in the nursery tales and wild
ballads of the surrounding district. When the glowing morn was overcast,
she was unprepared, unfitted for the change. The storm came, and the
little sum of her happiness, launched on this frail and perishing bark,
was wrecked without a struggle!

One evening, in the full glare of a dazzling sunset, the light streaming
like a shower through the dark foliage of the valley, she had loitered,
along with her old nurse, in the dell to which we have before alluded.
The glowing atmosphere was just fading into the dewy tint which betokens
a fair morrow. To enjoy a more extended gaze upon the clouds, those
gorgeous vestures of the sun, Constance had ascended, by a winding path,
to the edge of a steep cliff overhanging the river. She stood for some
minutes looking towards the west, unconscious of the loose and slippery
nature of the materials beneath her feet, and of her near approach to
the brink. On a sudden the ground gave way, and she was precipitated
headlong into the river! Nurse Agnes, who stood below, watching her
young mistress, not without apprehension as to the consequences of her
temerity, was stricken motionless with horror. There seemed to be no
help. Fast receding from all hope of succour, Constance was borne
rapidly down the stream. Suddenly, with the swiftness of a deer from
the brake, a figure bounded from an opposite thicket. He seemed scarcely
to leave his footmarks on the long herbage ere he gained the river's
brink. Plunging into the current he succeeded in rescuing the maiden
from her perilous condition. He laid her gently on the bank, beckoning
to her attendant, and was speedily out of sight. The aged Agnes, with
trembling hands, relieved Constance by loosening the folds from her
throat; and almost ere she had wrung out the water from the raven locks
of her inanimate mistress, the stranger returned. He carried a cordial,
with which he moistened her lips; the old woman chafed her temples,
resorting to the usual modes of resuscitation then in practice; and in
the end, Constance opened her eyes. A heavy sob accompanied this effort.
She looked wildly round, when she met the deep gaze of the stranger.
With a faint shriek, she hid her face in the bosom of her attendant,
who, overjoyed at her recovery, could scarcely refrain from falling at
the feet of her deliverer. She turned to express her thanks, but he was
gone.

It was not long ere several domestics, alarmed at their absence,