e hopes kindest,
And all her bounties only make ingrates. LOVE'S PILGRIMAGE.

The summer evening was closed, and Janet, just when her longer stay
might have occasioned suspicion and inquiry in that zealous household,
returned to Cumnor Place, and hastened to the apartment in which she
had left her lady. She found her with her head resting on her arms, and
these crossed upon a table which stood before her. As Janet came in, she
neither looked up nor stirred.

Her faithful attendant ran to her mistress with the speed of lightning,
and rousing her at the same time with her hand, conjured the Countess,
in the most earnest manner, to look up and say what thus affected
her. The unhappy lady raised her head accordingly, and looking on her
attendant with a ghastly eye, and cheek as pale as clay--"Janet," she
said, "I have drunk it."

"God be praised!" said Janet hastily--"I mean, God be praised that it is
no worse; the potion will not harm you. Rise, shake this lethargy from
your limbs, and this despair from your mind."

"Janet," repeated the Countess again, "disturb me not--leave me at
peace--let life pass quietly. I am poisoned."

"You are not, my dearest lady," answered the maiden eagerly. "What you
have swallowed cannot injure you, for the antidote has been taken before
it, and I hastened hither to tell you that the means of escape are open
to you."

"Escape!" exclaimed the lady, as she raised herself hastily in her
chair, while light returned to her eye and life to her cheek; "but ah!
Janet, it comes too late."

"Not so, dearest lady. Rise, take mine arm, walk through the apartment;
let not fancy do the work of poison! So; feel you not now that you are
possessed of the full use of your limbs?"

"The torpor seems to diminish," said the Countess, as, supported by
Janet, she walked to and fro in the apartment; "but is it then so, and
have I not swallowed a deadly draught? Varney was here since thou wert
gone, and commanded me, with eyes in which I read my fate, to swallow
yon horrible drug. O Janet! it must be fatal; never was harmless draught
served by such a cup-bearer!"

"He did not deem it harmless, I fear," replied the maiden; "but God
confounds the devices of the wicked. Believe me, as I swear by the dear
Gospel in which we trust, your life is safe from his practice. Did you
not debate with him?"

"The house was silent," answered the lady--"thou gone--no other but he
in the chamber--and he capable