with horrid delight. "Now, sir wolf, show me but where the prey lies which hath fallen into other clutches, and I will not disturb thy repast."

The cunning, rabid appetite, and eager malignity of intelligence displayed in the features of the lycanthrope at this moment defy all power of description. He was evidently proud of his secret, anxious to betray it, fearful of being imposed on, and longing to partake of his own fearful food undisturbed. After a short pause, obeying the most powerful of these impulses, and glancing a downward look on his den, he motioned to the knight to follow him, and trotted with his horrid ambiguity of motion up the dark and narrow stair. stair. The knight followed. His fearful guide paused suddenly, and made a motion to Paladour to follow his example, while he thrust his face through a crevice between the stones of the wall, and withdrew it in a moment. Paladour applied himself to the crevice, and saw an object which made him gaze with soul and eye; nor could

he withdraw what might be called the grasp of sight, till the wretched being muttered to him, "Thou hast thy prey!-may I feed on mine undisturbed ?"

"Accursed brute !" said the knight," feed on what thou wilt; howl where thou mayest; --but begone!"

With a faint howl the lycanthrope disappeared down the stair. The knight remained rivetted to the spot. The crevice between the stones of the wall, in a place where they were unshrouded by tapestry, gave him a full view of the interior of the apartment: it was that to which the lady Isabelle had been conducted, and which we have described as furnished with all the rude magnificence that a robber's hold could afford. The group within might have indeed fixed a less anxious gaze than that of Paladour.

The lady Isabelle sat on a low seat covered with tapestry; her splendid habit was deranged, and her fine hair floated on her shoulders, and, descending far lower, seemed to supply the place of her silver-tissued veil

that lay in a heap beside her. Pride and terror, anger and supplication, passed across her beautiful features, like storm and sunshine over a landscape in autumn; but pride predominated still: there was a trembling dignity about her, that seemed intended rather to impress the idea of power than to be conscious of it herself; her cheek was as pale as that of the dead, but her eyes were burning with a light, that even fearfully contrasted that paleness.

A little behind her stood her damsels, trembling as much at their lady's emotion as at the cause of it, towards which their eyes, like hers, were directed, and grasping the folds of her mantle, with an attitude that seemed as if they sought at once to give and receive protection. In a corner of the apartment stood the figure of the outlaw, in an attitude between defiance and alarm, his features inflamed with intoxication and fierce passions, yet awed by the sight of beauty in despair, and struggling to hide from himself and her that he trembled

before his own victim, and that victim in his power. It seemed that the lady, by her broken respiration, had but just ceased speaking, but had been

screams of Marguerite; rose the voice of the

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T

unheard amid the

louder than those incensed outlaw.

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Haughty lady," he cried, "remember thou art in the talons of the eagle, who never pounced on prey that he resigned."-" Slave and villain," said the incensed beauty, trembling with passion and terror; such another word, and these walls that enclose me shall prove my grave. Thank Heaven they are hard enough to dash this slight frame into atoms before thy very sight!"

A laugh of rude derision burst from the outlaw; but his inflamed eyes menaced more than scorn, and he seemed advancing to fulfil their threat. The damsels shrieked. At this moment, a slight but determined movement of the lady Isabelle (who half-started from her seat), her compressed lips, and the fixed and, fearful bending of her eye on the walls of her prison, made the bold outlaw shrink

before her. At the same moment, a sound was heard that seemed like a groan heaved from the bosom of a giant; it was followed by a shock that made the strong walls ring. It proceeded from Paladour, who, maddened by the sight of danger he could not avert, and of indignity he could not avenge, uttered a groan of agony, and fell in the full weight of his heavy armour on the spot where he stood.