now.

As if I could go back forty years, and remember what I have always done! Your Honour has not lived so long, I doubt, by some few; and could you remember all the days and every day of your life? no, to be sure! A gentleman's memory is not to be ransacked in such a manner as that; and if not a gentleman's, who knows so much better, why, then, surely not a poor man's, of whom less is expected!"

"You are an ingenious fellow, at least," said Lord Mowbray ;-" I will not forget you."

"Thank you, my Lord; thank your Lordship!" vociferated Ben, as he made his way back into the crowd, shouting another loud welcome in acknowledgement of the success of his suit.

There is no saying where the number of applicants would have stopped, after the gracious reception given to Ben Hardy, had not the steward, turning round as he reached the top of the ascent, perceived the throng striving with each other, and struggling who should be

the first to approach Lord Mowbray. Calling to them with a tremendous voice, and brandishing the staff that he held er officio, in his right hand, he bade them stand off; then moving at the same moment a few steps forward, appeared ready to enforce his orders in a still more peremptory manner.

To those who happen to have witnessed the lashing-off a pack of hounds, when running dead in upon the object of their pursuit, the sudden check produced on the yelping and wrangling crew at Lord Mowbray's heels may perhaps be intelligible. In an instant all was silent, except the grinding of the teeth, and a low muttering which proceeded from some few of the boldest and most forward of the group, and whose looks showed that they rather respected the presence of their future lord, than the command of the man in authority.

Colonel Pennington took Lord Mowbray's arm, and as they quickened their pace to reach "A sad the summit, whispered in his ear, raggamuffin band! but I am glad to see, at any rate, that they are under some control."

They now stood upon the greensward that surrounded the Castle on every side save one : on that, the building rose abruptly from the very edge of the rock, and seemed to form a part of it. The head grew dizzy, as the eye, looking on the diminished waves beneath, measured the height of the precipice; and the vessels, spread over the vast expanse of ocean, appeared, as their white sails turned to the sun, like pearls set in an outspread mantle of azure.

Lord Mowbray cast a glance over the precipice, and, stepping hastily back, turned towards the entrance. A low arch led by a few steps into a sort of porch, at the end of which appeared a massive weatherbeaten door opening into a spacious hall, where damp and mildew hung in large patches upon the bare and neglected wall. Here and there remained the rusty fastenings which formerly had held the armour and warlike weapons of the inmates of the Castle; and above, suspended from the beams of the ceiling, tattered and clad with cobwebs, waved the remnants of banners once

VOL, I.

proudly borne by Lord Mowbray's ancestry in the field of battle, or planted in defiance on the ramparts of their fortress.

It was impossible that Lord Mowbray should not feel sad at these signs of departed greatness; and if his spirit had been of a turn to pass lightly over the reflections which they suggested, the very gloom of the place would have inspired him with melancholy. A wide and ample staircase, of the stone found in the neighbouring Isle of Portland, ascended from the middle of the hall, and, branching off right and left, terminated in a length of gallery communicating with the different apartments above. The broad and massive railing, on each side the steps, was ornamented with fretwork of quatre feuil; and at intervals were placed escutcheons, sculptured with the bearings of different families allied to the Mowbrays. As his eye rested on these frail emblems of pride, and saw the distinctions, thus vainly endeavoured to be preserved, mutilated and crumbling into dust, Lord Mowbray sighed, and

the occasion of his visit was recalled forcibly to his mind.

"Let a few years pass," he said inwardly, "and some one will be here to fulfil the same duty to my remains: what then avail all this parade, and these distinctions of earthly grandeur ?"

Many of the rooms, as they advanced, appeared going fast to total decay; the wind whistled from between the shutters, which, shrunk and rotten, no longer fitted the apertures; and some, suspended by one hinge only, left uncontrolled entrance to the storms of heaven. The torn arras, the remnants of rich brocade, hanging in shreds upon the walls; the empty picture-frames, robbed of the animated forms that once had spoken in mute intelligence to the spectator; the broken articles of massive furniture piled up in the fireplace, or standing tottering and leaning against the walls; the squalid state of the floors and ceilings; the birds' nests, built in the angles and recesses of the cornices and mouldings: all