the coffin, and a hand to the torch, on
the burial of its lord. Of these there was a plentiful muster collected
in the hall; they were to be marshalled by Peter Bradley, who was deemed
to be well skilled in the proceedings, having been present at two
solemnities of the kind. That mysterious personage, however, had not
made his appearance--to the great dismay of the assemblage. Scouts were
sent in search of him, but they returned with the intelligence that the
door of his habitation was fastened, and its inmate apparently absent.
No other tidings of the truant sexton could be obtained.

It was a sultry August evening. No breeze was stirring in the garden; no
cool dews refreshed the parched and heated earth; yet from the
languishing flowers rich sweets exhaled. The plash of a fountain fell
pleasantly upon the ear, conveying in its sound a sense of freshness to
the fervid air; while deep and drowsy murmurs hummed heavily beneath the
trees, making the twilight slumberously musical. The westering sun,
which filled the atmosphere with flame throughout the day, was now
wildly setting; and, as he sank behind the hall, its varied and
picturesque tracery became each instant more darkly and distinctly
defined against the crimson sky.

At this juncture a little gate, communicating with the chase, was thrown
open, and a young man entered the garden, passing through the shrubbery,
and hurrying rapidly forward till he arrived at a vista opening upon the
house. The spot at which the stranger halted was marked by a little
basin, scantily supplied with water, streaming from a lion's kingly
jaws. His dress was travel-soiled, and dusty; and his whole appearance
betokened great exhaustion from heat and fatigue. Seating himself upon
an adjoining bench, he threw off his riding-cap, and unclasped his
collar, displaying a finely-turned head and neck; and a countenance
which, besides its beauty, had that rare nobility of feature which
seldom falls to the lot of the aristocrat, but is never seen in one of
an inferior order. A restless disquietude of manner showed that he was
suffering from over-excitement of mind, as well as from bodily exertion.
His look was wild and hurried; his black ringlets were dashed heedlessly
over a pallid, lofty brow, upon which care was prematurely written;
while his large melancholy eyes were bent, with a look almost of agony,
upon the house before him.

After a short pause, and as if struggling against violent emot