her sister's face, which was incessantly rippling and sparkling beneath the breeze of mirthful fancy.

Karadan stood on the other side of Arzene, with his countenance turned away from the table: he held in his hand a javelin, and pretended to be wholly occupied in examining its sharp point, or trying the strength of the nether end by striking it against the marble floor; but half smiles and flitting blushes, which passed over his dark cheeks and brow, and beamed for a moment in his full black eye, evinced that the sallies of his blithe sister had not missed their mark. At the lower end of the board sate Magnart, and he too was smiling and showing so goodly an aspect, that how he gained. Polyanthida by winning the heart of that noble heiress. appeared to be no deep mystery. A blooming boy sate on his knee and leaned forward with both his arms on the table to catch the jests of Zelneth, at which he laughed louder than all the company, till, on spying Phantasmion, he sprung from his father's knee and ran up to him, exclaiming, "Our cousin is not come ! Unkind Queen Maudra-." "Hermillian! hold thy peace!" cried Zelneth, while her brow assumed that lofty air which naturally belonged to it, but which the smiles of youth and gaiety were continually charming away. "Our beloved Iarine returned home of her own accord, when the messenger was sent to tell her of her father's illness.' "All a false pretence, I dare be sworn!" murmured the boy as he quitted the apartment, rushing past the prince, whom at first he had taken for one of his familiar acquaintances.

The current of Phantasmion's blood seemed for a moment to be arrested by young Hermillian's announce

E

ment, but he made an effort to conceal his feelings, and when he looked on the graceful figure of Karadan, he almost felt glad that Iarine was not there to behold it too. Arzene courteously invited him to join the repast, and, seating himself at the table, he entered into discourse with her and her fair daughters. Zelneth continued her gay smiles, though more chary of her words than before the approach of the noble stranger; and Leucoia's soft brown eyes, that swam in silvery lustre, gazed on the youth when he spoke to others, but when he turned his bright glances on herself, were bashfully withdrawn to rest on the blue scarf still worn across his breast. Phantasmion talked with the damsels, and saw their beauty, but felt it no more than that of the sculptured nymphs which gleamed in white marble behind them.

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"We cannot enjoy our cousin's sweet company," said the wife of Magnart, "but let us not forget the delicate conserve which the messenger brought us from her." Karadan," cried Zelneth, "I warn thee not to taste Iarine's gift, thou wilt he sure to find it as bitter as wormwood." While the dark stripling allowed Arzene to pour some of the rich viand on his plate, his elder sister offered a portion of it to Phantasmion, who accepted her courtesy, well pleased to taste what had come from the hands of the Island princess. After eating a few mouthfuls of the conserve, he fixed his eyes on the vessel from which it had been taken : no sooner had he marked its resemblance to the silver pitcher into which he had seen Iarine pour the manycoloured fish, than his head swam dizzily, the brilliant lights and smiling faces danced before him, then vanished

into darkness, and soon he sank fainting from his seat at the board. Karadan, who sat next him, and had been watching his actions instead of tasting the spicy food, held out his arms and prevented him from falling on the floor. Immediately after Phantasmion was surrounded by all who had been sitting round the table, and was borne by attendants, at the command of Arzene, to a luxurious chamber of the palace.

CHAPTER IX.

KARADAN TAKES POSSESSION OF THE SILVER PITCHER.

PHANTASMION remained without sense or motion for nearly an hour, but, opening at length his heavy lids, he beheld faces bright and soft bending over him, and felt as if he had awakened from the sleep of death and beheld angels watching his reanimation. Arzene, when she perceived that he was about to raise his head, made a sign to her daughters and they glided out of the room, while the youth, ere he again relapsed into unconsciousness, felt as if he had seen but the figures of a dream. The lady now called to mind a sovereign antidote against the effects of poison; this she administered, and seeing her patient recover more thoroughly, she left him to court refreshing slumbers, guests which, when they need to be courted, never come. The torpor that lately possessed the prince was now exchanged for restlessness and burning heat; he rose from his couch, and sought the fresh air from a balcony which looked out on smooth turf, bounded by a sheet of water. In the midst of the lawn stood Karadan embracing the silver pitcher which had lately graced the supper table, as if in an ecstasy of joy; but soon his looks and gestures changed; the pitcher fell from his arms; he gazed upon it with `a countenance of grief; he clasped his hands; and his dark face up-turned to the clear calm sky, appeared to

quiver with emotion, while tears that filled his eyes glittered in the moonshine. Toward his right hand was

a tall cypress, on one of the higher boughs of which an owl standing with his body erect, his wings closed, and his plumage smooth as ivory, looking like a figure carved out of the wood of the tree. When Karadan took up the fallen vessel and advanced to the water's edge, this bird upreared the horn-like tuft upon his head, and, light as thistle-down, he flew from the summit of the cypress to a lower bough, only a few feet from the ground. Meantime the dark youth cast the pitcher's glutinous contents on the grass, and, kneeling down, immersed the vessel in the water not many paces from the cypress tree. While he was employed in rinsing it, the owl quitted the bough, and came hovering around him with such a soft smooth flight, that the abstracted youth perceived not the bird till he saw its shadow before him on the gleaming pool; then he lifted up his hand to scare it away, but, after eddying round the lawn with airy motion, it returned to the same spot and began to feed on the fishy mass which had been poured from the pitcher. A merry hoot, mimicking the owl's cry, burst from some part of the mansion: the bird seemed not to heed it, but Karadan started and hastened away, wrapping the pitcher in his loose garment.

Phantasmion's attention was now arrested by ringing laughter, and the name of Iarine uttered repeatedly in two different voices, one low and murmuring as the rustle of a willow grove in the wind, the other high and clear as the breeze that plays among the pendulous branches. He moved towards the place whence the sounds proceeded, and beheld the interior of an apartment