memorials in the church-yard attested how many of its inmates had been victims to the treacherous element, and the remorseless waves gaining upon the coast, until they had already torn away the rocky stones by which the burialground had been shored up, seemed to be roaring and ravening for the recovery of their prey.

In this cheerless seclusion, Helen, released from the angry mandates and mercenary importunities by which she had been harassed, enjoying the society of the man she loved, and living in a tranquil retirement that was congenial to her temperament, tasted a serene happiness to which she had long been a stranger. Reuben was in a state of supreme felicity; the short period prescribed by law flew rapidly away upon the wings of love, and the Sunday soon arrived which was fixed for the first publication of the banns.

Far different were the feelings that agitated the unfortunate Basil during this interval. Although it had been agreed by all parties that the arrangements for the marriage should be

kept a profound secret, Reuben did not conceive that his confidential friend and cousin could be included in the interdict, and in the unsuspecting frankness of his heart had revealed to him the whole plan. From this moment the artist's bosom became an arena where the contending passions fought with an indes cribable fury. Hitherto he had nourished a vague undefined hope that after Lord Trevanian's rejection of the suit it would be abandoned; he had lent himself to the strange delusion that Helen entertained a secret regard for him which the first favourable circumstance might develope; and while waiting the progress of events he had at least enjoyed the dreams of hope, and been allowed frequent opportunities of contemplating the charms which had operated such a fatal revolution in his mind. All his visions of bliss were now not only to be dispersed for ever, but he was to be denied the sight of her whom he loved; she was to be secluded and secreted in order that the enjoy

ment of her society might be exclusively be

stowed upon another, upon

his rival, upon

his

upon

enemy! This last word which escaped from him in his soliloquy recalled him for a moment to his senses, and he shuddered at his own atrocity. What! Reuben his enemy! Reuben who had been perpetually showering benefits him, who had twice saved his life !— The very thought was horrible, he recoiled from the enormity of his own ingratitude, and repeatedly reminded himself that the time was now come for realizing all those virtuous resolutions which he had so long promised to execute when the proper moment should arrive. He would now show that he could obtain the mastery over his stubborn and rebellious mind; he would prove himself worthy of the friendship he had experienced; he would tear himself for ever from the spot, and leave Reuben and Helen to the happiness which they both so richly merited.

Thus would he sometimes struggle for good with a desperate energy; but the evil principle ultimately prevailed, and he gave himself up at last to a sort of fatalism, imagining man to be little better than a machine governed by cir

cumstances, and that it is vain for him to contend with his predestined doom. In this dan gerous faith, abandoning his mind, like a ship without a rudder, to the mercy of the stormy elements that assailed it, he relapsed into his old habits; a darker cloud of despondency hung upon his lowering brow; he again neglected his appearance, and only aroused himself from fits of gloom and stupor, to occasional bursts of fury almost amounting to delirium, in which he meditated a thousand incoherent schemes of violence and desperation.

This frightful state became still more exacer bated as the Sunday drew near which was to witness the first publication of the bannsWhen the inhabitants of the little village where Helen now resided were all buried in sleep, and no sound was heard but the hoarse murmur

of

the waves brawling against the boundaries of the church-yard, he would stalk rapidly round the sacred building where the marriage was to be celebrated, wishing that he had the tear down the hated walls, and either thus

power

separate Helen and Reuben for ever, or bury

to

T

himself and them beneath the ruins of the place. It was in one of these violent moods that the idea first occurred to him of forbidding the banns. He might conceal himself in the church-it need not be known who pronounced the fatal interdict-at all events, it would occasion delay, and who could tell what casualties might arise even from the shortest procrastination? Soothed with this idea, he embraced it at once, and waiting impatiently for the Sabbath morning, entered the church as soon as the doors were opened, muffled up in a horseman's cloak, secreted himself in an unoccupied pew, and burying his face in his hands remained in that attitude until the commencement of the service.

As the prayers proceeded the perturbation of his spirit increased; his heart beat violently as he thought he could distinguish the voice of Helen in the responses, for he never dared to quit his posture, but her gentle accents only served to animate him the more to the completion of his detestable purpose. Such was his agitation that at one time he could hear