from that time despairing of success, he offered to compound for his nephew's death by my father's making a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Jaques de Compostella.

This was agreed to. My father fulfilled his vow, and was on his return to Hainault; when, coming home one evening to his hostel, in La Reolle, where he had tarried on his journey to rest himself awhile, he was waylaid by ruffians, and most foully murdered. I strove to find who were the authors of this atrocious act, and, after much enquiry, learned-from the testimony of one who chanced to have been in La Reolle at the very time, and had himself beheld my father's tomb in a small chapel of the town-that it had been ordained and brought about by the connivance and secret approbation of his enemy, the Bishop. Well!" Manny continued, in a tone of triumph, "my good Lord Bishop had his fill of revenge on my poor father, and I, too, have had mine of him.-I quitted not Hainault before I had cleared scores with him;-till not one stone of his castle rested on another."

"This happened, I suppose, much about the

time of the battle at Mortaigne, which obtained you such renown in England: did it not?" enquired Robert.

"Ay, my Lord, it did: it was shortly afterwards. I was determined not to return to England without purchasing myself the satisfaction of knowing, that he who had bereaved me of a parent was no longer alive to glory in the crime. 'Tis my design, seeing that the war may chance to lead us near the spot, to go into La Reolle, have my father's grave dug up, and take his bones to England, whence I will journey into Hainault, for the purpose of entombing them in the chapel of mine own castle."

"Tis piously purposed," replied his companion; "and is, methinks, the least that you may, in atonement, do, for such unnatural conduct, at least, so have I heard you name it, towards your sire when he was living. But tell me! you have never, since first leaving home, had any tidings of the Damoyselle who was the original, though innocent cause of your misdemeanour."

VOL. III.

"No, none;

none whatever,❞— answered de Mauny; for the reader must, ere this, have found, that Sir Walter Manny is no other than his old acquaintance, Gaultier de Mauny."When I was, as I have just told you, last at Bavay, I inquired of the Baron, but could obtain no intelligence respecting her. Yet would I give-ay, willingly would I so, all the lands I hold in Hainault-all the ransoms I have made in war—and all my fame to boot, to find heror only just to be assured that she is well and happy."

"Do you then, indeed, still love her to this degree? Hath neither absence, nor the hopelessness of again meeting with her, nor the much business which hath occupied you of late years, sufficed to make you forget this boyish passion?" Gaultier smiled, and shook his head mournfully. "Forget her!-no, not for worlds would I forget it, or her, or any word she ever spoke to me, or any look which did accompany that word; or any foot of earth which I have trod with her; any joy I ever tasted in her presence, or anguish I have suffered since she hath been

lost to me:-no, all and each of them is writ upon the tablet of an undying memory, and is most dear to me.

"Look you, my Lord," he continued, after a pause, taking a golden locket from his bosom,

66

see what she gave me when last bidding me adieu:-alas, it was a long one! I have had it encased in this golden box, and worn it about me ever since."

D'Artois took the trinket; opening which, he saw a long lock of soft glossy hair, of a light colour, curled up within. Drawing this out, and holding it by the thickest end, which was tied round with a silken thread, the hair fell streaming through the air.

Robert looked attentively at it for some time, and then returning it to Gaultier,-" I must needs," he said, "think this is beautiful, so closely doth it resemble that of Jeanne's when first I knew her-when first I loved her;-when she was light of form, and fair in face, as is your Emily. Ah, me!-what have not time. and grief brought on!-But," he continued, "what is the age of the Lady Emily?"

"Indeed, my Lord, I wish-I do not myself justly know what her age may be," replied Gaultier, with some embarrassment.

Truly then," answered Robert, laughing, "I cannot but marvel you should be ignorant of that which doth usually so much interest lovers -the age of your mistress."

There is a natural reluctance in some men to speak of their feelings in love; and to have them generally known and commended by others, seems to them as a sort of sacrilege against the sanctity of the object. Yet there, at the same time, exists in these very persons a strong desire of meeting sympathy; so that to find one who can think and feel as they themselves think and feel, is the greatest happiness which they are capable of enjoying. Thus, de Mauny perceiving that Robert was disposed to listen to him, got by degrees less reluctant to speak of the station which Emily had filled in de Bavay's family, and of the quarrel he had had with his father on her account; so after some more conversation had passed, he informed him that Emily, though nurtured in the Baron's house, and brought up