alive, was strongly expressed in his set teeth, and expanded lips, as well as in his strained eye-balls, still glaring as the light fell upon them.

Clea

ver, accustomed as he had been to scenes of death, could not contemplate the features of this ruffian, who had fallen by his hand, without a certain degree of horror. It immediately occurred to him, that if he felt the sight disagreeable, it must necessarily be still more revolting in the eyes of Miss Malcolm. He looked round, and observing a low doorway leading into a small vaulted chamber behind him, he hastily dragged the dead body thither, and deposited it out of view.

Having again returned, he raised his torch to permit the light to penetrate into the farther extremity of the apartment, when it discovered to him the lady seated, and half reclining within an arched recess in the farther wall, and with her head concealed in a part of her drapery. She was in the deepest distress. Not only were her sobs audible, but their short convulsive motions were visible through the mantle enveloping her form. Cleaver approached her with all the delicacy the circumstances demanded.

"Madam," said he, "I fear you have been

much alarmed by the conflict. But be comforted, I beseech you. Your enemies are defeated, and you are now amongst your friends. Suffer me to lead you from a place which must have so many horrors for you. Though I am a stranger to you, there is one below, in whom you are probably more interested than for any other human being."

He had no sooner pronounced these words, than the lady started up, and discovered her face and person. Cleaver was dazzled with the extreme beauty of both, even though her features were clouded by the grief, the terror, and the suffering she had undergone.

"Is he then below ?" demanded she, with a sudden emotion of joy, "Oh let me see him!"—and so saying, she endeavoured to rush past him to the doorway.

"Stay, lady, stay your haste for a moment," said Cleaver, "he is below; but I must warn you before you see him, not to be alarmed, for he has received a trifling wound, of no serious consequence to be sure; but it wears, at first sight, rather an alarming appearance." „ob even

"A wound!" exclaimed she, in a faintér tóne,

Oh! let me to him!" and darting past Clea

ver,

she hurried down the stair with so much rapidity, that he, not always so active as when he climbed the mound during the attack, had some difficulty in following her, and had she not by accident turned at first into a wrong apartment, he must have allowed her to announce herself. Having, however, by this means gained the doorway of the chamber where Lord Eaglesholme was, in sufficient time to precede her.

"Miss Malcolm comes, my Lord!" said he almost out of breath.

Lord Eaglesholme's countenance betrayed extreme emotion.

"Where is he? Oh tell me where he is!" exclaimed the lady as she hastily entered, and stood with her fair hair streaming in disorder, eagerly surveying every face in succession, and vainly trying to discover the object of her thoughts."Oh! where is he ?"

"Here is Lord Eaglesholme, Madam," said Cleaver." Pray stand back a little, Macauley, my good fellow, and permit Miss Malcolm to behold her uncle."

Lord Eagleshome's languid eyes, which had

received a temporary animation from the hope that gladdened them, darted through the intervening group, filled with all the tenderness with which they usually met those of his beloved niece. But they instantly recoiled from her who now ap peared before him, and he betrayed symptoms of the most cruel disappointment.

"Good Heavens !" exclaimed he, with extreme agitation, "where is Eliza Malcolm? can it be? can we have been deceived ?"

"Is not this Miss Malcolm, my Lord ?" inquired Cleaver, greatly surprised.

"Miss Malcolm!" repeated Lord Eaglesholme in a tone of bitter mortification. "But I beg your pardon, Captain Cleaver, you never saw her. But," said he with great keenness, as if still flattered by a lingering hope," though you have been misled as to this person, she may still be confined somewhere within these walls. Let me go," said he, making an effort to rise," I feel myself quite strong now-let me go to search for her myself."

- J But his strength was only in idea, for so great was his weakness, that he had nearly fainted from the unavailing exertion he made. I bud

"I see," said he

I see I have over-estimated my physical powers. But you, perhaps, Captain Cleaver

"My Lord," said Cleaver, interrupting him"I will search every crevice within these walls -nay, every inch within the circuit of the moat, as if I were looking for a lost diamond: rest assured, that if the Castle of Moatmallard contains Miss Malcolm, I will find her."

So calling Handy to him, and one or two others with lights, he proceeded up the broken stair to the top of the building, and beginning there, he examined every part of it, story by story, regularly downwards, peeping even into impossible places, and rummaging every nook and cranny; then diving into the subterraneous vaults, he sought the whole of their labyrinth, nay, even the ruins surrounding the court-yard did not escape him; but all without effect.

With a heavy foot, that, even from a distance, sounded ominously in Lord Eaglesholme's ear, Cleaver returned to the apartment where he had left him.

"Alas! you need not speak," said his Lordship, surveying his countenance with a look of