"Let me go, and the spirit shall not trouble thee." Nay, gaffer, thou dost not escape me thus: my sister, we have yet no tidings of her; and, it may be, those followers or familiars of thine can help me to that knowledge."

"I tell thee I'll lay the ghost while the holly's green, or there is mire in Dearnly Clough, should it so please thee, Master Nicholas; but I must first be locked up for a space in the haunted chamber alone. Keep watch at both door and loop-hole, if thou seest fit; but I gi'e thee my word that I'll not escape."

"Agreed," said Haworth; "but it shall not avail thee, thou crafty fox, for we will watch, and that right diligently unless the de'il fly away with thee, thou shalt not escape us."

The bargain was made, and Noman was speedily conducted to the chamber. Sentinels were posted at the door, and round the outside, to prevent either entrance or exit.

A long hour had nigh elapsed, and the watchers were grown weary. Some thought he had gone off in a chariot of smoke through the roof, or in a whirlwind of infernal brimstone; while others, a few, were out of doors gazing steadfastly up towards the chimneys, expecting to see him perched there, like a daw, or starling, ready for flight. But when the hour was fulfilled, the beggar lifted up the latch, and walked forth alone, without let or molestation.

"Whither away, sir grey-back?" said Nicholas, "and wherefore in such haste? We'll have a word or so ere thou depart. Art thou prepared?" "Ay, if it so please thee."

"And when dost thou begin thine exorcism?" "Now, if so be that thou hast courage. But I warn thee of danger therefrom. If thou persist, verily in this inner chamber shall it be done."

"Then return, we will follow,—as many as have courage, that is," said Nicholas Haworth, looking around and observing that his attendants, with pale faces, and quailing stomachs, did manifest a wondrous inquietude, and a sudden eagerness to depart. Yet were there some, whose curiosity got the better of their fears, and who followed, or rather hung upon their master's skirts, into the chamber, which even in the broad and cheerful daylight, looked a gloomy, and comfortless, and unhallowed place. Noman commanded that silence should be kept, that not even a whisper should breathe from other lips than his own. He drew a line with his crutch upon the floor, and

that the door was made fast, some would, doubtless, have gone back, repenting of their temerity.

After various mummeries and incantations, the chamber appeared to grow darker, and a low rumbling noise was heard, as from some subterraneous explosion.

"Dominus vobiscum," said the necromancer; and a train of fire leapt suddenly across the room. A groan of irrepressible terror ran through the company; but the exorcist, with a look of reprehension for their disobedience, betook himself again to his ejaculations. Retiring backwards a few paces, to a corner of the room, he gave three audible knocks upon the floor, which, to the astonishment and dismay of the assembly, were distinctly repeated, apparently from beneath. Thrice was this ceremony gone through, and thrice three times was the same answer returned.

"Restless spirit," said the conjuror solemnly, and in a voice and manner little accordant with those of an obscure and unlearned beggar; "why art thou disquieted, and what is the price of thy departure ?”— No answer was given, though the question was repeated. The adjurer appeared, for one moment, fairly at a nonplus.

"By thine everlasting doom, I conjure thee, answer me!" Still there was no reply. "Thou shalt not evade me thus," said he, indignant at the slight which was put upon his spells. He drew a little ebony box from his bosom, and, on opening it, smoke issued therefrom, like the smell of frankincense. With this fumigation he used many uncouth and horrible words, hard names, and so forth, which, probably, had no existence save in the teeming issue of his own brain. During this operation groans were heard, at first low and indistinct, then loud and vehement; soon they broke into a yell, so shrill and piercing, that several of the hearers absolutely tried, through horror and desperation, to burst open the door.—

"Now answer me, what thou wouldst have? What are the terms of thy departure hence ?"

A low murmur was heard. The beggar appeared to listen with great attention.

"This wandering ghost avoucheth," said he, after all was silent, "that there be two of them, and that they rest not until they have taken possession of this house, and driven the inhabitants therefrom."

"Hard law this," said Nicholas Haworth; "but, for all their racket, I sha'n't budge."

"Then must they have a sacrifice for the wrong done when they were i' the body; being slain, as

they say, by their guardian, a wicked uncle, that he might possess the inheritance."

Again he made question, looking all the while as though talking to something that was present and visible before him.

"What would ye for your sacrifice, evil and hatefur things? for I know, in very deed, that ye are not the innocent and heavenly babes whose spirits are now in glory, but devilish creatures who have been permitted to walk here unmolested, for the wickedness that hath been done. Again, I say that your unwillingness sufficeth not, for ye shall be driven hence this blessed day." Another shriek announced their apprehension at this threat, and again there was a murmuring as before.

"He sayeth," cried the exorcist, after listening awhile, they must have a living body sacrificed, and in four quarters it must be laid; then shall these wicked spirits not return hither until what is severed be joined together.With this condition we must be content."

"Then, by'r lady's grace, if none else there be, thou shalt be the holocaust for thy pains," said Nicholas," for I think we need not any other. What say ye, shall not this wizard be the sacrifice, and we then rid the world of a batch of evil things at once?" He looked with a cruel eye upon the mendicant; for he judged that his sister had, in some way or another, fallen a victim to his devilish plots; and in this mood he would have thought it but little harm to have poured but his blood on the spot. The beggar seemed aware of his danger, but with a loud and peremptory tone he exclaimed,

"There needeth not so costly an oblation. Bring hither the first brute animal ye behold, any one of ye, on crossing the threshold of the porch."

A messenger was accordingly sent, who returned with a barn-door fowl in his hand, a well-fed chanticleer, whose crow that morning had awakened his cackling dames for the last time.

"Have there been no tidings yet from Alice? Can thine art not disclose to me whither she be gone ?" "The maiden lives," said the beggar doggedly. "Thou knowest of her hiding, then," said her brother sharply, and with an enquiring glance directed towards the speaker.

"The spirit said so," replied Noman, as though wishful to evade, or to shrink from, the question.

"And what else?" enquired the other; " for by my halidome, thou stirrest not hence, until she be forth-coming, alive or dead! I do verily suspect, nay, more, I charge thee with forcibly detaining her against her own privity or consent."

The beggar looked steadily upon him, not a whit either moved or abashed at this strong accusation. He then said,-" peradventure thou speakest without heed, and unadvisedly. I tell thee again, thou wouldst have been driven hence ere now, had it not been for others, whom that spirit must obey.”

"Who art thou?" said the perplexed enquirer; "for thou art either worse or better than thou seemest."

"Once the rightful heir, now a beggar, in these domains, wrested from me by rapine, and the harpy fangs of injustice, misnamed law. Theophilus Ashton, from whom ye took your share of the inheritance, when death dislodged it from his gripe, won it, himself, most foully from my ancestors; and have I not a right to hate thee?"

"And so then thy vengeance hath fallen upon a defenceless woman?"

"Nay, I said not so; but if I had so minded, I might have been glutted with vengeance, ay, to my heart's core. Hark thee! Secrets I have learnt that will bind the hidden things of darkness, and bow them to my behest. The unseen powers and operations of nature have been open to my gaze. Long ago my converse and companionship were with the learned doctors and sages of the East. In Spain I have walked in the palace of the Moorish kings, the Alhambra at Grenada; and in Arabia I have learnt the mystic cabala, and worshipped in the temple of the

"And yet thou comest a beggar to my door! Truly thy spells have profited thee little."

The beggar smiled scornfully. "Riches inexhaustible,-unlimited, are mine; while nature is unveiled at my command."

"Thou speakest riddles, old man; or thou dost hug the very spectres of thy brain, which men call madness."

"I am not mad; save it bé madness that I have

an adept in the art of coining, acquired during his residence abroad, and having likewise arrived at the knowledge of many chemical secrets long hidden from the vulgar and uninitiated, had leagued himself with one of the like sort, together with his own son, a handsome, well-favoured youth (whose mother he had rescued from a Spanish convent), for the purpose of carrying on a most extensive manufacture and issue of counterfeit money of various descriptions. His former knowledge, when young, of his ancestors' mansion at Clegg Hall suggested the fitness of this spot for their establishment. Its situation was sequestered; and the ancient vaults, though nearly filled with rubbish, might yet be made available for their purpose. The secret entrance, and above all, the currently-believed story of the ghost, might afford facilities for frightening away those who were disposed to be curious; and any noises unavoidable in the course of their operations might be attributed to this fruitful source of imposture. By a little dexterity, possession of the haunted chamber was obtained, the feigned beggar being a periodical visitant; thence a ready entrance was contrived, and all the materials were introduced that were needful for their fraudulent proceedings. During many months their traffic was carried on without discovery; and in the beggar's wallet counterfeit money to a considerable amount was conveyed, and distributed by other agents into general circulation. Well might he say that boundless wealth was at their command; the means employed in disposing of the proceeds of their ingenuity were all calculated for the purpose. They had proposed, by machinations and alarms, to drive away utterly the present inhabitants and possessors of the Hall. Their plans were matured, and the reign of terror was about to commence, when the younger Clegg saw Alice Haworth; and love, that mighty controller of human devices, most inopportunely frustrated their intentions. The elder Clegg, too, was induced to aid the passion of his son, hoping that, should a union take place, the inheritance might revert into the old channel. We have seen the result; the wilfulness and obduracy of Alice, and the infatuation of the lover, who had thought to dazzle her with the riches he purposely spread before her, prevented the success of their schemes. She peremptorily refused to become his bride; accusing him of a gross and wanton outrage. What might have been the end of this contention we know not, seeing that an unforeseen accident caused the explosion, which led to her escape and to the flight of her captors.

KIRKSTALL ABBEY was founded in the reign of King Stephen for monks of the Cistertian order, and its first inmates were removed hither from Bernoldswyk, in May, 1152. The curious Doorway represented in the cut, and which forms an entrance to the Abbey on the north-western side, may therefore be regarded as an undoubted specimen of Anglo-Norman masonry, of the time above stated. It consists of a recessed arch of three grades, and among its other mouldings, exhibits the triplicated zig-zag and the embattled fret. The clustered kind of columns, which support the inner arch, is an advance towards the Pointed style; and, with other parts of the Abbey Church, where similar characteristics exist, evidently refers to a period when that style was first began to be introduced.*

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THIS College, which was originally called the "School of Queen Elizabeth," was founded under the Letters Patent of that sovereign, in the year 1563, as a grammar school, in which the youth of the island, (Juventus,) may be better instructed in good learning and virtue." The temple, or church of the suppressed order of the Grey Friars, (Friars-Minors, or Cordelliers,) with its immediate precincts, was assigned for its use, together "with eighty quarters of wheat rent," accruing from lands in different parts of the island, which had been given to the friars for dispensations, masses, obits, &c. By the statutes of 1563, the school was divided into six classes, and books and exercises were appointed respectively for each; the Scholars to be admitted being required" to read perfectly, and to recite an approved catechism of the christian religion by heart."* Additional lands for supporting the school were granted to "the States" of the Island in 1568, thus making the entire quantity

The deplorable ignorance in which the inhabitants of Guernsey were involved at this period, may be estimated from the lamentable facts that, in the year when the school was instituted three persons were burned for witchcraft; in 1579, two others; and, from that time to the year 1605, eight more were consumed on similar accusations. At the time of the foundation of the school, the island of Guernsey was considered to be under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Bishop of Coutances, but, in 1568, it was placed, by an Order of Council, under the diocese of Winchester.

amount to eleven vergées and twenty-seven perches; although from various encroachments and other causes, the attached demesne is, at the present time, only seven vergées and thirty perches. It appears that the school was first held within the church, or temple, of the Grey Friars, but, afterwards, in a house within the close, forming the site of the present college, and which house was rebuilt by the States, about the year 1753.

For more than two centuries after its foundation, the grammar school proved of little utility, and complaints were frequently made against the masters, both for incapacity and negligence. There are various instances, also, on record, in which the mastership was improperly conferred; the patronage having been originally vested in the governors of the island. We allude, especially, to those cases wherein the Dean of Guernsey-the legal and authorized visitor of the school-has been likewise constituted its master.† By the books that were assigned for the six classes of * During the raging of the plague in 1590, the school-house was converted into a prison.

As an instance of the gross inattention paid to the original injunctions, it may be stated that the royal commissioners of 1563 enjoined, that a "marble statue, or effigy, of Queen Elizabeth, together with the arms of England," should be "set up at the external door, or gate, of the public school, as an everlasting memorial of her munificence;"-but this was never done; the arms, sculptured in free-stone, were alone placed on the outer gate.