et themselves up as marks for peculiar observation.

Once holding, as they had, a proud position in the county, and being
looked upon quite as magnates of the land, they did not now court the
prying eye of curiosity to look upon their poverty; but rather with a
gloomy melancholy they lived apart, and repelled the advances of society
by a cold reserve, which few could break through.

Had this family suffered in any noble cause, or had the misfortunes
which had come over them, and robbed their ancestral house of its
lustre, been an unavoidable dispensation of providence, they would have
borne the hard position with a different aspect; but it must be
remembered, that to the faults, the vices, and the criminality of some
of their race, was to be attributed their present depressed state.

It has been seen during the progress of our tale, that its action has
been tolerably confined to Bannerworth Hall, its adjacent meadows, and
the seat of Sir Francis Varney; the only person at any distance, knowing
anything of the circumstances, or feeling any interest in them, being
Mr. Chillingworth, the surgeon, who, from personal feeling, as well as
from professional habit, was not likely to make a family's affairs a
subject of gossip.

A change, however, was at hand--a change of a most startling and
alarming character to Varney--one which he might expect, yet not be well
prepared for.

This period of serenity was to pass away, and he was to become most
alarmingly popular. We will not, however, anticipate, but proceed at
once to detail as briefly as may be the hostile meeting.

It would appear that Varney, now that he had once consented to the
definitive arrangements of a duel, shrunk not in any way from carrying
them out, nor in the slightest attempted to retard arrangements which
might be fatal to himself.

The early morning was one of those cloudy ones so frequently occurring
in our fickle climate, when the cleverest weather prophet would find it
difficult to predict what the next hour might produce.

There was a kind of dim gloominess over all objects; and as there were
no bright lights, there were no deep shadows--the consequence of which
was a sureness of effect over the landscape, that robbed it of many of
its usual beauties.

Such was the state of things when Marchdale accompanied Henry and
Admiral Bell from Bannerworth Hall across the garden in the direction of
the hilly wood, close to which was the spot intended for t