t of tenderness that could never
cease; when from the bright, and glowing, and gentle scenes his memory
conjured up, and all the transport and the thrill that surrounded
them like an atmosphere of love, he turned to his shattered and
broken-hearted self, the rigid heaven above, and what seemed to his
perhaps unwise and ungrateful spirit, the mechanical sympathy and
common-place affection of his companions, it was as if he had wakened
from some too vivid and too glorious dream, or as if he had fallen from
some brighter and more favoured planet upon our cold, dull earth.

And yet it would seem the roof of Armine Place protected a family that
might yield to few in the beauty and engaging qualities of its inmates,
their happy accomplishments, their kind and cordial hearts. And all were
devoted to him. It was on him alone the noble spirit of his father dwelt
still with pride and joy: it was to soothe and gratify him that his
charming mother exerted all her graceful care and all her engaging
gifts. It was for him, and his sake, the generous heart of his cousin
had submitted to mortification without a murmur, or indulged her
unhappiness only in solitude; and it was for him that Glastonbury
exercised a devotion that might alone induce a man to think with
complacency both of his species and himself. But the heart, the heart,
the jealous and despotic heart! It rejects all substitutes, it spurns
all compromise, and it will have its purpose or it will break.

BOOK V.

CHAPTER I.

_Containing the Appearance on Our Stage of a New and
Important Character_.

THE Marquis of Montfort was the grandson of that nobleman who had been
Glastonbury's earliest patron. The old duke had been dead some years;
his son had succeeded to his title, and Digby, that youth whom the
reader may recollect was about the same age as Ferdinand Armine, and was
his companion during the happy week in London which preceded his first
military visit to the Mediterranean, now bore the second title of the
family.

The young marquis was an excellent specimen of a class inferior in
talents, intelligence, and accomplishments, in public spirit and
in private virtues, to none in the world, the English nobility. His
complete education had been carefully conducted; and although his
religious creed, for it will be remembered he was a Catholic, had
deprived him of the advantage of matriculating at an English university,
the zeal of an able and lear