life which contrasted them. The instant Casimir entered, the little boys threw off the invisible chain which seemed to bind them to the spot where they stood, and sprang towards him, forgetful of the momentary cloud.

"Oh, father! father! It is he! It is the good gentleman!"

Stephen rose, and placed for him a seat, into which he staggered, almost unable to support himself.

"Dame," said the peasant," the stranger is ill what must I give him?”

"Little Wilfred," said Vallenstein, "give me the pitcher of milk.-I want food; I am chilled too-but that cheerful blaze will soon revive me.”

Stephen looked at him earnestly, and shook his head, saying at the same time to Alice, "I am not mistaken, dame; and if it should prove that thy unlucky tongue has had any thing to do in the sad work there has been at the castle, I would the storm of last winter had blown

this cottage, and all I have in the world, into the Raab! For, under God, by whose goodness comes it that I have any thing? Here, sir," and, looking sternly on Vallenstein, he held to him the purse of gold he had the day before presented to Alice, "you best know wherefore you gave this costly present to my dame.You are a stranger-you have been lurking about some days, none can tell why. You have been here from time to time, and Alice there is so proud of her wisdom, that you could easily get from her the little she knew, and the much that she thought, about the young lord who was to marry my lady.-Ay! if some mischief had not come between them, this very morning would have seen them made one by the priest; instead of which the young lord fled in a moment from the castle, no one knows why, nor whither, and my lady, the pride of the whole world, is dying! I accuse nobody. But all this is true; and it is true likewise

that you have been asking my wife many questions that could not concern a stranger, and that you paid her twenty dollars for answering answering them.-I doubt this money is the price of mischief, and I would not keep it under my roof-no, not for all the wealth of this barony! Ay, sir, from the moment you entered, my mind was made up! Your looks betrayed you; you have been about no good; and, if one may judge by outward tokens, you are no more to be envied than the workers of mischief generally are."

"Indeed, honest Stephen, I am not enviable! The sorrows of the castle are my sorrows; but Heaven knows I am not their author!".

Stephen's misgivings had worked their way into the ductile breast of Alice: she was now convinced that she had actually harboured an incendiary, and that her information was the sole source of all the unhappiness which had arisen at Marchfeldt; that she had driven away the bride

groom, and killed the Baroness; though, on considering the sum total of her intelligence, it would have been difficult to bring it to such an amount. She drew aside the curtain, and fixed her swollen eyes on Casimir with a solemn and accusing look: "Oh, stranger!" cried she, "evil for us was the hour when first you lifted our latch! I never was so deceived before! But you had, to a certainty, an innocent look with you-and then the lads took to you so, all on the sudden !"

"Pooh!" cried Stephen.

"Nay, nay, good man! I am not going to say any more about that. But one thing I must say: if you have any regard for yourself, stranger, you'll lose no time, but unload that guilty conscience of yours!-Get shriven as quickly as you may! And, if you can make restitution, do it without tarrying!"

In the very midst of this harangue the door flew open, and in rushed Conrade:

"Ah, sir!" cried he, "do I see you once more? My dear master's friend!" "Conrade! my dear fellow! Faithful, trusty Conrade!"

"Ah, sir! when I heard the joyful news,-when they told me my Lady was on the eve of marriage with the young Lord Vallenstein, little did I think such an hour as this was at hand! But who knows what yet we may live to see?"

Ay," said Alice, who began to be staggered by the cordiality subsisting between Conrade and the suspicious stranger, "who knows? Now, its my advice that some one should mount a fleet horse directly, and ride for his life after that young Lord, and tell him, if he does not come back as fast as he went, he'll have a Christian's murder to answer for, and he must be a Turk if he stands that! Mr. Conrade, its a wonder to me you don't go after him!"

"Would he were choked in the Raab!" said Conrade; but, my Lord, you look