Hildebrand-aye, and for thee, Torfin.-Look well to thy horse-gear and body-array, for we shall scarce part hence without blows."

"Good. But whither away again, so fair and fast?"

"To the north gate I; this, methinks, is the hour to lay charge upon our jolly archers." And thus saying, Raymond addressed him en palefrenier, and bitted, saddled, and mounted, with fiery dispatch.

"By St. George, Raymond," cried Torfin, glancing at Du Coci's steed, "there is never a hair of thy red roan upon the body of that prancer !"

"Tush!" answered the Cavalier, "it was elfinchanged upon the journey hither, and may again be red as a rose ere night. Away, my gallant one!" and, instantly upon clearing the convent bounds, the full-fed courser bounded off with a rapidity according well with the mood of the excited rider. The streets, both cross and main, and crowded as they were, vanished from before him, but ere he could pull bridle at the castlebarbican, his attention was drawn by a yet louder clattering of hoofs behind. He turned, and saw two horsemen, keeping, by main dint of rod and rowel, their jaded coursers at a speed which

betokened extreme haste. Both men and horses were literally embossed with foam, upon which the dust of the summer roads was converting itself into a semi-liquid, that streaked with no beautifying tints the furniture alike of biped and quadruped. These hurrying cavaliers were almost abreast of Raymond before he distinguished, in the first, his quondam friend, Nicholas de L'Epée, whose glowing visage, quick, restless eyes, and goodly projecting nose, glared through the muddy streams of perspiration, not unlike the grotesque visage of some heraldic monster, grinning deep gules through the bars of a portcullis sable. His companion was a thin, tall, muscular, brawny-looking fellow, armed to the teeth, and with very much the air of one who would strike murderously for whosoever paid best.

"Friend Raymond!" cried the panting and puffing Nicholas-" Oh, if thou hast Christian charity in thee, take me, I beseech thee, (horse and all, if thou wilt,) and fling me into the Itchin!"

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Nay," replied Coeur d'Acier, "here is the

moat, and at hand, quoth Pickpurse!""

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"Pah! mud and slime-as well hang me over

the bridge at once! it is for the deep deliciousness of the cold clear stream-a long unbreathing draught—that I am praying! My throat is a seven-times heated furnace-my blood is baked to a red jelly-a score of fire-brands are in my lungs-my very heart is a seething pan-my tongue will be a-blaze ere I am done telling thee of it! and all for thee, thou pitiless son of Mahound!"

"For me! thou riddling Termagaunt!” said Raymond, "why, whenever didst thou fret stirrup-leather upon errand of mine, I pray thee?"

"I have fretted stirrup-leather and heartstrings, aye, my very bowel-cords, to be here and at thy beck!" replied Nicholas.

"Grammercy for thy bowels! I would thou hadst compassion in them for my dulness, and would'st expound this riddle."

"Oh, wilful buzzard! wilt not perceive? hast thou forgotten the Sorcerer? are there not goodly caracutes in Essex? fair oxgangs of arable and meadow? with mills and osier-grounds, and the fiend knows what? Are there not bright shekels bidden for the same? and is not the hour coming at a hand-gallop when these things shall be under the white wax ?"

"A fiend draw the tooth that bites it!" exclaimed Raymond,* "if thou hast plied rod and rowel on that score, bring me to speech of thy lord, and I will entreat for a whole butt of Rhenish to scour the fiery dust out of thy gullet. I would speak, too, with the good Sir Alberic upon mine own part

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Very like," said Nicholas; "but tarry and fast, good stranger, until they of the house be fed. I must do mine own turn first, come next who will."

"Nay, thou mayst do mine, too, in a breath," said Raymond, "it is but to commend me to thy master in all grateful courtesy, and to note to him that this goodly prancer is delivered to the safe keeping of his palefrenier."

"Sir," replied Nicholas, with affected stateliness, we of my lord's household be men of action, and of divers trusts and offices. I say not to you, just now, who is master of the horse, palefrenier, varlet, or coistrel; but this I say, make my lord's saddle quit of thy courteously grateful body, and betake thee to the trysting

*"And for token that this is sooth,

I bite the white wax with my tooth."

Rhyming Grant of the Conqueror.

place ye wot of.-Oh, Raymond! Raymond! thou mayst bless Heaven and our Lady, and this gallant in the marvellously rusty mail-(who turned me back with feet beautiful on the mountains, mid-way 'twixt hence and Dover)-thou mayst bless all these, I say, that I am not now, in thy very pinch and extremity, shivering afar from thee on the sea-beach, instead of sweating here in Winchester for thy proper advantage. Away with thee!"

And thus saying he seized the reins from the dismounted Raymond, and vanished immediately through the barbican, followed by his uncouth companion.

We have made our readers better acquainted with the various personages who figure in this veritable history than the said personages had yet become with each other. For instance, Raymond Coeur d'Acier, in spite of as keen and quick an eye for most matters as any gallant in Britain, had yet failed to detect in Jodesac's merchant-visitors the Red King and his subtle Justiciary. Not feeling ourselves imperatively called upon to account for this unwonted dulness of perception, we pass on, and assume the privilege of laying the blindness of the sharp-sighted