nparalleled villains, is
verily the worst. Your liquorish cat, skulking and scared with a
windle-straw, is always the biggest thief, and has the cruellest paws,
for all her demure looks and her plausible condescensions."

"I don't care for thy jeers, Michael."

"What!--hast brought thy purpose to an anchor already? 'Tis well. I
shall on to Raven Castle with all speed, if it were only to inform one
Hildebrand Wentworth of this sudden qualm. Likewise I may, peradventure,
remember to tell him of another little qualm thou wast taken with, once
upon a time, at the sight of a score of his fat beeves; a little bit of
choice roguery played off upon him by honest Anthony of the tender
conscience! Look to it, comrade, he shall know of this before thou canst
convey thy cowardly carcase out of his clutches. An' it be thou goest
forward--mum!--backward! Ha! have I caught thee, my pretty bird?"

At the conclusion of this speech, with the malice of a fiend urging on
his hesitating victim to the commission of some loathed act of folly and
of crime, the speaker lashed on his companion's beast, and they were
soon past the steepest part of the ascent, on their way to Raven Castle.
Its present occupier, whom, it appears, they had befriended beforetime,
in the way of their several callings, had sent for them in haste,
requiring their aid, it might seem, in some business relative to their
profession.

For an hour or two they travelled on as fast as the nature of their
track would permit. Day was just brightening in the east, when, emerging
from a more than usually intricate path, they pushed through a thick
archway of boughs. Suddenly a bare knoll presented itself, sloping
towards a narrow rivulet; beyond, a dark and well-fortified mansion
stood before them,--here and there, a turret-shaped chamber, lifting its
mural crown above the rest, rose clear and erect against a glowing sky,
now rapidly displacing the grey hues of the morning. The narrow
battlements rose up, sharp and distinct, but black as their own grim
recesses, in solemn contrast with the bright and rolling masses from
behind, breaking into all the gorgeous tints that betoken a heavy and
lurid atmosphere.

They crossed a narrow bridge, and the clattering of their horses' hoofs
were soon heard in the courtyard of the castle.

"So, masters, if it had not pleased your betters to have built hostels
and roosting-places on the road, I might have been snug in my blanket
some hours