"I for one can attest that I saw Ruggiero lurking about the spot for a long time before the fire broke out," said a short, thick peasant, whom Edgar remembered as one among the most indefatigable in his exertions to quench the flame. "But what could have been his motive?" asked Edgar. "It is said that in the confusion there was a lady to be carried off. Chi sa?" said the younger priest.

"But what induced Ruggiero to do this last deed?” asked the Commandant.

"Ah! Signore," said the old priest, shaking his head, "who would venture to say? Some one just now asserted that he had been highly bribed to do it; another that they had quarrelled; but no one knows!"

"If you please, Mr. Belmore," said the Commandant, "we will proceed! as I suppose you cannot desire to dwell longer on so painful a spectacle, and I must commence a pursuit after that fellow-though I dare say he is already beyond our reach."

Edgar, however, politely declined occupying the Commandant's time at the present moment, and proceeded alone on his undertaking.

Having acquired the information most essential to his object, Edgar returned to Milan. With some difficulty he obtained an audience of Count Osnabruck, to whom he submitted the statement which he had procured at Como. The Count promised to look over the papers, assuring Edgar, meanwhile, that the loss of his friend's passport would inevitably retard the termination of this affair.

The means by which he at length accomplished Waldegrave's release would be tedious to the reader, and we there→ fore resume the thread of our story.

The sky it seems would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. Oh! I have suffered

With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel,
Who had no doubt some noble creatures in her,
Dashed all to pieces. Oh! the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The freighting souls within her.
SHAKSPEARE.

WHEN Waldegrave left his prison, he sought Edgar at the Gran Bretagna. From him he received the first intelligence of Montara's murder, in addition to which he gained the following information.

The Waldenburgs, or the old Duke and Dutchess di Villanza, as they were now discovered to be, had escaped into Switzerland under the disguise of peasants, and news of their safety had already reached the Vivians. The suspicion likely to fall on Sir Ralph, combined with the gloomy cir cumstances of Montara's murder, had rendered a removal from the Austrian dominions desirable.. The Baronet was now, therefore, with his family at Genoa. Young Villanza's fate was yet unknown; but it was believed that he had escaped with his family. Ruggiero had evaded an arduous search.

Shocked as Waldegrave felt to hear of Montara's sudden and horrible death, he received no slight relief from the knowledge of Edith's security from all danger, save that which arose out of her unfortunate attachment. He indulged a hope, however, that the abrupt discovery of the Waldenburgs' real character might induce their son to abandon his connexion with the disaffected, and secure, by a retreat into England, his Edith's happiness. He strove to banish the dreadful thought that Rathallan had been Montara's murderer, though Ruggiero's hand had pointed the knife; but the gloomy suspicion haunted his mind, which in Edgar's had assumed the character of certainty.

The fatal event had immediately followed that ominous

dialogue which Waldegrave overheard at dead of night. In that quarrel, when the overheated passions had burst their accustomed restraints, Montara in threatening language accused Rathallan of treachery, demanded to see Ruggiero, who was perhaps the depository of that treachery, warning Rathallan at the same time that he expected, without dreading, death at the ruffian's hands. Though Rathallan, in his exposition of that circumstance, had totally discoloured the truth to Waldegrave, yet the film had fallen from his eyes; and in the contemptuous farewell which Rathallan wafted to his comrade, Waldegrave now heard the yell of exultation over his certain victim. When he remembered the pallid horror of Rathallan's countenance in Blevio-wood, as he stood before Edith and himself on the morning which followed that midnight wrangle, belief grew into certainty; and while he reflected that the death of that unfortunate man was the only price at which Edith's safety could be bought, he shuddered at Rathallan's crime, and recoiled with horror from the idea that henceforward Edith would be profaned by a murderer's society.

Whither to direct their steps was now the question, and after some discussion Turin was the spot selected, being only two days' journey from Milan, to which place Waldegrave had ordered his letters. Edgar lamented that his supply was but sufficient to hold out a few more days, having relied on Waldegrave as the common banker. For Turin then they started on the following day, where they fixed their residence at the Hotel de l'Univers.

The melancholy which hung over both our travellers, rendered their sedentary state very irksome; while the impoverished condition of their finances seemed to require a patient sojourn, till the reception of the expected supplies would enable them to return to England.

At length Waldegrave proposed a pedestrian excursion, which would best suit their ebbing purses, and they determined to wander along the Mediterranean coast as far as Pisa, whence they would stretch across the country back to Turin.

With a tacit respect for each other's feelings, as they ex-amined the map together, each anxiously sought some spot in the vicinity of Genoa, (being of course cut off from that city by the residence of Sir Ralph Vivian within its walls) which they might make their starting point. Having ascer

tained that Nervi, which their guide-book recommended, was six miles to the southeast of Genoa, they proposed to bend their way thither.

Accordingly, leaving their luggage and servants at Turin, Waldegrave and Edgar set out thence in a small caritella. It seemed as if the rude equinoctial gales, with some presaging power, had lingered till November to oppose their course, for as they crossed the Apennines they could hardly preserve their fragile vehicle from a precipitate descent into the abyss below.

During the next day's journey though the weather was still stormy and blustering, bright intervals of sunshine lit up the surrounding scenery. The road conducted them over hills clothed with chesnut wood, which, on a nearer approach to the mild shores of the Mediterranean, was often exchanged for a vegetation of myrtles and arboria heath. From the high lands they looked over the blue sea, and the spires of Genoa were pencilled on the horizon, ere they diverged from the main road.

The sun had sunk towards the west when our travellers reached Nervi, and the evening was setting in so stormily, that the shelter of its gray cliffs stretching far into the sea was no uninviting sight. The town is built on a low rock, whose base is washed by the waves. A recess in the moun.. tain has left room for a small harbour, while the upper town, as it ascends the mountain, appears beautifully interspersed with orange groves and gardens.

The wind was rising tempestuously, and Heaven's canopy was hung so awfully with dark sweeping clouds, that our tra vellers were compelled to relinquish the project of proceeding that night. Piling fagot on fagot, whose cheering blaze recalled Old England's joyous halls, they ordered dinner. "A stormy evening," observed Edgar, to the waiter, who placed their repast before them.

"The fishermen and sailors expect the fiercest storm that has been seen these ten years;" replied their attendant. "The boats are drawn up the beach, and feluccas brought towards this end of the port, ma non c'e paura, signore; the waters never break in upon this part of the town. You will be as safe here as on the top of the Apennines.'

When they had dined, Waldegrave and Edgar set out te walk along the small shingles which extend under the cliffs, as far as the eye could distinguish. From hence they ob

served that the mountains sloped gradually away from the shore on the Genoa side, leaving a considerable shelf of pebbles. Between their bases and the sea, a crowd of fishermen were employed in securing their boats. "Let mine in above yours, good Luigi, I pray you," said one to another; "my old boat was so shaken by the last rough weather, that I want to lodge it safely; yours would stand any swell.". "Well, make haste then," returned Luigi, " for there is no time to lose."

"Do you expect very heavy weather?" asked Waldegrave, addressing Luigi, when that operation was performed.

"Oh yes, Sir," said Luigi," we shall consider ourselves highly favoured, if we can preserve our boats to-night. I never saw it threaten worse, but the feluccas are all secure in their ports, that is one good thing, for we have had a long warning of this rough night."

Waldegrave and his friend had strolled nearly half a mile along the beach, when the high advancing waves, which even in the tideless Mediterranean made considerable innovations in boisterous weather, admonished them to proceed no farther; not from the danger of their being enclosed between the headlands, as the mountain was never very precipitous, but its steepness and thick wood might afford a wearisome footing on so bleak a night.

When they again reached the port, the southwest wind had set in with frequent and heavy blasts. "You had better go in, gentlemen," said Luigi; "we shall probably have a great fall of rain, like a cataract now; the storm is come over us at last; we must remain out to watch our boats."

A loud pattering of rain verified the fisherman's words, and the friends retreated to the inn, whose windows commanded a view of the open sea. The dark billows, fringed with shining surf, might be traced on the horizon, majestically riding on the ocean's surface, like chieftains borne aloft to triumph. The tumult of the waters continually augmented, and the clouds rolled black and high. The wild shriek of the sea gulls, who could scarcely keep their course through the air, was sometimes heard between the crash of the mountain waves, which thundering on scattered fragments of rock, seemed to shake the town's foundations. The dense clouds almost intercepted the twilight, but clear against the sky was seen the breaker's foam tossed high in air.

In silence Waldegrave and Edgar gazed on a sight that