The Last Of The Barons, Volume 10.

he people of the farm (a widow and her children, with the peasants in their employ) were kindly and simple folks. What safer home for the wanderers than tha

And Hastings, offended by the manners of the rival favourite, took one of the disgusts so frequent in the life of a courtier, and, despite his office of chamberlain, absented himself much from his sovereign's company. Thus, in the reaction of his mind, the influence of Sibyll was greater than it otherwise might have been. His visits to the farm were regular and fre

he called to relate the death of poor Madge, though he kindly concealed the manner of it, which he had discovered, but which opinion, if not law, forbade him to attempt to punish: drowning was but the orthodox ordeal of a suspected witch, and it was not without many scruples that the poor woman was interred in holy ground. The search for the Eureka was a pretence that sufficed for countless visits; and then, too, Hastings had counselled Adam to sell the ruined house, and undertaken the negotiation; and the new com

. God's will be done! Methinks Heaven designs thereby to rouse me to the sense of nearer duties; and I have a daughter

the affairs of this life that the man of genius had ever uttered, so con

o suddenly kindled suspicions

sense and memory became active for my living child, as they were wont to be only for the iron infant of my mind, and I said to myself, 'Lord Hastings is King Edward's fri

ve thy sweet Sibyll in all honesty,

as!" groa

demand her wedded hand, couldst thou

Adam, in a tone of great angu

pride to

ady at the altar, not till the bridegroom can claim the bride. And as that time will never come-never-never-leave me to whisper t

trange being woke from his ideal abstraction, he awoke to honour and courage and truth, so now, whether, as he had said, the absence of the Eureka left his mind to the sense of practical duties, or whether their common suffering had more endeared to him his gentle companion, and affection sha

the anguish, yet authority, written on his face, all the art and self-

nature, now came from the house, relieved and nerved him; and his first impulse was then, as ever, worthy and noble, such as showed, t

en hurrying to the wondering Sibyll, he resumed: "Your father says well, that not thus, dubious and in secret, should I visit the home blest by

e me. Farewell forever, if it be right, as what thou and my father say must be. But thy life, thy liberty, thy welfare,-they are my happiness; thou hast no right to

hou art more worth than all! Look for me, sigh not, weep not, smile till we meet again!" He left them with these words, hastened to the stall wh

ever ominous of woe and horror, met her eye. On the other side of the orchard fence, which concealed her figure, but not her well-known face, which peered above, stood the tymbestere, G