cumstances we are ill-situated for the entertainment of such visitors."

In a few moments, a tall, military-looking man was in the presence of Godfrey and his daughter. He appeared fatigued with his long walk, and was soiled with the ill-conditioned state of the roads. His features were not handsome, but strongly marked, and characterized by the agreeable expression of a sensible mind. His upper lip was covered by a thickset brown moustache, and at a guess, he might be six-and-twenty.

"I once had the pleasure, captain, of meeting you; but, I dare say you have no recollection of me now." He then bowed to Miss De Bohun, whom the father introduced, and was about to continue the conversation, when Godfrey replied:

"I have no recollection, indeed I have not, of that meeting, sir;" at the same time pushing towards him a chair, and entreating him to be seated.

"I was, in all but name, captain, the brother of your son. I am come, in the fulfilment of a promise which I made to that

noble spirit, ere it left us 'darkling in this world of tears.""

Godfrey's lips quivered, and his cheeks grew pale. Katherine, overcome by this sudden announcement, let fall the work at which she was engaged, and looked, with fixed glance, at one who had come, as it were, a messenger from the grave,

"Great God be thanked, that in my troubles and my age I am not wholly forgotten!" said the father, as he cordially sprang forward, and grasped the major's hand. "We cannot entertain you as we once could, my dear friend, but, from this moment, you have the heartiest, warmest welcome 'tis in our power to offer. The friend-companion of my lost boy-aye, by that heaven which hears me, you are indeed welcome to our humble home. Kate-Kate, my love, go tell your mother of this glorious news, she will, indeed, shed tears of joy!" Katherine hurried out of the room to communicate this strange intelligence.

Mrs. De Bohun, who had now become compelled by necessity to be a thrifty house

wife, was, at the moment, superintending domestic concerns. The other branches of the family had gone to take their morning walk, and from the window were still visible ascending the neighbouring hill. Quickly did Mrs. De Bohun repair to the sitting-room, and inall the unaffected sincerity of a mother's feelings hail the stranger who had come on so holy a mission.

"A thousand thanks-a thousand thanks, sir," said she excitedly clasping the hand of the major between her own. "The acquaintance-friend of my departed boy, your are indeed a welcome visitant. Heaven will bless you for the trouble you have taken in coming into this wilderness of a country.' ""Tis but the discharge of a commonplace duty, madam."

A slight pause ensued and during this interval the major's glance involuntarily turned on the dark portraitures of those antique personages, all of whose eyes seemed livingly rivetted on the scene before them. In each he did not fail to trace some lineament of his long lost friend, the young hero

of whose glory he had now come to tell. Yes! the pencil in depicting them had preserved that dauntless bravery which had been in such large measure transmitted to their lion-hearted descendant. In one corner of the room was suspended an old fashioned sword-in another a coarsely fabricated and rusty helmet with its visor— in an oaken cupboard, ostentatiously stood a black-jack* which Godfrey prized more than if it had been a golden chalice; and on cursorily surveying the furniture, there was a quaint old fashionedness about various articles which ill-accorded with the domicile, and which indeed told of glories gone. The dress and address of the De Bohuns inspired respect, they gave the notions of a faded gentility, and Patrician blood showed itself through the guise of humbleness and privation. It required no stretch of the imagination to picture these individuals in baronial halls, instead of inhabiting the modest dwelling on a dreary wild.

When the ebullition of this the first

* Ancient drinking cups, made of leather and mounted with silver. In some old families they are still to be seen.

interview had passed over, Major Douglas detailed much of what the reader already knows. He spoke of that settled sadness which unaccountably overshadowed the mind of the deceased, and under which he was at times in a moody madness-he told of the prognostications the young soldier had himself of his end-detailed particulars of that desperate courage he displayed on the field -assured them that Cæsar was not more loved by the Tenth Legion, nor Rupert by the Cavaliers, than he was by the stout hearts who fought by his side; and he described the dreadful charge in which he fell ! With the utmost minuteness did the major convey the last words which came from his death-whitening lips and pictured, as well as words could picture, that happy smile which for an instant flushed in his countenance ere

his warrior soul winged away. During this recital the trio burst into tears, and the major himself felt that there were times even when a soldier's cheek could not be dry!

For a few moments silence ensued, Major Douglas then drew from his pocket a some