And thus a weary week passed heavily and mysteriously away.

One afternoon, as Lord Orlando was sitting in even deeper despondence than usual, watching the western rays of the calm autumnal sun as they printed off the lozenged panes of the great window, with their treillage of creepers and the fringy foliage of the yew upon the opposite wall; on a sudden, without a breath of wind, the branches of the old tree became violently agitated. At first, Orlando, whose back was towards the window, was too much absorbed in his painful reverie to notice this phenomenon but even if the shadow that now darkened the window, and the opening of the creaking and ill fastened casement had not attracted his attention the noise of a body, heavily alighting on the floor behind him, could hardly fail of arousing the moody dreamer.

He rose hastily, and turning round to confront the intruder, beheld one whose right to enter there either by door or window was most assuredly indefeasible -being no other than Sir Marmaduke Tracy himself; a handsome athletic man, somewhat beyond the middle age, and wearing that costume in which Williams so well knows how to depict the Parliamentary officer of rank.

A slight paleness sate on his features, but by no means of that appalling nature which would entitle him to drag a chain, shake a torch, or undraw the bedcurtains at midnight in the galleries and chambers of Wolf hamscote Hall.

"So far well sped!" was his first exclamation when he had taken breath, "and now, my Lord! permit me to welcome you at Ghost Castle! If I am a laggard, you must at any rate admit it was your own fault that I was not here earlier."

The young noble turned as white as a woman would have done in similar circumstances, then as red as the rampant lion over the porch of the village hostel, and, soon passing from one extreme to another, he clapped his hands with boyish glee and almost shouting

"Now all the saints be praised! his blood is not on my hands!" he flung himself on Sir Marmaduke's neck, and sobbed like a child.

"Softly, my good youth!" said the knight, gently disengaging himself—" or it will be right soon: I have your token of remembrance here"-pointing to his left shoulder, "and shall carry it to my ancestor's burying vault yonder: only do me the favour, I beseech you, to

remember, the next time you fall in with our outposts, that we do not always carry two lives under our belts !"

Sir Marmaduke then proceeded to inform the relieved and delighted Lovel, that his party on seeing him fall, had to a man galloped off in various directions in pursuit of the unknown assailant.

It was near a cottage on the border of a wood; and while he lay insensible, from pain and loss of blood, he was found by a peasant and carried into the hut, where his wound was dressed and found to be trifling, the bullet having perforated the fleshy part of the shoulder without injuring the bone.

The soldiers, however, carried tidings of his death to Wolf hamscote Hall that night.

"I had my reasons-fantastic ones perhaps," continued Sir Marmaduke, for encouraging a short time the report of my death. Accordingly, when my men returned from Wolf hamscote, where they had sown the intelligence that I was slain, and reaped the information of my slayer having taken refuge in my own mansion, I contented myself with dispatching them to head-quarters, notifying that I was prevented by a slight wound from joining for some days. I believe it was nothing more than the whim partly of beholding how my belle dame endured the death of her mate, and partly of discovering how the fiery young lord sustained his forced sojourn in Ghost Castle, that led me to attempt a burglarious entry into my own lair!"

"Generous Tracy!" said the young nobleman, ardently grasping his hand, "your goodness crushes me! Is it possible you can forgive the ingrate who-"

"Possible! forgive! in sooth, my lord, I believe it is not in heart of marble to contemplate these dismal old walls,and then (pardon me) to glance at your more dismal countenance, and still harbour resentment. Why, after such a penance, I think my very ghost must have forgiven you !"

66

Light has been my penance, and lighter now would be my heart," replied Lord Lovel, " did I not too justly apprehend that the mischievous consequences of my rashness have not terminated with your recovery :-the Lady Hyacinth-"

"What of Hyacinth? what of Wolfhamscote's lady ?" impetuously and even sternly interrupted the knight.

"The Lady Tracy-alas! how will you brook the affliction ?"

"Welcome affliction-but perish dis

honour. Speak forth, my Lord Lovel: what has Lady Tracy done? I looked not for this stage-play at your lips!"

This was uttered with a vehemence and fierceness that astonished and perplexed the young lord almost as much as the words themselves;-' dishonour?' and what has Lady Tracy done?-the poor man was undoubtedly as mad as his wife!

Such were the thoughts that flashed upon Orlando, as he hastened with as much delicacy as the fiery anxiety of the husband would admit, to state his apprehensions that this calamity had seriously impaired Lady Hyacinth's understanding. "Oh-h!" prolonged with a peculiar intonation, was the only reply ;-and Sir Marmaduke, biting his lip, strode off to the window with an air that spoke as plainly as so many words, "If that be all, we'll soon cure that!"

Lord Orlando was utterly confounded, and again thought he,—this may be a brave man; generous I know him; but 'tis a brute of a husband sans doute! Poor Lady! I see now, why she is so hospitable to strangers; well may she covet their courtesies; from him I perceive she does not get common civility." Lovel was here interrupted in his ruminations by Sir Marmaduke once more approaching him—

My Lord Lovel!" said he, taking the young man's hand with grave but friendly politeness, "the time I trust is not far distant when, these unhappy political distractions having been appeased, Wolf hamscote Hall shall afford the young Baron Orlando the entertainment its master deems so due to his desert. But as at present that is out of the question, let us not waste the time in superfluous compliment. I need not say that your path is beset: and that without this"(taking a sealed paper from his bosom) any attempt to quit Wolfhamscote might cause you vexatious inconvenience, if not serious peril. Can you climb?— You will then scarcely object to try your exit by my entrance;" and he pointed to the old yew tree that stood scowling and nodding at the window, a most portentous witness of their conference.

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Lovel took the paper (which was in fact a safe-conduct under Sir Marmaduke Tracy's own hand and seal) with grateful but manly acknowledgments, and declared himself quite ready for his departure, however unceremonious might be the means.

Then doffing the gay scarf and doublet, he resumed his own travel-stained attire,

took a kind and courteous leave of Sir Marmaduke, and approached the window -but still with the air of one who was leaving something either unsaid or undone.

"I had forgotten to mention," said the Knight of Wolf hamscote, seeing Orlando lingering, "I had forgotten to mention that my horse is tied to the yew tree trunk; that he is tolerably fresh, and most entirely at your lordship's service, until a fitting opportunity shall occur of restoring to you your own.'

The young baron bowed, and made another step to the window, when he again paused irresolutely.

"In aught else that I can benefit or pleasure you, my lord, you may command me !"

"Forgive me!" at length faltered Lovel, "forgive me if I seem impertinent -but, the Lady Tracy,-her melancholy state brings an accusation against me that weighs heavily at my heart. Oh! be cautious, be tender of her distress."

"You leave her with a husband, my Lord Baron, who has never been deemed capable of harshness by those who know him."

Sir Marmaduke spoke this with a haughty and ungracious emphasis on the last words, but, immediately recollecting himself, he once more stretched out his hand to Lovel;-" Pardon me :-I am wounded and weary; and, if I seem distempered, I have more causes for my unquiet than you wot of! God bless you, young man ; you are single-hearted and noble-minded: may the world never teach you duplicity and baseness!"

The Baron grasped his hand warmly, reached the window, and, swinging himself from branch to branch of the yew tree, was soon mounted on a noble black horse, and galloping away by the river bank.

Sir Marmaduke watched him descend, leap to the saddle, and ride off. He then drew a huge arm-chair to the table, finished the wine and meat, on which Orlando had already made considerable incursions; and the shadows of night having now completely overgloomed the banquet-house, he muffled himself in the large fur robe,-and, drawing the curtains, flung himself in moody silence on the bed.

Midnight had pealed her twelve warnings from the distant, but sonorous clock-tower of Wolfhamscote, when the lamp was seen to glimmer from the escalier derobe of the private passage. But it was not this time as at others,

deposited on the landing, for the Lady of Wolfhamscote entered the apartment bearing the light, and the light alone— for neither basket nor store had she with her.

She placed it on the dark hearth, and advancing with uncertain steps to the farther end of the chamber, seated herself not far from the bed on which, disclosed through the partially drawn curtains, a recumbent figure enveloped in a cloak of sables, lay in the same situation which the Baron of Lovel had, till then, occupied; the attitude of dejection too was his; and, like his, the face was concealed from view.

Lady Tracy had sate a brief space, absorbed in earnest and agitated contemplation of the imaginary homicide, when suddenly she broke silence.

"It is vain-all vain!" she said, partly addressing her companion, and partly speaking to herself. “I have fasted, I have prayed, I have exhausted the nightwatches in my vigils. I have even invoked death-death to arrest the rebellious torrent in my veins, and prevent the impiety I meditated, but abhorred! Alas! that very impiety breathed in my prayer, and mingled with my vigils. Throughout them all, I had but one thought; and that, like a flaming phantom, fired and glared and flitted before me, wherever I turned. Worse than this I cannot feel! Hear me then, thou fatal young man! and, before you condemn me, think what a masterful agony must she have to wrestle with, who, unable to govern her own weakness, thus blazons her own shame!"

The listener to this strange shrift, groaned and writhed himself on the bed.

"My Lord Lovel!" she pursued, "reserve your groans, till they are demanded; and even then, if possible, spare me your abhorrence. You have worse to answer for, than the slaying of your benefactor!"

A convulsive motion on the bed, shewed the intense interest of her auditor.

"The wound that took his life, was innocence to that which slew my honour!" The recumbent figure started as if some sharp weapon had transfixed him to the couch.

"You fancy I accuse you unjustly.'Tis true your lip, your hand, your very will were all guiltless.-What of that? it was your deadly beauty--that face, that form, those accents, and those smiles, were my bane, my very fate! and I loved you!"

"Here a strange sound, like a smethered cry from one who was choaking, issued from the curtains; but the lady's excitement towered to such a pitch, she scarcely noticed it.

"I loved you, Lord Orlando! — I loved you,-when, as a wedded matron, I received you to refuge in my husband's hall,-nay, hear me on!--I loved you, ere I knew he was dead;-they told me of his slaughter;—told too, that you had slain him;-and 'twas exultation,-ay, shrink from me as you will!-but 't was exultation thrilled me at the tidings. But oh! in that same moment did selfabhorrence start up like a vindictive fury, and drives me now to this humiliating self-revenge!"

She paused. He was still as death.
At length,

"Lovel!" resumed the wretched Hyacinth," Bear witness, (for you CAN) that I have struggled, though in vain, yet I have struggled against this hateful passion! Once, I implored you never to let me see your face nor hear, your voice. Well, unhappy boy! have you obeyed me,well, but to no purpose: and now, emboldened by despair, I cry, Speak, though it be to execrate and spurn me! Look on me, though in that glance I read contempt, abhorrence!"

She arose, seized the lamp, and, tottering up to the settee, tore apart the curtains, bent over him, drew the covering from his face; but it was disfigured with blood! She listened wildly for a sound; but that voice was for ever silenced!

Agony had burst open the red fountains of life, and she looked upon the still warm corpse of her husband. HORACE Guilford.

March 26th, 1835.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

"A trial of solitary confinement day and night, without labour, was made," says Mr. Crawford, in his report on the Penitentiaries of the United States, "at Auburn, in the year 1822, for ten months, upon eighty of the most hardened convicts. They were each confined in a cell only seven feet long, three feet and a half wide, and seven feet high. They were on no account permitted to leave the cell, during that long period, on any occasion, not even for the purposes of nature. They had no means of obtaining any change of air, nor opportunities of taking exercise. The most disastrous consequences were naturally the result,

Several persons became insane: health was impaired, and life endangered. The discipline of the prison at that period was one of unmixed severity. There was no moral nor religious instruction of any kind communicated within its walls, nor consolation administered by which the convict was enabled to bear up against the cruelty of this treatment. Nor was a trial of the same description, which took place in the State of Maine, conducted under more advantageous circumstances. The night-rooms or cells at this prison are literally pits entered from the top by a ladder, through an aperture about two feet square. The opening is secured by an iron grate, used as a trapdoor; the only other orifice is one at the bottom, about an inch and a half in diameter, for the admission of warm air from underneath. The cells are eight feet nine inches long, four feet six inches wide, and nine feet eight inches high. Their gloom is indescribable. The diet, during confinement, was bread and water only. Thus immured, and without any occupation, it will excite no surprise to learn that a man who had been sentenced to pass seventy days in one of these miserable pits hung himself after four days' imprisonment. Another condemned to sixty days, also committed suicide on the twenty-fourth day. It became necessary to remove four others, who were unable to endure this cruelty, from the cell to the hospital repeatedly before the expiration of their sentence. It is said that similar experiments have been made in Virginia, and that various diseases, terminating in death, were the result. The cells in which the prisoners were confined have been since disused: they are, in fact, dungeons, being on the basement story, and so dark as to require a lamp in visiting them, In damp weather the water stands in drops on the walls. The cells were not warmed at any season of the year. A prisoner's feet were actually frozen during his confinement. No fair trial of the effects of solitude could have taken place, as has been alleged, in the penitentiary of New Jersey, the cells being so arranged that the convicts can converse with perfect freedom. From experiments of this character no just conclusions can therefore be derived unfriendly to solitary imprisonment of any kind, especially when accompanied by employment, in large and well-ventilated cells, the arrangements of which have reference to the preservation of the health, regular employment, and improvement of the mind of the offender."

HISTORIC GLEANINGS. EDWARD VI. MARY. ELIZABETH.

History is philosophy, teaching by example.Lord Bolinbroke.

RAUMER, in his admirable collections relating to the history of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, gives from cotemporary writers the following curious account of the last three Tudors.

"Edward VI. loves to dress himself in red, white, and violet. The lastnamed colour is so far appropriated by him that no one but himself dares to wear a hat of that hue. His livery, on the other hand, is green and white. As the English commonly attire themselves well, and spend much on their clothes, Edward, in the same manner (although he falls far short of his father in this respect), constantly wears on all his garments embroideries of gold, silver, and pearls! He has a good demeanour, a royal appearance, much grace and dignity in every transaction, and is affable and liberal to the people.

"To these accounts I append a description which an eye-witness, John Michele, gives of the Queen Mary and the Princess Elizabeth in the year 1557. Mary Tudor is rather of little than middle stature, thin and delicately formed, lively eyes, short sighted, a strong, deep voice, like that of a man, so that she is heard from a distance, extremely diligent in sewing, embroidery, and other female labours, so finished and able a performer on the spinet that professors are astonished. Her passions, public and domestic, often throw her into deep melancholy. She is vexed about her husband, her own barrenness, the state of religion, &c.; but, above all, about her sister Elizabeth, upon whom, as her successor, the eyes and minds of all are directed. And truly it must vex not only Mary, but every one else, that the bastard blood of one sentenced and punished as a public strumpet, should be destined one day, with greater fortune, to rule this realm instead of its true and legitimate line of princes.

"Elizabeth, now twenty-three years old, is a young woman who is considered as not less remarkable for the graces of the mind than for those of the body, although it may be said that her countenance is rather pleasing than beautiful. In figure, she is tall, well-shaped; her flesh well to look on, though tending to olive in complexion; fine eyes, and, above all, a beautiful hand, which she seeks to display. Her spirit and intellect are

admirable, so that she has known how to conduct herself, displaying both in times of suspicion and peril. She surpasses the Queen in knowledge of languages, for, besides knowing Latin, and Greek to a moderate extent, she understands Italian better than the Queen, and takes so much pleasure in the latter language, that she will converse in no other tongue with natives of Italy. She is proud, and considers herself (although aware what sort of mother bore her) as no less or less worthy than the Queen. Henry VIII. had set apart for her an annual income of 10,000 ducats. She would consume much more, and incur great debts, if she did not purposely, to avoid increasing the suspicions of the Queen, limit her household and attendance; for there is not a lord or gentleman in the realm who has not sought to place himself, or a brother or son in her service. So great is thus the affection and good will which is shown her, by which, in one way or another, her expenses are increased, although she opposes her poverty to the proposed enlargements of her establishment, which crafty excuse, however, merely increases her party of hangers on; it being considered not only unusual, but in the highest degree unbecoming, that a king's daughter should be so hardly dealt with, and so ill maintained."

ARAB TOURNAMENTS.

SIR G. T. Temple thus describes one of these curious spectacles:

"The tournament field is oblong, and bordered by rows of spectators, who form its boundaries by sitting cross-legged round the open space. The best riders of the tribe, mounted on the most active horses, are then introduced into the arena, the men being clothed with as much splendour as their means will permit them, while the chargers are covered with large silk housings of different colours, reaching to the ground, and resembling those of ancient knights, as represented in Froissart. Some of the Arabs then commence making their horses dance to the sound of drums and trumpets, whilst men on foot occasionally rush forward and discharge their muskets close to the horses' ears. Others dash forward at full speed along the line of seated spectators, as close to their feet as they possibly can, without actually trampling upon them: and every now and then suddenly throwing their horses on their haunches, spin them round on their hind legs, and resume in the opposite direction their wild

career. It is a nervous sight to behold; for you momentarily expect to see some person or child crushed beneath the horses' hoofs; but no accident ever happens, and men, women, and children, maintain their seats with the greatest calmness and feeling of security, saluting any well-executed point of horsemanship with loud and exulting shouts of approbation, whilst the women accompany them with the usual but indescribable cries of the quick-repeated lu-lu-lu-lu; in return for which they are covered with clouds of sand and dust, which the impetuous coursers throw up behind them. Three or four others, dashing their sharp stirrups into the flanks of their impatient steeds, rush madly along the length of the arena, shouting forth their tekbir, or war-cries, and whirling round their heads the long and silver-adorned Arab guns, which they discharge at the spectators when they have reached the farthest extremity of the lists. Others engage with swords soldiers on foot, galloping round their adversaries in incredibly small circles, twisting their horses suddenly round, and then circling to the other hand; and I know not which most to admire, the activity and suppleness of the rider or of his horse. Others, whilst at full speed, will lean over, and without in the least reducing their pace, pick up from the ground a piastre or any other equally small object, thrown down for the purpose. These sports form on the whole one of the gayest and most animated scenes I ever beheld, increased as it is by the waving of many silken sanjaks of the brightest colours, by the music, the report of fire-arms, the war-cries of the performers, and the shouts of the spectators."

AN ADVENTURE IN ITALY.

ma.

I will tell you a narrow escape I had some years ago in Tuscany. R and myself having heard of a flight of cocks, had gone down into the Maremma to shoot. You have heard of the MaremIt possesses an almost interminable extent of morasses, "overgrown with long, rank grasses,' "and hillocks, as Shelley beautifully describes, "heaped with moss-enwoven turf," a wilderness of putridity and desolation. It was the month of November; before which time it is dangerous to set foot there, for until the first frost even many of the feverstricken serfs forsake it. In the eagerness of sport we had been led farther than we calculated from our albergo, a