nett. The
irritation produced by his absence seemed to arise, not from any need of
him, but from that tormenting desire which mortals universally feel for
the possession of objects beyond their reach. Search was commanded for
the truant, unsuccessfully; and supper was begun.

The eastern side of the hill on which the tower is built is bold and
rugged, being steep and difficult of access. At its base the Darwen
forces itself through a narrow channel, its waters tumbling over huge
heaps of rock, and reeling in mazy eddies to the echo of their own
voice. The river seems to have worked itself a passage through the
chasm; and the boiling and noisy torrent, struggling to free itself from
observation, foams and bellows like the gorge of a whirlpool, from
whence originates its name, "The Orr," not unlike in sound to the effect
that is here produced.

On the opposite shore the rock is nearly perpendicular, the dog-rose
and the bramble hiding its crevices, and the crawling campanula
wreathing its bright bells about the sterile front, from which its
sustenance was derived, like youth clinging to the cold and insensate
bosom of age. The declivity sloping abruptly from the tower was then
covered with a wild and luxuriant underwood, stunted ash and hazel twigs
thinly occupying a succession of ridges to the summit. Here and there a
straggling oak threw its ungraceful outline over a narrow path, winding
immediately under the base of the hill,--its bare roots undermined by
oozings from above, and giving way to the slow but certain operation of
the destroyer. From the heat and dryness of the season the torrent was
much diminished, rushing into a succession of deep pools, which the full
free light of heaven had scarcely ever visited. Now dimly seen through
the hot gleams of a summer evening, they seemed wavering in the lurid
reflection from surrounding objects.

Up this narrow gorge had strayed Sir John Finett with a companion, too
busily engaged, it might seem, in their own converse to note the lapse
of time, and the probable consequences of the king's displeasure.

"Fair lady," said the gay cavalier, "I am not more bold than my vocation
holdeth meet. Your cousin, at Myerscough, was so liberal of his own
suit, and my countenance therein, that he hath entrusted this
love-billet to my keeping, warning me that I should let none but
yourself be privy to its delivery."

"Would that my cousin had eschewed letter-writing! I am averse to hi