y sympathised with all his feelings,
and was so wrapped up in the glory of the family, that he had no greater
ambition in life than to become their historiographer, and had been for
years employed in amassing materials for a great work dedicated to their
celebrity.

When Ratcliffe Armine had been absent about three years his mother
died. Her death was unexpected. She had not fulfilled two-thirds of the
allotted period of the Psalmist, and in spite of many sorrows she was
still beautiful. Glastonbury, who communicated to him the intelligence
in a letter, in which he vainly attempted to suppress his own
overwhelming affliction, counselled his immediate return to England, if
but for a season; and the unhappy Ratcliffe followed his advice. By
the death of his mother, Sir Ratcliffe Armine became possessed, for the
first time, of a small but still an independent income; and having paid
a visit, soon after his return to his native country, to a Catholic
nobleman to whom his acquaintance had been of some use when travelling
in Spain, he became enamored of one of his daughters, and his passion
being returned, and not disapproved by the father, he was soon after
married to Constance, the eldest daughter of Lord Grandison.

CHAPTER II.

_Armine Described_.

AFTER his marriage Sir Ratcliffe determined to reside at Armine. In one
of the largest parks in England there yet remained a fragment of a vast
Elizabethan pile, that in old days bore the name of Armine Place. When
Sir Ferdinand had commenced building Armine Castle, he had pulled down
the old mansion, partly for the sake of its site and partly for the sake
of its materials. Long lines of turreted and many-windowed walls, tall
towers, and lofty arches, now rose in picturesque confusion on the
green ascent where heretofore old Sir Walsingham had raised the fair
and convenient dwelling, which he justly deemed might have served the
purpose of a long posterity. The hall and chief staircase of the castle
and a gallery alone were finished, and many a day had Sir Ferdinand
passed in arranging the pictures, the armour, and choice rarities of
these magnificent apartments. The rest of the building was a mere shell;
nor was it in all parts even roofed in. Heaps of bricks and stone and
piles of timber appeared in every direction; and traces of the sudden
stoppage of a great work might be observed in the temporary saw-pits
still remaining, the sheds for the workmen, and the ki