is in the room, surlily quits it;
but, going out, cunningly puts on Norman's cloak. "It will be dark,"
says he, "down at the chapel; Violet won't know me; and, egad! I'll run
off with her!"

Norman has his interview. Her ladyship acknowledges him, for she cannot
help it; but will not embrace him, love him, or have anything to do with
him.

Away he goes to the chapel. His chaplain was there waiting to marry him
to Violet, his boat was there to carry him on board his ship, and Violet
was there, too.

"Norman," says she, in the dark, "dear Norman, I knew you by your white
cloak; here I am." And she and the man in a cloak go off to the inner
chapel to be married.

There waits Master Gaussen; he has seized the chaplain and the boat's
crew, and is just about to murder the man in the cloak, when--

NORMAN rushes in and cuts him down, much to the surprise of Miss, for
she never suspected it was sly Ashdale who had come, as we have seen,
disguised, and very nearly paid for his masquerading.

Ashdale is very grateful; but, when Norman persists in marrying Violet,
he says--no, he shan't. He shall fight; he is a coward if he doesn't
fight. Norman flings down his sword, and says he WON'T fight; and--

Lady Arundel, who has been at prayers all this time, rushing in, says,
"Hold! this is your brother, Percy--your elder brother!" Here is some
restiveness on Ashdale's part, but he finishes by embracing his brother.

Norman burns all the papers; vows he will never peach; reconciles
himself with his mother; says he will go loser; but, having ordered his
ship to "veer" round to the chapel, orders it to veer back again, for he
will pass the honeymoon at Arundel Castle.

As you have been pleased to ask my opinion, it strikes me that there are
one or two very good notions in this plot. But the author does not fail,
as he would modestly have us believe, from ignorance of stage-business;
he seems to know too much, rather than too little, about the stage; to
be too anxious to cram in effects, incidents, perplexities. There is
the perplexity concerning Ashdale's murder, and Norman's murder, and the
priest's murder, and the page's murder, and Gaussen's murder. There is
the perplexity about the papers, and that about the hat and cloak, (a
silly, foolish obstacle,) which only tantalize the spectator, and retard
the march of the drama's action: it is as if the author had said,
"I must have a new incident in every act, I must keep tickling t