alarm; his fancy painted a happiness beyond their bourne, and beyond that bourne he needs must pass. The path to his haven conducted over chances which rendered it not impossible that he was now leaving Elleringay for ever. As the phaeton wound tardily along the well-known road to meet the coach at the De Bohun Arms, every turn, every field, every tree were converted into recollections of the past. He glided by them a cavalier of fortune.

Moreton rejoined his regiment.

"These are glorious times for men of our calling, De Bohun," said Sommerton the morning after his arrival, when carousing with his young friend. "The little Emperor will make hot work for us one of these days. All Europe is fermenting, and the life of a soldier will not be a mere parade."

"Have you seen the papers, colonel ?" asked De Bohun; "are there fresh disturbances pending ?"

"There are there are, my boy; and ere many weeks have passed, the tocsin will sound

through our wave-washed isle, bidding each British heart stand firm !"

"I hope your divination may prove true!" "Moreton, you are young now; you happily know not the horrors of a fight-the carnage of a siege. Such may be presented to your vision soon enough. Napoleon cares not how he throws the dice with human lives. He will wake the sleeping lion which he long hath deceived, and, scorpion-like, the sting of his overweening ambition will bring his doom-to die, bescorched-consumed in the fires of his own kindling !"

"I have not witnessed these spectacles, yet, as my vainglorious father would say, a De Bohun, whose progenitors have fought before the walls of Acre and Ascalon, should show himself of no ill-bred stuff. When the time comes, mettle may be tried."

Sommerton now volunteered a very longwinded defence of war, which, for our reader's sake, shall be omitted in our narrative.

When Moreton took his place at the mess-table, his companions observed him

not to be in his wonted spirits; he had lost his usual hilarity and good-humour, he was dull and taciturn. A change had come over him, which his was not for the better.

compeers thought Previous to his

absence, he could seldom be prevailed upon to take more than a third glass of wine; he now drank his potations with seeming gusto; the rosy nectar had acquired a tenfold zest; the more he raised the sparkling cup to his lips, the more obvious it was that he became a livelier-a happier being. The colonel, as well as others, noticed this settled sadness, and he privately asked his protegé as to the cause of his melancholy; the reply was an equivocation. It was a source of annoyance that others watched his depression; he tried to put on a cheek of smiles; but the dark, dread current ran with icy glow through his bosom. He listened to the tale of wit, joined in the bacchanal's laugh; though, like Dante, he "wore a face of joy, but inwardly, at heart, would pine and mourn." Often would he steal from the mess-room, and rove by the sea-shore

VOL I.

K

afar, to gaze on the moon's dimpled face in the wave," listen to the music of the silver-crested billows, and watch them by the pale light, like bright hopes trembling, come and die away, and leave amongst the shining pebbles and smooth shells no trace of their existence. In these tranquil hours his thoughts were with his enchantresswith his Emily. Long would he gaze, be wrapt in his reveries; "Chaldean-like he would watch the stars," and as the soft night-wind fanned his flushed cheek, he would think it syllabled her name. Time wore on, but Moreton's heart was heavy still.

The son had bidden his paternal roof farewell. Not all the feigned philosophy of the father could prevent his constant meditation on the fact. Though Godfrey's natural disposition was stern and unbending, and he could at pleasure varnish over his emotions, yet in his walks, in his moments of composure, it was obvious his mind brooded over painful reminiscences. He instituted some casual inquiries as to the

inmates of the cottage; he was informed of their having for some time left the village; his suspicions were awakened to fresh fears; he resolved on writing to Sommerton, and asking if Moreton had taken back with him a helpmeet.

It was ascertained that the two ladies had gone away for several months, and that they had proceeded towards the north. Mrs. De Bohun had received a letter from her son, but it was dated at London; it bore the metropolitan post-mark. The Colonel promptly replied, to the effect that his young friend had brought with him no such useless military baggage as a wife; hence, this was so far satisfactory.

son.

Godfrey's now active brain continued to ponder on the unfortunate attachment of his The general tenor of his previous life proclaimed him an idle man; he frequently was at a loss how to fill up the day; he had little to think of save liquidation of sundry urgent claims, and when these claimants were for a while appeased, he sank into the same mental listlessness, so far as pertained to