perishably connected with the history of his time and country. As a judge, his exalted talents reflected honour on the profession of the law, and his judicial life was conspicuous for the calmness, the dignity, and the impartiality which made his predecessors illustrious. As a grave adviser in the councils of his sovereign, his wisdom and integrity were conspicuous; and his counsels were calm, and passionless, and honest, however strong the excitement of the people or the combinations of political hostility. From the time of his quitting the trammels of office, at all events, he never

-gave up to party what was meant for mankind;

and his conduct as a statesman and a legislator, undisturbed by any promptings of personal interest or ambition, has added to his name a lustre which cannot fade while Englishmen love patriotism and freedom. And while we see his venerable form receding into History, we gratefully remember that he made his last and long farewell to his countrymen when he reappeared in the senate to warn them of England's danger, and counsel them to keep

AFTER we had left the smoking-room, Aylmer had repaired to Bob's room, whom he found still engaged with his letter. Long afterwards he told me that he could in no way account for the strange and indefinable restlessness seeming to possess him, and which impelled him to linger in Bob's room in preference to seeking the solitude of his own. The lad's letter seemed interminable; as soon as he had arrived at the end of one sheet he discovered that there was something to be imparted to "the governor" (by whom, be it observed, he was not a little indulged). At last Bob had signed himself as an "affectionate son," and was proceeding to fold his voluminous epistle, when his name, uttered in a low voice, struck upon his ear. He raised his head suddenly. "Guy, who called me? did you hear?"

Aylmer listened. A second time the sound was repeated, and he sprang to his feet.

"Good God!" he exclaimed, "it is Ethel's voice. And springing to the door he opened it, but no one was there. A third time the low, agonised tones reach them. Aylmer is white as ashes. "It comes from outside the window," he whispers rather than speaks, and the next instant

he is tearing aside the curtains and unbarring the shutters. Another moment, and before he can open the window, the fearful scream freezes the current of his blood. He bursts the window open, and Ethel falls senseless into his arms! The blood was still trickling from her shoulder, and at first they thought she was dead. "Call some one!" gasped Aylmer, as he laid Ethel's inanimate form upon the bed, and hung over her in speechless agony. In a few minutes the whole house was astir. Terrified people were running about in every direction, asking wildly what had occurred. It was soon known that Ethel Mordaunt was lying in her brother's room wounded and in a state of insensibility, but from what cause no one could divine. As yet it was a mystery, of which, however, I could supply the solution, for I had not failed to identify the ghastly face at the window with that of the idiot I had seen in the wood. I immediately proceeded with one of the men-servants to the terraceroom. For some minutes the door resisted our efforts to break it open; and when at length we forced an entrance, no signs of the idiot were at first visible. Presently we discovered him in a dark corner of the room, huddled up in a half-sitting, half-lying posture, and from a frightful gash in his throat the blood was gushing in torrents. On finding that his victim had escaped him, his disappointed rage had apparently recoiled upon himself, and he now lay in a half-conscious state, muttering to himself, in an unintelligible jargon, the only words of which I could distinguish were, "Window! gone!" One of the large oak presses was open, the ruffled state of the dresses within it proving it to have served as the place of his concealment. We raised the miserable creature from the ground, and endeavoured to stanch the blood that was streaming from his wound. A kind of litter was arranged, on which he was afterwards placed, and conveyed at once to his own home. For several hours poor Ethel lay in a death-like swoon, and when the medical man, who had been summoned in haste, arrived, he pronounced that a short time longer would decide the issue, as the heart seemed scarcely to beat. In the early morning Lady Aylmer came in search of me; her face was blanched with distress, and she could scarcely speak. "Will you go to him-to Guy, I mean ?" she said. "I have succeeded in drawing him away from the room for a time."

I went immediately, and found Guy pacing up and down the gallery. His face was white and haggard, looking as if years, in the place of hours, had passed over it, and the look of mute despair which he turned upon me as I approached him cut me to the heart. He wrung my hand silently; the grief that was rending his very heart-strings seemed too great for words.

"Trust in God's mercy, Aylmer. She has youth and a good constitution in her favour," I said.

He came closer to me, and said in a low tone, "The doctor says that she may awake to life, but there is a possibility, a chance that- His features worked convulsively, and his voice died away.

Too well, alas! I read the fearful meaning-she might return to health, but the light of reason would possibly have fled! Words of consolation I had none. I felt that at such a time the attempt would be but a mockery. My whole being recoiled at the thought of a catastrophe worse than death, and I grasped his hand in silent sympathy. It is a

terrible sight to witness the agony of a man's grief, especially that of one naturally reserved and self-controlled, who is at last overpowered by the force of intense mental anguish. Suddenly, deep gasping sobs burst from poor Aylmer, and his strong frame shook with uncontrollable emotion.

At this moment I heard a light step enter the gallery, and turning hastily round I perceived Lady Margaret. Her face was very pale, but there was a ray of hope in her eyes as she walked up to Guy, who had thrown himself on one of the seats, and laying her hand on his shoulder, she said, "Guy-dear Guy! she is better."

He started to his feet, and looked with wild inquiry into her face. She knew what he would ask, and answered: "She recognised me, Guy, and she also knew Aunt Aylmer."

Aylmer did not speak, but in reply he stooped and kissed her.

Lady Margaret took his hand, and looking earnestly in his face, she said: "Guy, my dear cousin, you must not be too sanguine; she is aroused from that dreadful fainting-fit, and is spared, thank God! what we dreaded most. The doctor says that in all probability fever will now ensue."

"I must go to her, Margaret," said Guy.

"If you do, it must be cautiously, Guy; the least excitement might be fatal."

She turned to me as Aylmer left the gallery, and said hurriedly: Will you have the kindness, Mr. Vernon, to make inquiries as to how it happened-how he came there, I mean? My uncle wishes to know, and I cannot leave poor Bob just now."

In the midst of trouble every one seemed to turn to her for consolation and assistance. I trace the reason of this to her being one of those unselfish characters to which people instinctively appeal in circumstances of distress. I was forcibly impressed by the self-possession and calmness displayed by her, when every one around her seemed incapable of acting for themselves, or on their own responsibility, though at the same time I could see by the quiver of her lip how painfully she was moved.

The housekeeper, to whom I first applied for information, deposed that Tony had made his appearance during the afternoon, as was often Lis custom, and that he had appeared to be less morose, and more disposed to talk, than had been for some time his habit of doing. After a time he went away, or rather disappeared, the servants concluding that be had gone home. Whether his deadly purpose had been a sudden idea, the result of a diabolical plan, none can ever fathom. To him every corner of the house was familiar, and by some means he had possessed himself of the fact that the object of his hatred occupied the terraceroom. Watching his opportunity, he must have stolen away, and have succeeded in gaining unobserved Ethel's apartment, where he concealed himself in one of the large oak presses already alluded to. The footman affirmed that he had missed one of the large carving-knives from a table in the pantry on which it had been lying, and on examination of the knife stained with blood which had been found on the floor of the terraceroom, it was identified by the man as being the same. For hours the idiot must have waited and watched, biding his time, until he felt secure from all interruption in his deadly purpose. There was something inde

scribably revolting as it was terrible in the forethought and sagacity evinced by the half-witted creature in the formation of his plan of vengeance on the victim of his intense hatred.

Lady Margaret's apprehensions were but too truly confirmed, for when Ethel was at length aroused from her state of insensibility, she awoke to the delirium of fever.

Alas! how sad a change had but a few hours wrought in the aspect of events at Hunsdon. Yesterday, its inmates were a large and unconcernedly happy party, with no more ostensible care on their minds than that of projecting the next day's programme of amusement, according to the pleasant dolce far niente method of country-house society. To-day, people hurrying to and fro with grave concern on their faces, and dismay in their hearts; alarmed visitors herding together in the library, or remaining in their own rooms, deeply sympathising with the distress that had befallen the family, and at the same time a prey to the unpleasantness of feeling themselves, under existing circumstances, considerably de trop. Hurried orders were issued for carriages, post-horses, &c., whilst up-stairs scared ladies'-maids ran up against you on their headlong course, suddenly summoned by their mistresses to prepare for immediate departure; all more or less anxious to quit the scene of so painful an occurrence. By four o'clock in the afternoon the majority of the party had dispersed; only the Merediths and Sir Willoughby Gresham, besides myself, remained, and the former were on the point of departure. Sir Robert met me in the hall as he crossed it to take leave of his parting guests. "You won't go, Vernon," he said. "It will be a charity if you will stay with us. God help my poor boy if" He faltered and broke down as the idea of the desolating blow threatening poor Guy forced itself upon him.

Lady Margaret came into the library to wish the Merediths good-by. She was very pale, and the look of hope had faded from her face. The farewells passed almost in silence, every one, doubtless, feeling that words were inadequate expressions of the sympathy and regret filling each mind. Sir Willoughby Gresham's face bore an unwonted expression of genuine concern. For once, he seemed to have lost sight of that important item in his consideration-himself; and as he bade Lady Margaret good-by, he said earnestly, "I cannot say how much I feel for you all, Lady Margaret." The kind tone touched her, and the tears came into her eyes as, with more warmth in her manner than I had ever seen her evince towards Sir Willoughby, she silently shook hands with him. At that moment I really pitied Gresham. The colour mounted to his face, and he seemed on the point of saying something, but suddenly checking himself, he looked earnestly into her face as he wrung her hand, and then abruptly quitted the room, disregarding the fact of having omitted to take leave of Sir Robert and of the Merediths. This omission, however, caused a deep flush to suffuse the fair face of Constance, and her manner was cold and restrained as she wished Lady Margaret good-by, and followed her mother to the carriage. Mr. and Mrs. Mordaunt had been telegraphed for, and their arrival was looked for towards evening. Poor Bob had started to meet his father and mother, with a view to soften in some measure to them the shock of the sudden tidings, though in his restless, broken-hearted state he was scarcely calculated to do so. Aylmer kept incessantly walking up and down the gallery, where, alas! he could hear

the tones of that voice, ordinarily sweeter to him than music, now raised in the delirium of fever, calling upon him at times to save her, or crying for mercy in accents of the most heartrending terror. In vain his mother strove to draw him away; and occasionally he would enter the room where she lay, regardless of his presence, the blue eyes indeed staring wildly at him, but with no signs of recognition in them, until he would turn away, unable to bear this further ordeal.

For two more days the fever continued unabated. Mr. and Mrs. Mordaunt had arrived, but their presence was also unnoticed by the poor girl, whose mind was perpetually wandering back to the fearful cause of her illness; and she would often call upon her mother to come to her, unconscious that she was close at hand, that upon her mother's shoulder was pillowed the poor aching head, or that her hand bathed the burning temples, or essayed to soothe and tranquillise the ever-restless limbs.

On the night of the third day I had gone to bed for a few hours, when I was roused from the sleep into which I had fallen by some one holding a light before my eyes, and on opening them I perceived standing by my bedside the strangest looking figure imaginable. The story of the old woman and the broomstick seemed to rise from the grave of my childish days as I gazed on the curious apparition, the gender of which I was, however, at first at a loss to determine. "The devil!" I involuntarily exclaimed, as my eyes rested on a bunch of clothes, surmounted by an enormous cap, from the overshadowing frill of which peered a quizzical little round face.

"No, sir, not the devil," answered a voice from the little bundle, which commenced bobbing up and down in a state of intense excitement, "only Thomson. The Lord be praised, sir, she is better, my dear young lady. Lady Margaret said you would like to know, so I came myself to tell you. The fever is gone, in a great measure, and she's asleep." Here, in the extremity of the little figure's joy, she went through a variety of fresh manoeuvres, approaching the candle so close to the flapping frill of her cap (which unbecoming coiffure I sincerely hope is not a prevailing one), that I began to apprehend an instantaneous conflagration.

"Thank God!" I exclaimed, on hearing the glad tidings of which she was the bearer.

"I knew you would be glad to hear it, sir," continued my voluble visitant. "Her ladyship told me to send some one to you, but I said I would come myself."

"That was very kind of you, Mrs. Thomson; but tell me, is Lady Margaret still sitting up ?"

“Oh yes, sir, and nothing will persuade her to go to bed, poor dear young lady, though she has had no rest for these three nights past. She does not like to leave Mr. Aylmer."

"But I will go to him, Mrs. Thomson, and she must go to bed," I replied, impatiently.

Mrs. Thomson, however, quite appeared to overlook the fact that her departure, under the circumstances, would be advisable, and she continued to hold forth, disregarding all premonitory movements on my part, placing me in an embarrassing position, as I could not well suggest to the good woman the propriety of her departure, and yet my anxiety to relieve poor Lady Margaret's wearisome watch entailed the necessity of my doing so.