ed through two or three windows, and defined the whole dark outline against the sky.

They had hardly gazed for a few seconds before the black cloud spread rapidly, with its smoking edges, over a third of the heavens, and some heavy drops of rain fell. Walsingham looked at Maria, and she said, "Let us make haste to the church; there is no nearer shelter." She turned her horse in that direction, and riding fast, they reached the broken walls of the small green enclosure in which the ruin stood, before much rain had fallen. They pushed through one of the gaps, gained the porch, and dismounted. The door was not locked, and they entered the building, and tied their horses to an old iron stancheon in the wall. A stone-bench still remained under the spire of the church, on which Maria sat down, while Walsingham stood beside her. The eastern window, at the other end of the church from them, was in a great degree blocked up by rubbish and ivy, but through it was seen the grey sky, with a streak or two of faint red. The western window, near them, was quite open, and between its shafts they saw the dark and stormy landscape, the sea, angry and labouring under the heavy sky, yet kindled here and there with flamelike rays, and the broad fierce sun balancing for a moment its crimson orb on the perilous edge of the horizon.

They gazed in earnest delight, but the sharp glare which struck upon Maria's eyes compelled her to raise her hand before her face, while Walsingham stood confronting the violent and resplendent hour, while the glory upon his marble face was met by more than answering power from within. She looked at him with admiration from behind her hand, now tinged to a transparent pink; and she thought that if, as she believed, his life were far too statuesque and coldly predeter mined, yet intelligence and sensibility could never have been invested with a nobler form. At this instant the lightning flashed and filled the church; the thunder broke in a long peal. The sun seemed to have dropped like a flag at the signal, and barely burnt above the sea with a hand's breadth of intense radiance. A crash of rain came down upon the building. Walsingham turned composedly to Maria,

and seated himself beside her. "This scene," he said, "is worth some inconvenience. I fear, had you expected it, you would have stayed at home. It would have been an additional inducement to me to come here."

"I should hardly have been allowed to choose, but I am not sorry for the event."

The wind rose high, and dashed the rain in noisy bursts about the ruin. The neighbouring old beech-trees roared. The sound of the sea was not audible, but a vague roll of white and black confusion showed its tumult even at a distance. A glimmer of the sunset still played over it, though the sun was now drowned out. The greatness of the powers at work stirred and enlarged the two beholders with a grave joy. They felt themselves rise and expand with the strong elements.

"One feels now," said Walsingham, "what life there is in nature, and our feeling shows how deeply it is involved with our life, how inseparably its powers are one with those we wield and are conscious of. Almost,

we dare to say, with every gust and peal, these efforts of the universe have their impulsions from our breasts, so mightily do sympathy and abounding imagination gush with them from within us."

"The storm is very grand," she said, "but I feel as if I should yield to its grasp, and lose myself in its vastness, if there were not a sense of religion which the sublime struggle awakens in me, but which raises me above it to God."

He did not answer her directly. But soon she heard him repeating, as if rather to himself than to her,Ye demon winds that fill the vault of air,

And caves of earth with uproar Sibylline, On whose dark blasts the fates let loose

their hair

Amid the thunder-clouds to stream and twine,

Rage on, huge spirits, wildly as ye can! Yet nobler tempest swells the soul of

man.

They were both silent for some moments, when the lightning again broke in terrible beauty, and before the swift sound followed, they saw the ruin and each other's faces in a blaze of light, and land and sea swept over by the meteoric burst, and in the dis

tant depth a vessel reeling and crouching under the tempest. Involuntarily she grasped his arm. She had never felt so intimately attracted to him as when he laid his hand on hers, and returned her trembling pressure.

"It is the hour," he said, " of the Spirits; but I cannot wish it otherwise, or that I were away from here."

"I feel that God is here, but

as if he did not reach so far as that poor ship."

"He is there too," replied Walsingham, in a voice almost as low as hers, but most, doubtless, with those who believe in Him."

66

The horses were uneasy and frightened at the storm; and the poet said, after a pause," Those animals feel only apprehension. We can admire and enjoy the hour, so much nearer do we lie to the source of all things, at which, could we quite attain to it, all would doubtless appear in perfect harmony."

"How noble," exclaimed Maria, "are these organ tones, so infinitely deep, of the vast air, while in the midst of them we hear so many broken sounds, some even whispers, like voices of living hearts, filling the whole tempest, and modulating every breath of it."

Her hand now lay calmly in his, and he could feel its quiet pulsation. His own beat more hurriedly-excited not by the tempest but by her. "Yes," he said, "not only the ethereal powers are working with fresh energies around us,—but the spirits in ourselves, and how many are there, each claiming in turn to be our true self, which no one of them is, but all of them together are, awakened and busy in such an hour, strong with more than common life. Nor can they stir and throng without calling round them, too, the other spirits of the past and present, perhaps of the future, and of all beings with whom our hearts have ever held true communion. It is the graves themselves which are dead, and the dead live triumphantly around us."

His sweet and steady voice flowed clear and low amid the clang and discord of the winds and rain, and wrought, with the hour itself, in the ears of Maria, like an enchantment. She pressed the hand which held hers, and looking at the other hand, said to him in a deep whisper,-" How that ring of yours glitters in the dark

ness! I too feel as if there were a wondrous life and spiritual presence around us. But for weeks past I have had something of this feeling, and more than ever since you have been staying with us. It is now a month since I have heard any thing of a dear friend, and his image has been haunting me at intervals all the time."

She felt his hand relax, and that he trembled while she spoke. She too now trembled, for never to any one before had she spoken of her love. But the previous idea still possessed her, for the potent strife of nature had elevated and freed her soul, and broken down many an old barrier of reserve.

"Often," she continued, "and especially when you are with me, he walks visibly before me, and turns his head as if to look at me, but never so much that I can catch his eye. There," she cried, "there-now he sees me !" and she drew her hand away convulsively, and pointed into the darkness. A keen flash now came, and showed Walsingham that there was no one where she had looked. The astounding thunder followed; and Maria, at the same time, fell back with a long sigh. Walsingham, too, was much agitated, for what he thus learnt of Maria's affections bitterly disappointed him; but he commanded himself sternly. Another flash now spread around them, and the thunder followed so rapidly as to show how near to them was the explosion; but before it was heard she had again opened her eyes, and both she and her companion saw once more the fated ship, which now lay stripped and dismasted, and seeming to take its final plunge into the deep. They kept their eyes fixed upon the spot, but even when some fainter electric lights did play over the view, the sea was now invisible through the black sheets of rain. The streams from the steeple above them and from the remaining portions of the roof were heard rushing down with a continuous uproar, while the rattle and the murmur of the rain itself spread all around, and the wind howled and bellowed as if the universe were given over to its wrath. Except during the moments of the lightning, it had long been pitch dark. Maria felt that she could speak more boldly than if she had been seen by Walsingham, and she said in a low voice," I have been talking very wildly; but this tempest had filled me

with strange and stirring thoughts, and I felt as if we knew each other better than I should ever otherwise have believed."

"Dear friend!" he answered gently and sadly" such hours as these set afloat much that was aground, and open much that was closed. What wonder, when such blasts are beating on the gates of our caverns, that they should burst open, and apparitions of long-hidden truth come out, and leap with inspired frenzy in the wide commotion? When the storm passes, the dark gates close anew, and the shapes sink back into their cells, perhaps for ever. To-morrow we shall wake as inhabitants of calm day-light; the involuntary and painful disturbance will have ceased; and the sense of what has been will remain as lasting joy and strength."

Quiet passed into her bosom with his words, and she took his hand again, but scarcely had he received and returned this token of good-will, when they both were smitten by a fearful shock. Their eyes seemed seared and blinded, and their ears filled with an overwhelming noise. The air they breathed was thick with dust, and tasted sulphureous. For some seconds the monstrous clamour continued and the racking bewilderment, till Walsingham exclaimed-" Are you hurt?" "No-no," she answered, "What is it ?"

"The lightning 'has struck the church; but we are now probably safe."

They were still nearly stifled by the dust, but they could see imperfectly, for they were no longer in total darkness. He looked up and saw a blaze high in the spire; Maria, too, perceived the fact; but she became at once calm and steady, and said, "What are we to do? In the dark

ness outside we could not find our way, and if we remain we may be injured by the flames and ruins."

They looked again, and saw that the flames had spread wider among the old wood-work, though the rain hissed on them loudly. Walsingham gazed for a minute fixedly upward, and then said,-" We are in no danger. You must continue here in this recess, where nothing falling from above can hurt you; and there are, I think, means of obtaining help. See here! and he pointed out to her the rope of the church-bell still hanging near them. This he seized, and began to ring it with all his strength. The loud alarm boomed out through the storm, while the crackling flames blazed and smoked around the spire, but had not yet reached the bell-rope."

He paused in his work after a time, and said, "I wonder how it happens that this bell is left here, when the building is otherwise so entirely abandoned."

"I think I have heard," replied Maria, " that the parish to which the church belongs, but which has now a more modern place of worship nearer the village, holds some lands on condition of having this bell rung for an hour every St Peter's day, and that it is never sounded at any other time of the year."

He now began to ring again, till at last the rope caught fire and was divided; and soon after, the bell became heated, and cracked. "So much," he said, "for the parish tenure of its lands." He now placed himself beside her, and in a few moments they heard, through the abating storm and the increasing sound of the fire, a human voice and tread, and then a man carrying a lantern appeared amid the smoky gloom.

"What friend," cried the voice, are you that have taken possession of the old tower? A pretty beacon and clamour you have raised!"

"We were driven here," replied Walsingham," by the storm, and the lightning has struck the building. There is a lady here who wants your help."

The man came on, guided by the

voice, and when close to them, held up his lantern to see their faces, thus, at the same time, partly showing his own. "O! Mr Collins," said Maria, "this is a strange scene that you find us in."

It was the friend she had spoken of to Walsingham who now stood before them, his hat dripping with rain, which fell over his long and loose grey hair.

"What?"he answered,-" Maria Lascelles! Why you are even a gayer creature of the elements than any complimentary young gentleman could have supposed, if you have chosen such an evening for a pleasant ride. And who is this with you?"

"Mr Walsingham, whose name you must have often heard."

Collins looked at him with a sharp glance of cold curiosity, and said, "Well, you are as odd a pair of wildducks as ever took wing through a storm. But what must be done now?" He looked up at the burning spire, and said, "We shall have half that wood-work and stuff up there down about our heads in three minutes; but the rain must be near over now; it was clearing off fast when I came in here. Unless you want to be found by half the village, whom that clatter you were making with the bell will set swarming, to say nothing of the bonfire, you had best be off with me to my house. I can manage to shelter you for the night, and I suppose you can provide for yourselves in the morning." They thanked him for his offer, and Maria said she would not accept it, but that she really felt weak and ill, and feared she should not be able to ride home. They placed her on her horse, which Collins led, carrying the lantern, and Walsingham beside her leading his, and ready to support her had she required it.

The house to which Collins took his guests was about half a mile from the church, and he led them there by steep paths and over ground soaked with the heavy rain. But the sky was now fast opening, and the moon shone bright. Maria looked silently at the sea, but no ship was to be seen upon its broken and shifting surface. Before they reached the place of their destination they passed a cottage, where they procured a man to go on Walsingham's horse and tell Mrs Nugent of her niece's safety. Turning away from this spot, they had the church in view. The spire, a mass of red and yellow flame, sent up a column of black smoke into the clear sky, and the moonbeams now fell upon that dark aerial structure. While they gazed, the building fell with an audible crash. An explosion of flame, sparks, and smoke flew upwards, and then the conflagration gradually sank down,

and was hardly perceptible, except from a dull discoloration above it in the sky, and from the light through a small window in the lower part of the

tower.

In a few minutes more they arrived at the house of Collins, which, before he came to it, had been that of a mere labourer. It consisted of only three rooms, two below and one above. The upper one was usually his bedroom, the outer of the lower ones his parlour and kitchen, and the other the chamber of the old woman who was his only servant. Walsingham secured the horse in a shed, while Collins showed Maria into his cottage. He drew a seat for her beside the fire-place, and busied himself in kindling a fire, while he sent the old woman up stairs to prepare his room for her use. Walsingham soon came in, and the three sat round the fire.

Collins was a man hardly of middle age, and of rather low stature. That which struck you at first as most remarkable in his appearance was the bright glow of his complexion, and the silver grey of his long and floating hair. He had rather small and dark eyes, which did not fix with keenness, but seemed most frequently averted in abstraction. There was, however, an air of quietness and resolution about all his actions. His head always looked firmly set; his hands tense, as if to gripe or clench. His feet seemed rooted where he set them down. Ill health, or grief, or natural character, had added a strong cast of sadness, and even of harshness to his counte. nance; and there was something so earnest and vigorous about the whole aspect, as to give the notion of a catapult kept ever loaded to discharge its weighty missile. This often came in the shape of some rude and sudden phrase, violent and picturesque, but also luminous as a burning arrow. A broad and rough kindliness, and an adamantine honesty, were apparent at first sight, and gained increased value on better knowledge. He had lived in educated society, had travelled, and read much. But, two or three years before the present time, he had come to the spot where he now lived, hired a cottage with a tolerable garden, and there established a great number of bee-hives, the inhabitants of which drew their fragrant honey chiefly from the heathy surface of their neighbour

ing hills. He attended to them himself, and appeared to derive from them his principal, if not his only support. Many of his hours he spent in wandering alone over the hills. But it was a pleasure to him to meet with any casual strangers, however squalid their wretchedness. He also spoke without reluctance to persons of the highest class of society who happened to fall within his reach. But if he found them barren and worthless he swung them off impatiently, often with some grim jest, and, shaking his bent brows, went upon his way sullen and thought ful.

On the present occasion the wolfman, as he might himself have said, had on his sheep's clothing, and seemed cheerful and hospitable. He desired his ancient helpmate to prepare tea, and fry some slices of bacon; and, with this, and bread and honey from Collins's hives, they had a meal which sufficed to refresh them.

"What can have taken you," said Collins," to the old church at such an hour of such an evening? Did you wait till it was pitch dark in order to see the view the better?"

"Darkness," answered Walsingham," is sometimes well worth seeing. We, however, wanted only to view the sunset from the church, and proposed to return by twilight and moonlight. But the storm overtook us, and, no doubt, also detained Mrs Nugent at the farm-house, where she had stopped behind us for a few moments. We were, of course, glad of the shelter afforded by the ruin. What we should have done at last, but for you, I cannot imagine."

"Oh! the darkness would not have ate you; and a night in the old church in such weather would have been a foretaste of a kind of dim and bleak ghostland, much like, I suppose, to that which we shall all one day visit. As it is, no doubt the ringing of the bell will be attributed to an evil spirit by half the county. I myself was rather in hopes of finding some huge skeleton, or demon, hard at work pulling the rope, and was rather disappointed at seeing only you."

"Ay," said Walsingham," it would make no bad tale. Suppose we spread the rumour:-A nameless fiend amused himself with ringing the bell till his burning hands set the rope on fire, which communicated with the

wood-work; and when Mr Collins and a crowd of country people came to see what was the matter, he burst out at the top of the spire in an eruption of flame and smoke, gave a laugh. ing yell as he vanished, and, at the same moment, the building fell in, and all the inhabitants of the old churchyard were heard to groan in their graves, while Miss Lascelles was obliged, by the smell of sulphur, to use her smelling-bottle. But after all, Mr Collins, I doubt whether any appari tion you might have found and invited home with you, would have enjoyed your supper as much as we."

"No; I suppose not. And, in fact, my surprise and disappointment were as foolish as that of a farmer, some miles from this, who received an anonymous letter, telling him that in the middle of a certain wood, on such a day, he would find something far more strange and precious than the crown jewels-a specimen, indeed, of the most wonderful thing on earth. He went, expecting a bushel of diamonds, or Fortunatus's purse, or something equally unlike turnips and clover, and was much astonished and puzzled at seeing only a poor little chubby baby. Yet the letter-writer said true enough. I do not know that even I have much right to complain on the present occasion."

"Then I am sure we have not," said Maria; "but I am afraid you are very wet-and she glanced at his hat, which lay on the floor beside him."

"Oh my old hat is soaked a little. So many queer mists and vapours must rise up in it from one's brains, especially when one has happened to look into a newspaper or a fashionable novel, that it need not flinch from a few aerial clouds descending on it. It is a sort of temporary firmament between the storms and clatter of one's head below, and the other capricious meteorology up above. And so Metaphysics are only the Moore's Almanac of our brain-weather. Many a system, indeed, in the Almanac of a past year is falsified by the event, and reprinted with a fresh date, as if it would be valid for the next twelvemonth."

He laughed a short sardonic laugh, and then fixed his eyes upon the fire, as if he had uttered his oracle and was content.

Walsingham smiled, and said "It would be amusing to have a complete history of coverings for the head writ