set sun and the deepening twilight the park became
nearly empty. Adrian and Ryland were still in earnest discussion. We had
prepared a banquet for our guests in the lower hall of the castle; and
thither Idris and I repaired to receive and entertain the few that
remained. There is nothing more melancholy than a merry-meeting thus turned
to sorrow: the gala dresses--the decorations, gay as they might otherwise
be, receive a solemn and funereal appearance. If such change be painful
from lighter causes, it weighed with intolerable heaviness from the
knowledge that the earth's desolator had at last, even as an arch-fiend,
lightly over-leaped the boundaries our precautions raised, and at once
enthroned himself in the full and beating heart of our country. Idris sat
at the top of the half-empty hall. Pale and tearful, she almost forgot her
duties as hostess; her eyes were fixed on her children. Alfred's serious
air shewed that he still revolved the tragic story related by the Italian
boy. Evelyn was the only mirthful creature present: he sat on Clara's lap;
and, making matter of glee from his own fancies, laughed aloud. The vaulted
roof echoed again his infant tone. The poor mother who had brooded long
over, and suppressed the expression of her anguish, now burst into tears,
and folding her babe in her arms, hurried from the hall. Clara and Alfred
followed. While the rest of the company, in confused murmur, which grew
louder and louder, gave voice to their many fears.

The younger part gathered round me to ask my advice; and those who had
friends in London were anxious beyond the rest, to ascertain the present
extent of disease in the metropolis. I encouraged them with such thoughts
of cheer as presented themselves. I told them exceedingly few deaths had
yet been occasioned by pestilence, and gave them hopes, as we were the last
visited, so the calamity might have lost its most venomous power before it
had reached us. The cleanliness, habits of order, and the manner in which
our cities were built, were all in our favour. As it was an epidemic, its
chief force was derived from pernicious qualities in the air, and it would
probably do little harm where this was naturally salubrious. At first, I
had spoken only to those nearest me; but the whole assembly gathered about
me, and I found that I was listened to by all. "My friends," I said, "our
risk is common; our precautions and exertions shall be common also. If
manly courage and re