ng her
disordered travelling-dress, she approached him, clasped his hand in
both her own and thanked him, in brief but fervent terms, for the
important service he had rendered her. "And now," added she, in visible
embarrassment, as she raised her hood, and looked fearfully around, "I
have another favour to request. My father would not approve of your
accompanying me home, nor must the town gossips see me at this hour with
a young man and a stranger: you will, therefore, oblige me by resting
your horse here for half an hour, that I may reach the town before you.
Will you do me this favour?" she repeated, with a pleading look. "Most
certainly I will," replied the good-natured but disappointed Florian.
"Farewell, then," she cordially rejoined, "and may Heaven reward your
kindness!"

Bounding forward with a light and rapid step, she soon disappeared round
a sharp angle in the road, occasioned by a sudden bend of the adjacent
river. Florian, dismounting to relieve his horse, gazed admiringly upon
her elastic step and well-turned figure, until she was out of sight. He
recollected, with a sigh of regret, the sprightly graces and artless
intelligence of her conversation; again the sense of his desolate and
perilous condition smote him; he felt himself more than ever forlorn and
unhappy, and reproached himself for the helpless bashfulness which had
prevented him from inquiring more urgently the name and residence of
this charming stranger. While thus painfully musing, the time she had
prescribed elapsed; and Florian, remounting, let the bridle fall upon
the neck of the exhausted animal, which paced towards the town as
deliberately as the unknown fair one could have wished. At a short
distance from the town-gate the high-road passed under an archway,
composing part of a detached house of Gothic and ancient structure;
and on the town side of the arch was a toll-bar, at which a boy was
stationed, who held out his hat to Florian, and demanded half a sous.
"For what?" asked Florian.

"A long-established toll, sir," said the boy; "and if you have a
compassionate heart, you will give another half-sous to the condemned
criminals," he continued, as he pointed to an iron box, placed near the
house door, under a figure of the Virgin. Shuddering at the words,
Florian threw some copper coins into the box; and, as he hastened
forward, endeavoured to banish the painful association of ideas, by
fixing his thoughts upon the mysterious fair one