life had prevented her addressing him openly. The tones of his
well-known voice had reached her miserable cavern, and roused her from a
troubled slumber. She understood too little of his language to
comprehend the nature of his communication to Roupall, and her first
impulse was to strike a dagger to his heart; but this, her womanly
affection prevented, and she suddenly withdrew. Subsequently, she wrote
to Mrs. Constantia, and trusted much to her generosity and truth of
character, of which she had heard in France; but poor Constance, through
the cowardice of Jeromio, never received her packet, and, enraged and
maddened by the reports of his immediate marriage, she resolved on
seeing Mistress Cecil, and accomplished her purpose, as she thought,
when in fact she only saw Barbara. Her jealousy and violence defeated
her purpose at that time; but still her determination remained fixed to
prevent the union, if her life were to be the forfeit. After meeting
with the knight, she retreated into the earth, from which she had so
suddenly appeared, much to the Master of Burrell's astonishment, who had
no knowledge whatever of the cave, though he doubted not it was of
Dalton's preparing. After securing the preacher, he examined every
portion of the ruins most attentively, but without success, for she had
learned to be as wily as a fox, and had carefully secured the aperture,
through which even her delicate form passed with difficulty.

It would have touched a heart, retaining any degree of feeling, to see
that young and beautiful woman within that damp and noisome
excavation--so damp that cold and slimy reptiles clung to, and crept
over, its floor and walls, while the blind worm nestled in the old
apertures formed to admit a little air; and the foul toad, and still
more disgusting eft, looked upon her, as they would say, "Thou art our
sister."

"And here," thought she, "must the only child of Manasseh Ben Israel
array herself, to meet the gaze of the proud beauty who would not deign
to notice the letter or the supplication of the despised Jewess; to meet
the gaze of the cold stern English, and of the cruel man who points the
finger of scorn against her he has destroyed. Yet I seek but justice,
but to be acknowledged as his wife, in the open day and before an
assembled people, and then he shall hear and see no more of the Rabbi's
daughter! I will hide myself from the world, and look upon all mankind
as I do upon him--with a bitter h