. Despair had taken possession of her; the magic fabric of delight
melted away, or only gleamed to tantalize, at an unreachable distance. A
presentiment that Ranulph would never be hers had taken root in her
imagination, and overshadowed all the rest.

While Eleanor pursued this train of reflection, the time insensibly wore
away, until the sudden stoppage of the carriage aroused the party from
their meditation. Major Mowbray perceived that the occasion of the halt
was the rapid advance of a horseman, who was nearing them at full speed.
The appearance of the rider was somewhat singular, and might have
created some uneasiness as to the nature of his approach, had not the
major immediately recognized a friend; he was, nevertheless, greatly
surprised to see him, and turned to Mrs. Mowbray to inform her that
Father Ambrose, to his infinite astonishment, was coming to meet them,
and appeared, from his manner, to be the bearer of unwelcome tidings.

Father Ambrose was, perhaps, the only being whom Eleanor disliked. She
had felt an unaccountable antipathy towards him, which she could neither
extirpate nor control, during their long and close intimacy. It may be
necessary to mention that her religious culture had been in accordance
with the tenets of the Romish Church, in whose faith--the faith of her
ancestry--her mother had continued; and that Father Ambrose, with whom
she had first become acquainted during the residence of the family near
Bordeaux, was her ghostly adviser and confessor. An Englishman by birth,
he had been appointed pastor to the diocese in which they dwelt, and
was, consequently, a frequent visitor, almost a constant inmate of the
chateau; yet though duty and respect would have prompted her to regard
the father with affection, Eleanor could never conquer the feelings of
dislike and distrust which she had at first entertained towards him; a
dislike which was increased by the strange control in which he seemed to
hold her mother, who regarded him with a veneration approaching to
infatuation. It was, therefore, with satisfaction that she bade him
adieu. He had, however, followed his friends to England under a feigned
name as--being a recusant Romish priest, and supposed to have been
engaged in certain Jesuitical plots, his return to his own country was
attended with considerable risk--, and had now remained domesticated
with them for some months. That he had been in some way, in early life,
connected with a bran