upon the
hours of devotion, were no less punctual in summoning him to those of
refection; whereas here, in the interior of a royal palace, after a
morning spent in exercise, and a noon exhausted in duty, no man seemed
to consider it as a natural consequence that he must be impatient for
his dinner.

There are, however, charms in sweet sounds which can lull to rest even
the natural feelings of impatience by which Quentin was now visited.
At the opposite extremities of the long hall or gallery were two
large doors, ornamented with heavy architraves, probably opening into
different suites of apartments, to which the gallery served as a medium
of mutual communication. As the sentinel directed his solitary walk
betwixt these two entrances, which formed the boundary of his duty, he
was startled by a strain of music which was suddenly waked near one of
those doors, and which, at least in his imagination, was a combination
of the same lute and voice by which he had been enchanted on the
preceding day. All the dreams of yesterday morning, so much weakened by
the agitating circumstances which he had since undergone, again arose
more vivid from their slumber, and, planted on the spot where his ear
could most conveniently, drink in the sounds, Quentin remained, with his
harquebuss shouldered, his mouth half open, ear, eye, and soul
directed to the spot, rather the picture of a sentinel than a living
form,--without any other idea than that of catching, if possible, each
passing sound of the dulcet melody.

These delightful sounds were but partially heard--they languished,
lingered, ceased entirely, and were from time to time renewed after
uncertain intervals. But, besides that music, like beauty, is often most
delightful, or at least most interesting, to the imagination when its
charms are but partially displayed and the imagination is left to fill
up what is from distance but imperfectly detailed, Quentin had matter
enough to fill up his reverie during the intervals of fascination. He
could not doubt, from the report of his uncle's comrades and the scene
which had passed in the presence chamber that morning, that the siren
who thus delighted his ears, was not, as he had profanely supposed, the
daughter or kinswoman of a base Cabaretier [inn keeper], but the same
disguised and distressed Countess for whose cause kings and princes were
now about to buckle on armour, and put lance in rest. A hundred wild
dreams, such as romantic an