anged my nature

een all love

d most gentle

at-grew sudd

and his

ughts were confused and tempestuous. He could not realize that he had actually listened to the accursed tale with his own ears. He felt rather as if he had passed through so

rd, the narrative of Elpsy; weigh each sentence; match fact with fact; each circumstance with its fellow; and trace the unbroken thread to the las

and," would reach his ears. He recollected, also, how Lady Lester (alas! no longer, if this tale were proved true, to be regarded as his mother, yet whom he had loved hitherto with the intensest filial affection) had reproved him in his angry moods, and forbade him to frown so like Hurtel of the Red-Hand. He called to mind, too, how that, in childhood (unthought of again till too faithful memory brought it back), it had more than once reached his ears through the menials, that Lady Lester, in her youthful days, had been made a prisoner in some old castle by a rebel chief; and he co

mere accident! The tale he had listened to was to him a key to the whole. The inference was overpowering! It was

s TRUE!" he groaned, cover

ly sent, was the shaft of inexorable fate! It pierced the spot where alone it could penetrate; where its wound would be deepest, and the smart the keenest. Struck down from its high seat to the very ground was

at, I could bear that! but, oh Go

mental wretchedness that was appalling to contemplate. What thoughts must then have passed through his mind and wrung his proud soul! The reflection that he must abandon all his plans and hopes as Lord of Lester; take leave of the luxuries to which he had been accustomed; descend from th

n expression of deep determination; "need I make this sacrifice? May I not still be Lord of Lester?" he cried, rising in his stirrups and almost shouting with the force o

vast. But there were two strong motives which threatened to weigh down these better promptings, though honour pointed to the course he should alone pursue. He could not bear-his proud spirit could never brook, th

uous in my nature first!" he cried, with the reckless decision o

ould regard him? Above all, could he bear to have the handsome fisher's lad, whom he already looked upon, in some sort, in the light of a rival, sue su

if he were arguing with his own soul. "Yes, most foul! and silence will be a living tongue to torture me-a never-ending falsehood to degrade-and will cast over the soul a night that can never know a dawn! Shall I incur this load of guilt? Will what I gain by the pu

d, and to which he gave utterance at this extraordinary crisis of his

d to take the place of this Lester in his fishing hut, nor need I to remain within the atmosphere of Castle More, to meet the scorn of the noble, the insults of the lowborn. The

d honourable purpose he stopped; a gleam of terrible fire s

othing." His manner now changed, and his voice rang with passion. "What have I to do with lofty aspirations, with honour, or a name among men? Am I not branded with infamy? infamous by birth; attainted by my father's-yes, for I will acknowledge him-my father's blood! base through my mother's! What have I to do with honour? 'Tis not for me. I know it not.

ht have forgiven the lowness of his birth, and risen superior to this contingency; but he could not forget its illegitimacy. What had a bastard to do among men! What had he to do with the love of highborn maidens? What was to him the luxuries, the pleasures, the social joys of life? Nothing. The honours of earth were not for him; "a bastard shall not enter even into the kingdom of heaven." Who, then, shall condemn the resolution of a proud youth like Lester, without due cultivation of the moral sense; unrestraine

when calmly contemplated, that he began to conceive that it was impossible for it to be true. There was but one way of confirming it, viz., to confront Lady Lester, and learn from her lips the truth of what Elpsy had related in reference to herself. If it should prove co

witch's words. Fly, my good horse; we will soon learn whether thou and I are to part! But, if it m

ard surrounding Castle More. At the sound of his approach it flew wide open, and,

d, and turn the key upon my back, when it shall be noised abroad that Robert of Le

hung with armour, and adorned with figures of mailed warriors, ancestors of that warlike house. From childhood he had looked upon these with awe and pride. Now he curled his lip with haughty despair, and strode past them with a bitter smile. At its farther extremity he tapped lightly at a door, partly concealed by tapestry of velvet f

oir and library, partly as a chapel: a small altar; a marble font containing water; a crucifix at one end, with two lighted wax tapers burning before it, appertaining to it in its more sacred character. It was hung with brown silk tapestry, on which was worked, in yellow silk, th

s jet black, and confined beneath a close nun's cap, and her complexion was deep brown, which, with the general dark tinge of her face and features, had got for her from the peasants the appellation by which among them she was more commonly designated. The lustre of her fine eyes had given place to a melancholy hue; and the smile, which in youth had fascinated the gallant Lord of Lester, was sad and pensive. Calmness, gentle resignation, and devotion were now the characteristics of her

e said, in a quiet, subdued tone; "there is a quarter of an hour yet to sunset, and you s

she gazed upon him, a kindly look, rather than a smile, of welcome. The troubled expression of his features; his flushe

I fear. Come and tell me what that saucy maiden, Kate B

al affection, and an approa

eyes vacantly on a fleet of stately swans that sailed on its glassy breast, and

ting to take his hand, "something has gone wrong

rt my mother!" he cri

bert! what do t

on your lips," he replied, turning towards h

nd deeply moved by the distres

this moment," he gasped) "ever, face

ble in its effect on your mind

mother-speak,

some painful incident of the pas

e truly, if you love me!"

y son! 'Tis a sad story! Why would you seek to

not. Answe

oner, and bore m

ied, impatiently

is to

and rescued thee,

had no motive, surely, in keeping the knowledge of it from you," she said, w

d on thee at

ert-

symbol of our religion!" he added, with stern solemnity, taking a sm

: I fear me, a lema

he a m

ions as these, young man?" she said, w

Lady Lester,

nfant of thre

thy room ere thou

wa

you s

t swathed up, a

e your infant

on the bed beside me; and," added the lady, with a mother's light rekindling

woman and

and kissed the babe, I remember he pleasantly said to those around, 'In losing

am that

on!" she said,

" he cried

my

thy

you, inso

her, threatened also her life when she refused to surrender it. Prompted by the instinct of maternal love to save it, she laid it, while thou wert in

xing her piercing eyes, bright with unwonted fire, u

peak truly. I a

rcy!" shrieked the lady, and fe

thought of the blow he should inflict, by the disclosure of the dreadful secret, upon the mind of Lady Lester. It suddenly occurred to him that there was yet a balm in the existence of

that-so deep were the feelings that

nd looking wildly in his face; "what is this I

dreamed, lady,"

turn of all her faculties; "no, I have heard thy lips deny me. T

ale I have told you, l

word is seared

elieve me to

elieve. What should I believe! I believ

frantic wildness about his neck, and

eyes to the truth. I am not

im to my heart," she cried, energetic

ay

for its strings are bound all about thee, and thou art tied too long and too strong to it by the thousa

w that her mind wandered; that re

tionately kissed her cheeks; "mother!" he repeated a third time, in the

from the heart to the eyes; and dissolved, melted by his appeal,

on and explained to her the successive steps by which the exchange was effected, and unfolded to her, link by link, the connected chain of the witch's narrative. He convinced her-not of its probability, but of its possibility. Collecting all her strength of mind, s

he agitation of the moment, when both we

now her own!" he said, firmly, but looking as

rd," she said, in a tone of deep despondency. "But

the so

s this frightful turn! Dreadful being! thus to loose, even by raising a doubt of thy birthright, my last hold on earthly happiness, and wreck all my hopes in thee. Her face ever has haunted me as if for evil! It seems to me as if I had seen it in the dreams of my childhood. I know not how it is, but I never looked

in, and then, after a few moments' silence,

thy noble husband

exceedingly rich to the eye with its bri

is eyes

as a fawn's in the gentleness of their expre

s locks

he raven not more

stature and st

the prideful recollections awakened by these allusions to him, "he was a statesman; a patron of letters and the arts; a gallant

e showing her the drift of his seemingly aimless questions. "Is my stature slight? a

covered her face with her hands,

arce perceptible cast of the eye-a bend of the brow-a movement of the lip-a motion of arm

top, stop, you

I not the same fair skin-the same light flowing hair-the same blue eyes-the s

age! Mercy, mercy, mercy!" and, with a shriek wrung fro

ance was more fearful than phrensied agitation or tremendous wrath. It was the dark, still cloud that rests upon the crater ere the volcano bursts into flame. Gradually, as he gazed on that beloved counte

e mother I have ever known. Have I not drawn life from that breast? Has not my infant head been pillowed from the first on that maternal bosom? Didst thou not hear me when my infant lips first lisped thy maternal name? Hast thou ever known other son than me-I other parent? Thou art my mother! I am thy son, though the blo

to be awakened to sudden consciousness by the act; and throwing her arms about him, she faintly articulated, "My son! my son!" and relapsed into

cided. He approached the escritoir, an

get that I have ever existed. Though I depart, yet is Lester not without an heir! you not without a son! Thy child thou wilt find with the fisherman Meredith, at Castle Cor. He is the perfect semblance of thy husband, Robert, Lord of Lester, as you have described him to me; and, when your eyes b

ob

rtel of th

lf unconsciously in the act of kneeling to seek a blessing from Heaven, when he hastily

e knee to Heaven! What h

ack to gaze an instant with a melancholy

said: returning, he tenderly raised

she revived and gaze

? Oh, my son, I have had such a tale

he stole from her towards the door-lingered-turned back-severed a bright lock from his temples, pressed it

y all human

e precipitately f

rieked his name, and, hastening through the dar

! my dear boy! leave no

nds, quickened his steps, and

ride forth alone," said the g

hanced to be born in wedlock, thou h

lord?" said the

d stirrup for a

my

as found out that he is but a fisher-woman's brat; and

in riddle

ied his spurs deep in his horse's flanks. "Give the compliments of the son of Hurtel of the Red-Hand to your new lord, knav

n retainers to pick the kernel from the difficult nut he had left them to crack; and, by putting their sage heads together, wit