s, the youth felt an instinctive antipathy towards the
guardian of midnight order, which at first prevented him from asking
his usual question. But just when the man was about to vanish behind
the corner, Robin resolved not to lose the opportunity, and shouted
lustily after him, "I say, friend! will you guide me to the house of my
kinsman, Major Molineux?"

The watchman made no reply, but turned the corner and was gone; yet
Robin seemed to hear the sound of drowsy laughter stealing along the
solitary street. At that moment, also, a pleasant titter saluted him
from the open window above his head; he looked up, and caught the
sparkle of a saucy eye; a round arm beckoned to him, and next he heard
light footsteps descending the staircase within. But Robin, being of
the household of a New England clergyman, was a good youth, as well as
a shrewd one; so he resisted temptation, and fled away.

He now roamed desperately, and at random, through the town, almost
ready to believe that a spell was on him, like that by which a wizard
of his country had once kept three pursuers wandering, a whole winter
night, within twenty paces of the cottage which they sought. The
streets lay before him, strange and desolate, and the lights were
extinguished in almost every house. Twice, however, little parties of
men, among whom Robin distinguished individuals in outlandish attire,
came hurrying along; but, though on both occasions, they paused to
address him such intercourse did not at all enlighten his perplexity.
They did but utter a few words in some language of which Robin knew
nothing, and perceiving his inability to answer, bestowed a curse upon
him in plain English and hastened away. Finally, the lad determined to
knock at the door of every mansion that might appear worthy to be
occupied by his kinsman, trusting that perseverance would overcome the
fatality that had hitherto thwarted him. Firm in this resolve, he was
passing beneath the walls of a church, which formed the corner of two
streets, when, as he turned into the shade of its steeple, he
encountered a bulky stranger muffled in a cloak. The man was proceeding
with the speed of earnest business, but Robin planted himself full
before him, holding the oak cudgel with both hands across his body as a
bar to further passage.

"Halt, honest man, and answer me a question," said he, very resolutely.
"Tell me, this instant, whereabouts is the dwelling of my kinsman,
Major Molineux!"

"