must have died of it, and now she is quite finely again, is not it a wonderful recovery ?"

Yes, it is," answered Rosalind; "but proceed in your story without interruption."

"I am only explaining a little as I go on, my lady," resumed Gertrude. Well, old Ambrose came hobbling along-he can't walk very fast, since he has had the rheumatism-looking down on the ground and picking his way for fear he should stumble, when, just as he was turning the eastern angle of the castle moat, he happened to lift up his eyes, and there he saw, oh, mercy on us! a tall ghost, all in black from head to foot; and the moment he saw it, it vanished away from him in a noise like the hissing of serpents !"

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Probably," said Rosalind, "the old man's alarm was occasioned by the shadow of a tree; and the motion of its leaves, agitated by the wind, created the rustling noise he heard."

"No, no, no, no, my lady," exclaimed Gertrude, "he might have been deceived once, but last night he saw the very same appearance again, on the very spot where he had seen it before, and it vanished away from him again, just in the same manner; this was about eight o'clock in the evening; and now it is come out that Simon Williams saw the very same spectre at midnight, stalking backwards and forwards before the eastern rampart, where you were walking this very night. Heaven be praised I came and called you away before the dreadful hour strikes !"

Rosalind was silent; no faith in spirits was growing in her mind, but the information conveyed by Gertrude of the appearance of a figure in black near the rampart seemed so strongly to vouch for her senses not having deceived her in regard to the dusky form which she had believed herself to have seen that night, that she could not immediately collect her thoughts to reply to Gertrude's account.

Gertrude mistook her silence for alarm, and exclaimed-" I wish I had kept it all a secret from you, my lady, since I see how much it has frightened you; for I know it will be impossible to withhold the rest of the story from you, now you have heard part of it; and what I have already told you is nothing to what is to come about poor Philip."

"I own I am rather surprised by what you tell me," replied Rosalind-" frightened I assure you I am not. Amidst the calamities which you know I have suffered, you have always seen that I had still consolation left me within my own breast; it arises from the consciousness that I have never committed a voluntary fault; this knowledge is my talisman against all fear. If there be spirits, either good or evil, permitted to revisit the earth, I still rely that the virtuous power is the superior, and that the innocent will not be allowed to suffer for their appearance."

"What a comfort it is to hear religious words when one is terrified almost out of one's senses !" exclaimed Gertrude." Heaven bless you! you talk as well as poor father Anthony did, rest his

soul! Well, then, you won't be frightened to hear with what art this black ghost managed to-night to get into the castle-court, will you, my dear lady?"

"If it had really been a spirit," replied Rosalind, according to the nature of such aerial beings, it need not have used the art you describe it to have practised for introducing itself wherever it wished to be but proceed."

'Why you see, my lady," said Gertrude," this evening, when lord William and his troops left the castle, many of our men who were not destined to go upon this expedition, went over the draw-bridge with their comrades, intending to march a little way with them; but your father would not allow it, so they were forced to return back to the castle. All directly repassed the bridge but old Ambrose and Philip; they stood chattering, Heaven forgive them for it! on the other side, when, all on a sudden— they don't know whence it came, nor whether it walked, nor whether it flew, but all on a sudden, as I said before, there stood before them this tall black spirit, all in armour; it had one foot upon the drawbridge when they first saw it. Poor old Ambrose fell upon his knees and began to pray: Philip rushed up to it, for he was terrified enough, as you may well think, at the idea of what might become of him if he suffered a ghost to go over the bridge while he was the sentinel on it; and was just presenting his pike at it to prevent its proceeding, when it lifted up its beaver, and they saw its face; and oh, my dear lady, what do you think it was? the face of a corpse,

pale and emaciated, with a streak of blood down the left cheek. Philip dropped down in a fit, old Ambrose was stupified with fright and astonishment, and the ghost walked over the bridge !"

Gertrude now paused for Rosalind's reply, who said—“ Is that all you have to tell me?"

All, my dear lady!" exclaimed Gertrude," and is not that enough? the ghost, you see, has got within our walls, and who knows what may be the end of his visit. Poor Philip was brought into the hall in fits, and is scarcely recovered from them still, nor can I believe he ever will perfectly, for had I seen such a dreadful-Oh, Jesus, what's that?" cried she, interrupting herself in her story.

'Only the clock striking midnight," replied Rosalind. "You see, by your present apprehensions, how sounds we are the most accustomed to have the power of startling us, when our minds are weakened by tales of folly or superstition. Thus simply, I make no doubt, might the ghost of this night be accounted for, if reason had been suffered to exert her influence upon the minds of those who thought they saw a phantom."

Gertrude remained incredulous, and would probably have talked the whole night, of what she knew nothing but from hearsay, that deceitful intelligencer, had not her mistress, by undressing herself, and getting into bed, given her a signal of silence for the night; and Gertrude was obliged, though with great reluctance, to retire to the adjoining apartment, where her bed stood, and where

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she was compelled either to hold her tongue or talk to herself: the latter she preferred, probably for the same reason that boys whistle in a dark night upon the road, that they may hear no noise but their own; and thus Gertrude fairly talked herself to sleep.

Rosalind, although free from every apprehension that agitated the mind of her loquacious attendant, did not so soon lose reflection in sleep; for although she had no faith in the supernatural existence of the black figure that had appeared to Ambrose and his companions, still she could not forbear making it. a subject of thought, and attaching to it some degree of credit, from the similarity of their account of the phantom, to the sable form which had that night appeared to her on the eastern rampart.

CHAPTER III.

All comfort, joy, in this most precious lady,
Heaven ever laid up to make parents happy,
May hourly fall upon ye!

KING HENRY VIII.

AND now, whilst lord William and his party are on their march, and his daughter Rosalind locked in the arms of sleep, we will step back a few years, for some particulars which are necessary to be learnt, before we proceed in our story.

The first of the De Mowbray family on whom the