efreshments which
were stowed into the wallet. The journey was but short, and an hour's
ride that fine morning, Michael said, would bring them to their
destination. Hildebrand forbade him to mention the place where he wished
to conceal the children, lest it should be known to their iniquitous
relatives. Each horseman, with a child mounted before him, slowly passed
the outer court, at the entrance of which Alice disappeared. The iron
tramp of the steeds rang shrilly from underneath the arched gateway;
Hildebrand stood by the platform; he bade them good speed. Anthony
passed first; Michael checked his horse for a moment, when Hildebrand
took the hand of the boy, and pressed it; but one portentous look, as at
the recognition of some sinister purpose, passed between Michael and the
old man, unobserved by his colleague. Hildebrand raised his hand above
his mouth, and slowly whispered--

"Remember!--the gulf underneath the waterfall."

The horsemen departed. Passing the bridge they were just rising over the
green slope when the children recognised Alice upon her mistress's
palfrey. They screamed out loudly to her; but she was riding in a
contrary direction, and soon passed out of their sight.

The narrow glades of the forest suddenly encompassed them. The morning
was pretty far advanced; the merry birds twittered in their dun covert,
brushing the dewdrops from the boughs with their restless wings. The
thrush and blackbird poured forth a more melancholy note; whilst the
timid rabbit, scared from his morning's meal, rushed by and sought his
burrow. The wood grew thicker, and the sunbeams that shot previously in
broad slopes across their path soon became as lines of intensely-chequered
light piercing the grim shadows beneath. The trees, too, put on a more
sombre character; and the sward appeared choked with rank and noxious
weeds. It seemed a path rarely trod, and only to be recognised by
occasional openings through the underwood.

They travelled for some hours. Michael had taken the lead, and Anthony
with his prattling charge rode carelessly on. Looking round, the latter
suddenly checked his horse. A momentary alarm overspread his features as
he cried--

"Michael, you have surely mistaken the path: an hour's ride should have
brought us to the end of our journey, and our beasts have been footing
it on since morning."

"Heed not, comrade; thou wilt soon find we have the right track before
us. We shall be through the wood p