me, sought my chamber and perceived that I was wretched. From him, having unburthened my bosom and confided the secrets of my soul, I received the greatest attention. By force of argument, by the fairest reasoning, he essayed to assuage my sorrow; hesitated not to condemn severely my weakness and culpability in the first instance, but acknowledged the novelty, cruelty, and difficulty of my situation in the last; assuring me in the most impressive terms, that my final resolution was the only one of which Heaven could approve. It was given to me to choose between two evils; on either hand was grief-a happy course was not to be selected; then was I bound to endeavour to retrieve by one virtuous act the faults of former years. His conversation soothed me, I confess it did; but it is in vain to bid me, even now, when the hand of Time has drawn a veil over the past, and age has rendered my eyes and heart dim in perception to what they once were, it is, repeat, vain to bid me forget the passages which have constituted the shadow of my existence and stamped my brow with the lines of gloomy retrospection. But no more of this. Sir Maurice left me calm and resigned; and towards morning the blessings of sleep stole over my senses, and the daylight found me able to bear with unflinching fortitude whatever afflictions fate might have in store. C 1 CHAPTER VIII. Night wanes-the vapours round the mountains curl'd BYRON. BREAKFAST was but just concluded when Sir John Guise took his departure; the grand hunting day having been countermanded, as the flight of those implicated in the treachery rendered such a proceeding no longer of any service. It was also currently reported throughout the household that Holt and King had placed themselves under the protection of Lord Lisle. It seemed that the moment the letters were lost they began to be alarmed; and though Holt searched for them, King was the first to fly, well knowing that if he tarried for the vengeance of his lord, life would not have been to him worth an hour's purchase. About eleven on the morning of which I am writing, Lord Berkeley invited us all,-his brothers and myself, with Sir Andrew Johnstone, now the only remaining guest, -to see the men catch some fish in the brook near the Castle, a part of which they had been draining with a view to the widening of its banks. We had passed the drawbridge for this purpose, when, riding up the hill to meet us, we observed a man bearing on his arm the cognizance of Lisle. The moment he became aware of our vicinity, he dismounted, and approaching with much respect, delivered to me a parchment tied up and sealed with the arms of Lisle, saying at the same time that it was for the honoured hands of Lord Berkeley. He then retired a few paces, and I presented the packet accordingly. My Lord having cast one withering look upon the messenger, broke the seal, and glanced lightly at a line or two; when turning to me, he said, briefly, but in a milder voice than usual, "See that the man be conducted to the hall and refreshed with the very best my Castle affords: that done, repair instantly to me." Accompanying this with a sign to Sir Andrew and his brothers to follow, he returned to the Castle and sought his private apart ments. By the more than usual stateliness of step and manner of my Lord, and by the sudden smoothing of his contracted brow, which, like the wind, only lulled for a time to give more 1 : |