. A loud
tramp, as of a mighty host, was heard passing away, and Oliver now
beheld the form of his betrothed.

"Eleanor! Here! In this unholy place!" cried her lover. But the maiden
was unable to answer.

"There's blood upon my hand!" said he, holding it up in the now clear
and unclouded moonlight. "Art thou wounded, lady?"

"I know not," she replied; "I was alone. Yet I felt as though some
living thing were nigh--some unseen form, of terrible and appalling
attributes! Was it not a dream?"

"Nay," said Oliver, pensively; "methought another was beside thee!"

"I saw him not."

"How camest thou hither?"

"Let us be gone," said she, trembling; "I will tell thee all."

She laid her head on his shoulder. It throbbed heavily. "I am now
free. The accursed links are broken. I feel as though newly wakened
from some horrible dream! Thou hast saved me, Oliver. But if thine own
life is the price!"

"Fear not; I defy their devilish subtilty--in their very den too: and
thus, and thus, I renounce the devil and all his works!"

He spat thrice upon the ground, to show his loathing and contempt.

"Oh! say not so," cried Eleanor, looking round in great alarm.

Oliver bore her in his arms from that fearful spot. He accompanied her
home; and it was near break of day when, exhausted and alone, she
again retired to her chamber. By the way Oliver told her that he had
found a mysterious tablet on the edge of the brook the same morning.
He had luckily hidden it in his bosom, and he felt as though a
talisman or charm had protected him from the spells in the "Fairies'
Chapel."

Springtide was past, and great was the stir and bustle for the
approaching nuptials between Oliver Chadwyck and the Lady Eleanor. All
the yeomanry, inhabitants of the hamlets of Honorsfield, Butterworth,
and Healey, were invited to the wedding. Dancers and mummers were
provided; wrestlers and cudgel-players, with games and pastimes of all
sorts, were appointed. The feasts were to be holden for three days,
and masks, motions, and other rare devices, were expected to surpass
and eclipse every preceding attempt of the like nature.

Eleanor sat in her lonely bower. It was the night before the bridal.
To-morrow would see her depart in pageantry and pomp--an envied bride!
Yet was her heart heavy, and she could not refrain from weeping.

She sought rest; but sleep was denied. The owl hooted at her window;
the bat flapped his leathern wings; the taper burned red