surely meet some of our people at all events, I will not be absent a moment."

"Kind Barbara!" said the Baroness, languidly, "I could not ask it. But if you have the courage, go, dear girl; I shall feel security in Conrade's presence."

She found the trusty domestic folded in his camp cloak, centinel-like, marching to and fro before the door, drowsily humming a military tune.

"Ah!" said she, transported at the sight of him, and casting a comparative glance on the forms of some of his comrades, who lay fast asleep on the ground, "one may be sure, whatever other lazy varlets there may be, you, Conrade, are ever to be found on the watch. My lady wants you.-Why, bless ine! You stare as if you had lost your wits, and look so drowsy! Do, pray, come to my lady! She's dying with fright! Oh dear! How can you stand, like something stupid!"

"Oh! my lady!-Ay, ay, now I un

derstand you! I see it all at once! Ah! now I have it! Well, it is an excellent joke that I should fancy all the while I was keeping guard before my young lord's quarters at Halle! Ay, ay, I'll attend my lady. To be sure; I'll attend my lady directly!"

And, moving himself with no great celerity, he followed Barbara. The Baroness, who had kept her eye steadily fixed on the glowing embers in the brasier, fearful to hazard a glance round the apartment, now rushed to meet the man in whose protection she so confidently relied, but all sense and judgment had apparently forsaken him; the transition from the keen frosty air to light and heat completed his overthrow, and, in spite of every effort put in practice by the Baroness and her woman to arouse him, he sank down in the corner, and was soon stretched in almost deathlike slumber.

CHAPTER V.

"Passato il pericolo, gabbato il Santo!"

THE Consternation of the Baroness was now at its height; there was no alternative but to sit patiently, expecting the slow departure of this tedious, fearful night: Barbara, who had been ready to embrace Conrade, in the character of her protector, now beheld him with feelings of wrath and animosity.

"A precious guard, indeed! Such a lazy, drunken fellow! A lovely figure he'll make in the morning! Were I him, after such an exploit I would hang myself!"

"This is so strange and unwonted an event in Conrade's history, that I cannot look on it as the effect of accident :-In short, I know not what to think! Would

that this weary night were passed!"'

VOL. II.

F

It must have been sometime after midnight, when the door softly opened, and Sturmo looked in upon them; his glance wandered round the room, as if in search of something, and the inquiry seemed to obtain a satisfactory answer, when he espied the situation of Conrade.

"What is your business, friend?" said the Baroness, timidly.

"I thought you might need some attendance, ladies; but I see you are so well guarded and served, I might have spared myself the pains.-Do you always keep vigil, ladies? You will tire of that plan, if you travel far. Let me bring you a drop of warm mead to comfort your hearts, and then, wrapt in those cloaks, you may sleep by the fire as sound as on a feather-bed! Do, ladies?" added he, in a whining tone, "such pretty, slight creatures as you are, cannot make too much of themselves."

There was an insolence about the man, against which the spirit of the Baroness,

'I

subdued as it was by fatigue and agitation, revolted.

"Retire, friend!" said she, we do not need your services! Only do me the favour to send hither the first of my do mestics you meet with."

"Why, lady, it happens rather unluckily, but the truth is, that the gentle. man in the corner there is a sample of all the rest. There is not one of your domestics whose own legs will carry him to you; there they lie, some at the door, and some in the stable, like so many dead men: if you don't believe me, you may come and see yourself, lady. Nay, you may well turn pale, for it has an evil look with it, there is no denying; and how it has all happened, unless the devil has been amongst us, I can't pretend to guess. Hark, ladies! Don't you hear something?"

7

"Oh!" cried Barbara, "my teeth chatter so, I can hear nothing but them!"