the floor beneath them (which was for certain purposes but partially paved) rose with a slow motion, and disclosed the form of a female, who emerged from it. She was wrapt in a grey mantle, the hood of which fell far over her face her shape was completely enveloped in this mantle, but when her feet touched the floor, she extended one bare and sinewy arm towards the Lord of Courtenaye, and exclaimed, "Spirit dark and disquieted, be at rest for I am here."

"the

"And welcome art thou, my meet ally," said the wretched man, now almost raving between the extremes of rage and terror; assassin and the astrologer, the powers that I could hope aid from in earth or sky, have deserted me: there remains but thee,-whence thou comest I guess, where thou wilt bear me I reck not, the strong necessity of fate drives me to thee, and to thee I will cling as my last, deadly, inevitable, and most accursed resource."

"Thou hast spoken my welcome well," answered the figure, without changing position, place, or feature," none ever cursed

the evil power in bitterness of voice and spirit more deeply than when they felt their sole dependence was on him."

"Speak to her," said the Lord of Courtenaye, "for though her presence exalts, her voice chills me;"-and he sunk on his chair incensed, and yet vacillating between them, not knowing in the agony of his incertitude on which he should bestow the name of demon and deluder, or to which he should offer himself a victim.

"Lord of Courtenaye," exclaimed the astrologer, "the astral spirits, whose being is purity, and whose essence is light, may ill consort with those whose forms are exhalations from the burning lake, whose breath is blasting, and whose blessings are curses. If man will rend asunder the veil that wraps futurity, if he will know that which Heaven will not have known, let him seek it at least where the temptation may be a balance against the offence, as the fruit of Eden might be a palliation for the fall;let him read the vast volume of the planetary skies, alive with glory and instinct with know

ledge-not the blood-scrawled leaves of deadmen's skin where sorcery traces the dooms of hell. Even if our system err, is it not better to err with us?-to dream that we see the astral intelligences seated each on his golden orb, guiding their mystic dance round the throne of light, and hymning to each other the songs of paradise through the stillness of unmeasured space, till mortal cares and thoughts are lost amid the dim glories of nocturnal contemplation-the inaudible but heart-echoed harmonies of heaven - and the rush of the expanded soul that pursues its bright and boundless career through the infinitudes of the universe, seeking and tracing the mysterious and irreversible relation which every minute and opaque orb holds to the destination of the inhabitants of its neighbour-planet; -is not this a laudable temerity?—a god-like sin?—an aspiration worthy of an angel not quite fallen ?"

He paused; but of his hearers, one seemed as if he heard him not, and the other as if she were listening to other voices. "The glories,

and perchance the truths of heaven, were unfolded to thee," said the indignant sage, departing, "and thou hast rejected them, — the horrors and the darkness of hell be thine, since thou hast chosen them;" and he disappeared through the narrow door which led by a secret stair to the loftiest turret in the castle.

"The dotard is gone," said the Lord of Courtenaye;" speak now, if thine art be not a fable, or thy power a dream; canst thou by drug or charm, or aught of evil operation thou boastest of, do deadly and sudden work on mine enemy? - he is within these walls— within my very clutch-do thou some mortal deed on him this night."

"What fearest thou from him?" said the fearless female.

"That which I cannot utter," answered her shuddering companion. "Were an assassin holding a dagger to my throat, were a fiend grasping my disembodied spirit, I should know what I had to fear, and knowing would cease to fear but this suspense between earth and

hell, this dream-like existence among beings of this world, and beings that are not of it, fills me with fears I cannot utter;-indefinite fears worse than darkest realities."

"Then art thou twice the coward I deemed thee," said the female; "there is a peril from which the bravest may shrink, even in his hour of might but he who dreads to name his danger, dreads the sound of his own voice,becomes a spectre to himself, and never was fear so horrible. Men have said, fear is the shadow of danger; but I say unto thee, danger is but the shadow of fears like thine ;-but thou art a dissembler in thy very cowardice ;—there is something lurking in the folds of thy heart which thou darest not reveal to thyself, though I already know it."

"A stranger came to my castle to-night,' said the Lord of Courtenaye, covering his eyes with his hands;-" and he bears such resemblance to my mortal enemy-"

As son to sire," answered the female,"I know it, and such he is."

"Hell take thee, sorceress," exclaimed the