father, we shall be well served, if our business is to be entrusted to maniacs! The cure for this malady, I think, is a solitary dungeon, chains, straw, bread and water. Is it not so?"

"The youth for the present," replied Orosmandel, "will betake himself to his employment, already too long interrupted; and the young woman, whose terror, as he remarks, is nothing more than natural and feminine, may remain in her present abode for a few days, till I find time to consider A word, my lord;" and he drew the baron out of

her case.

hearing.

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Thy triumph," said he, "is premature. The Duke hath indeed made the purchase; but the money hath not arrived. Till then, this Jewess must be sacred, and it is better that she remain in a public part of the castle; else it will be in vain to demand either loan or ransom from her father. As for the young man, he must live till the great minute of thy life hath arrived, for I have need of his services but not longer."

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"Hagar," said David, in another part of the room, "you have gained but a short respite; yet keep up your spirits, and remember my words of last night."

"Thou hast cast away thy life," she replied" and for me, wretch that I am! Oh, be careful, my best, my only friend! for I watched the face of him whom thou callest Orosmandel, and I saw suspicion lurking under the calm, deep moonlight of his eyes!"

Andrew," said David, "meet me secretly, after it is dark, at the top of the staircase in the hall, which they will tell you leads to the Magician's Tower."

I will, daddie," replied Andrew, "but you are out in your policy for once. I have learned that of the baron which would have justified us in smiting him, hip and thigh, as you no doubt intended; and that done we could easily have gagged the old man, and made our way out of the castle-Jewess and all.”

Hagar was then remanded to her prison; David back to his manipulation; and Andrew, having been invited to partake of the hospitality of the house for the night, dismissed with a condescending message to Houpelande, inviting him to bring his goods forthwith to La Verrière.

CHAPTER XXIV.

ANDREW's inspection of the defences of La Verrière, although, to a mind like his, a very exciting amusement while it lasted, was by no means satisfactory in the results he obtained. The castle appeared to him to be absolutely impregnable; and when, in walking round the ramparts, he arrived at the two colossal culverines which adorned the principal gate, his heart died within him.

“Alas! daddie David,” groaned he, “it is all over! If, with my little son of a gun, I defeated half-a-dozen of the best soldiers in Europe, its great-grandfathers here, would scatter the army of Alexander! Our only chance is, that the cannoniers may be fools enough to load. Even a ball of diameter like this, could not sweep away more than twenty men at a time; and it would be morally impossible to make such a monster disgorge twice in the same hour. After the first shot, therefore, the prestige would be destroyed, and the besiegers might approach close to the walls; as safe under the very chin of the giants, as if they were twenty leagues off. What could have come over David, that he did not smite the enemy when we had him in our power! But was it not rather my own fault? He, poor fellow, may have been bound by enchantment; and I, who was a free agent, should have struck the blow. I'll warrant me, if I had once stood fairly committed in the quarrel, David would have sprung to the aid of his comrade, if fifty spells had been over him."

Andrew was permitted to make his observations without the slightest hindrance. It seemed, indeed, as if the authorities in command rather encouraged his inquiries than otherwise; in the perfect confidence, no doubt, that his report could not be otherwise than favourable. While he was still lingering near the gate, with his eyes fixed, as if by fascination, on the enormous culverines, De Briqueville, before whom he had been brought on his arrival, came up to where he stood, with a lady, whom he appeared to be attending on her afternoon's walk.

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"You admire our cannon, friend!" said De Briqueville, with a smile. This one, you must know, is the Duke, and the other the Baron; and if you want to match them, you must look among the Twelve Peers of France. I fancy you have hardly such things at home!"

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"I will not precisely undertake to say," replied Andrew,

"that we have culverines, or serpentines, of such unwieldy dimensions. The Scots, you must know, sir and madam (who are a very ancient people, being the Caledonia of the Romans, and descended from the old Scythian race), have a prejudice against the alliance of such inanimate things as they cannot wield with their own hands. They do not even affect so much as the English, their fractious neighbours, the use of arrows; holding it to be something less than manly to send such deadly missives through the air, on business that ought to be transacted face to face. However, I would by no means disparage your culverines, which at least do credit to the founders; but with us at home, in fact, they could be of little use, for I assure you this bit hillock of yours, whereon they have been so easily placed, compared with our mountains is an absolute wart!"

"Perhaps, also," said De Briqueville, with a`sneer, "these same mountains may be deficient in the materials for powder."

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By no means," answered Andrew, hastily; "We have enough of willows for charcoal, which you think the best; although in my opinion honest fir or larch would answer the purpose better, of which we have a still more abundant supply. Those timbers we burn to cook our victuals, and so preserve human life rather than destroy it. Then we have nitre enough, God knows, which the old wives use, with common salt, to cure their beef; and as for sulphur, you may think it is plenty, when I tell you, that there are few of us who spare to employ it for a kind of maladybrought to us, it is said, across the channel by the south wind."

"Since you do not patronise cannon," said Pauline de Laval, who seemed desirous of prolonging the conversation, "pray what are the arms of your countrymen?"

Madam, we have a dagger, fit for stabbing; and a sword that, if well applied, would slice you off a man's head so neatly as to leave no stain upon the blade. Then we have a pike, or spear, eighteen feet six inches long, sufficient to keep off a charge of horse; and thus, with our steel coat and сар, defended at the joining between the two by a thick kerchief wrapped round our neck".

"Sir, do you know Sir Archibald Douglas?" Andrew glanced at De Briqueville, who had just stepped aside to speak to the sentry; and then looking slily at the young lady, drew in his mouth like a purse, and gave an affirmative nod.

"Is he well?" said Pauline, colouring deeply.

“He is sound in body-but for the sana mens ”—and Andrew shrugged his shoulders.

"For the what?"

"I would not just like to commit myself by affirming that he is well in spirit."

"Did he know-did he send—that is—”

"It would be improper to answer categorically that he did not send; for, in fact, he looked more messages than I could carry, yet without ever uttering a word. If I could see as well into the mill-stone as my neighbours, I might venture to predicate that he would have thought it an enormous sacrilege to have mentioned a certain sacred name in my ears. Indeed, I have little hesitation in conjecturing, that he is somewhat wild-a little crazed, as it were-on the subject of punctilio. Would you think it? It was but the other day that he rated my comrade Nigel soundly for saving his life by slaying a horse, instead of striking unprofitably at a man cased in armour. Nay, if the culverine with which I put the assassins to flight had actually gone off, I do believe he would never have forgiven me, lest the shot might not have had the gumption to strike within the four members!"

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By whom was his life attempted?"

'By six horsemen, with their vizors closed. Know you an individual called Prelati?" Pauline started and grew pale.

"Nothing will satisfy our knight," continued Andrew, "but he must have a fair fight with this Prelati, face to face; and, there being special reasons why he should be dissuaded from so doing, for at least a certain time, if your ladyship.

"Tell him," interrupted Pauline, eagerly, "that I intreat, and command him to forbear! Tell him that if he disobey me in this instance, I shall ever after hate as much as I have -have-esteemed him! Will you do this?"

"Assuredly I will. But there is another subject.” At this moment they were rejoined by De Briqueville; who immediately after walked away with Mademoiselle de Laval, leaving Andrew staring after them with disappointment and mortification.

"What a beast

"They may well call me slow!" said he. was I, to lose moments so precious in prating of culverines, punctilios, charcoal, sulphur, and cutaneous disorders! Sir Archibald's business is done for which he will by no means thank me, and David's name not even mentioned in her ears!" By the time he had made the entire circuit of the

ramparts, it was completely dark; and, watching his opportunity when there was no one in the hall, he glided into the staircase which he had previously ascertained led to the Magician's Tower.

Andrew, with all his shrewdness, was by no means insensible to the superstitious feelings almost universal in that age; and when he found himself, in ascending the stairs, receding from even the grey light of the hall, and entering a region of darkness and mystery, it was not without some quicker motion of the heart that he repeated mentally an Ave.

His caution, however, did not forsake him. He crept up the steps as stealthily as a cat; and when every gleam of light had deserted him, he went upon all fours, and thus might easily have been taken for the animal whose pace he imitated. The stair led to the highest floor of the tower, and was therefore of considerable length; but multiplied by Andrew's imagination, it seemed to extend to a distance beyond all natural bounds. He at length began to conceive it possible that, for the offence of entering upon such an adventure, he was now travelling eternally through the void of space when suddenly his head came in contact with the iron gate at the top.

When he had ascertained the nature of this obstacle, and the fact that he had really reached the landing-place, he raised himself cautiously, and put forth his feelers to examine the lock. The bolt was in, as thick as a man's arm: the gate was made fast, in such a manner, that it would have taken a well-sized culverine, indeed, to open it without the key. Had David been aware that this would have been the case? Or was he now an unexpected prisoner? Might he not have been waiting in utter darkness for an hour past, and gone away in disappointment and dudgeon? Andrew pondered, and pondered-felt the thick bars of the gateendeavoured to insinuate his little finger into the bed of the bolt-and at length sat down, to meditate more at his ease.

his

Although the space around him was as black as night, he could see the dim light of evening beneath, at a distance which appeared to him to be immense. On this spot eyes were fixed for so long a time, that his imagination began to grow confused; and at length he felt the sensation of being about to fall. He immediately started up; and, turning his back upon an appearance which only bewildered him, he grasped the bars of the gate with both hands, and gazed into the abysm of darkness beyond.

Before him, if all he had heard were true, was the study