damsel of Laval, but how to deliver her from the extravagant pride of her father, and thus place her as the object of honourable contention before you all."

"So far, so well," said the Englishman, “we have all, therefore, an equal stake in the safety of the damsel and her honourable treatment; and why her fate should be committed to the hands of one man, and that one man the least known of us all, I am at a loss to conceive. You appear to entertain a very friendly solicitude, that we should not commit ourselves before the proper time; and, doubtless, we are all very much beholden to you: but still, if we choose to take any portion of risk upon ourselves, you will naturally feel happy in being relieved from so heavy a responsibility. I propose, accordingly, that the abduction

or deliverance, as you, Sir Black Knight, more happily phrase it-of the damsel of Laval, be conducted by a force, composed of an equal number of men contributed by all of us who desire it; the said force to be under your command, with such restrictions as the wisdom of the present meeting may prescribe."

This proposal was received with a shout of approbation; and when the Black Knight attempted, as before, to address himself to individuals, his voice was drowned in the general uproar. At length all was silent, and every face was directed towards him in expectation. When at length he spoke, and this was not for some time, it was in a cold, haughty, and indifferent tone.

"It was my desire to serve you," said he, "and if the detention of the damsel were essentially necessary to our ultimate success, I would do so still. Her being allowed, however, to fall once more into the hands of her father, will, at the worst, only render her deliverance more tedious and difficult; and I decline submitting, in order to avoid this, to the new insult which the wisdom of the meeting has thought proper to offer me. In furtherance of my own plans, notwithstanding, I shall still pursue the adventure as zealously as heretofore. It is myself I serve, not you; and, for my own sake, not yours, will I give you due tidings of the event which must bring you to a decision either to submit or resist. In the mean time, only advising you to take no step whatever till you hear farther from me, I leave you in the holy keeping of your own wits," and so saying, the knight strode out of the room.

Douglas would instantly have withdrawn for the purpose of following his mysterious enemy; although, even then, in some doubt as to the possibility of his seizing a man who

appeared to have the faculty of vanishing like a spirit. He was detained for a moment, however, by some expressions he heard amidst the tumult occasioned by the haughty exit of the stranger, which raised powerfully his curiosity.

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Follow him not," said the more cautious personage, whose name had not transpired, "and take no heed of his disrespect. Draw near, and I will tell you why. Closer, for I will not trust my voice to the echoes even of this deserted room." Douglas stretched his head forth out of the opening, and listened with soul and sense to the whisper of the old man, but without being able to catch an intelligible word. At the moment he fancied he heard something stir near him; and putting out his hand, he felt that a man in armour stood close by his side.

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Sir," whispered he, "you are here on espial as well as I: move not, or I drag you into the hall. When they are gone, you and I go hand and hand into the moonlight!" and seizing the hand beside him, he grasped it like one who would give earnest of his power to enforce any threat of the kind. The stranger, on his part, did not answer in words, but returned the pressure with such good will, that Douglas heard the steel splints of his gauntlet crackle, and felt the blood spring from beneath the finger nails. They stood in this cordial attitude for some minutes, without overhearing a syllable that could have been of interest to either; and at length the meeting broke up without coming to any conclusion, and they saw the last of its members disappear at the door. "for I

"And now, Sir Black Knight," said Douglas, know you by instinct, even in the dark, you will either settle with me in the court beneath, certain accounts that have been long outstanding between us, or you will accompany me on the instant to yonder fortress, where lodge Orosmandel and the damsel of Laval. Choose!"

"I should prefer the former alternative," said the stranger, "if I did not perceive, by the hardness of your gripe, that it would take more minutes than I can well spare just at present to chastise your folly. We shall go, therefore, to the fortress, and the rather, that I have still more pressing business there than you." Groping their way to the secret door, which was the readiest egress, they commenced their descent, still hand in hand; but the narrowness of the rude staircase making this attitude impossible longer, Douglas gave precedence to his enemy, keeping close behind him, so that he might reach the bottom at the same

moment.

He reached the bottom alone!

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Who passed?" cried the knight, drawing his sword, "tell me on your

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lives!"

Who passed?" repeated the seneschal, in evident surprise. "Why, the twelve men, to be sure, not five minutes agone. And what makest thou, Sir Knight, by the secret stair, and head instead of heels foremost?"

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It is glamour! or I am in a dream! and these be no living men, but shadows and phantasms! Open the door, ye unholy shapes, and then sink in the ground and disappear!"

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“The thirteenth man!" mused the seneschal, as his valet slowly obeyed; What thinkest thou of this, comrade?" That we are even well rid of him!" replied old Raoul sulkily: "New times are not like old times; and a man now-a-days can laugh at his very doom. Death itself seems to be dead; or wherefore are you and I here? Ah! what a night we should have made of it! with old rhymes, and old stories, and the corpse streaked east and west between us!"

Donglas escaped as quickly as he could from the ill-boding voices of the old men; and when he had cleared the precincts of the castle, rushed, rather than ran, down the steep on which it stood. While passing the hut by the roadside he threw a glance at the door; but all was still. Soon after, he reached the opening by which his friend and he had left the highway; and in a few minutes more, he stood by the side of David Armstrong, who was still fast asleep.

Although the dawn was not yet perceptible, Douglas knew, by the appearance of the sky, and the position of the moon, that it was no longer night; and he laid himself quickly down, determined, in the midst of all his dilemmas, to snatch an hour's rest, before the daylight should call him to its business and adventure. Sleep came at his bidding, b.: not rest. Long he tumbled, and tossed, and groaned. lie imagined at length that he was actually laid out as a corp. e, with the seneschal watching at his head, and old Raoul at his feet. The Black Knight presently entered upon the scene; and stooping down, endeavoured to cut the fastenings of his helmet with his miséricorde. Unable to stir hand cr foot, he felt those diabolical fingers fumbling at his throat; and, overpowered with horror, the sleeper shrieked and awoke.

His dream was partly true; and he caught hold of the intruding hand with convulsive energy.

"Villain!" he cried, "let me up! life; and let me die by fair fighting!"

Give me a chance of

"Get up, then, in the name of God!" said David.

"It

is that I have wanted this half hour; and I have even now been fain to cut your helmet ties, lest you should be strangled."

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O my friend, I have had such a dream!"

"You may well say so, Archibald; for truly you have had a troubled night."

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Why, what, in heaven's name, do you know of my troubles?"

"More, perchance, than your waking lips could tell me. But the Black Knight has been busy with you since we lay down; and those two lean and wizard spectres, whose eldritch laugh you might well dread to hear.'

"David! Was it all a dream? Only convince me of that but no-it is impossible."

"You have truly passed a troubled night; and, indeed, as I may say, you might as well not have slept at all. But you men of war, whose minds are not so alert as they might be, are unable to struggle with dreams, which are in general a casualty depending upon the state of the body. With such, the stomach carries it over the brain; and your valiant knight lies groaning under the blows of an ideal victor, whom the poor scholar, disciplined by his watchings, and fastings, and meditations, would throw off like a cumbersome cloak. For mine own part, I awoke every now and then of express purpose to drive away a great black fly, which kept buzzing and buzzing around your head; and once, on raising my eyes, there was a damsel standing beside us a young woman—

"The damsel of Laval!"

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"No, the

young woman Hagar; and she told me that she was an Egyptian, and not a-hem!—but behold! this was a dream."

"And so was not mine," said Douglas, starting up, "Not a word! Listen, and then speak;" and he related in a succinct and coherent manner the adventures of the night. During the course of the recital, although David said nothing, he maintained for a considerable time his own private opinion, that it was all a dream; but by degrees the conviction forced itself upon his mind, that the knight had not even been sleep-walking, but broad awake.

"In this country," said he, after some moment's meditation, "the great houses were formerly provided, not only with private passages, the doors of which appeared, both to

the sight and touch, to form part of the wall, but also with subterranean avenues extending far out into the country. This is already an antique fashion; and the remains of such contrivances, if skilfully used, might give an appearance of the supernatural to feats of mere dexterity and ingenuity. If the Black Knight be a creature of flesh and blood, you may be assured that out of some such substantial materials arose the glamour of to-night. At all events, if I am not far mistaken, we shall become better acquainted with magic as we get on; and so, let us up and away, for the sun is already high in the heavens. The time may soon come adsit modo dexter Apollo-when we shall teach him in turn a few of the tricks of the north!"

CHAPTER XI.

THE conspiracy of the relations of Gilles de Retz, which disturbed the latter part of the reign of John V. was in all probability, as the English knight Beauchamp had hinted, entered into more from personal than public motives. Or rather, it may be considered as one of the last throes of a convulsion which had continued for numerous centuries. The patient had been bled and blistered almost ad deliquium animi, and the disease could no longer pamper itself on the rebellious juices of the body; but still, a sudden heave now and then demonstrated, that although subdued it was not yet expelled. Like the devils of Scripture, when adjured by a stronger power, it would rend the victim once more before leaving him for ever.

However this may be, the conspirators who, during the night, had held grave debate on the question, as to whether they should seize and carry off a prisoner, the damsel of Laval, vied with each other in the morning for the distinction of being the most respectful and devoted of her satellites. The air was cool, yet balmy; their road lay among swelling hills, covered with vines and fruit-trees; and, instead of the hazy moonlight which, but a few hours before, had wrapped the world as if with a winding-sheet, a joyous sun looked down upon their line of march, and glittered along the course of the beautiful Loire, till it was lost in the distance.

In addition to the two hundred men-at-arms who escorted the damsel, there were several of the gentlemen whom Douglas had seen the night before in the ruined hall with a