over the sooner. Tantivy, lass! tantivy! I know which of us will tire first." He We have before said that the vehement excitement of continued swift riding produces a paroxysm in the sensorium amounting to delirium. Dick's blood was again on fire. was first giddy, as after a deep draught of kindling spirit; this passed off, but the spirit was still in his veins—the estro was working in his brain. All his ardour, his eagerness, his fury, returned. He rode like one insane, and his courser partook of his frenzy. She bounded; she leaped; she tore up the ground beneath her; while Dick gave vent to his exultation in one wild prolonged halloo. More than half his race is run. He has triumphed over every difficulty. He will have no further occasion to halt. Bess carries her forage along with her. The course is straightforward-success seems certain-the goal already reached-the path of glory won. Another wild halloo, to which the echoing woods reply, and away! Away! away! thou matchless steed! yet brace fast thy sinews-hold, hold thy breath, for, alas, the goal is not yet attained! But forward! forward, on they go, Thick pants the rider's labouring breath, X. THE GIBBET. See there, see there, what yonder swings A murderer in his chain. William and Ellen. As the eddying currents sweep over its plains in howling bleak December, the horse and her rider passed over what remained of Lincolnshire. Grantham is gone, and they are now more slowly looking up the ascent of Gonerby Hill, a path well known to Turpin; where often, in bygone nights, many a purse had changed its owner. With that feeling of independence and exhilaration which every one feels, we believe, on having climbed the hill-side, Turpin turned to gaze around. There was triumph in his eye. But the triumph was checked as his glance fell upon a gibbet near him to the right, on the round point of hill which is a landmark to the wide vale of Belvoir. Pressed as he was for time, Dick immediately struck out of the road, and approached the spot where it stood. Two scarecrow objects, covered with rags and rusty links of chains, depended from the tree. A night crow screaming around the carcasses added to the hideous effect of the scene. Nothing but the living highwayman and his skeleton brethren were visible upon the solitary spot. Around him was the lonesome waste of hill, o'erlooking the moonlit valley: beneath his feet, a patch of bare and lightning-blasted sod: above, the wan declining moon and skies, flaked with ghostly clouds: before him, the bleached bodies of the murderers, for such they were. "Will this be my lot, I marvel?" said Dick, looking upwards, with an involuntary shudder. "Ay, marry will it," rejoined a crouching figure, suddenly springing from beside a tuft of briers that skirted the blasted ground. Dick started in his saddle, while Bess reared and plunged at the sight of this unexpected apparition. "What ho! thou devil's dam, Barbara, is it thou?" exclaimed Dick, re-assured upon discovering it was the gipsy queen, and no spectre whom he beheld. "Stand still, Bess -stand, lass. What dost thou here, mother of darkness? Art gathering mandrakes for thy poisonous messes, or pilfering flesh from the dead? Meddle not with their bones, or I will drive thee hence. What dost thou here, I say, old dam of the gibbet ?" "I came to die here," replied Barbara, in a feeble tone; and, throwing back her hood, she displayed features well-nigh as ghastly as those of the skeletons above her. 66 Indeed," replied Dick. "You've made choice of a pleasant spot, it must be owned. But you'll not die yet." "Do you know whose bodies these are ?" asked Barbara, pointing upwards. "Two of your race," replied Dick; "right brethren of the blade." "Two of my sons," returned Barbara; " my twin children. I am come to lay my bones beneath their bones: my sepulchre shall be their sepulchre; my body shall feed the fowls of the Y air as theirs have fed them. And if ghosts can walk, we'll scour this heath together. I tell you what, Dick Turpin," said the hag, drawing as near to the highwayman as Bess would permit her; "dead men walk and ride-ay, ride!— there's a comfort for you. I've seen these do it. I have seen them fling off their chains, and dance-ay, dance with me-with their mother. No revels like dead men's revels, Dick. I shall soon join 'em." "You will not lay violent hands upon yourself, mother ?" said Dick, with difficulty mastering his terror. "But I will "No," replied Barbara, in an altered tone. let nature do her task. Would she could do it more quickly. Such a life as mine won't go out without a long struggle. What have I to live for now? All are gone-she and her child! But what is this to you? You have no child; and if you had, you could not feel like a father. No matter. I rave. Listen to me. I have crawled hither to die. 'Tis five days since I beheld you, and during that time food has not passed these lips, nor aught of moisture, save Heaven's dew, cooled this parched throat, nor shall they to the last. That time cannot be far off; and now can you not guess how I mean to die? Begone, and leave me, your presence troubles me. I would breathe my last breath alone, with none to witness the parting pang." "I will not trouble you longer, mother," said Dick, turning his mare; nor will I ask your blessing.' "You "My blessing!" scornfully ejaculated Barbara. shall have it if you will, but you will find it a curse. Stay! a thought strikes me. Whither are you going?" "To seek Sir Luke Rookwood," replied Dick; "know you aught of him ?" "Sir Luke Rookwood! You seek him, and would find him ?" screamed Barbara. "I would," said Dick. "And you will find him," said Barbara; "and that cre long. I shall ne'er again behold him. Would I could. I have a message for him-one of life and death. Will you convey it to him ?" "I will," said the highwayman. "Swear by those bones to do so," cried Barbara, pointing with her skinny fingers to the gibbet; "that you will do my bidding." "I swear," cried Dick. "Fail not, or we will haunt thee to thy life's end," cried |