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Well, Sir," answered the Baronet, in a tone of gloomy foreboding, "whatever may be the fate of my only child; whether she be left fatherless, or widowed and fatherless, both—”

"Father, beloved father! what dreadful words are these you speak?" interrupted the horror-stricken Eliza.

My poor girl!" he answered, tenderly folding her to his bosom: "I say, that whether you are to be fatherless or widowed,-whether or not we outlive this attack made upon us,—I rejoice, my lamb, at your escape from that tiger! Oh, what a fate had been your's, linked to such a monster!"

"What! he would separate us? tear us from one another ?-William, come here! come here!"

She worked, in convulsed earnestness, the hand of her bare, extended arm, which was as perfect in its form, and as white and shining, as ever sculptor chiselled.

The bridegroom broke through the opposing yeomen, and gained her side. She flung that arm around him, and "Surely, surely," she continued, "there is not that man alive will drag from me my father and my husband?"

"How is this most dear and most beautiful

creature to be disposed of?" questioned Sir William of the elder Baronet.

"Even leave her to the care of the Almighty!" answered Sir Thomas; 66 we must face our fate; the father of the innocent and the helpless will not desert her."

"But, Sir Thomas, consider; the present proceeding certainly has reference to her; and, in our absence, must she not stand exposed to the machinations of yonder villain ?"

"True, true, my son; so long as we live to watch over her, Eliza must be at our side, wherever we go. My daughter accompanies

her father and her husband," he continued, addressing Talbot; "I should suppose there can be no objection ?"

"It cannot be, Sir Thomas Hartley: you and he are my sole charge; except, indeed, that my instructions extend to forbid all intercourse with your friends."

"Now, villain! your drift is perceived," cried Sir William Judkin.

"I answer no impertinence," said Captain Talbot haughtily.

"Send Reily hither," resumed Sir Thomas, addressing one of the alarmed servants who crowded to the door of the apartment.

"That man is also my prisoner, and cannot now wait on you, Sir Thomas," said the unflinching Talbot.

"I perceive, indeed, we are every way beset; and can no longer hesitate to recognize the object of this arrest-violence to my child is contemplated in my absence. Hearken, monster! can the man I once knew-or thought I knew, be so sunk in baseness as to contemplate the daughter's dishonour by means of the father's murder ?—What! you turn away, and do not answer? You dare not look at me! dare not meet my eye! 'Tis so-'tis so. God help me! I see we have to deal with a fiend."

"Tut, Sir Thomas," he was answered, when the person addressed had succeeded in mastering the strong feeling he turned aside to disguise; "this is idle catechising: I am here on no such purpose; mine is a distinct and plain duty, that, as I have said, refers, to none but you and that person; your horses are at the door, and I outstay my time."

"Talbot," said Sir Thomas, in an appalled and solemn accent, "I did not think the earth contained such a demon!"

"Men, move down-stairs with the prisoners," rejoined the stern commander: and the frown

ing soldiers of civil-war advanced to seize on their prey. Eliza had been drooping between her two supporters; she was suddenly revived, burst from the arms of her father and her husband, and flung herself at the feet of her former lover. So rapid was her motion, that neither Sir Thomas nor Sir William could interpose to prevent the degrading step.

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Harry Talbot!" she cried, clasping her hands together, but, as she held them up in supplication, the wedding-ring met his eye; "lowly and humbly I petition for your mercydo not tear them from me--pity, pity, Harry Talbot! when first I knew you, little did I think that by you-by you my heart was to be crushed and broken! I was then a proud, joyful young creature: I am now a very wretched being. Harry, be merciful to me !"

Husband and father both sprang to her, and took her by the arms to raise her up.

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"Daughter!" said the latter; any thing but this: do not degrade yourself—do not degrade me-do not degrade Sir William Judkin! Rise, my child-we would not accept of safety at this price-the prostration of my high-minded Eliza before that despicable Talbot!"

"Do not, do not force me up, my father!" strug

gling to keep herself in a kneeling posture :-"I caught the tear of human pity in his eye-there is mercy yet where it sprang from, and it will flow amply, and fall like the shower on the parched bosom of her who always regarded him with a sister's affection: indeed, indeed, I shall prevail! he was not merciless when I knew him long ago."

"You knew him not, my beloved," said Sir William Judkin; "knew him not for what he is a detected slanderer, and a mean, revengeful coward!"

Eliza might have seen in Talbot's eyes the relenting moisture she spoke of, or it might have been her own swimming and glittering eyes that deceived her. He certainly was bending down towards her, with a regard very different from the previous expression of his flashing glances, when, at the remark of his rival, he suddenly drew up, turned away, and walked some paces distant.

Again Eliza broke from her detainers, and again was on her knees before him.

"Harry!-earliest friend-look on me, for the last time; prostrate, grovelling to you for mercy."

"Rise up, madam," he replied, in his former