it?" added he, after a moment's pause, "poverty is the badge of the scholar, and will be so to the end of time; and if there be among us those who cry in the highways for bread rather than die like wolves, without a howl-why, Archibald," and he leaned forward once more, and allowed the light to stream full on his untroubled brow—" why, man, they are but dunces in philosophy, and that is all that needs be said."

Scholarship, David," said the knight, who no longer felt any desire to laugh, "is with you a profession. Tell me, what are your hopes? What are your prospects? The church is a lucrative and noble field."

"Truly is it, Archibald," replied the student, "the church is indeed a lucrative and noble field; lucrative to the rich, and noble to the high-descended! But besides the small number of rich and noble, besides the protegés of the rector, and the cousins and cater-cousins of the eighty regents, there are thirty thousand of us here who are neither rich nor noble, who call not the rector friend nor the regents cousin. To read my fortune, you must calculate the chance of these thirty thousand in the mass, and then divide that chance into thirty thousand partsone whereof is mine."

At this ominous conclusion, the flame of the candle flashed suddenly up, illumining for a moment with a dull imperfect glare the dreary room, and bringing out, in Rembrandt lights and shadows, the remarkable head of the student and the martial figure of the young knight. It then sunk as suddenly in the socket and disappeared in utter darkness.

"And now, Archibald," said David Armstrong, continuing to speak as if an eclipse of the kind had been of too common occurrence to be worthy of remark, You will ask why I continue to waste my life in so hopeless a pur

suit? You will ask—”

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"Ask!" interrupted the knight with indignation, as he started up from the bench, and floundered out into the middle of the room, where his voice sounded amidst the obscurity like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "I will ask, indeed, why Philip Armstrong's son chooses to sit starving of hunger, and shivering with cold, in a den of wild beasts, rather than buckle harness on his back, like his ancestors before him, and carve out his way to fortune with his father's sword! Why man thou art bewitched! They have thrown a spell over thee with their hellish gibberish which has benumbed thy faculties. What ho! Awake! Come with me into the light of day, and let us be comrades in arms as

we once were brother imps in mischief! Trust me, this night-mare of the soul will vanish at one blast of the wartrumpet!"

"It would, it would!” cried the student. rising, "I know that it would; even I, who see, although afar off, the glories of science, and who feel by anticipation the pride, the power, the -O Archibald, you cannot comprehend me. I eat of the coarsest, and drink of the thinnest: my bed is of straw, my apparel of rags, my habitation of ruins; and think you that I look for my reward in the gown of a cué or a curé's vicar? No; I have an aim far higher than your eye can reach, or even your soul understand! But this is not the time to be more explicit. My struggles on one hand, and misgivings on the other, have of late been severe; but the hour approaches quickly which shall determine my fate." Douglas could hear the unquiet step of the speaker in the remotest corners of the apartment, and the labouring sighs with which he was delivered of these words; and for a moment the idea entered his mind that his friend was insane!

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David," said he, "will you accompany me to my lodgings? It is cold here as well as dark, and the breath of heaven will do us both good."

Of a surety," replied David, in his usual tone, "I will not leave you to your own guidance on the hill of Saint Geneviève. Come, where are you now? You are not the first who lost his way in the grove of Academus. There, take hold of my cowl-but not so, as if it were a banner which you were wresting from the enemy. The dress of a student, I assure you, costs money, and the tailor's account, besides, is written in Latin: Pro capucio,' so much; 'pro corneta cum farcitura,' the Lord knows so much more. And now, being at the middle of the stair, you will make a wide straddle to get over the hole, whose depths you would needs explore in coming up, and there is no need for starting as if you heard unexpected thunder, when it is only Bauldy, and Nigel, and Andrew, poor fellows, slumbering like babes in the next room. We are now in the street. It must be late, indeed, for all is quiet."

The friends pursued their way, guided more by the local knowledge of Armstrong, than by the lamps that burned dimly here and there before statues and pictures of the saints. As they approached the side of the river, they met more than one passenger coming on with a lantern in one hand and a sword in the other; but the strangers always took to flight on seeing two persons wandering along in the

dark. They at length reached the bridge leading to the palace, where Sir Archibald had been assigned a lodging.

"You are now at home," said the student; I shall be with you to-morrow, if I am a living man, after the first class; and in the mean time, go straight to your bed without turning to the right or to the left, and the blessing of the saints go with you!"

CHAPTER III.

THE student stood gazing for some time after his friend, till his form had disappeared in the darkness, and the echo of his tread died away. He then tightened his leathern belt, drew his gown more closely round him, pulled the tattered cowl over his brow, and crossing his arms upon his bosom, walked slowly homeward, like a man plunged in the deepest meditation. The great city slept. The night wind sighed along the streets, as if they had been ruins; and the river answered with its stilly voice to the sound. It was the hour when spirits were supposed to be permitted to walk the earth; and when the noises of winds and waters were easily syllabled into their mystic speech by the imagination of men.

David, however, seemed either free from the superstition of the time, or his preoccupied mind afforded no room for its fantastic creations. He walked slowly on without raising his eyes from the ground, till he had almost reached the Scottish College; he then turned suddenly into a lane to the right; his footsteps became both swifter and lighter; and if his dark figure had been seen gliding thus quickly and noiselessly through the gloom, he might have been taken himself for one of the supernatural beings who haunt the night.

From one long and tortuous lane he glided into another, till it might have seemed that he was walking for exercise, or for the purpose of counting every turning and winding on the peopled hill of Saint Geneviève. At length he stopped before a mean and ruinous-looking house, in the darkest part of a dirty and almost deserted street. This, apparently, was his destination. After looking round for a moment, as if to make sure that he was not observed, he plunged into a miserable gateway, the door of which, unnecessary as it seemed to the poverty of the inhabitants, was unfastened. He crossed the silent court; entered the door

of what seemed in former times to have been a kitchen, and found himself beyond in a labyrinth of roofless walls and ruined apartments. Here the student, after looking round once more with hardly necessary caution, entered a low and narrow opening, where the gloom of the night was at once converted into utter darkness.

After groping his way for some time, the path was shut by a strong door, which he opened by means of a concealed spring; and having entered, he closed it carefully behind him. Another, another, and another barrier of the same kind were passed, the level of the ground always sinking as he proceeded, till he appeared to have descended into the very bowels of the hill of the University. At length his art seemed to be at fault: a door of treble strength, which he tried like the others, refused to yield; and, after listening for a moment, he struck three blows with a stone upon the massive frame. The summons was answered speedily from within in a voice which sounded distant and indistinct. "Whom seekest thou?" was the challenge.

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Trismegistus," replied the student. A rumbling noise of bolts and locks then succeeded; and the heavy door began to revolve upon its hinges, till, having opened to the width of a few inches, its progress was suddenly checked by a strong iron chain.

"Is it thou?" said the voice, querulously; "Art thou come at last?" and before David could open his eyes, blinded by the glare of a lamp, the chain fell, and he found himself drawn impatiently but feebly into the room.

"Stand not," said his host, whispering tremulously, while he performed this operation, "but come in at once! Hush! Not a word above thy breath! What!—thou wert not observed? Art sure? Silence! Not a syllable till the door is fast. Now speak: no, waste not time in words; but come, for the great work stands, and I have need of the strength of thy young arm."

The apartment had the appearance of a vast and lofty oblong cavern, cut with tolerable regularity at the sides, but roofed by the unhewn rock. At the farther end there was a great furnace, on which a large open cauldron bubbled audibly; and near it stood a table covered with manuscripts and writing materials. There were, also, disposed in various parts of the chamber, huge piles of different substances, chiefly of a mineral nature; and here and there a smaller furnace and crucible awaited the need of the operator. At the sides of the oblong area were several dark vaulted recesses, used apparently as storehouses, and bearing a sort of

it?" added he, after a moment's pause, "poverty is the badge of the scholar, and will be so to the end of time; and if there be among us those who cry in the highways for bread rather than die like wolves, without a howl-why, Archibald," and he leaned forward once more, and allowed the light to stream full on his untroubled brow" why, man, they are but dunces in philosophy, and that is all that needs be said."

Scholarship, David," said the knight, who no longer felt any desire to laugh, "is with you a profession. Tell me, what are your hopes? What are your prospects? The church is a lucrative and noble field."

"Truly is it, Archibald," replied the student, "the church is indeed a lucrative and noble field; lucrative to the rich, and noble to the high-descended! But besides the small number of rich and noble, besides the protegés of the rector, and the cousins and cater-cousins of the eighty regents, there are thirty thousand of us here who are neither rich nor noble, who call not the rector friend nor the regents cousin. To read my fortune, you must calculate the chance of these thirty thousand in the mass, and then divide that chance into thirty thousand partsone whereof is mine."

At this ominous conclusion, the flame of the candle flashed suddenly up, illumining for a moment with a dull imperfect glare the dreary room, and bringing out, in Rembrandt lights and shadows, the remarkable head of the student and the martial figure of the young knight. It then sunk as suddenly in the socket and disappeared in utter darkness. And now, Archibald," said David Armstrong, continuing to speak as if an eclipse of the kind had been of too common occurrence to be worthy of remark, "You will ask why I continue to waste my life in so hopeless a pur

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suit? You will ask-"

"Ask!" interrupted the knight with indignation, as he started up from the bench, and floundered out into the middle of the room, where his voice sounded amidst the obscurity like the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "I will ask, indeed, why Philip Armstrong's son chooses to sit starving of hunger, and shivering with cold, in a den of wild beasts, rather than buckle harness on his back, like his ancestors before him, and carve out his way to fortune with his father's sword! Why man thou art bewitched! They have thrown a spell over thee with their hellish gibberish which has benumbed thy faculties. What ho! Awake! Come with me into the light of day, and let us be comrades in arms as