which led by an easy communication to the apartments appropriated to her use. From this spot she beheld the departure of her father and his chosen men; she continued to watch the red glare of their glowing torches, which, reflected on the steel armour, threw its broad masses of light over the whole body of men, till a narrow path, winding between two mountains, concealed them from her view, and all traces of them, save a faint lustre which rose from their torches into the air, were lost in the gloom of night. Then, reclining her head on her hand, she leant over the battle-ments, listening to their footsteps, which, owing to the stillness of the night, were heard when they themselves were no longer visible. At length they died away also, and a solemn stillness prevailed, broken only at intervals by the sentinels, relieving each other from their posts, and the iron tongue of the castle clock, which sounded awfully, by the contrast of the stillness in which it was heard.

Night was stealing upon evening, but still Rosalind continued to wander in the air. The moon was now rising in cloudless majesty, attended by a sparkling train of glittering stars, and throwing her silvery honours on the regal brow of Skiddaw, monarch of the mountains; while an unruffled lake at its foot, a rival of its glory, appeared like an immense sheet of silver, studded with burnished gems.

Entranced by the scene she was beholding, Rosalind stood wrapt in reflection." Why," she cried,

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"is man the only piece of mechanism which this globe contains of whose nature discord forms a part? all above is harmony and peace-'tis but on earth, where man has a sway, that discord has existence. The silver moon sails calmly through the fleecy clouds, which separate obediently to clear her azure path; the stars, irregularly scattered through the firmament, know no hostile jarrings to disturb their movements or obscure their lustre. "Tis now the hour when nature asks repose: hushed are the songsters of the grove, and every animal seeks repose, but man-insatiate man alone awakes! man that should be the brother and the friend of man, awakes to plan the destruction of his fellow beings; subject as he is to innumerable infirmities of mind and body, short as is his own natural existence, he awakes to curtail a few moments of his allotted portion of life from his fellow-creature ; Happy those who die, if this it be to live! Oh, ye bright orbs, that now reflect your beams on me, say, do ye contain the dead within your blessed abodes ?—are ye the resting places whence the departed good look down on suffering mortals, and waft to them those sighs of pity which communicate fortitude to their bosoms under the trials of existence? If such ye are, a sainted mother and a murdered husband have their dwelling with you. Oh, spirits of bliss! if it be permitted you to administer consolation to the living, twine your wreaths of peace around my aching head; shed the balm of comfort upon my bursting heart; endue me with

resignation to the will of Omnipotence till the hand of Death shall release me from anguish, and call me to the blessed reward of meeting you again."

Rosalind continued standing with her eyes fixed on the planets to which her address had been directed, her every thought lost in scenes far distant from the spot on which she stood, till a faint sound, which resembled her own name, made her start, from the trance into which she had fallen, and look hastily around her. She was at that time standing on a projecting part of the rampart, which had an opposite side, that encircled an angle of the castle; and upon this she either saw, or fancied she saw, a dusky figure moving upwards, as if in the act of rising from the glacis below. A momentary fear seized her, but she had not been accustomed to suffer childish apprehensions to subdue her reason, and she exclaimed-" Who is that ?-what seek you here ?"

"It is only I, my lady-only Gertrude coming to look for you," returned a voice behind her, which she instantly recognized to be that of her faithful attendant" it is only I my lady; whom did you think it was?"

"I was rather startled by a shadow, I believe," replied Rosalind, and casting her eye towards the spot where the appearance of a figure had before struck her imagination, nothing but the unbroken line of the massive wall now met her sight.

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If you were startled at only seeing a shadow, my lady, what must they be that see a real sub

stantial ghost?" cried Gertrude. "I would not have been in poor Philip's place to-night for all the wealth in the castle. Pray come in, my lady-don't keep abroad; you don't know how dangerous it is to stay here; come in, and I'll tell you all about it; I came on purpose to warn you.'

"To warn me! of what, Gertrude?" asked Rosalind; "and who is this Philip, of whom you speak in terms of so great pity?"

Why, to be sure, my lady, though you do go very little amongst the inhabitants of the castle, you must have heard me speak of Philip Watkins; he was born in the same village where I was: it is he that you have heard me say got such a terrible thorn in his foot when he was getting me a blackbird's nest; if you don't remember the story, I'll tell it you again any other time; only it has nothing to do with the ghost Philip saw to night."

"Ghost!" echoed Rosalind, casting her eye involuntarily to the spot where she conceived that she had seen the appearance of a figure.

Ay, my lady, a dreadful black ghost: did you never in your life happen to see a ghost yourself?" "No," replied Rosalind, "nor any one else, I believe who had the courage to convince their senses of the delusion which they mistook for one."

Oh, my lady," cried Gertrude, " don't say so— pray don't be so wicked; they don't belong to this world, and should be respected. Old Ambrose the porter has seen it before, and Simon Williams saw it from the watchtower last night; only I

never heard of it till Philip was brought into the hall to-night in a fit at the sight of it. Pray, don't stay here, my lady, pray don't; I dare not keep with you indeed, if you do, for it was on this side of the castle that they both saw it walking;" and away she ran towards the door in the turret which led to Rosalind's apartment, still calling upon her to follow.

Rosalind complied, for the night was far advanced, although its serenity would perhaps have tempted her to have walked longer, had she not been interrupted in the manner she had been. The moment Rosalind was within the turret, Gertrude, who stood waiting her approach with a lamp in her hand, shut the door, and having fastened every bolt upon it, she exclaimed-" Thank Heaven we are safe in the castle, and pray its goodness we may be safe, now we are in it."

With the utmost good humour, Rosalind chid her for her weak apprehensions, and endeavoured by every argument to reason her out of her alarm; but the occurrences of the evening were at present too strongly imprinted on the mind of Gertrude, for it to be divested of them by the power of words only, and she proceeded to relate her tale.

"You must know, my lady" she said, "that it is now three evenings ago, as old Ambrose was returning from the village, where he had been on a visit to his sister-the poor old woman, my lady, at the foot of the hill, that you may remember broke her leg the day she was eighty, and that every body thought