ked on him with an air the most
tender and compassionate. Never did fancy portray her in a form so
lovely. Deep and indelible was the impression; and though it might be

"The imagination
Become impregnate with her own desire,"

yet she had performed her office well. Not all the realities, all the
blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could
have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the
heart. The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued. Suddenly a
blaze of light irradiated the apartment. Rodolf beheld, for one short
glimpse, a Gothic hall. Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her
feet. Madness seized him, agonising and intense. In vain he sought the
features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his
repose.

A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him. It arose with the
speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind. All just and sober anticipations,
reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as
bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.

His first impulse was to seek his mistress. But--she had another lover!
The bare possibility of this event came o'er his bosom like the icy
chill of the grave. He shuddered as it passed; but the pang was too keen
to return with the same intensity.

Soon a low murmur, like the distant sough of the wind, gradually
approached. A faint light flashed through the chamber. He saw his own
wild woods and the distant castle. It was just visible, dimly outlined
on the horizon, as he had last beheld it in the cold grey beam that
accompanied his departure. It arose tranquilly on his spirit. The voice
of other years visited his soul. His eyes filled--he could have wept in
the very overflowing of his delight. He dashed his hand across his
forehead; but the pageant had disappeared.

Daylight once more shone into the apartment; but nothing was discerned,
save a dark curtain concealing one extremity of the room, and the seer
sitting at his elbow.

"Boy, what sawest thou?" said Kelly, not raising his head as he spoke,
but intently poring over a grim volume of cabalistic symbols.

"In troth, I am hard put to it, Master Kelly. The maid I have just seen
is accounted the veriest shrew in the parish, and one whom no man may
approach with a safe warranty. I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if
this be the maiden I am to woo. And yet"--The form of the comely suitor
he had seen kneeling at he