrible eyes flashed sparks of

fire "confess, or by all that's sacred it shall be tortured out of you. Guards, bring me the thumbscrews, and

let us see if they will not exercise the dumb devil by which our ghastly friend is possessed!"

"No, no, no!" shrieked the earl, while the foam flew from his lips. "I confess! I confess! I confess!"

"Good! And what do you confess?" said the duke blandly, leaning forward, while the dwarf fell back with a

"Do you confess to having told Charles, King of England, the secrets of our kingdom and this place?" said the

The earl grew, if possible, a more ghastly white. "I do I must! but oh! for the love of "

"Never mind love," cut in the inexorable duke, "it is a subject that has nothing whatever to do with the

present case. Did you or did you not receive for the aforesaid information a large sum of money?"

"Which sum of money you have concealed," continued the duke, with another frown and a sharp rap. "Now

"Tell us first, and we will think about your life afterward. Let me advise you as a friend, my lord, to tell at

"It is buried at the north corner of the old wall at the head of Bradshaw's grave. You shall have that and a

"Enough!" broke in the dwarf, with the look and tone of an exultant demon. "That is all we want! My lord

duke, give me the deathwarrant, and while her majesty signs it, I will pronounce his doom!"

The duke handed him a roll of parchment, which he glanced critically over, and handed to the queen for her

autograph. That royal lady spread the vellum on her knee, took the pen and affixed her signature as coolly as

if she were inditing a sonnet in an album. Then his highness, with a face that fairly scintillated with demoniac

delight, stood up and fixed his eyes on the ghastly prisoner, and spoke in a voice that reverberated like the

"My Lord of Gloucester, you have been tried by a council of your fellowpeers, presided over by her royal

self, and found guilty of high treason. Your sentence is that you be taken hence, immediately, to the block,

His highness wound up this somewhat solemn speech, rather inconsistently, bursting out into one of his

shrillest peals of laughter; and the miserable Earl of Gloucester, with a gasping, unearthly cry, fell back in the

arms of the attendants. Dead and oppressive silence reigned; and Sir Norman, who half believed all along the

whole thing was a farce, began to feel an uncomfortable sense of chill creeping over him, and to think that,

though practical jokes were excellent things in their way, there was yet a possibility of carrying them a little

too far. The disagreeable silence was first broken by the dwarf, who, after gloating for a moment over his

victim's convulsive spasms, sprang nimbly from his chair of dignity and held out his arm for the queen. The

queen arose, which seemed to be a sign for everybody else to do the same, and all began forming themselves

"Whist is to be done with this other prisoner, your highness?" inquired the duke, making a poke with his

His highness turned round, and putting his face close up to Sir Norman's favored him with a malignant grin.

"Really," said Sir Norman, drawing back and returning the dwarf's stare with compound interest, "that

depends altogether on the nature of the entertainment; but, at the same time, I'm much obliged to you for

This reply nearly overset his highness's gravity once more, but he checked his mirth after the first irresistible

squeal; and finding the company were all arranged in the order of going, and awaiting his sovereign pleasure,

"Let him come," he said, with his countenance still distorted by inward merriment; "It will do him good to

see how we punish offenders here, and teach him what he is to expect himself. Is your majesty ready?"

"My majesty has been ready and waiting for the last five minutes," replied the lady, overlooking his

Her rising was the signal for the unseen band to strike up a grand triumphant "Io paean," though, had the

"Rogue's March" been a popular melody in those times, it would have suited the procession much more

admirably. The queen and the dwarf went first, and a vivid contrast they were she so young, so beautiful, so

proud, so disdainfully cold; he so ugly, so stunted, so deformed, so fiendish. After them went the band of

sylphs in white, then the chancellor, archbishop, and embassadors; next the whole court of ladies and

gentlemen; and after them Sir Norman, in the custody of two of the soldiers. The condemned earl came last,

or rather allowed himself to be dragged by his four guards; for he seemed to have become perfectly palsied

and dumb with fear. Keeping time to the triumphant march, and preserving dismal silence, the procession

wound its way along the room and through a great archway heretofore hidden by the tapestry now lifted

lightly by the nymphs. A long stone passage, carpeted with crimson and gold, and brilliantly illuminated like

the grand saloon they had left, was thus revealed, and three similar archways appeared at the extremity, one

to the right and left, and one directly before them. The procession passed through the one to the left, and Sir

Norman started in dismay to find himself in the most gloomy apartment he had ever beheld in his life. It was

all covered with black walls, ceiling, and floor were draped in black, and reminded him forcibly of La

Masque's chamber of horrors, only this was more repellant. It was lighted, or rather the gloom was troubled,

by a few spectral tapers of black wax in ebony candlesticks, that seemed absolutely to turn black, and make

the horrible place more horrible. There was no furniture neither couch, chair, nor table nothing but a sort of

stage at the upper end of the room, with something that looked like a seat upon it, and both were shrouded

with the same dismal drapery. But it was no seat; for everybody stood, arranging themselves silently and

noiselessly around the walls, with the queen and the dwarf at their head, and near this elevation stood a tall,

black statue, wearing a mask, and leaning on a bright, dreadful, glittering axe. The music changed to an

unearthly dirge, so weird and bloodcurdling, that Sir Norman could have put his hands over his eardrums

to shut out the ghastly sound. The dismal room, the voiceless spectators, tho black spectre with the glittering

Could it be possible they were really going to murder the unhappy wretch? and could all those beautiful

ladiescould that surpassingly beautiful queen, stand there serenely unmoved, to witness such a crime?

While he yet looked round in horror, the doomed man, already apparently almost dead with fear, was dragged

forward by his guards. Paralyzed as he was, at sight of the stage which he knew to be the scaffold, he uttered

shriek after shriek of frenzied despair, and struggled like a madman to get free. But as well might Laocoon

have struggled in the folds of the serpent; they pulled him on, bound him hand and foot, and held his head

The black spectre moved the dwarf made a signal the glittering axe was raised fell a scream was cut

in two a bright jet of blood spouted up in the soldiers faces, blinding them; the axe fell again, and the Earl

It was all over so quickly, that Sir Norman could scarcely believe his horrified senses, until the deed was

done. The executioner threw a black cloth over the bleeding trunk, and held up the grizzly head by the hair;

and Sir Norman could have sworn the features moved, and the dead eyes rolled round the room.

"Behold!" cried the executioner, striking the convulsed face with the palm of his open hand, "the fate of all

"And of all spies!" exclaimed the dwarf, glaring with his fiendish eyes upon the appalled Sir Norman. "Keep

your axe sharp and bright, Mr. Executioner, for before morning dawns there is another gentleman here to be

"Let us go," said the queen, glancing at the revolting sight, and turning away with a shudder of repulsion.

"And taken away my appetite for supper," added a youthful and elegant beauty beside her. "My Lord

Gloucester was hideous enough when living, but, mon Dieu,! he is ten times more so when dead!"

"Your ladyship will not have the same story to tell of yonder stranger, when he shares the same fate in are

hour or two!" said the dwarf, with a malicious grin; "for I heard you remarking upon his extreme beauty

"True! It is almost a pity to cut such a handsome head off is it not? I wish I had a voice in your highness's

"And a bridegroom for your ladyship?" suggested the queen, with a curling lip. "I think if Sir Norman

Kingsley knew Lady Mountjoy as well as I do, he would even prefer the block to such a fate!"

Lady Mountjoy's brilliant eyes shone like two angry meteors; but she merely bowed and laughed; and the

"Does your highness intend remaining here all night?" demanded the queen, rather fiercely. "If not, the

sooner we leave this ghastly place the better. The play is over, and supper is waiting."

With which the royal virago made an imperious motion for her attendant sprites in gossamer white to precede

her, and turned with her accustomed stately step to follow. The music immediately changed from its doleful

dirge to a spirited measure, and the whole company flocked after her, back to the great room of state. There

they all paused, hovering in uncertainty around the room, while the queen, holding her purple train up lightly

in one hand, stood at the foot of the throne, glancing at them with her cold, haughty and beautiful eyes. In

their wandering, those same darklysplendid eyes glanced and lighted on Sir Norman, who, in a state of

seeming stupor at the horrible scene he had just witnessed, stood near the green table, and they sent a thrill

through him with their wonderful resemblance to Leoline's. So vividly alike were they, that he half doubted

for a moment whether she and Leoline were not really one; but no Leoline never could have had the cold,

cruel heart to stand and witness such a horrible eight. Miranda's dark, piercing glance fell as haughtily and

disdainfully on him as it had on the rest; and his heart sank as he thought that whatever sympathy she had felt

for him was entirely gone. It might have been a whim, a woman's caprice, a spirit of contradiction, that had

induced her to defend him at first. Whatever it was, and it mattered not now, it had completely vanished. No

face of marble could have been colder, of stonier, or harder, than hers, as she looked at him out of the depths

of her great dark eyes; and with that look, his last lingering hope of life vanished.

"And now for the next trial!" exclaimed the dwarf, briskly breaking in upon his drabcolored meditations,

"You will do no such thing!" said the imperious voice of the queenly shrew. "We will have neither trials nor

anything else until after supper, which has already been delayed four full minutes. My lord chamberlain, have

One of the gilded and decorated gentlemen whom sir Norman had mistaken for ambassadors stepped off, in

obedience, through another opening in the tapestry which seemed to be as extensively undermined with

such apertures as a cabman's coat with capes and, while he was gone, the queen stood drawn up to her full

height, with her scornful face looking down on the dwarf. That small man knit up his very plain face into a

bristle of the sourest kinks, and frowned sulky disapproval at an order which he either would not, or dared

not, countermand. Probably the latter had most to do with it, as everybody looked hungry and mutinous, and

"Your majesty, the royal banquet is waiting," insinuated the lord high chamberlain, returning, and bending

"And what is to be done with this prisoner, while we are eating it?" growled the dwarf, looking drawn swords

"He can remain here under care of the guards, can he not?" she retorted sharply. "Or, if you are afraid they

are not equal to taking care of him, you had better stay and watch him yourself."

With which answer, her majesty sailed majestically away, leaving the gentleman addressed to follow or not,

as he pleased. It pleased him to do so, on the whole; and he went after her, growling anathemas between his

royal teeth, and evidently in the same state of mind that induces gentlemen in private life to take sticks to

their aggravating spouses, under similar circumstances. However, it might not be just the thing, perhaps, for

kings and queens to take broomsticks to settle their little differences of opinion, like common Christians;

and so the prince peaceably followed her, and entered the salle a manger with the rest, and Sir Norman and

his keepers were left in the hall of state, monarchs of all they surveyed. Notwithstanding he knew his hours

were numbered, the young knight could not avoid feeling curious, and the tapestry having been drawn aside,

The apartment was smaller than the one in which he stood though still very large, and instead of being all

crimson and gold, was glancing and glittering with blue and silver. These azure hangings were of satin,

instead of velvet, and looked quite light and cool, compared to the hot, glowing place where he was. The

ceiling was spangled over with silver stars, with the royal arms quartered in the middle, and the chairs were

of white, polished wood, gleaming like ivory, and cushioned with blue satin. The table was of immense

length, as it had need to be, and flashed and sparkled in the wax lights with heaps of gold and silver plate,

cutglass, and precious porcelain. Golden and crimson wines shone in the carved decanters; great silver

baskets of fruit were strewn about, with piles of cakes and confectionery not to speak of more solid

substantials, wherein the heart of every true Englishman delighteth. The queen sat in a great, raised chair at

the head, and helped herself without paying much attention to anybody, and "the remainder were ranged

down its length, according to their rank which, as they were all pretty much dukes and duchesses, was

The spirits of the company depressed for a moment by the unpleasant little circumstance of seeing one of

their number beheaded seemed to revive under the spirituous influence of sherry, sack, and burgundy; and

soon they were laughing, and chatting, and hobnobbing, as animatedly as any dinnerparty Sir Norman had

ever seen. The musicians, too, appeared to be in high feather, and the merriest music of the day assisted the

Under ordinary circumstances, it war rather a tantalizing scene to stand aloof and contemplate; and so the

guards very likely felt; but Sir Norman's thoughts were of that room in black, the headsman's axe, and

Leoline. He felt he would never see her again never see the sun rise that was to shine on their bridal; and he

wondered what she would think of him, and if she was destined to fall into the hands of Lord Rochester or

Count L'Estrange. As a general thing, our young friend was not given to melancholy moralizing, but in the

present case, with the headsman's axe poised like the sword of Damocles above him by a single hair, he may

be pardoned for reflecting that this world is all a fleeting show, and that he had got himself into a scrape, to

which the plague was a trifle. And yet, with nervous impatience, he wished the dinner and his trial were over,

his fate sealed, and his life ended at once, since it was to be ended soon. For the fulfillment of the first wish,

he had not long to wait; the feast, though gay and grand, was of the briefest, and they could have scarcely

Everybody seemed in better humor, too, after the refection, but the queen and the dwarf the former looked

colder, and harder, and more like a Labrador iceberg tricked out in purple velvet, than ever, and his highness

was grinning from ear to ear which was the very worst possible sign. Not even her majesty could make the

slightest excuse for delaying the trial now; and, indeed, that eccentric lady seemed to have no wish to do so,

had she the power, but seated herself in silent disdain of them all, and dropping her long lashes over her dark

His highness and his nobles took their stations of authority behind the green table, and summoned the guards

to lead the prisoner up before them, which was done; while the rest of the company were fluttering down into

their seats, and evidently about to pay the greatest attention. The cases in this midnight court seemed to be

conducted on a decidedly original plan, and with an easy rapidity that would have electrified any other court,

ancient or modern. Sir Norman took his stand, and eyed his judges with a look half contemptuous, half

defiant; and the proceedings commenced by the dwarf a leaning forward and breaking into a roar of laughter,

"My little friend I warned you before not to be so facetious," said Sir Norman, regarding him quietly; "a rush

"No levity, young man!" interposed the lord chancellor, rebukingly; "remember, you are addressing His

Royal Highness Prince Caliban, Spouse, and Consort of Her Most Gracious Majesty, Miranda!"

"Indeed! Then all I have to say, is, that her majesty has very bad taste in the selection of a husband, unless,

indeed, her wish was to marry the ugliest man in the world, as she herself is the most beautiful of women!"

Her majesty took not the slightest notice of this compliment, not so much as a flatter of her drooping

eyelashes betrayed that she even heard it, but his highness laughed until he was perfectly hoarse.

"Silence!" shouted the duke, shocked and indignant at this glaring disrespect, "and answer truthfully the

His grace waved down the interruption with a dignified wave of the hand, and went on with were judicial

"You are the same who shot Lord Ashley between this and the city, some hours ago?"

"I had the pleasure of shooting a highwayman there, and my only regret is, I did not perform the same good

office by his companion, in the person of your noble self, before you turned and fled."

"These remarks are impertinent, and not to the purpose. You are the murderer of Lord Ashley, let that suffice.

"He was," said the dwarf, vindictively. "I met him at the Golden Crown but a short time after."

"Very well, that is another point settled, and either of them is strong enough to seal his death warrant. You

came here as a spy, to see and hear and report probably you were sent by King Charles?"

"Probably just think as you please about it!" said Sir Norman, who knew his case was as desperate as it

"No such thing. I have owned nothing. As I told you before, you are welcome to put what construction you

"Sir Norman Kingsley, this is nonsensical equivocation! You own you came to hear and see?"

"Well, hearing and seeing constitute spying, do they not? Therefore, you are a spy."

"No matter what they are in other places, I am pretty certain what they are here!"

"A room in black, and a chop with an axe the Earl of Gloucester's fate, in a word!"

"You have said it! Have you any reason why such a sentence should not be pronounced on you?"

"With the greatest pleasure!" said the duke, who had been scrawling on another ominous roll of vellum, and

now passed it to the dwarf. "I never knew anyone it gave me more delight to condemn. Will your highness

His highness, with a grin of most exquisite delight, did as directed; and Sir Norman looked steadfastly at the

queen as she received it. One of the gauzy nymphs presented it to her, kneeling, and she took it with a look

half bored, half impatient, and lightly scrawled her autograph. The long, dark lashes did not lift; no change

passed over the calm, cold face, as icily placid as a frozen lake in the moonlight evidently the life or death

of the stranger was less than nothing to her. To him she, too, was as nothing, or nearly so; but yet there was a

sharp jarring pain at his heart, as he saw that fair hand, that had saved him once, so coolly sign his death

warrant now. But there was little time left for to watch her; for, as she pushed it impatiently away, and

relapsed into her former proud listlessness, the dwarf got up with one of his death'shead grins, and began:

"Sir Norman Kingsley, you have been tried and convicted as a spy, and the paidhireling of the vindictive

and narrowminded Charles; and the sentence of this court, over which I have the honor to preside, is, that

you be taken hence immediately to the place of execution, and there lose your head by the axe!"

"And a mighty small loss it will be!" remarked the duke to himself, in a sort of parenthesis, as the dwarf

concluded his pleasant observation by thrusting himself forward across the table, after his rather

discomposing fashion, and breaking out into one of has diabolical laughterchips.

The queen, who had been sitting passive, and looking as if she were in spirit a thousand miles away, now

started up with sharp suddenness, and favored his highness with one of her fieriest fiery glances.

"Will your highness just permit somebody else to have a voice in that matter? How many more trials are to

"Only one," replied the duke, glancing over a little roll which he held; "Lady Castlemaine's, for poisoning the

"The same as our friend's here, in all probability," nodding easily, not to say playfully, at Sir Norman.

"Half an hour, or thereabouts. There are some secrets in the matter that have to be investigated, and which

"Then let all the trials be over first, and all the beheadings take place together. We don't choose to take the

trouble of traveling to the Black Chamber just to see his head chopped off, and then have the same journey to

undergo half an hour after, for a similar purpose. Call Lady Castlemaine, and let this prisoner be taken to one

of the dungeons, and there remain until the time for execution. Guards, do you hear? Take him away!"

The dwarf's face grew black as a thundercloud, and he jumped to his feet and confronted the queen with a

look so intensely ugly that no other earthly face could have assumed it. But that lady merely met it with one

of cold disdain and aversion, and, keeping her dark bright eyes fixed chillingly upon him, waved her white

hand, in her imperious way, to the guards. Those warlike gentlemen knew better than to disobey her most

gracious majesty when she happened to be, like Mrs. Joe Gargary, on the "rampage," which, if her flashing

eye and a certain expression about her handsome mouth spoke the truth, must have been twenty hours out of

the twentyfour. As the soldiers approached to lead him away, Sir Norman tried to catch her eye; but in vain,

"Call Lady Castlemaine," commanded the duke, as Sir Norman with his guards passed through the doorway

leading to the Black Chamber. "Your highness, I presume, is ready to attend to her case."

"Before I attend to hers or any one else's case," said the dwarf, hopping over the table like an overgrown toad,

"I will first see that this guest of ours is properly taken care, of, and does not leave us without the ceremony

With which, he seized one of the wax candles, and trotted, with rather unprincely haste, after Sir Norman and

his conductors. The young knight had been led down the same long passage he had walked through before;

but instead of entering the chamber of horrors, they passed through the centre arch, and found themselves in

another long, vaulted corridor, dimly lit by the glow of the outer one. It was as cold and dismal a place, Sir

Norman thought, as he had ever seen; and it had an odor damp and earthy, and of the grave. It had two or

three great, ponderous doors on either aide, fastened with huge iron bolts; and before one of these his

conductors paused. Just as they did so, the glimmer of the dwarf's taper pierced the gloom, and the next

"Down with the bars!" he cried. "This is the one for him the strongest and safest of them all. Now, my

dashing courtier, you will see how tenderly your little friend provides for his favorites!"

If Sir Norman made any reply, it was drowned id the rattle and clank of the massive bars, and is hopelessly

lost to posterity. The huge door swung back; but nothing was visible but a sort of black velvet pall, and

effluvia much stronger than sweet. Involuntarily he recoiled as one of the guards made a motion for him to

"I Shove him in! shove him in!" shrieked the dwarf, who was getting so excited with glee that he was dancing

about in a sort of jig of delight. "In with him in with him! If he won't go peaceably, kick him in

"I would strongly advise them not to try it," said Sir Norman, as he stepped into the blackness, "if they have

any regard for their health! It does not make much difference after all, my little friend, whether I spend the

next halfhour in the inky blackness of this place or the bloodred grandeur of your royal court. My little

The dwarf laughed in his pleasant way, and pushed the candle cautiously inside the door.

"Goodby for a little while, my dear young sir, and while the headsmen is sharpening his axe, I'll leave you

to think about your little friend. Lest you should lack amusement, I'll leave you a light to contemplate your

apartment; and for fear you may get lonesome, these two gentlemen will stand outside your door, with their

The dungeondoor swung to with a tremendous bang Sir Norman was barred in his prison to await his doom

and the dwarf was skipping along the passage with sprightliness, laughing as he went.

Probably not one of you; my dear friends, who glance graciously over this, was ever shut up in a dungeon

under expectation of bearing the unpleasant operation of decapitation within half an hour. It never happened

to myself, either, that I can recollect; so, of course, you or I personally can form no idea what the sensation

may be like; but in this particular case, tradition saith Sir Norman Kingsley's state of mind was decidedly

depressed. As the door shut violently, he leaned against it, and listened to his jailers place the great bars into

their sockets, and felt he was shut in, in the dreariest, darkest, dismalest, disagreeablest place that it had ever

been his misfortune to enter. He thought of Leoline, and reflected that in all probability she was sleeping the

sleep of the just perhaps dreaming of him, and little knowing that his head was to be cut off in half an hour.

In course of time morning would come it was not likely the ordinary course of nature would be cut off

because he was; and Leoline would get up and dress herself, and looking a thousand times prettier than ever,

stand at the window and wait for him. Ah! she might wait much good would it do her; about that time he

would probably be where? It was a rather uncomfortable question, but easily answered, and depressed him

He thought of Ormiston and La Masque no doubt they were billing and cooing in most approved fashion

just then, and never thinking of him; though, but for La Masque and his own folly, he might have been half

married by this time. He thought of Count L'Estrange and Master Hubert, and become firmly convinced, if

one did not find Leoline the other would; and each being equally bad, it was about a toss up in agony which

He thought of Queen Miranda, and of the adage, "put no trust in princes," and sighed deeply as he reflected

what a bad sign of human nature it was more particularly such handsome human nature that she could,

figuratively speaking, pat him on the back one moment, and kick him to the scaffold the next. He thought,

dejectedly, what a fool he was ever to have come back; or even having come back, not to have taken greater

pains to stay up aloft, instead of pitching abruptly headforemost into such a select company without an

invitation. He thought, too, what a cold, damp, unwholesome chamber they had lodged him in, and how apt

he would be to have a bad attack of ague and miasmatic fever, if they would only let him live long enough to

enjoy those blessings. And this having brought him to the end of his melancholy meditation, he began to

reflect how he could best amuse himself in the interim, before quitting this vale of tears. The candle was still

blinking feebly on the floor, shedding tears of wax in its feeble prostration, and it suddenly reminded him of

the dwarf's advice to examine his dark bower of repose. So be picked it up and snuffed it with his fingers, and

held it aloof, much as Robinson Crusoe held the brand in the dark cavern with the dead goat.

In the velvet pall of blackness before alluded to, its small, wan ray pierced but a few inches, and only made

the darkness visible. But Sir Norman groped his way to the wall, which he found to be all over green and

noisome slime, and broken out into a cold, clammy perspiration, as though it were at its last gasp. By the aid

of his friendly light, for which he was really much obliged a fact which, had his little friend known, he

would not have left it he managed to make the circuit of his prison, which he found rather spacious, and by

no means uninhabited; for the walls and floor were covered with fat, black beetles, whole families of which

interesting specimens of the insectworld he crunched remorselessly under foot, and massacred at every step;

and great, depravedlooking rats, with flashing eyes and sinisterteeth, who made frantic dives and rushes at

him, and bit at his jackboots with fierce, fury. These small quadrupeds reminded him forcibly of the dwarf,

especially in the region of the eyes and the general expression of countenance; and he began to reflect that if

the dwarf's soul (supposing him to possess such an article as that, which seemed open to debate) passed after

death into the body of any other animal, it would certainly be into that of a rat.

He had just come to this conclusion, and was applying the flame of the candle to the nose of an inquisitive

beetle, when it struck him he heard voices in altercation outside his door. One, clear, ringing, and imperious,

yet withal feminine, was certainly not heard for the first time; and the subdued and respectful voices that

After a moment, he heard the sound of the withdrawing bolts, and his heart beat fast. Surely, his halfhour

had not already expired; and if it had, would she be the person to conduct him to death? The door opened; a

puff of wind extinguished his candle, but not until he had caught the glimmer of jewels, the shining of gold,

and the flutter of long, black hair; and then some one came in. The door was closed; the bolts shot back!

There was no trouble about recognising her, for she carried in her hand a small lamp, which she held up

between them, that its rays might fall directly on both faces. Each was rather white, perhaps, and one heart

was going faster than it had ever gone before, and that one was decidedly not the queen's. She was dressed

exactly as he had seen her, in purple and ermine, in jewels and gold; and strangely out of place she looked

there, in her splendid dress and splendid beauty, among the black beetles and rats. Her face might have been a

dead, blank wall, or cut out of cold, white stone, for all it expressed; and as she lightly held up her rich robes

in one hand, and in the other bore the light, the dark, shining eyes were fixed on his face, and were as barren

of interest, eagerness, compassion, tenderness, or any other feeling, as the shining, black glass ones of a wax

doll. So they stood looking at each other for some ten seconds or so, and then, still looking full at him,

"Nothing of the kind! Not one of them would hurt a hair of my head if I refused to sign fifty deathwarrants!

"Very likely it would have amounted to the same thing in the end they would kill me whether you signed it

"You are mistaken! They would not kill you; at least, not tonight, if I had not signed it. They would have let

you live until their next meeting, which will be this night week; and I would have incurred neither risk nor

"I do not know that that prospect is much more inviting than the present one. Even death is preferable to a

"Madame, look at this stone floor, that stone roof, these solid walls, that barred and massive door; reflect that

I am some forty feet under ground cannot perform impossibilities, and then ask yourself how?"

"Sir Norman, have you ever heard of good fairies visiting brave knights and setting them free?"

"I am afraid the good fairies and brave knights went the way of all flesh with King Arthur's round table; and

even if they were in existence, none of them would take the trouble to limp down so far to save such an

"Bah!" she said, scornfully. "Do not mock me here. My majesty, forsooth! you have but fifteen minutes to

live in this world, Sir Norman; and if you have no better way of spending them, I will tell you a strange story

"You shall hear it, then, and it may beguile the last slow moments of time before you go out into eternity."

She set her lamp down on the floor among the rats and beetles, and stood watching the small, red flame a

moment with a gloomy, downcast eye; and Sir Norman, gazing on the beautiful darkening face, so like and

Meantime, the halfhour sped. In the crimson court the last trial was over, and Lady Castlemaine, a slender

"Now for our other prisoner!" exclaimed the dwarf with sprightly animation; "and while I go to the cell, you,

fair ladies, and you my lord, will seek the black chamber and await our coming there."

Ordering one of his attendants to precede him with a light, the dwarf skipped jauntily away, to gloat over his

victim. He reached the dungeon door, which the guards, with some trepidation in their countenance, as they

thought of what his highness would say when he found her majesty locked in with the prisoner, threw open.

"Come forth, Sir Norman Kingsley!" shouted the dwarf, rushing in. "Come forth and meet your doom!"

But no Sir Norman Kingsley obeyed the pleasant invitation, and a dull echo from the darkness alone

answered him. There was a lamp burning on the floor, and near it lay a form, shining and specked with white

in the gloom. He made for it between fear and fury, but there was something red and slippery on the ground,

in which his foot slipped, and he fell. Simultaneously there was a wild cry from the two guards and the

attendant, that was echoed by a perfect screech of rage from the dwarf, as on looking down he beheld Queen

Miranda lying on the floor in the pool of blood, and apparently quite dead, and Sir Norman Kingsley gone.

The interim between Miranda setting down her lamp on the dungeon floor among the rats and the beetles, and

the dwarf's finding her bleeding and senseless, was not more than twenty minutes, but a great deal may be

done in twenty minutes judiciously expended, and most decidedly it was so in the present case. Both rats and

beetles paused to contemplate the flickering lamp, and Miranda paused to contemplate them, and Sir Norman

paused to contemplate her, for an instant or so in silence. Her marvelous resemblance to Leoline, in all but

one thing, struck him more and more there was the same beautiful transparent colorless complexion, the

same light, straight, graceful figure, the same small oval delicate features; the same profuse waves of shining

dark hair, the same large, dark, brilliant eyes; the same, little, rosy pretty mouth, like one of Correggio's

smiling angels. The one thing wanting was expression in Leoline's face there was a kind of childlike

simplicity; a look half shy, half fearless, half solemn in her wonderful eyes; but in this, her prototype, there

was nothing shy or solemn; all was cold, hard, and glittering, and the brooding eyes were full of a dull, dusky

fire. She looked as hard and cold and bitter, as she was beautiful; and Sir Norman began to perplex himself

inwardly as to what had brought her here. Surely not sympathy, for nothing wearing that face of stone, could

even know the meaning of such a word. While he looked at her, half wonderingly, half pityingly, half

tenderly a queer word that last, but the feeling was caused by her resemblance to Leoline she had been

moodily watching an old gray rat, the patriarch of his tribe, who was making toward her in short runs,

stopping between each one to stare at her, out of his unpleasantly bright eyes. Suddenly, Miranda shut her

teeth, clenched her hands, and with a sort of fierce suppressed ejaculation, lifted her shining foot and planted

it full on the rat's head. So sudden, so fierce, and so strong, was the stamp, that the rat was crushed flat, and

uttered a sharp and indignant squeal of expostulation, while Sir Norman looked at her, thinking she had lost

her wits. Still she ground it down with a fiercer and stronger force every second; and with her eyes still fixed

upon it, and blazing with reddish black flame, she said, in a sort of fiery hiss:

"Look at it! The ugly, loathsome thing! Did you ever see anything look more like him?"

There must have been some mysterious rapport between them, for he understood at once to whom the solitary

"Certainly, in the general expression of countenance there is rather a marked resemblance, especially in the

"Except that the rat's eyes are a thousand times handsomer," she broke in, with a derisive laugh.

"But as to shape," resumed Sir Norman, eyeing the excited and astonished little animal, still shrilly squealing,

with the glance of a connoisseur,"I confess I do not see it! The rat is straight and shapely which his

highness, with all reverence be it said is not, but rather the reverse, if you will not be offended at me for

She broke into a short laugh that had a hard, metallic ring, and then her face darkened, blackened, and she

ground the foot that crushed the rat fiercer, and with a sort of passionate vindictiveness, as if she had the head

"I hate him! I hate him!" she said, through her clenched teeth and though her tone was scarcely above a

Sir Norman thrilled with repulsion. "Yes, I hate him with all my heart and soul, and I wish to heaven I had

Not knowing very well what reply to make to this strong and heartfelt speech, which rather shocked his

notions of female propriety, Sir Norman stood silent, and looked reflectively after the rat, which, when she

permitted it at last to go free, limped away with an ineffably sneaking and crestfallen expression on his

hitherto animated features. She watched it, too, with a gloomy eye, and when it crawled into the darkness and

was gone, she looked up with a face so dark and moody that it was almost sullen.

"Yes, I hate him!" she repeated, with a fierce moodiness that was quite dreadful, " yes, I hate him! and I

would kill him, like that rat, if I could! He has been the curse of my whole life; he has made life cursed to me;

With all her beauty there was something so horrible in the look she wore, that Sir Norman involuntarily

recoiled from her. Her sharp eyes noticed it, and both grew red and fiery as two devouring flames.

"Ah! you, too, shrink from me, would you? You, too, recoil in horror! Ingrate! And I have come to save your

"Madame, I recoil not from you, but from that which is tempting you to utter words like these. I have no

reason to love him of whom you speak you, perhaps, have even less; but I would not have his blood, shed

in murder, on my head, for ten thousand worlds! Pardon me, but you do not mean what you say."

"Do I not? That remains to be seen! I would not call it murder plunging a knife into the heart of a demon

incarnate like that, and I would have done it long ago and he knows it, too, if I had the chance!"

"Bitter! Oh, that word is poor and pitiful to express what I feel when his name is mentioned. Loathing and

hatred come a little nearer the mark, but even they are weak to express the utter the " She stopped in a

"They told me he was your husband," insinuated Sir Norman, unutterably repelled.

"Did they?" she said, with a cold sneer, "he is, too at least as far as church and state can make him; but I am

no more his wife at heart than I am Satan's. Truly of the two I should prefer the latter, for then I should be

wedded to something grand a fallen angel; as it is, I have the honor to be wife to a devil who never was an

At this shocking statement Sir Norman looked helplessly round, as if for relief; and Miranda, after a

"Of all the pictures of ugliness you ever saw or heard of, Sir Norman Kingsley, do tell me if there ever was

"Really," said Sir Norman, in a subdued tone, "he is not the most prepossessing little man in the world; but,

madame, you do look and speak in a manner quite dreadful. Do let me prevail on you to calm yourself, and

"Calm myself!" repeated the gentle lady, in a tone half snappish, half harsh, "do you think I am made of iron,

to tell you my story and be calm? I hate him! I hate him! I would kill him if I could: and if you, Sir Norman,

are half the man I take you to be, you will rid the world of the horrible monster before morning dawns!"

"My dear lady, you seem to forget that the case is reversed, and that he is going to rid the world of me,", said

"No, not if you do as I tell you; and when I have told you how much cause I have to abhor him, you will

agree with me that killing him will be no murder! Oh, if there is One above who rules this world, and will

"Because He is more merciful than his creatures," replied Sir Norman, with calm reverence, though His

avenging hand is heavy on this doomed city. But, madame, time is on the wing, and the headsman will be

"Ah, that story! How am I to tell it, I wonder, two words will comprise it all sin and misery misery and

sin! For, buried alive here, as I am buried alive, as I've always been I know what both words mean; they

have been branded on heart and brain in letters of fire. And that horrible monstrosity is the cause of all that

loathsome, misshapen, hideous abortion has banned and cursed my whole life! He is my first recollection. As

far back as I can look through the dim eye of childhood's years, that horrible face, that gnarled and twisted

trunk, those devilish eyes glare at me like the eyes and face of a wild beast. As memory grows stronger and

more vivid, I can see that same face still the dwarf! the dwarf! the dwarf! Satan's true representative on

earth, darkening and blighting ever passing year. I do not know where we lived, but I imagine it to have been

one of the vilest and lowest dens in London, though the rooms I occupied were, for that matter, decent and

orderly enough. Those rooms the daylight never entered, the windows were boarded up within, and fastened

by shutters without, so that of the world beyond I was as ignorant as a child of two hours old. I saw but two

human faces, his" she seemed to hate him too much even to pronounce his name "and his housekeeper's,

a creature almost as vile as himself, and who is now a servant here; and with this precious pair to guard me I

grew up to be fifteen years old. My outer life consisted of eating, sleeping, reading for the wretch taught me

to read playing with my dogs and birds, and listening to old Margery's stories. But there was an inward life,

fierce and strong, as it was rank and morbid, lived and brooded over alone, when Margery and her master

fancied me sleeping in idiotic content. How were they to know that the creature they had reared and made

ever had a thought of her own ever wondered who she was, where she came from, what she was destined to

be, and what lay in the great world beyond? The crooked little monster made a great mistake in teaching me

to read, he should have known that books sow seed that grow up and flourish tall and green, till they become

giants in strength. I knew enough to be certain there was a bright and glad world without, from which they

shut me in and debarred me; and I knew enough to hate them both for it, with a strong and heartfelt hatred,

She stopped for a moment, and fixed her dark, gloomy eyes on the swarming floor, and shook off, with out a

shudder, the hideous things that crawled over her rich dress. She had scarcely looked at Sir Norman since she

began to speak, but he had done enough looking for them both, never once taking his eyes from the handsome

darkening face. He thought how strangely like her story was to Leoline's both shut in and isolated from the

outer world. Verily, destiny seemed to have woven the woof and warp of their fates wonderfully together, for

their lives were as much the same as their faces. Miranda, having shook off her crawling acquaintances,

watched them glancing along the foul floor in the darkness, and went moodily on.

"It was three years ago when I was fifteen years old, as I told you, that a change took place in my life. Up to

that time, that miserable dwarf was what people would call my guardian, and did not trouble me much with

his heavenly company. He was a great deal from our house, sometimes absent for weeks together; and I

remember I used to envy the freedom with which he came and went, far more than I ever wondered where he

spent his precious time. I did not know then that he belonged to the honorable profession of highwaymen,

with variations of coining when travelers were few and money scarce. He was then, and is still, at the head of

a formidable gang, over whom he wields most desperate authority as perhaps you have noticed during the

"Really, madam, it struck me that your authority over them was much more despotic than his," said Sir

Norman, in all sincerity, feeling called upon to give the well, I'd rather not repeat the word, which is

"No thanks to him for that! He would make me a slave now, as he did then, if he dared, but he has found that,

"Which you do with a vengeance! Oh I you're a Tartar!" remarked Sir Norman to himself. "The saints

forefend that Leoline should be like you in temper, as she is in history and face; for if she is, my life promises

"This rascally crew of cutthroats, whom his villainous highness headed," said Miranda, "were an almost

immense number then, being divided in three bodies London cutpurses, Hounslow Heath highwaymen,

and assistantcoiners, but all owning him for their lord and master. He told me all this himself, one day

when, in an afterdinner and most gracious mood, he made a boasting display of his wealth and greatness;

told me I was growing up very pretty indeed, and that I was shortly to be raised to the honor and dignity, and

"I fancy I must have had a very vague idea of what that one small word meant, and was besides in an

unusually contented and peaceful state of mind, or I should, undoubtedly, have raised one of his cutglass

decanters and smashed in his head with it. I know how I should receive such an assertion from him now, but I

think I took it then with a resignation, he must have found mighty edifying; and when he went on to tell me

that all this richness and greatness were to be shared by me when that celestial time came, I think I rather

liked the idea than otherwise. The horrible creature seemed to have woke up that day, for the first time, and

all of a sudden, to a conviction that I was in a fair way to become a woman, and rather a handsome one, and

that he had better make sure of me before any accident interfered to take me from him. Full of this laudable

notion, he became a daily visitor of mine from thenceforth, and made the discovery, simultaneously with

myself, that the oftener he came the less favor he found in my sight. I had, before, tacitly disliked him, and

shrank with a natural repulsion from his dreadful ugliness ness; but now, from negative dislike, I grew to

positive hate. The utter loathing and abhorrence I have had for him ever since, began then I grew dimly and

intuitively conscious of what he would make me, and shrank from my fate with a vague horror not to be told

in words. I became strong in my fearful dread of it. I told him I detested, abhorred, loathed, hated him; that he

might keep his riches, greatness, and ungainly self for those who wanted him; they were temptations too

"Of course, there was raving, and storming, threatening, terrible looks and denunciations, and I quailed and

shrank like a coward, but was obstinate still. Then as a dernier resort, he tried another bribe the glorious

one of liberty, the one he knew would conquer me, and it did. He promised me freedom if I married him, I

might go out into the great unknown world, fetterless and free; and I, O! fool that I was! consented. Not that

my object was to stay with him one instant longer her my prison doors were opened; no, I was not quite so

besotted as that once out, and the little demon might look for me with last year's partridges. Of course,

those demoniac eyes read my heart like an open book; and when I pronounced the fatal 'yes,' he laughed in

that delightful way of his own, which will probably be the last thing you will hear when you lay your head

"I don't know who the clergyman who married us was; but he was a clergyman: there can be no doubt about

that. It was three days after, and for the first time in my fifteen years of life, I stood in sunshine, and daylight,

and open air. We drove to the cathedral for it was in St. Paul's the sacrilege was committed. I never could

have walked there, I was so stunned, and giddy, and bewildered. I never thought of the marriage I could

think of nothing but the bright, crashing, sunshiny world without, till I was led up before the clergyman,

with much the air, I suppose, of one walking in her sleep. He was a very young man, I remember, and looked

from the dwarf to me, and from me to the dwarf, in a great state of fear and uncertainty, but evidently not

daring to refuse. Margery and one of his gang were our only attendants, and there, in God's temple, the deed

The suppressed passion, rising and throbbing like a white flame in her face and eyes, made her stop for a

moment, breathing hard. Looking up she met Sir Norman's gaze, and as if there was something in its quiet,

pitying tenderness that mesmerized her into calm, she steadily and rapidly went on.

"I awoke to a new life, after that; but not to one of freedom and happiness. I was as closely, even more

closely, guarded than ever; and I found, when too late, that I had bartered myself, soul and body, for an empty

promise. The only difference was, that I saw more new faces; for the dwarf began to bring his confederates

and subordinates to the house, and would have me dressed up and displayed to them, with a demoniac pride

that revolted me beyond everything else, if I were a painted puppet or an overgrown wax doll. Most of the

precious crew of scoundrels had wives of their own and these began to be brought with them of an evening;

and then, what with dancing, and music, and cards, and feasting, we had quite a carnival of it til] morning.

"I liked this part of the business excessively well at first, and I was flattered and fooled to the top of my bent,

and made from the first, the reigning belle and queen. There was more policy in that than admiration, I fancy;

for the dwarf was allpowerful among them and dreaded accordingly, and I was the dwarf's pet and

plaything, and allpowerful with him. The hideous creature had a most hideous passion for me then, and I

could wind him round my finger as easily as Delilah and Samson; and by his command and their universal

consent, the mimicry of royalty was begun, and I was made mistress and sovereign head, even over the dwarf

himself. It was a queer whim; but that crooked slug was always taking such odd notions into his head, which

nobody there dared laugh at. The band were bound together by a terrible oath, women and all; but they had to

"It quite turned my brain at first; and my eyes were so dazzled by the pitiful glistening of the pageant, the

sham splendor of the sham court, and the halfmocking, halfserious homage paid me, that I could see

nothing beyond the shining surface, and the blackness, and corruption, and horror within, were altogether lost

upon me. This feeling increased when, as months and months went by, they were added to the mock peers of

the Midnight Court, real nobles from that of St. Charles. I did not know then that they were ruined gamesters,

vicious profligates, and desperate brokendown roues, who would have gone to pandemonium itself, nightly,

for the mad license and lawless excesses they could indulge in here to their heart's content. But I got tired of

it all, after a time: my eyes began slowly to open, and my heart at least, what little of that article I ever had

turned sick with horror within me at what I had done. The awful things I saw, the fearful deeds that were

perpetrated, would curdle your very blood with horror, were I to relate them. You have seen a specimen

yourself, in the coldblooded murder of that wretch half an hour ago; and his is not the only life crying for

vengeance on these men. The slightest violation of their oath was punished, and the doom of traitors and

informers was instant death, whether male or female. The sham trials and executions always took place in

presence of the whole court, to strike a salutary terror into them, and never occurred but once a week, when

the whole band regularly met. My power continued undiminished; for they knew either the dwarf or I must be

supreme; and though the queen was bad, the prince was worse. The said prince would willingly have pulled

me down from my eminence, and have mounted it himself; but that he was probably restrained by a feeling

that lawmakers should not be lawbreakers, and that, if he set the example, there would be no end to the

"Were you living here or in London then?" inquired Sir Norman, taking an advantage of a pause, employed

"Oh, in London! We did not come here until the outbreak of the plague that frightened them, especially the

female portion, and they held a scared meeting, and resolved that we should take up our quarters somewhere

else. This place being old and ruined, and deserted and with all sorts of evil rumors hanging about it, was hit

upon; and secretly, by night, these mouldering old vaults were fitted up, and the goods and chattels of the

royal court removed. And here I, too, was brought by night under the dwarf's own eye; for he well knew I

would have risked a thousand plagues to escape from him. And here I have been ever since, and here the

weekly revels are still held, and may for years to come, unless something is done tonight to prevent it.

"The night before these weekly anniversaries they all gather; but during the rest of the time I am alone with

Margery and the dwarf, and have learned more secrets about this place than they dream of. For the rest, there

is little need of explanation the dwarf and his crew have industriously circulated the rumor that it is

haunted; and some of those white figures you saw with me, and who, by the way, are the daughters of these

robbers, have been shown on the broken battlements, as if to put the fact beyond doubt.

"Now, Sir Norman, that is all you have heard my whole history as far as I know it; and nothing remains but

to tell you what you must see yourself, that I am mad for revenge, and must have it, and you must help me!"

Her eyes were shining with the fierce red fire he had seen in them before, and the white face wore a look so

deadly and diabolical that, with all its beauty, it was absolutely repulsive. He took a step from herfor in each

"You must help me!" she persisted. " You you, Sir Norman! For many a day I have been waiting for a

chance like this, and until now I have waited in vain. Alone, I want physical strength to kill him, and I dare

not trust any one else. No one was ever cast among us before as you have been; and now, condemned to die,

you must be desperate, and desperate men will do desperate things. Fate, Destiny, Providence whatever you

She held up in the pale ray of the lamp, something she drew from the folds of her dress, that glistened blue,

"A dagger!" he exclaimed, with a shudder, and a recoil. "Madame, are you talking of murder?"

"I told you!" she said, through her closed teeth, and with her eyes flaming like fire, "that ridding the earth of

that fiend incarnate would be a good deed, and no murder! I would do it myself if I could take him off his

guard; but he never is that with me; and then my arm is not strong enough to reach his black heart through all

that mass of brawn, and blood, and muscle. No, Sir Norman, Doom has allotted it to you obey, and I swear

to you, you shall go free; refuse and in ten minutes your head will roll under the executioner's axe!"

"Coward!" she passionately cried; "you fear to do it, and yet you have but a life to lose, and that is lost to you

Sir Norman raised his head; and even in the darkness she saw the haughty flush that crimsoned his face.

"But you will die if you refuse; and I repeat, again and again, there is no risk. These guards will not let you

out; but there are more ways of leaving a room than through the door, and I can lead you up behind the

tapestry to where he is standing, and you can stab him through the back, and escape with me! Quick, quick,

"I cannot do it !" he said, resolutely, drawing back and folding his arms. "In short, I will not do it!"

There was such a terrible look in the beautiful eyes, that he half expected to see her spring at him like a wild

cat, and bury the dagger in his own breast. But the rule of life works by contraries: expect a blow and you

will get a kiss, look for an embrace, and you will be startled by a kick. When the virago spoke, her voice was

"You refuse! Well, a willful man must have him way; and since you are so qualmish about a little

bloodletting, we must try another plan. If I release you for short as the time is, I can do it will you

promise me to go direct to the king this very night, and inform him of all you've seen and heard here?"

She looked at him with an eagerness that was almost fierce; and in spite of her steady voice, there was

something throbbing and quivering, deadly and terrible, in her upturned face. The form she looked at was

erect and immovable, the eyes were quietly resolved, the mouth halfpityingly, halfsadly smiling.

"Death, transportation, or lifelong imprisonment to them all misery and disgrace to many a noble house;

for some I saw there were once friends of mine, with families I honor and respect. Could I bring the dwarf

and his attendant imps to Tyburn, and treat them to a hempen cravat, I would do it without remorse though

the notion of being informer, even then, would not be very pleasant; but as it is, I cannot be the death of one

without ruining all, and as I told you, some of those were once my friends. No, madame, I cannot do it. I have

There was a short silence, during which they gazed into each other's eyes ominously, and one was about as

"I must! But if you can save my life, as you say, why not do it, and fly with me? You will find me the truest

"You are very kind; but I want no friendship, Sir Norman nothing but revenge! As to escaping, I could have

done that any time since we came here, for I have found out a secret means of exit from each of these vaults,

that they know nothing of. But I have staid to see him dead at my feet if not by my hand, at least by my

command; and since you will not do it, I will make the attempt myself. Farewell, Sir Norman Kingsley;

She gave him a glance as coldly fierce as her dagger's glance, and turned to go, when he stepped hastily

"What you feared to attempt," she haughtily replied; "Sheathe this dagger in his demon heart!"

"Miranda, give me the dagger. You must not, you shall not, commit such a crime!"

"Shall not?" she uttered scornfully. "And who are you that dares to speak to me like this? Stand aside,

"Pardon me, but I cannot, while you hold that dagger. Give it to me, and you shall go free; but while you hold

it with this intention, for your own sake, I will detain you till some one comes."

She uttered a low, fierce cry, and struck at him with it, but he caught her hand, and with sudden force

snatched it from her. In doing so he was obliged to hold it with its point toward her, and struggling for it in a

sort of frenzy, as he raised the hand that held it, she slipped forward and it was driven halfway to the hilt in

her side. There was a low, grasping cry a sudden clasping of both hands over her heart, a sway, a reel, and

Sir Norman stood paralyzed. She half raised herself on her elbow, drew the dagger from the wound, and a

great jet of blood shot up and crimsoned her hands. She did not faint there seemed to be a deathless energy

within her that chained life strongly in its place she only pressed both hands hard over the wound, and

looked mournfully and reproachfully up in his face. Those beautiful, sad, solemn dyes, void of everything

Through all his first shock of horror, another thing dawned on his mind; he had looked on this scene before. It

Distant steps were echoing along the passage. Yes; he heard them, and knew what they were.

"They are coming to lead you to death!" she said, with some of her old fire; "but I will baffle them yet. Take

that lamp go to the wall yonder, and in that corner, near the floor, you will see a small iron ring. Pull it it

does not require much force and you will find an opening leading through another vault; at the end there is

a broken flight of stairs, mount them, and you will find yourself in the same place from which you fell. Fly,

"I am not dying!" she wildly cried, lifting both hands from the wound to push him away, while the blood

The footsteps had paused st his door. The bolts were beginning to be withdrawn. He lifted the lamp, flew

across his prison, found the ring, and took a pull at it with desperate strength. Part of what appeared to be the

solid wall drew out, disclosing an aperture through which he could just squeeze sideways. Quick as thought

he was through, forgetting the lamp in his haste. The portion of the wall slid noiselessly back, just as the

prison door was thrown open, and the dwarfs voice was heard, socially inviting him, like Mrs. Bond's ducks,

Some people talk of darkness so palpable that it may be felt, and if ever any one was qualified to tell from

experience what it felt like, Sir Norman was in that precise condition at that precise period. He groped his

way through the blind blackness along what seemed an interminable distance, and stumbled, at last, over the

broken stairs at the end. With some difficult, and at the serious risk of his jugular, he mounted them, and

found himself, as Miranda had stated, in a place he knew very well. Once here he allowed no grass to grow

under him feet; and, in five minutes after, to his great delight, he found himself where he had never hoped to

His horse was still where he had left him, and in a twinkling he was on his back, and dashing away to the

If things were done right but they are not and, never will be, while this whirligig world of mistakes spins

round, and all Adam's children, to the end of the chapter, will continue sinning today and repenting

tomorrow, falling the next and bewailing it the day after. If Leoline had gone to bed directly, like a good,

dutiful little girl, as Sir Norman ordered her, she would have saved herself a good deal of trouble and tears;

but Leoline and sleep were destined to shake hands and turn their backs on each other that night. It was time

for all honest folks to be in bed, and the darkeyed beauty knew it too, but she had no notion of going,

nevertheless. She stood in the centre of the room, where he had left her, with a spot like a scarlet roseberry on

either cheek; a soft halfsmile on the perfect mouth, and a light unexpressibly tender and dreamy, in those

artesian wells of beauty her eyes. Most young girls of green and tender years, suffering from "Love's young

dream," and that sort of thing, have just that soft, shy, brooding look, whenever their thoughts happen to turn

to their particular beloved; and there are few eyes so ugly that it does not beautify, even should they be as

cross as two sticks. You should have seen Leoline standing in the centre of her pretty room, with her bright

rosesatin glancing and glittering, and flowing over rug and mat; with her black waving hair clustering and

curling like shining floss silk; with a rich white shimmer of pearls on the pale smooth forehead and large

beautiful arms. She did look irresistibly bewitching beyond doubt; and it was just as well for Sir Norman's

peace of mind that he did not see her, for he was bad enough without that. So she stood thinking tenderly of

him for a halfhour or so, quite undisturbed by the storm; and how strange it was that she had risen up that

very morning expecting to be one man's bride, and that she should rise up the next, expecting to be another's.

She could not realize it at all; and with a little sighhalf pleasure, half presentiment she walked to the

window, drew the curtain, and looked out at the night. All was peaceful and serene; the moon was fall to

overflowing, and a great deal of extra light ran over the brim; quite a quantity of stars were out, and were

winking pleasantly down at the dark little planet below, that went round, and round, with grim stoicism, and

paid no attention to anybody's business but its own. She saw the heaps of black, charred ashes that the rush of

rain had quenched; she saw the still and empty street; the frowning row of gloomy houses opposite, and the

man on guard before one of them. She had watched that man all day, thinking, with a sick shudder, of the

plaguestricken prisoners he guarded, and reading its piteous inscription, "Lord have mercy on us!" till the

words seemed branded on her brain. While she looked now, an upper window was opened, a nightcap was

"Won't they?" said Robert, phlegmatically; "what a pity! Got 'em ready, and I'll stop the deadcart when it

Just as he spoke, the wellknown rattle of wheels, the loud ringing of the bell, and the monotonous cry of the

driver, "Bring out your dead! bring out your dead!" echoed on the pale night's silence; and the pestcart came

rumbling and jolting along with its load of death. The watchman hailed the driver, according to promise, and

they entered the house together, brought out one long, white figure, and then another, and threw them on top

"We'll have three more for you in on hour of so don't forget to come round," suggested the watchman.

"All right!" said the driver, as he took his place, whipped his horse, rang his bell, and jogged along

Sick at heart, Leoline dropped the curtain, and turned round to see somebody else standing at her elbow. She

had been quite alone when she looked out; she was alone no longer; there had been no noise, yet soma one

had entered, and was standing beside her. A tall figure, all in black, with its sweeping velvet robes spangled

with stars of golden rubies, a perfect figure of incomparable grace and beauty. It had worn a cloak that had

dropped lightly from its shoulders, and lay on the floor and the long hair streamed in darkness over shoulder

and waist. The face was masked, the form stood erect and perfectly motionless, and the scream of surprise

and consternation that arose to Leoline's lips died out in wordless terror. Her noiseless visitor perceived it,

and touching her arm lightly with one little white hand, said in her sweetest and most exquisite of tones:

"My child, do not tremble so, and do not look so deathly white. You know me, do you not?"

"I am, and no stranger to you; though perhaps you think so. Is it your habit every night to look out of your

"How did you enter?" asked Leoline, her curiosity overcoming for a moment even her fear.

"Through the door. Not a difficult thing, either, if you leave it wide open every night, as it is this."

"A somewhat late hour for one's friends to visit," said La Masque, sarcastically; "and you should learn the

"Rest assured, I shall do so for the future," said Leoline, with a look that would have reminded Sir Nor man

of Miranda had he seen it. "I scarcely expected the honor of any more visits, particularly from strangers

"Civil, that! Will you ask me to sit down, or am I to consider myself an unseasonable intruder, and depart?"

"Madame, will you do me the honor to be seated. The hour, as you say, is somewhat unseasonable, and you

will oblige me by letting me know to what I am indebted for the pleasure of this visit, as quickly as possible."

There was something quite dignified about Mistress Leoline as she swept rustling past La Masque, sank into

the pillowy depths of her lounge, and motioned her visitor to a seat with a slight and graceful wave of her

hand. Not but that in her secret heart she was a good deal frightened, for something under her pink satin

corsage was going pitapat at a wonderful rate; but she thought that betraying such a feeling would not be

the thing. Perhaps the tall, dark figure saw it, and smiled behind her mask; but outwardly she only leaned

"Because," said La Masque, in her low, silvery tones, "what I have come to say is not for the ears of any third

"We are entirely alone, madame," replied Leoline, opening her black eyes very wide. "Prudence is gone, and

"My dear, do not look so shocked it is not her fault. You know she deserted you for fear of the plague."

"Well, that did not save her; nay, it even brought on what she dreaded so much. Your nurse is

plaguestricken, my dear, and lies ill unto death in the pesthouse in Finsbury Fields."

"Oh, dreadful!" exclaimed Leoline, while every drop of blood fled from her face. "My poor, poor old nurse!"

"Your poor, poor old nurse left you without much tenderness when she thought you dying of the same

"Oh, that is nothing. The suddenness, the shock drove her to it. My poor, dear Prudence."

"Well, you can do nothing for her now," said La Masque, in a tone of slight impatience. "Prudence is beyond

all human aid, and so let her rest in peace. You were carried to the plaguepit yourself, for dead, were you

"One was Mr. Ormiston, the other was," hesitating and blushing vividly, "Sir Norman Kingsley."

La Masque leaned across her chair, and laid one dainty finger lightly on the girl's hot cheek.

"Madame, was it only to ask me questions you came here?" said Leoline, drawing proudly back, though the

hot red spot grew hotter and redder; "if so, you will excuse my declining to answer any more."

"Child, child!" said La Masque, in a tone so strangely sad that it touched Leoline, "do not be angry with me.

It is no idle curiosity that sent me here at this hour to ask impertinent questions, but a claim that I have upon

"Madame Masque, I have no history to tell. All my life I have lived alone with Prudence; that in the whole of

There is a slight probability I may have had at some past period," said Leoline, sighing; "but none that I ever

"Prudence is only my nurse, and says she has nothing to tell. My parents died when I was an infant, and left

"I do doubt it! There are a thousand little outward things that make me fancy it is false, and an inward voice

"Then let me tell you that inward voice tells falsehoods, for I know that your father and mother are both dead

Leoline's great black eyes were fixed on her face with a look so wild and eager, that La Masque laid her hand

"Don't look at me with such a spectral face! What is there so extraordinary in all I have said?"

"No such thing! I said I knew they were dead, but the other fact is true also; I did know them when living!"

"I? Oh, I am La Masque, the sorceress, and they they were Leoline's father and mother!" and again La

"You mock me, madame!" cried Leoline, passionately. "You are cruel you are heartless! If you know

"Thank you! I shall do that presently; and as to the other of course I shall tell you; what else do you

She drew out from some hidden pocket in her dress a small and beautifullywrought casket of ivory and

"Well!" asked Leoline, looking from it to her, with the blank air of one utterly bewildered

"In this casket, my dear, there is a roll of papers, closely written, which you are to read as soon as I leave you.

She was looking so white, and staring so hard and so hopelessly, that there was need of the question. She

"My child, have your thoughts gone woolgathering? Do you not comprehend what I have said to you! Your

"I know!" said Leoline, slowly, and with her eyes again riveted to the black mask. "But; madame, who are

"Have I not told you? What a pretty inquisitor it is! I am La Masque your friend, now; something more

soon, as you will see when you read what I have spoken of. Do not ask me how I have come by it you will

read all about it there. I did not know that I would give it to you tonight, but I have a strange foreboding that

it is destined to be my last on earth. And, Leoline my child, before I leave you, let me hear you say you will

"Ah! you will find that all out soon enough. Do content me, Leoline let me hear you say; `La Masque,

whatever you've done to me, however you have wronged me, I will forgive you!' Can you say that?"

Leoline repeated it simply, like a little child. La Masque took her hand, held it between both her own, leaned

"My little Leoline! my beautiful rosebud! May Heaven bless you and grant you a long and happy life with

"We are both saying the name now in our hearts, my dear, so it is little matter whether our lips repeat it or

not. He is worthy, of you, Leoline, and your life will be a happy one by his side; but there is another." She

"Then do not seek to know," said La Masque, emphatically. "For it is a secret you would tremble to hear. And

now I must leave you. Come with me to the door, and fasten it as soon as I go out, lest you should forget it

Leoline, with a dazed expression, thrust the precious little casket into the bosom of her dress, and taking up

the lamp, preceded her visitor down stairs. At the door they paused, and La Masque, with her hand on her

"Leoline, beware of Count L'Estrange, and become Lady Kingsley as soon as you can."

"I will bear that name tomorrow!" thought Leoline, with a glad little thrill at her heart, as La Masque flitted

Leoline closed and locked the door, driving the bolts into their sockets, and making all secure. "I defy any

one to get in again tonight!" she said, smiling at her own dexterity; and lamp in hand, she ran lightly up stairs

So eager was she, that she had crossed the room, laid the lamp on the table, and sat down before it, ere she

became aware that she was not alone. Some one was leaning against the mantel, his arm on it, and his eyes do

her, gazing with an air of incomparable coolness and ease. It was a man this time something more than a

Leoline sprang to her feet with a wild scream, a cry full of terror, amaze, and superstitious dread; and the

"Pardon, fair Leoline, if I intrude! But have I not a right to come at all hours and visit my bride?"

"Leoline is no bride of yours!" retorted that young lady, passionately, her indignation overpowering both fear

"So my little bird of paradise can fire up, I see! As to your being my bride, that remains to be seen. You

"Well, that's not very astonishing; it is but the privilege of your sex! Nevertheless, I'm afraid I must insist on

"Oh, no! We could not spare such a bright little beauty out of this ugly world! You will live, and live for me!"

"Sir!" cried Leoline, white with passion, and her black eyes blazing with a fire that would have killed him,

could fiery glances slay! I do not know how you have entered here; but I do know, if you are a gentleman,

"But when I wish to see you so much, my darling Leoline," said the count, with provoking indifference,

"what does a little reluctance on your part signify? Get your hood and mantle, my love my horse awaits us

without and let us fly where neither plague nor mortal man will interrupt our nuptials!"

"Will no one take this man away?" she cried, looking helplessly round, and wringing her hands.

"Certainly not, my dear not even Sir Norman Kingsley! George, I am afraid this pretty little vixen will not

With a smile on his face, he took a step toward her. Shrieking wildly, she darted across the room, and made

for the door, just as somebody else was entering it. The next instant, a shawl was thrown over her head, her

cries smothered in it, and she was lifted in a pair of strong arms, carried down stairs, and out into the night.

Presentments are strange things. From the first moment Sir Norman entered the city, and his thoughts had

been able to leave Miranda and find themselves wholly on Leoline, a heavy foreboding of evil to her had

oppressed him. Some danger, he was sure, had befallen her during his absence how could it be otherwise

with the Earl of Rochester and Count L'Estrange both on her track? Perhaps, by this time, one or other had

found her, and alone and unaided she had been an easy victim, and was now borne beyond his reach forever.

The thought goaded him and his horse almost to distraction; for the moment it struck him, he struck spurs

into his horse, making that unoffending animal jump spasmodically, like one of those prancing steeds Miss

Bonheur is fond of depicting. Through the streets he flew at a frantic rate, growing more excited and full of

apprehension the nearer he came to old London Bridge; and calling himself a select litany of hard names

"If I find her safe and well," thought Sir Norman, emphatically, "nothing short of an earthquake or dying of

the plague will ever induce me to leave her again, until she is Lady Kingsley, and in the old manor of

Devonshire. What a fool, idiot, and ninny I must have been, to have left her as I did, knowing those two

sleuthhounds were in full chase! What are all the Mirandas and midnight queens to me, if Leoline is lost?"

That last question was addressed to the elements in general; and as they disdained reply, he cantered on

furiously, till the old house by the river was reached. It was the third time that night he had paused to

contemplate it, and each time with very different feelings; first, from simple curiosity; second, in an ecstasy

of delight, and third and last, in an agony of apprehension. All around was peaceful and still; moon and stars

sailed serenely through a sky of silver and snow; a faint cool breeze floated up from the river and fanned his

hot and fevered forehead; the whole city lay wrapped in stillness as profound and deathlike as the fabled one

of the marble prince in the Eastern talenothing living moved abroad, but the lonely nightguard keeping

their dreary vigils before the plaguestricken houses, and the everpresent, everbusy pestcart, with its

As far as Sir Norman could see, no other human being but himself and the solitary watchman, so often

mentioned, were visible. Even he could scarcely be said to be present; for, though leaning against the house

with his halberd on his shoulder, he was sound asleep at his post, and far away in the land of dreams. It was

the second night of his watch; and with a good conscience and a sound digestion, there is no earthly anguish

short of the toothache, strong enough to keep a man awake two nights in succession. So sound were his

balmy slumbers in his airy chamber, that not even the loud clatter of Sir Norman's horse's hoofs proved

strong enough to arouse him; and that young gentleman, after glancing at him, made ap his mind to try to find

Securing his home, he looked up at the house with wistful eyes, and saw that the solitary light still burned in

her chamber. It struck him now how very imprudent it was to keep that lamp burning; for if Count L'Estrange

saw it, it was all up with Leoline and there was even more to be dreaded from him than from the earl. How

was he to find out whether that illuminated chamber had a tenant or not? Certainly, standing there staring till

doomsday would not do it; and there seemed but two ways, that of entering the house at once or arousing the

man. But the man was sleeping so soundly that it seemed a pity to awake him for a trifle; and, after all, there

could be no great harm or indiscretion in his entering to see if his bride was safe. Probably Leoline was

asleep, and would know nothing about it; or, even were she wide awake, and watchful, she was altogether too

sensible a girl to be displeased at his anxiety about her. If she were still awake, and waiting for daydawn, he

resolved to remain with her and keep her from feeling lonesome until that time came if she were asleep, he

Full of these praiseworthy resolutions, he tried the handle of the door, half expecting to find it locked, and

himself obliged to effect an entrance through the window; but no, it yielded to his touch, and he went in. Hall

and staircase were intensely dark, but he knew his way without a pilot this time, and steered clear of all

The door of the lighted room Leoline's room lay wide open, and he paused on the threshold to

reconnoitre. He had gone softly for fear of startling her, and now, with the same tender caution, he glanced

round the room. The lamp burned on the dainty dressing table, where undisturbed lay jewels, perfume bottles

and other knickknacks. The cithern lay unmolested on the couch, the rich curtains were drawn; everything

was as he had left it last everything, but the pretty pink figure, with drooping eyes, and pearls in the waves

of her rich, black hair. He looked round for the things she had worn, hoping she had taken them off and

retired to rest, but they were not to be seen; and with a cold sinking of the heart, he went noiselessly across

the room, and to the bed. It was empty, and showed no trace of having been otherwise since he and the

Yes, she was gone; and Sir Norman turned for a moment so sick with utter dread, that he leaned against one

of the tall carved posts, and hated himself for having left her with a heartlessness that his worst enemy could

not have surpassed. Then aroused into new and spasmodic energy by the exigency of the case, he seized the

lamp, and going out to the hall, made the house ring from basement to attic with her name. No reply, but that

hollow, melancholy echo that sounds so lugubriously through empty houses, was returned; and he jumped

down stairs with an impetuous rush, flinging back every door in the hall below with a crash, and flying wildly

from room to room. In solemn grim repose they lay; but none of them held the bright figure in rosesatin he

"Leoline! Leoline! Leoline!" he called, while he rushed impetuously ap stairs, and down stairs, and in my

lady's chamber; but Leoline answered not perhaps never would answer more! Even "hoping against hope,"

he had to give up the chase at last no Leoline did that house hold; and with this conviction despairingly

impressed on leis mind, Sir Norman Kingsley covered his face with his hands, and uttered a dismal groan.

Yet, forlorn as was the case, he groaned but once, "only that and nothing more;" there was no time for such

small luxuries as groaning and tearing his hair, and boiling over with wrath and vengeance against the human

race generally, and those two diabolical specimens of it, the Earl of Rochester and Count L'Estrange,

particularly. He plunged head foremost down stairs, and out of the door. There he was impetuously brought

up all standing; for somebody stood before it, gazing up at the gloomy front with as much earnestness as he

had done himself, and against this individual he rushed recklessly with a shock that nearly sent the pair of

"Sacrrre!" cried a shrill voice, in tones of indignant remonstrance. "What do you mean, monsieur? Are you

drunk, or crazy, that you come running head foremost into peaceable citizens, and throwing them heels

uppermost on the king's highway! Stand off, sir! And think yourself lucky that I don't run you through with

At the first sound of the outraged treble tones, Sir Norman had started back and glared upon the speaker with

much the same expression of countenance as an incensed tiger. The orator of the spirited address had stooped

to pick up his plumed cap, and recover his centre of gravity, which was considerably knocked out of place by

the unexpected collision, and held forth with very flashing eyes, and altogether too angry to recognize his

auditor. Sir Norman waited until he had done, and then springing at him, grabbed him by the collar.

"You young hound!" he exclaimed, fairly lifting him off his feet with one hand, and shaking him as if he

would have wriggled him out of hose and doublet. "You infernal young jackanapes! I'll run you through in

The astonishment, not to say consternation, of Master Hubert for that small young gentleman and no other it

was on thus having his ideas thus shaken out of him, was unbounded, and held him perfectly speechless,

while Sir Norman glared at him and shook him in a way that would have instantaneously killed him if his

looks were lightning. The boy had recognized his aggressor, and after his first galvanic shock, struggled like

"Sir Norman Kingsley," he cried, keeping a safe yard or two of pavement between him and that infuriated

young knight, "have you gone mad, or what, is Heaven's name, is the moaning of all this?"

"It means," exclaimed Sir Norman, drawing his sword, and flourishing it within an inch of the boy's curly

head, that you'll be a dead page in lees than half a minute, unless you tell me immediately where she has

"Where who has been taken to?" inquired Hubert, opening his bright and indignant black eyes in a way that

reminded Sir Norman forcibly of Leoline. "Pardon, monsieur, I don't understand at all."

"You young villain! Do you mean to stand up there and tell me to my face that you have not searched for her,

"Why, do you mean the lady we were talking of, that was saved from the river?" asked Hubert, a new light

"Do I mean the lady we were talking of?" repeated Sir Norman, with another furious flourish of his sword.

"Yes, I do mean the lady we were talking of; and what's more I mean to pin you where you stand, against

"Monsieur!" exclaimed the boy, raising his hands with an earnestness there was no mistaking, "I do assure

you, upon my honor, that I know nothing of the lady whatever; that I have not found her; that I have never set

The earnest tone of truth would, in itself, almost have convinced Sir Norman, but it was not that, that made

him drop his sword so suddenly. The pale, startled face; the dark, solemn eyes, were so exactly like Leoline's,

that they thrilled him through and through, and almost made him believe, for a moment, he was talking to

"Are you are you sure you are not Leoline?" he inquired, almost convinced, for an instant, by the marvelous

"I? Positively, Sir Norman, I cannot understand this at all, unless you wish to enjoy yourself at my expense."

"Look here, Master Hubert!" said Sir Norman with a sudden change of look and tone. "If you do not

understand, I shall just tell you in a word or two how matters are, and then let me hear you clear yourself.

You know the lady we were talking about, that Lord Rochester picked up afloat, and sent you in search of?"

"Well," went on Sir Norman, with a sort of grim stoicism. "After leaving you, I started on a little expedition

of my own, two miles from the city, from which expedition I returned ten minutes ago. When I left, the lady

was secure and safe in this house; when I came back, she was gone. You were in search of her had told me

yourself you were determined on finding her, and having her carried off; and now, my youthful friend, put

this and that together," with a momentary returning glare, "and see what it amounts to!"

"It amounts to this:" retorted his youthful friend, stoutly, "that I know nothing whatever about it. You may

make out a case of strong circumstantial evidence against me; but if the lady has been carried off, I have had

Again Sir Norman was staggered by the frank, bold gaze and truthful voice, but still the string was in a tangle

"And where have you been ever since?" he began severely, and with the air of a lawyer about to go into a

"I did not find it out. When I became convinced she was in none of the places I have mentioned, I gave up the

search in despair, for tonight, and was returning to his lordship to report my ill success."

"Why, then, were you standing in front of her house, gaping at it with all the eyes in your head, as if it were

"Monsieur has not the most courteous way of asking questions, that I ever heard of; but I have no particular

objection to answer him. It struck me that, as Mr. Ormiston brought the lady up this way, and as I saw you

and he haunting this place so much tonight, I thought her residence was somewhere here, and I paused to

look at the house as I went along. In fact, I intended to ask old sleepyhead, over there, for further

particulars, before I left the neighborhood, had not you, Sir Norman, run bolt into me, and knocked every idea

"Well, it is all very strange, and very aggravating," said Sir Norman sighing ,and sheathing his sword. "She is

gone, at all events; no doubt about that and if you have not carried her off, somebody else has."

"Bah! Gone herself!" said Sir Norman, scornfully. "The idea is beneath contempt: I tell you, Master

Finefeathers, the lady and I were to be married bright and early tomorrow morning, and leave this

disgusting city for Devonshire. Do you suppose, then, she would run out in the small hours of the morning,

"Why, of course, Sir Norman, I can't take it upon myself to answer positively; but, to use the mildest phrase, I

must say the lady seems decidedly eccentric, and capable of doing very queer things. I hope, however, you

believe me; for I earnestly assure you, I never laid eyes on her but that once."

"I believe you," said Sir Norman, with another profound and brokenhearted sigh, "and I'm only too sure she

has been abducted by that consummate scoundrel and treacherous villain, Count L'Estrange."

"Count who?" said Hubert, with a quick start, and a look of intense curiosity. "What was the name?"

"No," replied Hubert, with a queer, half musing smile, "no; but I have a notion I have heard the name. Was he

"She took the plague!" said Sir Norman, strange to say, not at all offended at the boy's familiarity. "And

would have been thrown into the plaguepit but for me. And when she recovered she accepted me and cast

"A quick exchange! The lady's heart must be most flexible, or unusually large, to be able to hold so many at

"It never held him!" said Sir Norman, frowning; "she was forced into the marriage by her mercenary friends.

Oh! if I had him here, wouldn't I make him wish the highwaymen had shot him through the head, and done

"Like the blackhearted traitor and villain he is!" replied Sir Norman, with more energy than truth; for he had

caught but passing glimpses of the count's features, and those showed him they were decidedly

prepossessing; "and he slinks along like a coward and an abductor as he is, in a slouched hat and shadowy

cloak. Oh! if I had him here!" repeated Sir Norman, with vivacity; "wouldn't I "

"Yes, of course you would," interposed Hubert, "and serve him right, too! Have you made any inquiries about

the matter for instance, of our friend sleeping the sleep of the just, across there?"

"Why, it seems to me, if she's been carried off before he fell asleep, he has probably heard or seen something

"Well, we can try," said Sir Norman, with a despairing face; "but I know it will end in disappointment and

With which dismal view of things, he crossed the street side by side with his jaunty young friend. The

watchman was still enjoying the balmy, and snoring in short, sharp snorts, when Master Hubert remorselessly

caught him by the shoulder, and began a series of shakes and pokes, and digs, and hallos!" while Sir Norman

stood near and contemplated the scene with a pensive eye. At last while undergoing a severe course of this

treatment the watchman was induced to open his eyes on this mortal life, and transfix the two beholders with,

"Hey?" he inquired, helplessly. "What was you a saying of, gentlemen? What is it?"

"We weren't a saying of anything as yet " returned Hubert; "but we mean to, shortly. Are you quite sure you

"What do you want?" was the cross question, given by way of answer. "What do you come bothering me for

"Keep civil, friend, we wear swords," said Hubert, touching, with dignity, the hilt of the little dagger he

carried; "we only want to ask you a few questions. First, do you see that house over yonder?"

"I don't know who they was!" still more gruffly. "I ain't got the pleasure of their acquaintance!"

"Did I see a young lady?" burst out the watchman, in a high key of aggrieved expostulation. "How many

more times this blessed night am I to be asked about that young lady. First and foremost, there comes two

young men, which this here is one of them, and they bring out the young lady and have her hauled away in

the deadcart; then comes along another and wants to know all the particulars, and by the time he gets

properly away, somebody else comes and brings her back like a drowned rat. Then all sorts of people goes in

and out, and I get tired looking at them, and then fall asleep, and before I've been in that condition about a

minute, you two come punching me and waken me up to ask questions about her! I wish that young lady was

"Come, come, my man!" said Hubert, slapping him soothingly on the shoulder. "Don't be savage, if you can

help it! This gentleman has a gold coin in some of his pockets, I believe, and it will fall to you if you keep

quiet and answer decently. Tell me how many have been in that house since the young lady was brought back

"How many?" said the man, meditating, with his eyes fixed on Sir Norman's garments, and he, perceiving

that, immediately gave him the promised coin to refresh his memory, which it did with amazing quickness.

"How many oh let me see; there was the young man that brought her in, and left her there, and came out

again, and went away. Byandby, he came back with another, which I think this as gave me the money is

him. After a little, they came out, first the other one, then this one, and went off; and the next that went in was

a tall woman in black, with a mask on, and right behind her there came two men; the woman in the mask

came out after a while; and about ten minutes after, the two men followed, and one of them carried something

in his arms, that didn't look unlike a lady with her head in a shawl. Anything wrong, sir?" as Sir Norman gave

"Nothing! Where did they carry her to? What did they do with her? Go on! go on!"

"Well," said the watchman, eyeing the speaker curiously, "I'm going to. They went along, down to the river,

both of them, and I saw a boat shove off, shortly after, and that something, with its head in a shawl, lying as

peaceable as a lamb, with one of the two beside it. That's all I went asleep about then, till you two were

Sir Norman and Hubert looked at each other, one between despair and rage, the other with s thoughtful,

halfinquiring air, as if he had some secret to tell, and was mentally questioning whether it was safe to do so.

On the whole, he seemed to come to the conclusion, that a silent tongue maketh a wise head, and nodding and

saying "Thank you!" to the watchman, he passed his arm through Sir Norman's, and drew him back to the

"I found the lamp burning, when I returned, and everything undisturbed. They must have entered noiselessly,

and carried her off without a straggle," replied Sir Norman, with a sort of groan,

"It seems to me there ought to be some trace. Will you come back with me and look again?"

They entered the house, and Sir Norman led the page direct to Leoline's room, where the light was.

"I left her here when I went away, and here the lamp was burning when I came back: so it must have been

Hubert was gazing slowly and critically round, taking note of everything. Something glistened and flashed on

"What have you there?" asked Sir Norman in surprise; for the boy had started so suddenly, and flushed so

Though he spoke in his usual careless way, and halfhummed the air of one of Lord Rochester's love songs,

he watched him keenly as he examined it. It was a diamond buckle, exquisitely set, and of great beauty and

"There are initials upon it see there!" said Hubert, pointing, and still watching him with the same powerful

"Who then can it stand for?" inquired Sir Norman, looking at him fixedly, and with far more penetration than

"I suspect!" said the boy, emphatically, "nothing more; and if it is as I believe, I will bring you news of

"How am I to know you are not deceiving me, and will not betray her into the power of the Earl of Rochester

"She is not in it, and never will be through me! I feel an odd interest in this matter, and I will be true to you,

Sir Norman though why I should be, I really don't know. I give you my word of honor that I will do what I

can to find Leoline and restore her to you; and I have never yet broken my word of honor to any man," said

"Well, I will trust you, because I cannot do anything better," said Sir Norman, rather dolefully; "but why not

"No, no! that would never do! I must go alone, and you must trust me implicitly. Give me your hand upon it."

They shook hands silently, went down stairs, and stood for a moment at the door.

"You'll find me here at any hour between this and morning," said Sir Norman. "Farewell now, and Heaven

The boy waved his hand in adieu, and started off at a sharp pace. Sir Norman turned in the opposite direction

for a short walk, to cool the fever in his blood, and think over all that had happened. As be went slowly along,

in the shadow of the houses, he suddenly tripped up over something lying in his path, and was nearly

Stooping down to examine the stumblingblock, it proved to be the rigid body of a man, and that man was

When Mr. Malcolm Ormiston, with his usual good sense and penetration, took himself off, and left Leoline

and Sir Norman teteatete, his steps turned as mechanically as the needle to the North Pole toward La

Masque's house. Before it he wandered, around it he wandered, like an uneasy ghost, lost in speculation about

the hidden face, and fearfully impatient about the flight of time. If La Masque saw him hovering aloof and

unable to tear himself away, perhaps it might touch her obdurate heart, and cause her to shorten the dreary

interval, and summon him to her presence at once. Just then some one opened the door, and his heart began to

beat with anticipation; some one pronounced his name, and, going over, he saw the animated bag of bones

"La Masque says," began the attenuated lackey, and Ormiston's heart nearly jumped out of his mouth, "that

she can't have anybody hanging about her house like its shadow; and she wants you to go away, and keep

So saying the skeleton shut the door, and Ormiston's heart went down to zero. There being nothing for it but

obedience, however, he slowly and reluctantly turned away, feeling in his bones, that if ever he came to the

bliss and ecstasy of calling La Masque Mrs. Ormiston, the gray mare in his stable would be by long odds the

better horse. Unintentionally his steps turned to the waterside, and he descended the flight of stairs,

Late as was the hour, the Thames seemed alive with wherries and barges, and their numerous lights danced

along the surface like fireflies over a marsh. A gay barge, gilded and cushioned, was going slowly past; and

as he stood directly under the lamp, he was recognized by a gentleman within it, who leaned over and hailed

"Well, my lord," said Ormiston, recognizing the handsome face and animated voice of the Earl of Rochester.

"Have you any engagement for the next halfhour? If not, do me the favor to take a seat here, and watch

"With all my heart," said Ormiston, running down to the water's edge, and leaping into the boat. "With all this

bustle of life around here, one would think it were noonday instead of midnight."

"The whole city is astir about these fires. Have you any idea they will be successful?"

"Not the least. You know, my lord, the prediction runs, that the plague will rage till the living are no longer

"It will soon come to that," said the earl shuddering slightly, "if it continues increasing much longer as it does

"And there goes a flash of fire the first among many. Look, look! How they spring up into the black

The earl glanced up at the midnight sky, of a dull and dingy red color, except where black and heavy clouds

were heaving like angry billows, all dingy with smoke and streaked with bars of fiery red.

"I see! There is a storm coming, and a heavy one! Our worthy burghers and most worshipful Lord Mayor will

see their fires extinguished shortly, and themselves sent home with wet jackets."

"And for weeks, almost month, there has not fallen a drop of rain," remarked Ormiston, gravely.

"A remarkable coincidence, truly. There seems to be a fatality hanging over this devoted city."

"It is not so easy leaving it as you think, Mr. Ormiston; but I am to turn my back to it tomorrow for a brief

period. You are aware, I suppose, that the court leaves before daybreak for Oxford."

"Till Charles takes it into his head to come back again," said the earl, familiarly, "which will probably be in a

week or two. Look at that sky, all black and scarlet; and look at those people I scarcely thought there were

"Even the sick have come out tonight," said Ormiston. "Half the peststricken in the city have left their

"So it is a carnival of death! I hope, Ormiston," said the earl, looking at him with a light laugh, "the pretty

little white fairy we rescued from the river is not one of the sick parading the streets."

"Who is she, Ormiston?" coaxed the earl, laughingly. "Pshaw, man! don't make a mountain out of a

"That is just what I would like to have some one tell me. I give you my honor, my lord, I do not know."

The earl's face, half indignant, half incredulous, wholly curious, made Ormiston smile.

"It is a fact, my lord. I asked her her name, and she told me Leoline a pretty title enough, but rather

"Nonsense!" cried the earl, energetically. "What are you telling me, Ormiston? You said she was an old

"I beg your pardon, my lord, I said no such thing. I told you she had escaped from her friends, which was

"Then how the demon had you the impudence to come up and carry her off in that style? I certainly had a

better right to her than you the right of discovery; and I shall call upon you to deliver her up!"

"If she belonged to me I should only be too happy to oblige your lordship," laughed Ormiston; "but she is at

"Ah! His inamorata, in she? Well, I must say his taste is excellent; but I should think you ought to know her

"Probably I should, my lord, only Sir Norman, unfortunately, does not know himself."

The earl's countenance looked so utterly blank at this announcement, that Ormiston was forced to throw in a

"I mean to say, my lord, that he has fallen in love with her; and, judging from appearances, I should say his

flame is not altogether hopeless, although they have met tonight for the first time."

"Who are her family?" continued the earl, who seemed possessed of a devouring curiosity.

"She has none that I know of. I imagine Mistress Leoline is an orphan. I know there was not a living soul but

"And you left her there alone?" exclaimed the earl, half starting up, an if about to order the boatman to row

"Oh!" said the earl, smiling back with a look of chagrin. "Then he will probably find out her name before he

comes away. I wonder you could give her up so easily to him, after all your trouble!"

"Hopelessly!" replied the earl, with a deep sigh. "She was a perfect little beauty; and if I can find her, I warn

Sir Norman Kingsley to take care! I have already sent Hubert out in search of her; and, by the way," said the

earl, with a sudden increase of animation, "what a wonderful resemblance she bears to Hubert I could

"The likeness is marvelous; but I should hate to take such an oath. I confess I am somewhat curious myself;

"How those fires blaze! It is much brighter than at noonday. Show me the house in which Leoline lies?".

Ormiston easily pointed it out, and showed the earl the light still burning in her window.

"Dead of the plague! I'll tell your lordship how it was," said Ormiston, who forthwith commend and related

the story of their finding Leoline; of the resuscitation at the plaguepit; of the flight from Sir Norman's house,

"A marvelous story," commented the earl, much interested. "And Leoline seems to have as many lives as a

"She looks fit to be a princess, or anything else; but your lordship knows as much about her, now, as I do."

"Simply enough. She was to be married tonight, had she not taken the plague instead."

"Married? Why, I thought you told me a few minutes ago she was in love with Kingsley. It seems to me, Mr.

Ormiston, your remarks are a trifle inconsistent," said the earl, in a tone of astonished displeasure.

"Nevertheless, they are all perfectly true. Mistress Leoline was to be married, as I told you; but she was to

marry to please her friends, and not herself. She had been in the habit of watching Kingsley go past her

window; and the way she blushed, and went through the other little motions, convinces me that his course of

"Kingsley is a lucky fellow. Will the discarded suitor have no voice in the matter; or is he such a simpleton as

"Ah! to be sure; what will the count say? And, judging from some things I've heard, I should say he is

"Oh, no! The name of the gentleman who was so nearly blessed for life, and missed it, is Count L'Estrange!"

The earl had been lying listlessly back, only half intent upon his answer, as he watched the fire; but now he

"Count what did you say?" was his eager question, while his eyes, more eager than his voice, strove to read

"Ah!" said the earl. And then such a strange meaning smile went wandering about his face. "I have not said

that! So his name is Count L'Estrange? Well, I don't wonder now at the girl's beauty."

The earl sank back to his former nonchalant position and fell for a moment or two into deep musing; and

then, as if the whole thing struck him in a new and ludicrous light, he broke out into an immoderate fit of

"I know of no such person, Ormiston. I was thinking of something else! Was it Leoline who told you that was

No; I heard it by mere accident from another person. I am sure, if Leoline is not a personage in disguise, he

"Have I not told you I know of no such person as Count L'Estrange? You ought to believe me. Oh, here it

This last was addressed to a great drop of rain, which splashed heavily on his upturned face, followed by

"The storm is upon us," said the earl, sitting up and wrapping his cloak closer around him, "and I am for

"I must land," said Ormiston. "I have a pressing engagement for the next halfhour. Here it is, in a perfect

The barge touched the stairs, and Ormiston sprang out, with "Goodnight" to the earl. The rain was rushing

along, now, in torrents, and he ran upstairs and darted into an archway of the bridge, to seek the shelter. Some

one else had come there before him, in search of the same thing; for he saw two dark figures standing within

"A sudden storm," was Ormiston's salutation, "and a furious one. There go the fires hiss and splutter. I

Ormiston had heard that voice before; it was associated in his mind with a slouched hat and shadowy cloak;

and by the fast fading flicker of the firelight, he saw that both were here. The speaker wan Count

"You have the advantage of me, sir," he said affecting ignorance. "May I ask who you are?"

Ormiston lifted his cap and bowed, with a feeling somehow, that the count was a man in authority.

"Mr. Ormiston assisted in doing a good deed, tonight, for a friend of mine," said the count.

"Will he add to that obligation by telling me if he has not discovered her again, and brought her back?"

"So she is there? I thought so, George," said the count, addressing himself to his companion. "Yes, I refer to

"She may be, now. Sir Norman Kingsley was with her when I left her," said Ormiston, administering the fact

There was a moment's silence. Ormiston could not see the count's face; but, judging from his own feelings, he

fancied its expression must be sweet. The wild rush of the storm alone broke the silence, until the spirit again

"By what right does Sir Norman Kingsley visit her?" he inquired, in a voice betokening not the least particle

There was an other brief silence, broken again by the count, in the same composed tone:

"Since the lady holds her levee so late, I, too, must have a word with her, when this deluge permits one to go

"It shown symptoms of clearing off, already," said Ormiston, who, in his secret heart, thought it would be an

excellent joke to bring the rivals face to face in the lady's presence; "so you will not have long to wait."

To which observation the count replied not; and the three stood in silence, watching the fury of the storm.

Gradually it cleared away; and as the moon began to straggle out between the rifts in the clouds, the count

saw something by her pale light that Ormiston saw not. That latter gentleman, standing with his back to the

house of Leoline, and his face toward that of Ls Masque, did not observe the return of Sir Norman from St.

Paul's, nor look after him as he rode away. But the count did both; and ten minutes after, when the rain had

entirely ceased, and the moon and stars got the better of the clouds in their struggle for supremacy, he beheld

La Masque flitting like a dark shadow in the same direction, and vanishing in at Leoline's door. The same

"The storm has entirely ceased," he said, stepping out, and with the profound air of one making a new

discovery, "and we are likely to have fine weather for the remainder of the night or rather, morning. Good

"Farewell," said the count, as he and, his companion came out from the shadow of the archway, and turned to

Ormiston, thinking the hour of waiting had elapsed, and feeling much more interested in the coming meeting

than in Leoline or her visitors, paid very little attention to his two acquaintances. He saw them, it is true, enter

Leoline's house, but at the same instant, he took up his post at La Masque's doorway, and concentrated his

whole attention on that piece of architecture. Every moment seemed like a week now; and before he had

stood at his post five minutes, he had worked himself up into a perfect fever of impatience. Sometimes he

was inclined to knock and seek La Masque in her own home; but as often the fear of a chilling rebuke

paralyzed his hand when he raised it. He was so sure she was within the house, that he never thought of

looking for her elsewhere; and when, at the expiration of what seemed to him a century or two, but which in

reality was about a quarter of an hour, there was a soft rustling of drapery behind him, and the sweetest of

"Here again, Mr. Ormiston? Is this the fifth or sixth time I've found you in this place tonight?"

"La Masque!" he cried, between joy and surprise. "But surely, I was not totally unexpected this time?"

"Can you doubt it? Since I knew you first, I have desired this hour as the blind desire sight."

"Ah! And you will find it as sweet to look back upon as you have to look forward to," said La Masque,

derisively. "If you are wise for yourself, Mr. Ormiston, you will pause here, and give me back that fatal

"Never, madame! And surely you will not be so pitilessly cruel as to draw back, now?"

"No, I have promised, and I shall perform; and let the consequences be what they may, they will rest upon

Then let us move farther over here into the shadow of the houses; this moonlight is so dreadfully bright!"

They moved on into the deep shadow, and there was a pulse throbbing in Ormiston's head and heart like the

His strange companion lifted her hand as if to remove the mask, and he saw that it shook like an aspen. She

made one motion as though about to lift it, and then recoiled, as if from herself, in a sort of horror.

"My God! What is this man urging me to do? How can I ever fulfill that fatal promise?"

"Madame, you torture me!" said Ormiston, whose face showed what he felt. "You must keep your promise;

He took a step toward her, as if to lift the mask himself, but she held out both arms to keep him off.

"No, no, no! Come not near me, Malcolm Ormiston! Fated man, since you will rush on your doom, Look!

She unfastened her mask, raised it, and with it the profusion of long, sweeping black hair.

Ormiston did look in much the same way, perhaps, that Zulinka looked at the Veiled Prophet. The next

moment there was a terrible cry, and he fell headlong with a crash, as if a bullet had whined through his hart.

I am not aware whether fainting was as much the fashion among the fair sex, in the days (or rather the nights)

of which I have the honor to hold forth, as at the present time; but I am inclined to think not, from the simple

fact that Leoline, though like John Bunyan, "grievously troubled and tossed about in her mind," did nothing

of the kind. For the first few moments, she was altogether too stunned by the suddenness of the shock to cry

out or make the least resistance, and was conscious of nothing but of being rapidly borne along in somebody's

arms. When this hazy view of things passed away, her new sensation was, the intensely uncomfortable one of

being on the verge of suffocation. She made one frantic but futile effort to free herself and scream for help,

but the strong arms held her with most loving tightness, and her cry was drowned in the hot atmosphere

within the shawl, and never passed beyond it. Most assuredly Leoline would have been smothered then and

there, had their journey been much longer; but, fortunately for her, it was only the few yards between her

house and the river. She knew she was then carried down some steps, and she heard the dip of the oars in the

water, and then her bearer paused, and went through a short dialogue with somebody else with Count

L'Estrange, she rather felt than knew, for nothing was audible but a low murmur. The only word she could

make out was a low, emphatic "Remember!" in the count's voice, and then she knew she was in a boat, and

that it was shoved off, and moving down the rapid river. The feeling of heat and suffocation was dreadful and

as her abductor placed her on some cushions, she made another desperate but feeble effort to free herself

from the smothering shawl, but a hand was laid lightly on hers, and a voice interposed.

"Lady, it is quite useless for you to struggle, as you are irrevocably in my power, but if you will promise

faithfully not to make any outcry, and will submit to be blindfolded, I shall remove this oppressive muffling

He had partly raised the shawl, and a gush of free air came revivingly in, and enabled Leoline to gasp out a

faint " I promise!" As she spoke, it was lifted off altogether, and she caught one bright fleeting glimpse of the

river, sparkling and silvery in the moonlight; of the bright blue sky, gemmed with countless stars, and of

some one by her side in the dress of a courtpage, whose face was perfectly unknown to her. The next

instant, a bandage was bound tightly over her eyes, excluding every ray of light, while the strange voice again

"Pardon, lady, but it is my orders! I am commanded to treat you with every respect, but not to let you see

"By what right does Count L'Estrange commit this outrage!" began Leoline, almost as imperiously as

Miranda herself, and making use of her tongue, like a true woman, the very first moment it was at her

disposal. "How dare he carry me off in this atrocious way? Whoever you are, sir, if you have the spirit of a

"I am very sorry, lady, but I have received orders that must be obeyed! You must come with me, but you need

"Secure enough, no doubt!" paid Leoline, bitterly. "I never did like Count L'Estrange, but I never knew he

Her companion made no reply to this forcible address, and there was a moment's indignant silence on

Leoline's part, broken only by the dip of the oars, and the rippling of the water. Then

"Will you not tell me, at least, where you are taking me to?" haughtily demanded Leoline.

"Lady, I cannot! It was to prevent you knowing, that you have been blindfolded."

"Oh! your master has a faithful servant, I see! How long am I to be kept a prisoner?"

"Ha!" said Leoline, with infinite contempt, and turning her back upon him she relapsed into gloomy silence.

It had all been so sudden, and had taken her so much by surprise, that she had not had time to think of the

consequences until now. But now they came upon her with a rush, and with dismal distinctness; and most

distinct among all was, what would Sir Norman say! Of course, with all a lover's impatience, he would be at

his post by sunrise, would come to look for his bride, and find himself sold! By that time she would be far

enough away, perhaps a melancholy corpse (and at this dreary passage in her meditations, Leoline sighed

profoundly), and he would never know what had become of her, or how much and how long she had loved

him. And this hateful Count L'Estrange, what did he intend to do with her? Perhaps go so far as to make her

marry him, and imprison her with the rest of his wives; for Leoline was prepared to think the very worst of

the count, and had not the slightest doubt that he already had a harem full of abducted wives, somewhere. But

no he never could do that, he might do what he liked with weaker minds, but she never would be a bride of

his while the plague or poison was to be had in London. And with this invincible determination rooted

fixedly, not to say obstinately, in her mind, she was nearly pitched overboard by the boat suddenly landing at

some unexpected place. A little natural scream of terror was repressed on her lips by a hand being placed

over them, and the determined but perfectly respectful tones of the person beside her speaking.

"Remember your promise, lady, and do not make a noise. We have arrived at our journey's end, and if you

Leoline was rather surprised to find the journey so short, but she arose directly, with silence and dignity at

least with as much of the latter commodity as could be reasonably expected, considering that boats on water

are rather unsteady things to be dignified in and was led gently and with care out of the swaying vessel, and

up another flight of stairs. Then, in a few moments, she was conscious of passing from the free night air into

the closer atmosphere of a house; and in going through an endless labyrinth of corridors, and passages, and

suites of rooms, and flights of stairs, until she became so extremely tired, that she stopped with spirited

abruptness, and in the plainest possible English, gave her conductor to understand that they had gone about

far enough for all practical purposes. To which that patient and respectful individual replied that he was glad

to inform her they had but a few more steps to go, which the next moment proved to be true, for he stopped

"And I suppose I may have the use of my eyes at last?" inquired Leoline, with more haughtiness than Sir

For reply, her companion rapidly untied the bandage, and withdrew it with a flourish. The dazzling brightness

that burst upon her, so blinded her, that for a moment she could distinguish nothing; and when she looked

round to contemplate her companion, she found him hurriedly making his exit, and securely locking the door.

The sound of the key turning in the lock gave her a most peculiar sensation, which none but those who have

experienced it can properly understand. It is not the most comfortable feeling in the world to know you are a

prisoner, even if you have no key turned upon you but the weather, and your jailer be a high east wind and

lashing rain. Leoline's prison and jailer were something worse; and, for the first time, a chill of fear and

dismay crept icily to the core of her heart. But Leoline had something of Miranda's courage, as well as her

looks and temper; so she tried to feel as brave as possible, and not think of her unpleasant predicament while

there remained anything else to think about. Perhaps she might escape, too; and, as this notion struck her, she

looked with eager anxiety, not unmixed with curiosity, at the place where she was. By this time, her eyes had

been accustomed to the light, which proceeded from a great antique lamp of bronze, pendent by a brass chain

from the ceiling; and she saw she was in a moderately sized and by no means splendid room. But what struck

her most was, that everything had a look of age about it, from the glittering oak beams of the floor to the

faded ghostly hangings on the wall. There was a bed at one end a great spectral ark of a thing, like a

mausoleum, with drapery as old and spectral as that on the walls, and in which she could no more have lain

than in a moth eaten shroud. The seats and the one table the room held were of the same ancient and weird

pattern, and the sight of them gave her a shivering sensation not unlike an ague chill. There was but one door

a huge structure, with shining panels, securely locked; and escape from that quarter was utterly out of the

question. There was one window, hung with dark curtains of tarnished embroidery, but in pushing them

aside, she met only a dull blank of unlighted glass, for the shutters were firmly secured without. Altogether,

she could not form the slightest idea where she was; and, with a feeling of utter despair, she sat down on one

of the queer old chairs, with much the same feeling as if she were sitting in a tomb.

What would Sir Norman say? What would he ever think of her, when he found her gone. And what was

destined to be her fate in this dreadful outoftheway place? She would have cried, as most of her sex

would be tempted to do in such a situation, but that her dislike and horror of Count L'Estrange was a good

deal stronger than her grief, and turned her tears to sparks of indignant fire. Never, never, never! would she

be his wife! He might kill her a thousand times, if he liked, and she wouldn't yield an inch. She did not mind

dying in a good cause; she could do it but once. And with Sir Norman despising her, as she felt he must do,

when he found her run away, she rather liked the idea than otherwise. Mentally, she bade adieu to all her

friends before beginning to prepare for her melancholy fate to her handsome lover, to his gallant friend

Ormiston, to her poor nurse, Prudence, and to her mysterious visitor, La Masque.

La Masque! Ah! that name awoke a new chord of recollection the casket, she had it with her yet. Instantly,

everything was forgotten but it and its contents; and she placed a chair directly under the lamp, drew it out,

and looked at it. It was a pretty little bijou itself, with its polished ivory surface, and shining clasps of silver.

But the inside had far more interest for her than the outside, and she fitted the key and unlocked it with a

trembling hand. It was lined with azure velvet, wrought with silver thread, in dainty wreathe of water lilies;

and in the bottom, neatly folded, lay a sheet of foolscap. She opened it with nervous haste; it was a common

sheet enough, stamped with fool's cap and bells, that showed it belonged to Cromwell's time. It was closely

Leoline's hand trembled so with eagerness, she could scarcely hold the paper; but her eye rapidly ran from

line to line, and she stopped not till she reached the end. While she read, her face alternately flushed and

paled, her eyes dilated, her lips parted; and before she finished it, there came over all a look of the most

unutterable horror. It dropped from her powerless fingers as she finished; and she sank back in her chair with

A sudden and startling noise awoke her from her trance of horror some one trying to get in at the window!

The chill of terror it sent through every vein acted as a sort of counterirritant to the other feeling, and she

sprang from her chair and turned her face fearfully toward the sounds. But in all her terror she did not forget

the mysterious sheet of foolscap, which lay, looking up at her, on the floor; and she snatched it up, and thrust

it and the casket out of sight. Still the sounds went on, but softly and cautiously; and at intervals, as if the

worker were afraid of being heard. Leoline went back, step by step, to the other extremity of the room, with

her eyes still fixed on the window, and on her face a white terror, that left her perfectly colorless.

Who could it be? Not Count L'Estrange, for he would surely not need to enter his own house like a burglar

not Sir Norman Kingsley, for he could certainly not find out her abduction and her prison so soon, and she

had no other friends in the whole wide world to trouble themselves about her. There was one, but the idea of

ever seeing her again was so unspeakably dreadful, that she would rather have seen the most horrible spectre

Still the noises perseveringly continued; there was the sound of withdrawing bolts, and then a pale ray of

moonlight shot between the parted curtains, shoving the shutters had been opened. Whiter and whiter Leoline

grew, and she felt herself growing cold and rigid with mortal fear. Softly the window was raised, a hand stole

in and parted the curtains, and a pale face and two great dark eyes wandered slowly round the room, and

rested at last on her, standing, like a galvanized corpse, as far from the window as the wall would permit. The

hand was lifted in a warning gesture, as if to enforce silence; the window was raised still higher, a figure,

lithe and agile as a cat, sprang lightly into the room, and standing with his back to her, reclosed the shutters,

reshut the window, and redrew the curtains, before taking the trouble to turn round.

This discreet little manoeuvre, which showed her visitor was human, and gifted with human prudence,

reassured Leoline a little; and, to judge by the reverse of the medal, the nocturnal intruder was nothing very

formidable after all. But the stranger did not keep her long in suspense; while she stood gazing at him, as if

fascinated, he turned round, stepped forward, took off his cap, made her a courtly bow, and then straightening

Well might they look at each other; for the two faces were perfectly the same, and each one saw himself and

herself as others saw them. There was the same coalblack, curling hair; the same lustrous dark eyes; the

same clear, colorless complexion, the same delicate, perfect features; nothing was different but the costume

and the expression. That latter was essentially different, for the young lady's betrayed amazement, terror,

doubt, and delight all at once; while the young gentleman's was a grand, careless surprise, mixed with just a

He was the first to speak; and after they had stared at each other for the space of five minutes, he described a

"I greatly fear, fair Leoline, that I have startled you by my sudden and surprising entrance; and if I have been

the cause of a moment's alarm to one so perfectly beautiful, I shall hate myself for ever after. If I could have

got in any other way, rest assured I would not have risked my neck and your peace of mind by such a

suspicious means of ingress as the window; but if you will take the trouble to notice, the door is thick, and I

am composed of too solid flesh to whisk through the keyhole; so I had to make my appearance the best way I

Hubert looked to see Leoline start and blush, and was deeply gratified to see her do both; and her whole

pretty countenance became alive with newborn hope, as if that name were a magic talisman of freedom and

"What is your name, and who are you?" she inquired, in a breathless sort of way, that made Hubert look at

"I have told you your friend; christened at some remote period, Hubert. For further particulars, apply to the

"The Earl of Rochester's page!" she repeated, in the same quick, excited way, that surprised and rather

lowered her in that good youth's opinion, for giving way to any feelings so plebeian. "It is it must be the

"Did you not come from France from Dijon, recently?" went on Leoline, rather inappositely, as it struck her

"How strange! How wonderful!" said Leoline, with a paling cheek and quickened breathing. "How

mysterious those things turn out I Thank Heaven that I have found some one to love at last!"

This speech, which was Greek, algebra, high Dutch, or thereabouts, to Master Hubert, caused him to stare to

such an extent, that when he came to think of it afterward, positively shocked him. The two great, wondering

dark eyes transfixing her with so much amazement, brought Leoline to a sense of her talking unfathomable

mysteries, quite incomprehensible to her handsome auditor. She looked at him with a smile, held out her

hand; and Hubert received a strange little electric thrill, to see that her eyes were full of tears. He took the

hand and raised it to his lips, wondering if the young lady, struck by his good looks, had conceived a rash and

inordinate attack of love at first sight, and was about to offer herself to him and discard Sir Norman for ever.

"I hope so, fairest Leoline. I know you are the most beautiful lady in England, and tomorrow will be called

"I am something more," said Leoline, holding his hand between both hers, and bending near him; " I am your

The Earl of Rochester's page must have had good blood in his veins; for never was there duke, grandee, or

peer of the realm, more radically and unaffectedly nonchalant than he. To this unexpected announcement he

listened with most dignified and wellbred composure, and in his secret heart, or rather vanity, more

disappointed than otherwise, to find his first solution of her tenderness a great mistake. Leoline held his hand

"Dear Hubert, you are my brother my longunknown brother, and I love you with my whole heart!"

"Am I?" said Hubert. "I dare say I am, for they all say we look as much alike as two peas. I am excessively

delighted to hear it, and to know that you love me. Permit me to embrace my new relative."

With which the court page kissed Leoline with emphasis, while she scarcely knew whether to laugh, cry, or

be provoked at his composure. On the whole, she did a little of all three, and pushed him away with a halt

"You insensible mortal! How can you stand there and hear that you have found a sister with so much

"Indifferent? Not I! You have no idea how wildly excited I am!" said Hubert, in a voice not betokening the

"Of course not! I knew from the first moment I set eyes on you, that if you were not my sister, you ought to

"I shall do so as soon as I am out of this; but how can I tell you anything here?"

"That's true!" said Hubert, reflectively. "Well, I'll wait. Now, don't you wonder how I found you out, and

"Oh, well, I don't know as I can altogether tell you; but you see, Sir Norman Kingsley being possessed of an

inspiration that something was happening to you, came to your house a short time ago, and, as he suspected,

discovered that you were missing. I met him there, rather depressed in his mind about it, and he told me

beginning the conversation, I must say, in a very excited manner," said Hubert, parenthetically, as memory

recalled the furious shaking he had undergone "and he told me he fancied you were abducted, and by one

Count L'Estrange. Now I had a hazy idea who Count L'Estrange was, and where he would be most apt to take

you to; and so I came here, and after some searching, more inquiring, and a few unmitigated falsehoods

(you'll regret to hear), discovered you were locked up in this place, and succeeded in getting in through the

window. Sir Norman is waiting for me in a state of distraction so now, having found you, I will go and

"And leave me here?" cried Leoline, in affright, "and in the power of Count L'Estrange? Oh! no, no! You

"My dear Leoline, it is quite impossible to do it without help, and without a ladder. I will return to Sir

Norman; and when the darkness comes that precedes daydawn, we will raise the ladder to your window, and

try to get you out. Be patient only wait an hour or two, and then you will be free."

"Why, I do not know that this is a very dreadful place; and most people consider it a sufficiently respectable

house; but, still, I would rather see my sister anywhere else than in it, and will take the trouble of kidnapping

"Cannot, really, Leoline! at least, not until tomorrow, and you are Lady Kingsley."

"I do not think there is much danger of that, but whether he does or not, rest assured you shall be free

tomorrow! At all events, it is quite impossible for you to escape with me now; and even as it is, I run the

risk of being detected, and made a prisoner, myself. You must be patient and wait, Leoline, and trust to

"I must, I suppose!" said Leoline, sighing, "and you cannot take me away until daydawn."

"Quite impossible; and then all this drapery of yours will be ever so much in the way. Would you object to

garments like these?" pointing to his doublet and hose. "If you would not, I think I could procure you a

"But I should, though!" said Leoline, with spirit "and most decidedly, too! I shall wear nothing of the kind,

"Every one to her fancy!" said Hubert, with a French shrug, "and my pretty sister shall have hers in spite of

earth, air, fire, and water! And now, fair Leoline, for a brief time, adieu, and au revoir !"

"If I do, it shall be the last thing I will fail in on earth; for if I am alive by tomorrow morning, Leoline shall

The last two words were addressed to the window which he noiselessly opened as he spoke. Leoline caught a

glimpse of the bright free moonlight, and watched him with desperate envy; but the next moment the shutters

Sir Norman Kingsley's consternation and horror on discovering the dead body of his friend, was only

equalled by his amazement as to how he got there, or how he came to be dead at all. The livid face, up turned

to the moonlight, was unmistakably the face of a dead man it was no swoon, no deception, like Leoline's;

for the blue, ghastly paleness that marks the flight of the soul from the body was stamped on every rigid

feature. Yet, Sir Norman could not realize it. We all know how hard it is to realize the death of a friend from

whom we have but lately parted in full health and life, and Ormiston's death was so sudden. Why, it was not

quite two hours since they had parted in Leoline's house, and even the plague could not carry off a victim as

"Ormiston! Ormiston!" he called, between grief and dismay, as he raised him in his arms, with his hand over

the stilled heart; but Ormiston answered not, and the heart gave no pulsation beneath his fingers. He tore open

his doublet, as the thought of the plague flashed through his mind, but no plaguespot was to be seen, and it

was quite evident, from the appearance of the face, that he had not died of the distemper, neither was there

any wound or mark to show that he had met his end violently. Yet the cold, white face was convulsed, as if he

had died in throes of agony, the hands were clenched, till the nails sank into the flesh; and that was the only

Sir Norman was completely at a lose, and half beside himself, with a thousand conflicting feelings of sorrow,

astonishment, and mystification. The rapid and exciting events of the night had turned his head into a mental

chaos, as they very well might, but he still had commonsense enough left to know that something must be

done about this immediately. He knew the best place to take Ormiston was to the nearest apothecary's shop,

which establishments were generally open, and filled, the whole livelong night, by the sick and their friends.

As he was meditating whether or not to call the surly watchman to help him carry the body, a pestcart came,

providentially, along, and the driverseeing a young man bending over a prostrate formguessed at once

"Another one!" he said, coming leisurely up, and glancing at the lifeless form with a very professional eye.

"Well, I think there is room for another one in the cart; so bear a hand, friend, and let us have him out of

"You are mistaken!" said Sir Norman sharply, "he has not died of the plague. I am not even certain whether

The driver looked at Sir Norman, then stooped down and touched Ormiston's icy face, and listened to hear

"If he's alive," he said, turning to go, "then I never saw any one dead! Good night, sir, I wish you joy when

"Stay!" exclaimed the young man, "I wish you to assist me in bringing him to yonder apothecary's shop, and

"This " proved to be a talisman of alacrity; for the man pocketed it, and briskly laid hold of Ormiston by the

feet, while Sir Norman wrapped his cloak reverently about him and took him by the shoulders. In this style

his body was conveyed to the apothecary's shop which they found half full of applicants for medicine, among

whom their entrance with the corpse produced no greater sensation than a momentary stare. The attire and

bearing of Sir Norman proving him to be something different from their usual class of visitors, bringing one

of the drowsy apprentices immediately to his side, inquiring what were his orders.

"A private room, and your master's attendance directly," was the authoritative reply.

Both were to be had; the former, a hole in the wall behind the shop; the latter, a pallid, cadaverouslooking

person, with the air of one who had been dead a week, thought better of it and rose again. There was a long

table in the aforesaid hole in the wall, bearing a strong family likeness to a dissectingtable; upon which the

stark figure was laid, and the pestcart driver disappeared. The apothecary held a mirror close to the, face;

applied his ear to the pulse and heart; held a pocketmirror over his mouth, looked at it; shook his head; and

"The man is dead, sir!" was his criticism, "dead as a door nail! All the medicine in the shop wouldn't kindle

The right arm was bared; the lancet inserted, one or two black drops sluggishly followed and nothing more.

"It's all a waste of time, you see," remarked the apothecary, wiping his dreadful little weapon, "he's as dead as

ever I saw anybody in my life! How did he come to his end, sir not by the plague?"

"Can't do it, sir; my skill doesn't extend that far. There is no plaguespot or visible wound or bruise on the

person; so he must have died of some internal complaint probably disease of the heart."

"Never knew him to have such a thing," said Sir Norman, sighing. "It is very mysterious and very dreadful,

and notwithstanding all you have said, I cannot believe him dead. Can he not remain here until morning, at

"I understand. You shall have it. Are you sure you can do nothing more for him?"

"Nothing whatever, sir; and excuse me, but there are customers in the shop, and I must leave, sir."

Which he did, accordingly; and Sir Norman was left alone with all that remained of him who, two hours

before, was his warm friend. He could scarcely believe that it was the calm majesty of death that so changed

the expression of that white face, and yet, the longer he looked, the more deeply an inward conviction assured

him that it was so. He chafed the chilling hands and face, he applied hartshorn and burnt feathers to the

nostrils, but all these applications, though excellent in their way, could not exactly raise the dead to life, and,

in this case, proved a signal, failure. He gave up his doctoring, at last, in despair, and folding his arms, looked

down at what lay on the table, and tried to convince himself that it was Ormiston. So absorbed was he in the

endeavor, that he heeded not the passing moments, until it struck him with a shock that Hubert might even

now be waiting for him at the trystingplace, with news of Leoline. Love is stronger than friendship, stronger

than grief, stronger than death, stronger than every other feeling in the world; so he suddenly seized his bat,

turned his back on Ormiston and the apothecary's shop, and strode oft to the place he had quitted.

No Hubert was there, but two figures were passing slowly along in the moonlight, and one of them he

recognized, with an impulse to spring at him like a tiger and strangle him. But he had been so shocked and

subdued by his recent discovery, that the impulse which, half an hour before, would have been unhesitatingly

obeyed, went for nothing, now; and there was more of reproach, even, than anger in his voice, as he went

"Stay!" he said. "One word with you, Count L'Estrange. What have you done with Leoline!"

"Ah! Sir Norman, as I live!" cried the count wheeling round and lifting his hat. "Give me good even or

Sir Norman, with his hand still on his shoulder, returned not the courtesy, and regarding the gallant count

"Really," said the count, with some embarrassment,"you attack me so unexpectedly, and so like a ghost or a

highwayman by the way I have a word to say to you about highwaymen, and was seeking you to say it."

"Where is Leoline?" shouted the exasperated young knight, releasing his shoulder, and clutching him by the

Instantly the sword of the count's companion flashed in the moonlight, and, in two seconds more, its blue

blade would have ended the earthly career of Sir Norman Kingsley, had not the count quickly sprang back,

"Wait!" he cried, commandingly, with his arm outstretched to each. "Keep off! George, sheathe your sword

"There can be no peace between us," replied that aggravated young gentleman, fiercely "until you tell me

"All in good time. We have a listener, and does it mot strike you our conference should be private!"

"Public or private, it matters not a jot, so that you tell me what you've done with Leoline," replied Sir

Norman, with whom it was evident getting beyond this question was a moral and physical impossibility.

"And if you do not give an account of yourself, I'll run you through as sure as your name is Count

A strange sort of smile came over the face of the count at this direful threat, as if he fancied in that case, he

was safe enough; but Sir Norman, luckily, did not see it, and heard only the suave reply:

"Certainly, Sir Norman; I shall be delighted to do so. Let us stand over there in the shadow of that arch; and,

The count blandly waved Sir Norman to follow, which Sir Norman did, with much the mein of a sulky lion;

"My dear Kingsley," responded the count, in his easy way, "I think you are laboring under a little mistake. I

"Do you dare to play with me?" exclaimed Sir Norman, furiously. "I tell you to take care how you speak!

"That is the fourth or fifth time that you've asked me that question," said the count, with provoking

Sir Norman's feelings, which had been rising ever since their meeting, got up to such a height at this

aggravating question, that he gave vent to an oath, and laid his hand on him sword; but the count's hand

"Not yet, Sir Norman. Be calm; talk rationally. What do you accuse me of doing with Leoline?"

The perfect composure of his tone fell like a cool, damp towel on the fire of Sir Norman's wrath. It did not

quite extinguish the flame, however only quenched it a little and it still hissed hotly underneath.

"And you dare to stand before me and acknowledge such an act?" exclaimed Sir Norman, perfectly astounded

"Verily, yea," said the count, laughing. "I seldom take the trouble to deny my acts. What next?"

"There is nothing next," said Sir Norman, severely, "until we have come to a proper understanding about this.

"She was, you mean. You know she was forced into consenting by yourself and her nurse!"

"Still she consented; and a bond is a bond, and a promise a promise, all the world over."

"Not with a woman," said Sir Norman, with stern dogmatism. "It is their privilege to break their promise and

change their mind sixty times an hour, if they choose. Leoline has seen fit to do both, and has accepted me in

"You ought to have known it!" returned Sir Norman, in the same dogmatical way; "or if you didn't, you do

now; so say no more about it. Where is she, I tell you?" repeated the young man, in a frenzy.

"Your patience one moment longer, until we see which of us has the best right to the lady. I have a prior

"What extraordinary bad taste!" raid the count, thoughtfully. "Did she tell you that?"

"Yes; she did tell me this, and a great deal more. Come have done talking, and tell me where she is, or I'll

"Oh, no, you wouldn't!" said the count, teasingly. "Since matters stand in this light I'll tell you what I'll do. I

acknowledge that I carried off Leoline, viewing her as my promised bride, and have sent her to my own home

in the care of a trusty messenger, where I give you my word of honor, I have not been since. She is as safe

there, and much safer than in her own house, until morning, and it would be a pity to disturb her at this

unseasonable hour. When the morning comes, we will both go to her together state our rival claims and

whichever one she decides on accepting, can have her, and end the matter at once."

The count paused and meditated. This proposal was all very plausible and nice on the surface, but Sir

Norman with his usual penetration and acuteness, looked farther than the surface, and found a flaw.

"And how am I to know," he asked, doubtingly, "that you will not go to her tonight and spirit her off where

"In the very best way in the world: we will not part company until morning comes, are we at peace?" inquired

"Until then, we will have to be, I suppose," replied Sir Norman, rather ungraciously taking the hand as if it

were redhot, and dropping it again. "And we are to stand here and rail at each other, in the meantime?"

"By no means! Even the most sublime prospect tires when surveyed too long. There is a little excursion

"Never mind; I have heard it. Would you object to a third excursion there before morning?"

Again Sir Norman paused and meditated. There was no use in staying where he was, that would bring him no

nearer to Leoline, and nothing was to be gained by killing the count beyond the mere transitory pleasure of

the thing. On the other hand, he had an intense and ardent desire to revisit the ruin, and learn what had

become of Miranda the only drawback being that, if they were found they would both be most assuredly

"I have no objection to go with you to the ruin," was the reply, "only this; if we are seen there, we will be

dead men two minutes after; and I have no desire to depart this life until I have had that promised interview

"I have thought of that," said the count, "and have provided for it. We may venture in the lion's den without

the slightest danger: all that is required being your promise to guide us thither. Do you give it?"

"If you mean me by that, I am here," said a voice at his elbow; and, looking round, he saw Hubert himself,

Count L'Estrange looked at him with interest, and Hubert, affecting not to notice the survey, watched Sir

The count was still watching the boy so intently, that that most discreet youth was suddenly seized with a

violent fit of coughing, which precluded all possibility of reply for at least five minutes; and Sir Norman, at

"Is this your friend?" asked the count. "He is a very small one, and seems in a bad state of health."

Sir Norman, still under the influence of the pinch, replied by an inaudible murmur, and looked with a deeply

"He bears a strong resemblance to the lady we were talking of a moment ago," continued the count "is

sufficiently like her, in fact, to be her brother; and, I see wears the livery of the Earl of Rochester."

"God spare you your eyesight!" said Sir Norman, impatiently. "Can you not see, among the rest, that I have

"There is no need to do so. I will leave you, as I have a few words to say to the person who is with me."

So saying the count walked away, and Hubert followed him with a most curious look.

"Exactly. That is where she is," said Hubert, looking much relieved. "And, at present, perfectly safe."

"Of course; and heard her too. She was dreadfully anxious to come with me; but that was out of the

"That I do not clearly see. We will have to bring a ladder, and there will be so much danger, and so little

chance of success, that, to me it seems an almost hopeless task. Where did you meet Count L'Estrange?"

"Here; and he told me that he bad abducted her, and held her a prisoner in his own house."

And hereupon Sir Norman briefly and quickly rehearsed the substance of their conversation. Hubert listened

"Well, I do not see that you can do otherwise, Sir Norman, and I think it would be wise to obey the count for

tonight, at least. Then tomorrow if things do not go on well, we can take the law in our own hands."

"Can we?" said Sir Norman, doubtfully, "I do wish you would tell me who this infernal count is, Hubert, for I

"Tomorrow! tomorrow!" exclaimed Sir Norman, disconsolately. "Everything is postponed until

tomorrow! Oh, here comes the count back again. Are we going to start now, I wonder?"

"Is your friend to accompany us on our expedition?" inquired the count, standing before them. " It shall be

"Come on, then," said the count, "we will find horses in readiness a short distance from this."

The three started together, and walked on in silence through several streets, until they reached a retired inn,

where the count's recent companion stood, with the horses. Count L'Estrange whispered a few words to him,

upon which he bowed and retired; and in an instant they were all in the saddle, and galloping away.

The journey was rather a silent one, and what conversation there was, was principally sustained by the count.

Hubert's usual flow of pertinent chat seemed to have forsaken him, and Sir Norman had so many other things

to think of Leoline, Ormiston, Miranda, and the mysterious count himself that he felt in no mood for

talking. Soon, they left the city behind them; the succeeding two miles were quickly passed over, and the

"Golden Crown," all dark and forsaken, now hove in sight. As they reached this, and cantered up the road

"I think our best plan would be, to dismount, and lead our horses the rest of the way, and not incur any

unnecessary danger by making a noise. We can fasten them to these trees, where they will be at hand when

"Wait one moment," said the count, lifting his finger with a listening look. "Listen to that!"

It was a regular tramp of horses' hoofs, sounding in the silence like a charge of cavalry. While they looked, a

troop of horsemen came galloping up, and came to a halt when they saw the count.

No words can depict the look of amazement Sir Norman's face wore; but Hubert betrayed not the least

surprise. The count glanced at his companions with a significant smile, and riding back, held a brief colloquy

with him who seemed the leader of the horsemen. He rode up to them, smiling still, and saying, as he passed

"I go not one step further," said Sir Norman, firmly, "until I know who I am leading. Who are you, Count

The count looked at him, but did not answer. A warning hand that of Hubert grasped Sir Norman's arm;

The effect of the whisper was magical. Everything that had been dark before, became clear as noonday; and

Sir Norman sat absolutely astounded at his own stupidity in not having found it out for himself before. Every

feature, notwithstanding the disguise of wig and beard, became perfectly familiar; and even through the

wellassumed voice, he recognized the royal tones. It struck him all at once, and with it the fact of Leoline's

increased danger. Count L'Estrange was a formidable rival, but King Charles of England was even more

Thought is quick quicker than the electric telegraph or balloon traveling; and in two seconds the whole

stated things, with all the attendant surprises and dangers, danced before his mind's eye like a panorama; and

he comprehended the past, the present, and the future, before Hubert had uttered the last word of his whisper.

He turned his eyes, with a very new and singular sensation, upon the quondam count, and found that

gentlemen looking very hard at him, with, a preternaturally grave expression of countenance. Sir Norman

knew well as anybody the varying moods of his royal countship, and, notwithstanding his general good

nature, it was not safe to trifle with him at all times; so he repressed every outward sign of emotion whatever,

and resolved to treat him as Count L'Estrange until he should choose to sail under his own proper colors.

"Well," said the count, with unruffled eagerness, "and so you decline to go any further Sir Norman?"

Hubert's eye was fixed with a warning glance upon him, and Sir Norman composedly answered

"No, count; I do not absolutely decline; but before I do go any further, I should like to know by what right do

"Then I refuse to move a step further in the business!" said Sir Norman, with decision.

"And why, my good friend? You surely can have no objection to anything that can be done against

"The king, for instance. His gracious majesty is whimsical at times; and who knows that he may take it into

his royal head to involve us somehow with them. I know the adage, 'put not your trust in princes.'"

"Very good," said the count, with a slight and irrepressible smile; "your prudence is beyond all praise! But I

think, in this matter I may safely promise to stand between you and the king's wrath. Look at those horsemen

beyond you, and see if they do not wear the uniform of his majesty's own bodyguard."

Sir Norman looked, and saw the dazzling of their splendid equipments glancing and glistening in the

"Look there!" exclaimed Hubert, suddenly pointing to a corner of the rain. "Someone has seen us, and is

"He shall miss it, though!" said Sir Norman, detecting, at the same instant, a dark figure getting through the

broken doorway; and striking spurs into his horse, he was instantaneously beside it, out of the saddle, and had

"By your leave!" exclaimed Sir Norman. "Not quite so fast! Stand out here in the moonlight, until I see who

"Let me go!" cried the man, grappling with his opponent. "I know who you are, and I swear you'll never see

"The duke, by all that's lucky! O, I'll let you go: but not until the hangman gets hold of you. Villain and

"Hold!" shouted the commanding voice of Count L'Estrange. "Cease, Sir Norman Kingsley! there is no time,

and this is no person for you to scoff with. He is our prisoner, and shall show us the nearest way into this den

of thieves. Give me your sword, fellow, and be thankful I do not make you shorter by a head with it."

"You do not know him!" cried Sir Norman; in vivid excitement. "I tell you this is the identical scoundrel who

"So much the better! He shall pay for that and all his other shortcomings, before long! But, in the meantime, I

"Just as you please. Here, my men, two of you take hold of this scoundrel, and dispatch him at once."

The guard had all dismounted; and two of them came forward with edifying obedience, to do as they were

The effect upon the duke was miraculous. Instantly he started up, with an energy perfectly amazing:

"No, no, no! I'll do it! Come this way, gentlemen, and I'll bring you direct into their midst. O good Lord!

This last frantic question was addressed to society in general, but Sir Norman felt called upon to answer:

"That's very easily told, my man. If you and the rest of your titled associates receive your deserts (as there is

no doubt you will) from the gracious hand of our sovereign lord, the king, the strongest rope and highest

The duke groaned dismally, and would have come to a halt to beg mercy on the spot, had not Hubert given

him a probe in, the ribs with the point of his dagger, that sent him on again, with a distracted howl.

"Why, this is a perfect Hades!" said the count, as he stumbled after, in the darkness. "Are you sure we are

The inquiry was not unnatural, for the blackness was perfectly Tartarian, and the soldiers behind were

knocking their tall shins against all sorts of obstacles as they groped blindly along, invoking from them

"I don't know whether we are or not," said Sir Norman significantly; "only, God help him if we're not! Where

"I give you my word of honor, gentlemen," said an imploring voice in the darkness, "that I'm leading you, by

the nearest way, to the Midnight Court. All I ask ,of you in return is, that you will let me enter before you; for

if they find that I lead you in, my life will not be worth a moment's purchase."

"As if it ever was worth it," said Sir Norman, contemptuously. "On with you, and be thankful I don't save

"Rush along, old fellow," suggested Hubert, giving him another poke with his dagger, that drew forth a

Notwithstanding the darkness, Sir Norman discovered that they were being led in a direction exactly opposite

that by which he had previously effected an entrance. They were in the vault, he knew, by the darkness,

though they had descended no staircase, and he was just wondering if their guide was not meditating some

treachery by such a circuitous route, when suddenly a tumult of voices, and uproar, and confusion, met his

ear. At the same instant, their guide opened a door, revealing a dark passage, illuminated by a few rays of

light, and which Sir Norman instantly recognized as that leading to the Black Chamber. Here again the duke

"Gentlemen, I do conjure you to let me enter before you do! I tell you they will murder me the very instant

"That would be a great pity!" said the count; "and the gallows will be cheated of one of its brightest

ornaments! That is your den of thieves, I suppose, from which all this uproar comes?"

"It is. And as I have guided you safely to it, surely I deserve this trifling boon."

"Trifling, do you call it," interposed Sir Norman, "to let you make your escape, as you most assuredly will do

the moment you are out of our sight! No, no; we are too old birds to be caught with such chaff; and though

the informer always gets off scotfree, your services deserve no such boon; for we could have found our way

without your help! On with you, Sir Robber; and if your companions do kill you, console yourself with the

With a perfectly heartrending groan, the unfortunate duke walked on; but when they reached the archway

directly before the room, he came to an obstinate halt, and positively refused to go a step farther. It was death,

anyway, and he resisted with the courage of desperation, feeling he might as well die there as go in and be

assassinated by his confederates, and not even the persuasive influence of Hubert's dagger could prevail on

"Stay, then!" said the count, with perfect indifference. "And, soldiers, see that he does not escape! Now,

Though the party had made considerable noise in advancing, and had spoken quite loudly in their little

animated discussion with the duke, so great was the turmoil and confusion within, that it was not heeded, or

even heard. With very different feelings from those with which he had stood there last, Sir Norman stepped

The crimson court was in a state of "most admired disorder," and the confusion of tongues was equal to

Babel. No longer were they languidly promenading, or lolling in the cushioned chairs; but all seemed running

to and fro in the wildest excitement, which the grandest duke among them seemed to share equally with the

terrified white sylphs. Everybody appeared to be talking together, and paying no attention whatever to the

sentiments of their neighbors. One universal centre of union alone seemed to exist, and that was the green,

judicial table near the throne, upon which, while all tongues ran, all eyes turned. For some minutes, neither of

the beholders could make out why, owing to the crowd (principally of the ladies) pressing around it; but Sir

Norman guessed, and thrilled through with a vague sensation of terror, lest it should prove to be the dead

body of Miranda. Skipping in and out among the females he saw the dwarf, performing a sort of war dance of

rage and frenzy; twining both hands in his wig, as if he would have torn it out by the roots, and anon tearing

"Who is that little fiend?" inquired the count; "and what have they got there at the and of the room, pray?"

"That little fiend is the ringleader here, and is entitled Prince Caliban. Regarding your other question," said

Sir Norman, with a faint thrill, "there was a table there when I saw it last, but I am afraid there is something

"Could ever any mortal conceive of such a scene," observed the count to himself; "look at that little picture of

ugliness; how he hops about like a dropsical bullfrog. Some of those women are very pretty, too, and

outshine more than one courtbeauty that I have seen. Upon my word, it is the most extraordinary spectacle I

Instantly, the throng swayed and fell back; and the dwarf, with a sort of yell (whether of rage or relief,

nobody knew), swept them from side to side with a wave of his long arms, and cleared a wide vacancy for his

own especial benefit. The action gave the count an opportunity of gratifying his curiosity. The object of

attraction was now plainly visible. Sir Norman's surmises had been correct. The green table of the

parliamenthouse of the midnight court had been converted, by the aid of cushions and pillows, into an

extempore couch.; and halfburied in their downy depths lay Miranda, the queen. The sweeping robe of royal

purple, trimmed with ermine, the circlets of jewels on arms, bosom, and head, she still wore, and the beautiful

face was white: than fallen snow. Yet she was not dead, as Sir Norman had dreaded; for the dark eyes were

open, and were fixed with an unutterable depth of melancholy on vacancy. Her arms lay helplessly by her

side, and someone, the court physician probably, was bending over her and feeling her pulse.

As the count's eyes fell upon her, he started back, and grasped Sir Norman's arm with consternation.

In his excitement he had spoken so loud, that in the momentary silence that followed the physician's

"We are seen, we are seen!" shouted Hubert, and as he spoke, a terrible cry idled the room. In an instant every

sword leaped from its scabbard, and the shriek of the startled women rang appallingly out on the air. Sir

Norman drew his sword, too; but the count, with his eyes yet fixed on Miranda, still held him by the arm, and

"Leoline! No how could it be Leoline? They look alike, that's all. Draw your sword, count, and defend

"We are upon them, you mean, and it is they who are discovered," said the count, doing as directed, and

stepping boldly in. "A pretty hornet's next is this we have lit upon, if ever there was one."

Side by side with the count, with a dauntless step and eye, Sir Norman entered, too; and, at sight of him a

burst of surprise and fury rang from lip to lip. There was a yell of "Betrayed, betrayed!" and the dwarf, with a

face so distorted by fiendish fury that it was scarcely human, made a frenzied rush at him, when the clear,

"Sheathe your swords, the whole of you, and yield yourselves prisoners. In the king's name, I command you

"There is no king here but I!" screamed the dwarf, gnashing his teeth, and fairly foaming with rage. "Die;

"Allow me to differ from you," said Sir Norman, politely, as he evaded the blindlyfrantic lunge of the

dwarf's sword, and inserted an inch or two of the point of his own in that enraged little prince's anatomy. "So

far from my hour having come if you will take the trouble to reflect upon it you will find it is the reverse,

and that my little friend's brief and brilliant career in rapidly drawing to a close."

At these bland remarks, and at the sharp thrust that accompanied them, the dwarfs previous wardance of

anxiety was nothing to the hornpipe of exasperation he went through when Sir Norman ceased. The blood

was raining from his side, and from the point of his adversary's sword, as he withdrew it; and, maddened like

a wild beast at the sight of his own blood, he screeched, and foamed, and kicked about his stout little legs,

and gnashed his teeth, and made grabs at his wig, and lashed the air with his sword, and made such desperate

pokes with it, at Sir Norman and everybody else who came in his way, that, for the public good, the young

knight run him through the swordarm, and, in spite of all his distracted didos, captured him by the help of

Hubert, and passed him over to the soldiers to cheer and keep company with the duke.

This brisk little affair being over, Sir Norman had time to look about him. It had all passed in so short a

space, and the dwarf had been so desperately frantic, that the rest had paused involuntarily, and were still

looking on. Missing the count, he glanced around the room, and discovered him standing on Miranda's

throne, looking over the company with the cool air of a conqueror. Miranda, aroused, as she very well might

be by all this screaming and fighting, had partly raised herself upon her elbow, and was looking wildly about

her. As her eye fell on Sir Norman, she sat fairly erect, with a cry of exultation and joy.

"You have come, you have come, as I knew you would," she excitedly cried, "and the hour of retribution is at

At the words of one who, a few moments before, they had supposed to be dead, an awestruck silence fell; and

"Yield yourselves prisoners, I command you! The royal guards are without; and the first of you who offers

the slightest resistance will die like a dog! Ho, guards I enter, and seize your prisoners!"

Quick as thought the room was full of soldiers! but the rest of the order was easier said than obeyed. The

robbers, knowing their doom was death, fought with the fury of desperation, and a snort, wild, and terrible

conflict ensued. Foremost in the melee was Sir Norman and the count; while Hubert, who had taken

possession of the dwarf's sword, fought like a young lion. The shrieks of the women were heartrending, as

they all fled, precipitately, into the blue diningroom; and, crouching in corners, or flying distractedly about

true to their sex made the air resound with the most lamentable cries. Some five or six, braver than the

rest, alone remained; and more than one of these actually mixed in the affray, with a heroism worthy a better

cause. Miranda, still sitting erect, and supported in the arms of a kneeling and trembling sylph in white,

watched the conflict with terriblyexultant eyes, that blazed brighter and brighter with the lurid fire of

"Oh, that I were strong enough to wield a sword!" was her fierce aspiration every instant; "if I could only mix

Had she been able to wield a sword for five minutes, according to her wish, she would probably have wielded

it from beginning to end of the battle; for it did not last much longer than that. The robbers fought with fury

and ferocity; but they had been taken by surprise, and were overpowered by numbers, and obliged to yield.

The crimson court was indeed crimson now; for the velvet carpeting was dyed a more terrible red, and was

slippery with a rain of blood! A score of dead and dying lay groaning on the ground; and the rest, beaten and

"You should have done this at first!" said the count, coolly wiping his bloodstained weapon, end replacing it

in its sheath; "and, by so doing, saved some time and more bloodshed. Where are all the fair ladies, Kingsley,

"They fled like a flock of frightened deer," said Hubert, taking it upon himself to answer,"through yonder

"I am rather at a loss what to do with them," said the count, halflaughing. "It would be a pity to bring such a

cavalcade of pretty women into the city to die of the plague. Can you suggest nothing, Sir Norman?"

"Nothing, but to leave then here to take care of themselves, or let them go free."

"They would be a great addition to the court at Whitehall," suggested Hubert, in his prettiest tone, "and a

thousand times handsomer than half the damsels therein. There, for instance, is one a dozen timer more

Leaning, in his nonchalant way, on the hilt of his sword, he pointed to Miranda, whose fiercelyjoyful eyes

were fixed w with a glance that made the three of them shudder, on the bloody floor and the heap of slain.

"Who is that?" asked the count, curiously. "Why is she perched up there, and why does she bear such an

extraordinary resemblance to Leoline? Do you know anything about her, Kingsley?"

"I know she is the wife of that unlovely little man, whose howls in yonder passage you can hear, if you listen,

and that she was the queen of this midnight court, and is wounded, if not dying, now!"

"I never saw such fierce eyes before in a female head! One would think she fairly exulted in this wholesale

"So she does; and she hates both her husband and her subjects, with an intensity you cannot conceive."

"How very like royalty!" observed Hubert, in parenthesis. "If she were a real queen, she could not act more

Sir Norman smiled, and the count glanced at the audacious page, suspiciously; but Hubert's face was touching

to witness, in its innocent unconsciousness. Miranda, looking up at the same time, caught the young knight's

eye, and made a motion for him to approach. She held out both her hands to him as he came near, with the

"Sir Norman Kingsley, I am dying, and my last words are in thanksgiving to you for having thus avenged

"Let me hope you have many days to live yet, fair lady," said Sir Norman, with the same feeling of repulsion

he had experienced in the dungeon. "I am sorry you have been obliged to witness this terrible scene."

"Sorry!" she cried, fiercely. "Why, since the first hour I remember at all, I remember nothing that has given

me such joy as what has passed now; my only regret is that I did not see them all die before my eyes! Sorry! I

"Madame, you must not talk like this!" said Sir Norman, almost sternly. "Heaven forbid there should exist a

woman who could rejoice in bloodshed and death. You do not, I know. You wrong yourself and your own

nature in saying so. Be calm, now; do not excite yourself. You shall come with us, and be properly cared for;

"Who are those men?" she said, not heeding him, "and who ah, great Heaven! What is that?"

In looking round, she had met Hubert face to face. She knew that that face was her own; and, with a horror

stamped on every feature that no words can depict, she fell back, with a terrible scream and was dead!

Sir Norman was so shocked by the suddenness of the last catastrophe, that, for some time, he could not

realize that she had actually expired, until he bent over her, and placed his ear to her lips. No breath was

there; no pulse stirred in that fierce heart the Midnight Queen was indeed dead!

"The sight of Hubert, and his wonderful resemblance to her, has completed what her wound and this

"Peace be with her!" said the count, removing his hat, which, up to the present, he had worn. "And now, Sir

Norman, if we are to keep our engagement at sunrise, we had better be on the move; for, unless I am greatly

"What are your commands?" asked Sir Norman, turning away, with a sigh, from the beautiful form already

"That you come with me to seek out those frightened fair ones, who are a great deal too lovely to share the

fate of their male companions. I shall give them their liberty to go where they please, on condition that they

Sir Norman silently followed him into the azure and silver saloon, where the crowd of duchesses and

countesses were "weeping and wringing their hands," and as white as so many pretty ghosts. In a somewhat

brief and forcible manner, considering his characteristic gallantry, the count made his proposal, which, with

feelings of pleasure and relief, was at once acceded to; and the two gentlemen bowed themselves out, and left

On returning to the crimson court, he commanded a number of his soldiers to remain and bury the dead, and

assist the wounded; and then, followed by the remainder and the prisoners under their charge, passed out, and

were soon from the heated atmosphere in the cool morning air. The moon was still serenely shining, but the

stars that kept the earliest hours were setting, and the eastern sky was growing light with the hazy gray of

"I told you daydawn was at hand," said the count, as he sprang into his saddle; "and, lo! in the sky it is gray

"It is time for it!" said Sir Norman, as he, too, got into his seat; "this has been the longest night I have ever

"True! But I have little doubt what that decision will be! I presume you will have to deliver up your prisoners

before you can visit her, and I will avail myself of the opportunity to snatch a few moments to fulfill a

"As you please. I have no objection; but in that case you will need some one to guide you to the place of

rendezvous; so I will order my private attendant, yonder, to keep you in sight, and guide you to me when your

The count had given the order to start, the moment they had left the ruin, and the conversation had been

carried on while riding at a breakneck gallop. Sir Norman thanked him for his offer, and they rode in silence

until they reached the city, and their paths diverged; Sir Norman's leading to the apothecary's shop where be

had left Ormiston, and the count's leading he best knew where. George the attendant referred to joined

the knight, and leaving his horse in his care, Sir Norman entered the shop, and encountered the spectral

"What of my friend?" was his eager inquiry. "Has he yet shown signs of returning consciousness?"

"Alas, no!" replied the apothecary, with a groan, that came wailing up like a whistle; "he was so excessively

dead, that there was no use keeping him; and as the room was wanted for other purposes, I pray, my dear

"In the plaguepit!" shouted Sir Norman, making a spring at him; but the man darted off like a ghostly flash

Sir Norman kicked at it spitefully, but it resisted his every effort; and, overcoming a strong temptation to

smash every bottle in the shop, he sprang once more into the saddle, and rode off to the plaguepit. It was the

second time within the last twelve hours he had stood there; and, on the previous occasion, he who now lay in

it, had stood by his side. He looked down, sickened and horrorstruck. Perhaps, before another morning, he,

too, might be there; and, feeling his blood run cold at the thought, he was turning away, when some one came

rapidly up, and sank down with a moaning gasping cry on its very edge. That shape tall and slender, and

graceful he well knew; and, leaning over her, ho laid his hand on her shoulder, and exclaimed:

The cowering form rose up; but, seeing who it was, sank down again, with its face groveling in the dust, and

He bent to raise her; but, with a sort of scream she held out her arms to keep him back.

"Oh, I have not stabbed him, or poisoned him, or shot him; but I am his murderer, nevertheless!" she wailed,

"Madame, I do not understand you at all! Surely you are raving when you talk like this."

Still moaning on the edge of the plaguepit, she half rose up, with both hands clasped tightly over her heart,

as if she would have held back from all human ken the anguish that was destroying her

"NO no! I am not mad pray Heaven I were! Oh, that they had strangled me in the first hour of my birth,

as they would a viper, rather than I should have lived through all this life of misery and guilt, to end it by this

Sir Norman stood and looked at her still with a dazed expression. He knew well enough whose murderer she

called herself; but why she did so, or how she could possibly bring about his death, was a mystery altogether

"Madame, compose yourself, I beseech you, and tell me what you mean. It is to my friend, Ormiston, you

"I know that he is dead, and buried in this horrible place; but why you should accuse yourself of murdering

"Then you shall!" she cried, passionately. "And you will wonder at it no longer! You are the last one to whom

the revelation can ever be made on earth; and, now that my hours are numbered, it matters little whether it is

"It was I yes. And how he came to his end, I have been puzzling myself in vain to discover ever since."

She rose up, drew herself to her full majestic height, and looked at him with a terrible glance

"You have had no hand in it," he answered, with a cold chill at the tone and look, "for he loved you!"

"I have had a hand in it I alone have been the cause of it. But for me he would be living still!"

"You need not look as if you thought me mad, for I tell you it is Heaven's truth! You say right he loved me;

"You speak in riddles which I cannot read. How could that love have caused his death, since his dearest

"He did. He told me you were to remove your mask; and if, on seeing you, he still loved you, you were to be

"Then woe to him for ever having extorted such a promise from me! Oh, I warned him again, and again, and

again. I told him how it would be I begged him to desist; but no, he was blind, he was mad; he would rush

She pointed with a frantic gesture to the plaguepit, and wrung her beautiful hands with the same moaning of

"Do I hear aright?" said Sir Norman, looking at her, and really doubting if his ears had not deceived him. "Do

you mean to say that, in keeping your word and showing him your face, you have caused his death?"

"I do. I had warned him of it before. I told him there were sights too horrible to look on and live, but nothing

would convince him! Oh, why was the curse of life ever bestowed upon such a hideous thing as I!"

Sir Norman gazed at her in a state of hopeless bewilderment. He had thought, from the moment he saw her

first, that there was something wrong with her brain, to make her act in such a mysterious, eccentric sort of

way; but he had never positively thought her so far gone as this. In his own mind, he set her down, now, as

being mad as a March hare, and accordingly answered in that soothing tone people use to imbeciles

"My dear Madame Masque, pray do not excite yourself, or say such dreadful things. I am sure you would not

willfully cause the death of any one, much less that of one who loved you as he did."

La Masque broke into a wild laugh, almost worse to hear than her former despairing moans.

"The man thinks me mad! He will not believe, unless he sees and knows for himself! Perhaps you, too, Sir

Norman Kingsley," she cried, changing into sudden fierceness, "would like to see the face behind this mask?

"Certainly," said Sir Norman. "I should like to see it; and I think I may safely promise not to die from the

effects. But surely, madame, you deceive yourself; no face, however ugly even supposing you to possess

She was looking down into the plaguepit, standing so close to its cracking edge, that Sir Norman's blood ran

cold, in the momentary expectation to see her slip and fall headlong in. Her voice was less fierce and less

wild, but her hands were still clasped tightly over her heart, as if to ease the unutterable pain there. Suddenly,

"Because we are both to meet in her presence within this very hour, and she is to decide between us,"

"No; I taxed him with it, and he owned to the deed; but he voluntarily promised to take me to her and abide

"Extraordinary!" said La Masque, as if to herself. "Whimsical as he is, I scarcely expected he would give her

"There are few things I do not know, and rare are the disguises I cannot penetrate. So you have discovered it,

"No, madame, my eyes were not sharp enough, nor had I sufficient cleverness, even, for that. It was Hubert,

"Ah, the page!" said La Masque, quickly. "You have then been speaking to him? What do you think of his

"I think it is the most astonishing resemblance I ever saw. But he is not the only one who bears Leoline's

The other is she whom you sent me to see in the old ruins. Madame, I wish you would tell me the secret of

this wonderful likeness; for I am certain you know, and I am equally certain it is not accidental."

"You are right. Leoline knows already; for, with the presentiment that my end was near, I visited her when

you left, and gave her her whole history, in writing. The explanation is simple enough. Leoline, Miranda, and

Some misty idea that such was the case had been struggling through Sir Norman's slow mind, unformed and

without shape, ever since he had seen the trio, therefore he was not the least astonished when he heard the

"Why, I thought that is, I do not know," said Sir Norman, quite blushing at being guilty of so much

romance, "but that he was a woman in disguise. You see he is so handsome, and looks so much like Leoline,

"He is Leoline's twin brother that accounts for it. When does she become your wife?"

"Since Hubert is her brother, he shall come with us, if he will. As for the other, she, alas! is dead."

"No, no; it was quite accidental. But since you know so much of the dwarf, perhaps you also know he is now

"I did not know it; but I surmised as much when I discovered that you and Count L'Estrange, followed by

such a body of men, visited the ruin. Well, his career has been long and dark enough, and even the plague

seemed to spare him for the executioner. And so the poor mockqueen is dead? Well, her sister will not long

"Good Heavens, madame!" cried Sir Norman, aghast. "You do not mean to say that Leoline is going to die?"

"Oh, no! I hope Leoline has a long and happy life before her. But the wretched, guilty sister I mean is,

At this new disclosure, Sir Norman stood perfectly petrified; and La Masque, looking down at the dreadful

"Alas and alas! that it should be so; but it is the direful truth. We bear the same name, we had the same father;

"She never knew it until this night, or any one else alive; and no one should know it now, were not my

ghastly life ending. I prayed her to forgive me for the wrong I have done her; and she may, for she is gentle

The sharp pain in her voice jarred on Sir Norman's ear and heart; and, to get rid of its dreary echo, he

"It is one, Sir Norman Kingsley, before which your own ancient title pales. We are Montmorencis, and in our

"Then Leoline is French and of noble birth?" said Sir Norman, with a thrill of pleasure. "I loved her for

herself alone, and would have wedded her had she been the child of a beggar; but I rejoice to hear this

"Her father was the Marquis de Montmorenci. but Leoline's mother and mine were not the same had they

been, the lives of all four might have been very different; but it is too late to lament that now. My mother had

no gentle blood in her veins, as Leoline's had, for she was but a fisherman's daughter, torn from her home,

and married by force. Neither did she love my father notwithstanding his youth, rank, and passionate love for

her, for she was betrothed to another bourgeois, like herself. For his sake she refused even the title of

marchioness, offered her in the moment of youthful and ardent passion, and clung, with deathless truth, to her

fisherlover. The blood of the Montmorencis is fierce and hot, and brooks no opposition" (Sir Norman

thought of Miranda, and inwardly owned that that was a fact); "and the marquis, in his jealous wrath, both

hated and loved her at the same time, and vowed deadly vengeance against her bourgeois lover. That vow he

kept. The young fisherman was found one morning at his ladylove's door without a head, and the bleeding

"Of course, for a while, she was distracted and so on; but when the first shock of her grief was over, my

father carried her off, and forcibly made her his wife. Fierce hatred, I told you, was mingled with his fierce

love, and before the honeymoon was over it began to break out. One night, in a fit of jealous passion, to

which he was addicted, he led her into a room she had never before been permitted to enter; showed her a

grinning human skull, and told her it was her lover's! In his cruel exultation, he confessed all; how he had

caused him to be murdered; his head severed from the body; and brought here to punish her, some day, for

"Up to this time she had been quiet and passive, bearing her fate with a sort of dumb resignation; but now a

spirit of vengeance, fiercer and more terrible than his own, began to kindle within her; and, kneeling down

before the ghastly thing, she breathed a wish a prayer to the avenging Jehovah, so unutterably horrible,

that even her husband had to fly with curdling blood from the room. That dreadful prayer was heard that

wish fulfilled in me; but long before I looked on the light of day that frantic woman had repented of the awful

deed she had done. Repentance came too late the sin of the father was visited on the child, and on the mother,

too, for the moment her eyes fell upon me, she became a raving maniac, and died before the first day of my

"Nurse and physician fled at the sight of me; but my father, though thrilling with horror, bore the shock, and

bowed to the retributive justice of the angry Deity she had invoked. His whole life, his whole nature, changed

from that hour; and, kneeling beside my dead mother, as he afterward told me, he vowed before high Heaven

to cherish and love me, even as though I had not been the ghastly creature I was. The physician he bound by a

terrible oath to silence; the nurse he forced back, and, in spite of her disgust and abhorrence, compelled her to

nurse and care for me. The dead was buried out of sight; and we had rooms in a distant part of the house,

which no one ever entered but my father and the nurse. Though set apart from my birth as something

accursed, I had the intellect and capacity of yes, far greater intellect and capacity than, most children; and,

as years passed by, my father, true to his vow, became himself my tutor and companion. He did not love me

that was an utter impossibility; but time so blunts the edge of all things, that even the nurse became

reconciled to me, and my father could scarcely do less than a stranger. So I was cared for, and instructed, and

educated; and, knowing not what a monstrosity I was, I loved them both ardently, and lived on happily

"Then came a change. My nurse died; and it became clear that I must quit my solitary life, and see the sort of

world I lived in. So my father, seeing all this, sat down in the twilight one night beside me, and told me the

story of my own hideousness. I was but a child then, and it is many and many years ago; but this gray

summer morning, I feel what I felt then, as vividly as I did at the time. I had not learned the great lesson of

life then endurance, I have scarcely learned it yet, or I should bear life's burden longer; but that first night's

despair has darkened my whole afterlife. For weeks I would not listen to my father's proposal, to hide what

would send all the world from me in loathing behind a mask; but I came to my senses at last, and from that

day to the present more days than either you or I would care to count it has not been one hour altogether

"I was the wonder and talk of Paris, when I did appear; and most of the surmises were wild and wide of the

mark some even going so far as to say it was all owing to my wonderful unheardof beauty that I was thus

mysteriously concealed from view. I had a soft voice, and a tolerable shape; and upon this, I presume, they

founded the affirmation. But my father and I kept our own council, and let them say what they listed. I had

never been named, as other children are; but they called me La Masque now. I had masters and professors

without end, and studied astronomy and astrology, and the mystic lore of the old Egyptians, and became

"The arts used to discover the mystery and make me unmask were innumerable and almost incredible; but I

baffled them all, and began, after a time, rather to enjoy the sensation I created than otherwise.

"There was one, in particular, possessed of even more devouring curiosity than the rest, a certain young

countess of miraculous beauty, whom I need not describe, since you have her very image in Leoline. The

Marquis de Montmorenci, of a somewhat inflammable nature, loved her almost as much as he had done my

mother, and she accepted him, and they were married. She may have loved him (I see no reason why she

should not), but still to this day I think it was more to discover the secret of La Masque than from any other

cause. I loved my beautiful new mother too well to let her find it out; although from the day she entered our

house as a bride, until that on which she lay on her deathbed, her whole aim, day and night, was its discovery.

There seemed to be a fatality about my father's wives; for the beautiful Honorine lived scarcely longer than

her predecessor, and she died, leaving three children all born at one time you know them well, and one of

them you love. To my care she intrusted them on her deathbed, and she could have scarcely intrusted them to

worse; for, though I liked her, I most decidedly disliked them. They were lovely children their lovely

mother's image; and they were named Hubert, Leoline, and Honorine, or, as you knew her, Miranda. Even

my father did not seem to care for them much, not even as much as he cared for me; and when he lay on his

deathbed, one year later, I was left, young as I was, their sole guardian, and trustee of all his wealth. That

wealth was not fairly divided onehalf being left to me and the other half to be shared equally between

them; but, in my wicked ambition, I was not satisfied even with that. Some of my father's fierce and cruel

nature I inherited; and I resolved to be clear of these three stumblingblocks, and recompense myself for my

other misfortunes by every indulgence boundless riches could bestow. So, secretly, and in the night, I left my

home, with an old and trusty servant, known to you as Prudence, and my unfortunate, little brother and

sisters. Strange to say, Prudence was attached to one of them, and to neither of the rest that one was

Leoline, whom she resolved to keep and care for, and neither she nor I minded what became of the other

"From Paris we went to Dijon, where we dropped Hubert into the turn at the convent door, with his name

attached, and left him where he would be well taken care of, and no questions asked. With the other two we

started for Calais, en route for England; and there Prudence got rid of Honorine in a singular manner. A

packet was about starting for the island of our destination, and she saw a strangelooking little man carrying

his luggage from the wharf into a boat. She had the infant in her arms, having carried it out for the identical

purpose of getting rid of it; and, without more ado, she laid it down, unseen, among boxes and bundles, and,

like Hagar, stood afar off to see what became of it. That ugly little man was the dwarf; and his amazement on

finding it among his goods and chattels you may imagine; but he kept it, notwithstanding, though why, is best

known to himself. A few weeks after that we, too, came over, and Prudence took up her residence in a quiet

village a long way from London. Thus you see, Sir Norman, how it comes about that we are so related, and

"You have, indeed!" said Sir Norman, gravely, having listened, much shocked and displeased, at this open

confession; "and to one of them it is beyond our power to atone. Do you know the life of misery to which she

"I know it all, and have repented for it in my own heart, in dust and ashes! Even I unlike all other earthly

creatures as I am have a conscience, and it has given me no rest night or day since. From that hour I have

never lost sight of them; every sorrow they have undergone has been known to me, and added to my own;

and yet I could not, or would not, undo what I had done. Leoline knows all now; and she will tell Hubert,

since destiny has brought them together; and whether they will forgive me I know not. But yet they might; for

they have long and happy lives before them, and we can forgive everything to the dead."

"But you are not dead," said Sir Norman; "and there is repentance and pardon for all. Much as you have

wronged them, they will forgive you; and Heaven is not less merciful than they!"

"They may; for I have striven to atone. In my house there are proofs and papers that will put them in

possession of all, and more than all, they have lost. But life is a burden of torture I will bear no longer. The

death of him who died for me this night is the crowning tragedy of my miserable life; and if my hour were

"But you have not told me the fearful cause of no much guilt and suffering. What is behind that mask?"

"I have told you it is not in my nature to die easily, and it is something far stronger than mere curiosity makes

"Be it so! The sky is growing red with daydawn, and I shall never see the sun rise more, for I am already

That sweetest of all voices ceased. The white hands removed the mask, and the floating coils of hair, and

revealed, to Sir Norman's horrorstruck gaze, the grisly face and head, and the hollow eyesockets, the

He saw it but for one fearful instant the next, she had thrown up both arms, and leaped headlong into the

loathly plaguepit. He saw her for a second or two, heaving and writhing in the putrid heap; and then the

strong man reeled and fell with his face on the ground, not feigning, but sick unto death. Of all the dreadful

things he had witnessed that night, there was nothing so dreadful as this; of all the horror he had felt before,

there was none to equal what he felt now. In his momentary delirium, it seemed to him she was reaching her

arms of bone up to drag him in, and that the skeletonface was grinning at him on the edge of the awful pit.

All this time, the attendant, George, had been sitting, very much at his ease, on horseback, looking after Sir

Norman's charger and admiring the beauties of sunrise. He had seen Sir Norman in conversation with a

strange female, and not much liking his near proximity to the plaguepit, was rather impatient for it to come

to an end; but when he saw the tragic manner in which it did end, his consternation was beyond all bounds.

Sir Norman, in his horrified flight, would have fairly passed him unnoticed, had not George arrested him by a

"I beg your pardon, Sir Norman," he exclaimed, as that gentleman turned his distracted face; "but, it seems to

me, you are running away. Here is your horse; and allow me to say, unless we hurry we will scarcely reach

Sir Norman leaned against his horse, and shaded his eyes with his hand, shuddering like one in an ague.

"Why did that woman leap into the plaguepit?" inquired George, looking at him curiously. "Was it not the

"Yes, yes. Do not ask me any questions now," replied Sir Norman, in a smothered voice, and with an

"Whatever you please, sir," said George, with the flippancy of his class; "but still I must repeat, if you do not

mount instantly, we will be late; and my master, the count, is not one who brooks delay."

The young knight vaulted into the saddle without a word, and started off at a breakneck pace into the city.

George, almost unable to keep up with him, followed instead of leading, rather skeptical in his own mind

whether he were not riding after a moonstruck lunatic. Once or twice he shouted out a sharptoned inquiry

as to whether he knew where he was going, and that they were taking the wrong way altogether; to all of

which Sir Norman deigned not the slightest reply, but rode more and more recklessly on. There were but few

people abroad at that hour; indeed, for that matter, the streets of London, in the dismal summer of 1665, were,

comparatively speaking, always deserted; and the few now wending their way homeward were tired

physicians and plaguenurses from the hospitals, and several hardy country folks, with more love of lucre

than fear of death bending their steps with produce to the marketplace. These people, sleepy and pallid in

the gray haze of daylight, stared in astonishment after the two furious riders; and windows were thrown open,

and heads thrust out to see what the unusual thunder of horses' hoofs at that early hour meant. George

followed dauntlessly on, determined to do it or die in the attempt; and if he had ever heard of the Flying

Dutchman, would undoubtedly have come to the conclusion that he was just then following his track on dry

land. But, unlike the hapless Vanderdecken, Sir Norman came to a halt at last, and that so suddenly that his

horse stood on his beam ends, and flourished his two fore limbs in the atmosphere. It was before La Masque's

door; and Sir Norman was out of the saddle in a flash, and knocking like a postman with the handle of his

whip on the door. The thundering reveille rang through the house, making it shake to its centre, and hurriedly

brought to the door, the anatomy who acted as guardianangel of the establishment.

"Then I shall just take the trouble of admitting myself," said Sir Norman, shortly.

And without further ceremony, he pushed aside the skeleton and entered. But that outraged servitor sprang in

"No, sir; I cannot permit it. I do not know you; and it is against all orders to admit strangers in La Masque's

"Bah! you old simpleton!" remarked Sir Norman, losing his customary respect for old age in his impatience,

"I have La Masque's order for what I am about to do. Get along with you directly, will you? Show me to her

He tapped his swordhilt significantly as he spoke, and that argument proved irresistible. Grumbling, in low

tones, the anatomy stalked upstairs; and the other followed, with very different feelings from those with

which he had mounted that staircase last. His guide paused in the hall above, with his hand on the latch of a

The room he entered was small, simply furnished, and seemed to answer as bedchamber and study, all in

one. There was a writingtable under a window, covered with books, and he glanced at them with some

curiosity. They were classics, Greek and Latin, and other little known tongues perhaps Sanscrit and

Chaldaic, French belles lettres, novels, and poetry, and a few rare old English books. There were no papers,

however, and those were what he was in search of; so spying a drawer in the table, he pulled it hastily open.

The eight that met his eyes fairly dazzled him. It was full of jewels of incomparable beauty and value, strewn

as carelessly about as if they were valueless. The blaze of gems at the midnight court seemed to him as

nothing compared with the Golconda, the Valley of Diamonds shooting forth sparks of rainbowfire before

him now. Around one magnificent diamond necklace was entwined a scrap of paper, on which was written:

"The family jewels of the Montmorencis. To be given to my sisters when I am dead."

That settled their destiny. All this blaze of diamonds, rubies, and opals were Leoline's; and with the energetic

rapidity characteristic of our young friend that morning, he swept them out on the table, and resumed his

search for papers. No document was there to reward his search, but the brief one twined round the necklace;

and he was about giving up in despair, when a small brass slide in one corner caught his eye. Instantly he was

at it, trying it every way, shoving it out and in, and up and down, until at last it yielded to his touch,

disclosing an inner drawer, full of papers and parchments. One glance showed them to be what he was in

search of proofs of Leoline and Hubert's identity, with the will of the marquis, their father, and numerous

other documents relative to his wealth and estates. These precious manuscripts he rolled together in a bundle,

and placed carefully in his doublet, and then seizing a beautifullywrought brass casket, that stood beneath

the table, he swept the jewels in, secured it, and strapped it to his belt. This brisk and important little affair

being over, he arose to go, and in turning, saw the skeleton porter standing in the doorway, looking on in

"It's all right my ancient friend!" observed Sir Norman, gravely. "These papers must go before the king, and

"Their proper owner!" repeated the old man, shrilly; "that is La Masque. Thiefrobberhousebreaker stop!"

"My good old friend, you will do yourself a mischief if you bawl like that. Undoubtedly these things were La

Masque's, but they are so no longer, since La Masque herself is among the things that were!"

"You shall not go!" yelled the old man, trembling with rage and anger. "Help! help! help!"

"You noisy old idiot!" cried Sir Norman, losing all patience, "I will throw you out of the window if you keep

At this ominous announcement, the ghastly porter fell back, and became, if possible, a shade more ghastly

"Dead and buried!" repeated Sir Norman, with gloomy sternness,"and there will be somebody else coming to

take possession shortly. How many more servants are there here beside yourself?"

"Only one, sir my wife Joanna. In mercy's name, sir, do not turn us out in the streets at this dreadful time!"

"Not I! You and your wife Joanna may stagnate here till you bluemold, for me. But keep the door fast, my

good old friend, and admit no strangers, but those who can tell you La Masque is dead!"

With which parting piece of advice Sir Norman left the house, and joined George, who sat like an effigy

before the door, in a state of great mental wrath, and who accosted him rather suddenly the moment be made

"I tell you what, Sir Norman Kingsley, if you have many more morning calls to make, I shall beg leave to

take my departure. As it is, I know we are behind time, and his ma the count, I mean, is not one who it

"I am quite at your service now," said Sir Norman, springing on horseback; "so away with you, quick as you

George wanted no second order. Before the words were well out of his companion's mouth, he was dashing

away like a bolt from a bow, as furiously as if on a steeplechase, with Sir Norman close at his heels; and

they rode, flushed and breathless, with their steeds all a foaming, into the courtyard of the royal palace at

Whitehall, just as the early rising sun was showing his florid and burning visage above the horizon.

The courtyard, unlike the city streets, swarmed with busy life. Pages, and attendants, and soldiers, moving

hither and thither, or lounging about, preparing for the morning's journey to Oxford. Among the rest Sir

Norman observed Hubert, lying very much at his ease wrapped in his cloak, on the ground, and chatting

languidly with a pert and pretty attendant of the fair Mistress Stuart. He cut short his flirtation, however,

abruptly enough, and sprang to his feet as he saw Sir Norman, while George immediately darted off and

"Am I late Hubert?" said his hurried questioner, as he drew the lad's arm within his own, and led him off out

"I think not. The count," said Hubert, with laughing emphasis, "has not been visible since he entered yonder

doorway, and there has been no message that I have heard of. Doubtless, now that George has arrived, the

message will soon be here, for the royal procession starts within half an hour."

"He maybe; we must take our chance for that; but we have his royal word to the contrary. Not that I have

"If he were king of the world instead of only England," cried Sir Norman, with flashing eyes, "he shall not

"Regicide!" exclaimed Hubert, holding up both hands in affected horror. "Do my ears deceive me Is this the

"Stuff and nonsense!" interrupted Sir Norman, impatiently. "I tell you any one, be he whom he may, that

"Bravo! You ought to be a Frenchman, Sir Norman! And what if the lady herself, finding her dazzling suitor

drop his barnyard feathers, and soar over her head in his own eagle plumes, may not give you your dismissal,

"You coldblooded young villain! if you insinuate such a thing again, I'll throttle you! Leoline loves me, and

"Doubtless she thinks so; but she has yet to learn she has a king for a suitor!"

"Bah! You are nothing but a heartless cynic," said Sir Norman, yet with an anxious and irritated flush on his

"More than you think, as pretty Mariette yonder could depose, if put upon oath. But seriously, Sir Norman, I

am afraid your case is of the most desperate; royal rivals are dangerous things!"

"Has he? You expect him, beyond doubt, to do precisely as he said; and if Leoline, different from all the rest

of her sex, prefers the knight to the king, he will yield her unresistingly to you."

"I have nothing but his word for it!" said Sir Norman, in a distracted tone, "and, at present, can do nothing but

"I have been thinking of that, too! I promised, you know, when I left her, last night, that we would return

before daydawn, and rescue her. The unhappy little beauty will doubtless think I have fallen into the tiger's

"Certainly, I take it like this. How would you have me take it? It is nothing to go into hysterics about, after

"Of all the coldblooded young reptiles I ever saw," exclaimed Sir Norman, with infinite disgust, "you are

the worst! If you were told you were to receive the crown of France tomorrow, you would probably open

"Of course I would. I haven't lived in courts half my life to get up a scene for a small matter! Besides, I had

an idea from the first moment I saw Leoline that she must be my sister, or something of that sort."

"I don't know as I properly understand what you mean by emotion," said Herbert, reflectively. "But yees, I

"She did not tell you either, I suppose, that you had more sisters than herself?"

"More than herself! No. That would be a little too much of a good thing! One sister is quite enough for any

"Is it possible?" said Hubert, in a tone that betrayed not the slightest symptom of emotion. "Who are they?"

Sir Norman paused one instant, combating a strong temptation to seize the phlegmatic page by the collar, and

give him such another shaking as he would not get over for a week to come; but suddenly recollecting he was

Leoline's brother, and by the same token a marquis or thereabouts, he merely paused to cast a withering look

"You may wait, then!" said Sir Norman, with a smothered growl; "and I give you joy when I tell you. Such

"You young jackanapes!" said Sir Norman, halflaughing, half incensed. "It were a wise deed and a godly

one to take you by the hindleg and nape of the neck, and pitch you over yonder wall; but for your mister's

"So I have, and you merely abused me for it. But I think I know one of them without being told. It is that

"La Masque! Nonsense!" exclaimed Hubert, with some energy in his voice at last. "You but jest, Sir Norman

"And what is the whole story; and why did she not tell it to me instead of you."

"She told it to Leoline, thinking, probably, she had the most sense; and she told it to me, as Leoline's future

husband. It is somewhat long to relate, but it will help to beguile the time while we are waiting for the royal

And hereupon Sir Norman, without farther preface, launched into a rapid resume of La Masque's story,

feeling the cold chill with which he had witnessed it creep over him as he narrated her fearful end.

"It struck me," concluded Sir Norman, "that it would be better to procure any papers she might possess at

once, lest, by accident, they should fall into other hands; so I rode there directly, and, in spite of the

cantankerous old porter, searched diligently, until I found them. Here they are," said Sir Norman, drawing

"And what do you intend doing with them?" inquired Hubert, glancing at the papers with an unmoved

"Show them to the king, and, though his mediation with Louis, obtain for you the restoration of your rights."

"And do you think his majesty will give himself so much trouble for the Earl of Rochester's page?"

"I think he will take the trouble to see justice done, or at least he ought to. If he declines, we will take the

matter in our own hands, my Hubert; and you and I will seek Louis ourselves. Please God, the Earl of

"And the sister of a marquis will be no unworthy mate even for a Kingsley," said Hubert. "Has La Masque

"Do you see this casket?" tapping the one of cared brass dangling from his belt; "well, it is full of jewels

worth a king's ransom. I found them in a drawer of La Masque's house, with directions that they were to be

given to her sisters at her death. Miranda being dead, I presume they are all Leoline's now."

"This is a queer business altogether!" said Hubert, musingly; "and I am greatly mistaken if King Louie will

"With all my heart. I have no objections to be made a marquis of, and go back to la belle France, out of this

land of plague and fog. Won't some of my friends here be astonished when they hear it, particularly the Earl

of Rochester, when he finds out that he has had a marquis for a page? Ah, here comes George, and bearing a

George approached, and intimated that Sir Norman was to follow him to the presence of his master.

Sir Norman, with a slight tremor of the nerves at what was to come, followed the king's page through halls

and anterooms, full of loiterers, courtiers, and their attendants. Once a hand was laid on his shoulder, a

"Goodmorning, Sir Norman; you are abroad betimes. How have you left your friend, the Count

"Your lordship has probably seen him since I have, and should be able to answer that question best."

"And how does his suit progress with the pretty Leoline?" went on the gay earl. "In faith, Kingsley, I never

saw such a charming little beauty; and I shall do combat with you yet with both the count and yourself, and

"Permit me to differ from your lordship. Leoline would not touch you with a pair of tongs!"

"Ah! she has better taste than you give her credit for; but if I should fail, I know what to do to console

"Yes! there is Hubert, as like her an two peas in a pod. I shall dress him up in lace and silks, and gewgaws,

Leaving the volatile earl to put what construction pleased him best on this last sententious remark, he

resumed his march after George, and was ushered, at last, into an anteroom near the audiencechamber.

Count L'Estrange, still attired as Count L'Estrange, stood near a window overlooking the courtyard, and as

the page salaamed and withdrew, he turned round, and greeted Sir Norman with his suavest air.

"The appointed hour is passed, Sir Norman Kingsley, but that is partly your own fault. Your guide hither tells

me that you stopped for some time at the house of a fortuneteller, known as La Masque. Why was this!"

"I was forced to stop on most important business," answered the knight, still resolved to treat him as the

count, until it should please him to doff his incognito, "of which you shall hear anon. Just now, our business

"True! And as in a short time I start with yonder cavalcade, there is but little time to lose. Apropos, Kingsley,

"She is, or was (for she is dead sow) a French lady, of noble birth, and the sister of Leoline!"

"And her name. She is Leoline De Montmorenci! And with the proudest blood of France in her veins, living

obscure and unknown a stranger in a strange land since childhood; but, with God's grace and your help, I

As the last glimpse of moonlight and of Hubert's bright face vanished, Leoline took to pacing up and down

the room in a most conflicting and excited state of mind. So many things had happened during the past night;

so rapid and unprecedented had been the course of events; so changed had her whole life become within the

last twelve hours, that when she came to think it all over, it fairly made her giddy. Dressing for her bridal; the

terrible announcement of Prudence; the deathlike swoon; the awakening at the plaguepit; the maniac flight

through the streets; the cold plunge in the river; her rescue; her interview with Sir Norman, and her promise;

the visit of La Masque; the appearance of the count; her abduction; her journey here; the coming of Hubert,

and their suddenlydiscovered relationship. It was enough to stun any one; and the end was not yet. Would

Hubert effect his escape? Would they be able to free her? What place was this, and who was Count

L'Estrange? It was a great deal easier to propound this catechism to herself than to find answers to her own

questions; and so she walked up and down, worrying her pretty little head with all sorts of anxieties, until it

Her feet gave out sooner than her brain, though; and she got so tired before long, that she dropped into a seat,

with a longdrawn, anxious sigh; and, worn out with fatigue and watching, she, at last, fell asleep.

And sleeping, she dreamed. It seemed to her that the count and Sir Norman were before her, in her chamber

in the old house on London Bridge, tossing her heart between them like a sort of shuttlecock. Byandby,

with two things like two drumsticks, they began hammering away at the poor, little, fluttering heart, as if it

were an anvil and they were a pair of blacksmiths, while the loud knocks upon it resounded through the room.

For a time, she was so bewildered that she could not comprehend what it meant; but, at last, she became

conscious that some one was rapping at the door. Pressing one hand over her startled heart, she called "Come

"Count L'Estrange commands me to inform you, fair lady, that he will do himself the pleasure of visiting you

"With Sir Norman Kingsley!" repeated Leoline, faintly. "II am afraid I do not quite understand."

"Then you will not be much longer in that deplorable state," said George, backing out, "for here they are."

"Pardon this intrusion, fairest Leoline," began the count, "but Sir Norman and I are about to start on a

journey, and before we go, there is a little difference of opinion between us that you are to settle."

"A simple matter enough. Last evening, if you recollect, you were my promised bride."

"It was against my will," said Leoline, boldly, though her voice shook, "You and Prudence made me."

"You know better. You haunted me continually; you gave me no peace at all; and I world just have married

"Mute!" said the count, with an almost imperceptible smile. "Look up, Leoline, and speak."

But Leoline would do neither. With all her momentary daring gone, she stood startled as a wild gazelle.

"Shall I answer for her, Sir Count?" exclaimed Sir Norman, his own cheek dashed. "Leoline! Leoline! you

"You are to decide between us, Leoline. Though the count forcibly brought you here, he has been generous

"I do not love him at all," aid Leoline, with s little disdain, "and he knows it."

Leoline held out both hands to the loved one, and nestled close to his side, like a child would to its protector.

"Fairly rejected!" said the count, with a pacing shade of mortification on his brow; "and, my word being

pledged, I most submit. But, beautiful Leoline, you have yet to learn whom you have discarded."

Clinging to her lover's arm, the girl grew white with undefined apprehension. Leisurely, the count removed

false wig, false eyebrows, false heard; and a face well known to Leoline, from pictures and description,

"Nay; rise, fair Leoline," said the king, holding out his hand to assist her. "It is my place to kneel to one so

lovely instead of having her kneel to me. Think again. Will you reject the king as you did the count?"

"Pardon, your majesty!", said Leoline, scarcely daring to look up; "but I must!"

"So be it! You are a perfect miracle of troth and constancy, and I think I can afford to be generous for once.

In fifteen minutes, we start for Oxford, and you must accompany us as Lady Kingsley. A tiring woman will

wait upon you to robe you for your bridal. We will leave you now, and let me enjoin expedition."

And while she still stood too much astonished by the sudden proposal to answer, both were gone, and in their

"Are those for me?" inquired Leoline, looking at them, and trying to comprehend that it was all real.

"They are for you sent by Mistress Stuart, herself. Please sit down, and all will be ready in a trice."

And in a trice all was ready. The shining, jetty curls were smoothed, and fell in a glossy shower, trained with

jewels the pearls Leoline herself still wore. The rose satin was discarded for another of bridal white, perfect

of fit, and splendid of feature. A great gossamer veil like a cloud of silver mist over all, from head to foot;

and Leoline was shown herself in a mirror, and in the sudden transformation, could have exclaimed, with the

unfortunate lady in bother Goose, shorn of her tresses when in balmy slumber: "As sure as I'm a little woman,

this is none of it!" But she it was, nevertheless, who stood listening like one in a trance, to the enthusiastic

Again there was a tap at the door. This time the attendant opened it, and George reappeared. Even he stood

for a moment looking at the silvershining vision, and so lost in admiration, that he almost forgot his

message. But when Leoline turned the light of her beautiful eyes inquiringly upon him, he managed to

remember it, and announced that he had been sent by the king to usher her to the royal presence.

With a feetthrobbing heart, flushed cheeks, and brilliant eyes, the dazzling bride followed him, unconscious

that she had never looked so incomparably before in her life. It was but a few hours since she had dressed for

another bridal; and what wonderful things had occurred since then her whole destiny had changed in a

night. Not quite sure yet but that she was still dreaming, she followed on saw George throw open the great

doors of the audiencechamber, and found herself suddenly in what seemed to her a vast concourse of

people. At the upper end of the apartment was s brilliant group of ladies, with the king's beautiful favorite in

their midst, gossiping with knots of gentlemen. The king himself stood in the recess of a window, with his

brother, the Duke of York, the Earl of Rochester, and Sir Norman Kingsley, and was laughing and relating

animatedly to the two peers the whole story. Leoline noticed this, and noticed, too, that all wore traveling

The king himself advanced to her rescue, and drawing her arm within his, he led her up and presented her to

the fair Mistress Stuart, who received her with smiling graciousness though Leoline, all unused to court ways,

and aware of the lovely lady's questionable position, returned it almost with cold hauteur. Charles being in an

unusually gracious mood, only smiled as he noticed it, and introduced her next to his brother of York, and her

"There's no need, I presume, to make you acquainted with this other gentleman, sand Charles, with s laughing

glance at Sir Norman. "Kingsley, stand forward and receive your bride. My Lord of Canterbury, we await

The bland bishop, in surplice and stole, and book in hand, stepped from a distant group, and advanced. Sir

Norman, with a flush on his cheek, and an exultant light in his eyes, took the hand of his beautiful bride who

Who indeed? Like many other pleasant things is this world, it requires to be felt to be appreciated; and, for

that reason, it is a subject on which the unworthy chronicler is altogether incompetent to speak. The first

words of the ceremony dropped from the prelate's urbane lips, and Sir Norman's heart danced a tarantella

within him. "Wilt thou?" inquired the bishop, blandly, and slipped a plain gold ring on one pretty finger of

Leoline's hand and all heard the old, old formula: "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!"

Leoline gave one earnest glance at the ring on her finger. Long ago, slaves wore rings as the sign of their

bondage is it for the same reason married women wear them now? While she yet looked halfdoubtfully at

it, she was surrounded, congratulated, and stunned with a sadden clamor of voices; and then, through it all,

"My lords and ladies, time is on the wing, and the sun is already half an hour high! Off with you all to the

courtyard, and mount, while Lady Kingsley changes her weddinggear for robes more befitting travel, and

With a low obeisance to the king, the lovely bride hastened away after one of the favorite's attendants, to do

as he directed, and don a ridingsuit. In ten minutes after, when the royal cavalcade started, she turned from

the peststricken city, too and fairest, where all was fair, by Sir Norman's side rode Leoline.

Sitting one winter night by a glorious winter fire, while the snow and hail lashed the windows, and the wind

without roared like Bottom, the weaver, a pleasant voice whispered the foregoing tale. Here, as it paused

abruptly, and seemed to have done with the whole thing, I naturally began to ask questions. What happened

the dwarf and his companions? What became of Hubert? Did Sir Norman and Lady Kingsley go to

Devonshire, and did either of them die of the plague? I felt, myself, when I said it, that the last suggestion

was beneath contempt, and so a withering look from the face opposite proved; but the voice was obliging

enough to answer the rest of my queries. The dwarf and his cronies being put into his majesty's jail of

Newgate, where the plague was raging fearfully, they all died in a week, and so managed to cheat the

executioner. Hubert went to France, and laid his claims before the royal Louis, who, not being able to do

otherwise, was graciously pleased to acknowledge them; and Hubert became the Marquis de Montmorenci,

and in the fullness of time took unto himself a wife, even of the daughters of the land, and lived happy for

And Sir Norman and Lady Kingsley did go to the old manor in Devonshire, where with tradition and my

informant there is to be seen to this day, an old familypicture, painted some twelve years after,

representing the knight and his lady sitting serenely in their "ain ingle nook" with their family around them.

Sir Norman, a little portlier, a little graver, in the serious dignity of pater familias; and Leoline, with the

dark, beautiful eyes, the falling, shining hair, the sweet smiling lips, and lovely, placid face of old. Between

them, on three hassocks, sit three little boys; while the fourth, and youngest, a miniature little Sir Norman,

leans against his mother's shoulder, and looks thoughtfully in her sweet, calm face. Of the fate of those four,

the same ancient lore affirms: "That the eldest afterward bore the title of Earl of Kingsley; that the second

became a lord high admiral, or chancellor, or something equally highfalutin; and that the third became an

archbishop. But the highest honor of all was reserved for the fourth, and youngest," continued the narrating

voice, "who, after many days, sailed for America, and, in the course of time, became President of the United

Determined to be fully satisfied on this point, at least, the author invested all her spare change in a catalogue

of all the said Presidents, from George Washington to Chester A. Arthur, and, after a diligent and absorbing

perusal of that piece of literature, could find no such name as Kingsley whatever; and has been forced to

come to the conclusion that he most have applied to Congress to change his name on arriving in the New

World, or else that her informant was laboring reader a falsehood when she told her so. As for the rest,