CHAPTER IV.

Rapt in amaze the stranger stood,
Bereft of voice and power;

Whilst she with equal wonder view'd
Sir Eldred of the bower.

Old Ballad.

LITTLE Jacob, the sheriff's boy, possessed a topographical knowledge of the country so far superior to Mr. Scott's, that the journey, from the jail to Hopewell Hall, was considerably shorter than when travelled by that reverend gentleman alone.

Two hours and a half of moderate riding brought the party to a spot where the road branched off in two directions: one leading directly up to the Hall, which could now be seen through a long avenue of trees; the other winding round an enclosure which fenced the ample domains of Colonel Hopewell.

"I have some concernments," said Mr. Scott, as they reached the place where the roads separated, "which will oblige me to stop, for a short space of time, at yonder mansion." And under the impression that Percy would consider him as reluctant to introduce him to the family, he added, in some confusion, "shall I stand acquitted of rudeness, or unkindness, if I ask you to continue your course, at a slow pace, round this fence, until I shall have finished my business, and join you again at the further end of the park, for such it seems to be."

Percy courteously acceded to the proposal, and insisted that the boy should bear him company; for he rightly imagined that his worthy friend would the more readily find the trysting place, after leaving the house, by trusting to Jacob's head-piece, rather than his own. Mr. Scott went off at a round trot, repeating his promise of making all possible dispatch in his business; while Percy, being in no such haste to get to the place of appointment, left it to the sheriff's mare to decide on her rate of travelling.

The day was still so young as to be delightfully pleasant. An unusually heavy dew was still dripping from the trees; and as the road lay along the west side of the park, it was completely shaded by a continuous growth of the most majestic oaks and poplars. The rays of the sun were not yet too fervid for the lark who, suspended in mid air, continued to carol his matin song. The mocking bird, that living panharmonicon of the grove, perched on the highest branches of the oak, poured forth the richest strains of varied melody. Those exquisitely beautiful little creatures, which appear to link the feathered to the insect tribe, round every graceful poplar, were seen humming under the blossom which hangs on the bough. Even the poor woodpecker, pecking the old hollow tree, seemed well to perform his part in this woodland concert, and to add not a little to this sweet assemblage of sylvan sounds.

The mind of our adventurer was, at this moment, peculiarly tuned to these charms of nature. The loathsome and disgusting scenes with which alone he had lately been familiar, enabled him the more readily to vield his senses to the influence of the moment, and

he had just repeated the following lines of a favourite poet,

"Blows not a blossom on the breast of spring,
Breathes not a gale along the bending mead,
Trills not a soaring songster on the wing,

But fragrance, health, and melody succeed,"

when his ear caught the notes of a distant horn; and as he reached the brow of the hill, over which the road passed, he beheld a hunting party dispersed through the valley which stretched far and wide below.

The commanding eminence on which he now was, enabled him to observe all their movements; and as the cover consisted of low brushwood, he could perceive the hounds completely spread over it,-none were idle, yet not a sound was heard. Percy was reminded of a poet of very different complexion from the one he had last quoted:

"See how they range

Dispersed; how busily this way and that
They cross; examining with curious nose
Each likely haunt."

He felt, however, little interested in viewing a scene in which he had formerly taken so much delight; yet it became at the instant too animated to be disregarded:

"Hark! on the drag he hears

Their doubtful notes, preluding to a cry

More nobly full, and swelled with every mouth."

How musical their tongues! How wild the chorus fills! What a crash that was, as they dashed into the thickest bushes. See! See! the game has broke cover, and the hounds have caught view,—

"Hark! what loud shouts

Re-echo through the vale-he breaks away;
Shrill horns proclaim his flight--each straggling hound
Strains through the copse to gain the distant pack.”

They were soon hid by the windings of the valley, and Percy pensively continued his course; and but that at intervals he heard the distant thunder of the chase, he might have forgotten the circumstance. He had not, however, rode more than a mile, when four of the sportsmen emerged from the wood on the unenclosed side of the road, and hastily approaching him, he who was foremost cried out,

"Stop, my Lord! Stop, Lord Umberdale !-This is the place he will go in here, I warrant him. I told you so, gentlemen, when you insisted on placing the ladies at the Huckleberry Gap. There he comes, by all that's lovely!"

All eyes were turned in the direction, from whence through every dark recess the forest thundered, and, in a few moments, a noble buck bounced on an open glade which lay between the wood and the park.

The vociferous acclamations of the sportsmen evinced the tumultuous joy they took in the spectacle. Such expressions were heard as, Mind Galloper, how he leads,' Touchwood is close after him, though,''Fifty dollars on Galloper,'-' A hundred on Touchwood,'' Did you ever see dogs run in such style,''What a head they carry, not a shuffler or skirter among them,'-They are all up,'- Ah, Touchwood, you are beat, Galloper tops that brush fence first,'—' See there! See there! how they all take it,'-' The fence cracks with their weight-so many jump at once.'

The gentleman who had addressed Percy as Lord Umberdale, was too much engaged to perceive, or at least notice, the mistake he had made; and now the buck, his nostrils distended, his eye-balls glaring, and his sides covered with foam, reached the enclosure of the park, the dogs close following at his haunches.

He made his last effort and sprung the fence, but the dogs alighted on the side with him at the same moment, and he was surrounded. Springing from their horses, the sportsmen rushed to their assistance; between men and dogs, the buck was pulled down, thrown on his back, received the coup de grace, and the horns rang out the signal of his death.

The chase being ended, the gentlemen, who had left their horses, recrossed the fence and again mounted, when the unutterable amazement with which Percy had heard himself addressed as Lord Umberdale was exchanged for a feeling of more immediate interest, for he perceived that the company were listening with marks of strong indignation to a person whom he now distinctly recollected to have seen at the General Green on the evening of his arrest; and if he could have entertained a doubt that he was the subject of their conversation, it must have been removed by the dark looks which were thrown on him as they rode along, for they all proceeded in the direction he was going, and seemed determined to regulate their pace by his.

The conversation was partly carried on in whispers, but the following expressions were uttered so loud, he could not but overhear them :

"I'll swear to the mare," said one.

"And I'll swear to the man," said another.

Major Bromley," said a third, "depend on it, this

is the young spark who”—

-Here the sentence was whispered so low that Percy could only conjecture its purport by the Major's answer.

"Is he so?" cried the Major; "then, by Jove, I would give a thousand dollars if there was only just so much of a gentleman about him as might serve to lodge a bullet! The aspiring villain! But surely you