t was with a trembling hand, and a watery eye, but with
a heart firmly resolved, that he sealed and dispatched the letter; a
step towards the resignation, in favour of his mortal enemy, of that
rank and condition in life, which was his own by right of inheritance,
but had so long hung in doubt betwixt them.

CHAPTER XI.

INTRUSION.

By my troth, I will go with thee to the lane's-end!--I am a kind of
burr--I shall stick.

_Measure for Measure._

It was now far advanced in autumn. The dew lay thick on the long grass,
where it was touched by the sun; but where the sward lay in shadow, it
was covered with hoar frost, and crisped under Jekyl's foot, as he
returned through the woods of St. Ronan's. The leaves of the ash-trees
detached themselves from the branches, and, without an air of wind, fell
spontaneously on the path. The mists still lay lazily upon the heights,
and the huge old tower of St. Ronan's was entirely shrouded with vapour,
except where a sunbeam, struggling with the mist, penetrated into its
wreath so far as to show a projecting turret upon one of the angles of
the old fortress, which, long a favourite haunt of the raven, was
popularly called the Corbie's Tower. Beneath, the scene was open and
lightsome, and the robin redbreast was chirping his best, to atone for
the absence of all other choristers. The fine foliage of autumn was seen
in many a glade, running up the sides of each little ravine, russet-hued
and golden-specked, and tinged frequently with the red hues of the
mountain-ash; while here and there a huge old fir, the native growth of
the soil, flung his broad shadow over the rest of the trees, and seemed
to exult in the permanence of his dusky livery over the more showy, but
transitory brilliance by which he was surrounded.

Such is the scene, which, so often described in prose and in poetry, yet
seldom loses its effect upon the ear or upon the eye, and through which
we wander with a strain of mind congenial to the decline of the year.
There are few who do not feel the impression; and even Jekyl, though
bred to far different pursuits than those most favourable to such
contemplation, relaxed his pace to admire the uncommon beauty of the
landscape.

Perhaps, also, he was in no hurry to rejoin the Earl of Etherington,
towards whose service he felt himself more disinclined since his
interview with Tyrrel. It was clear that that nobleman had not fully
reposed in his friend the c