"Roger Wildrake !" said Everard, letting the cavalier loose, and stepping back.

"Roger Wildrake? ay, truly. Did you take me for Roger Bacon, come to help you to raise the devil?-for the place smells of sulphur consumedly."

"It is the pistol I fired-Did you not hear it ?"

"Why yes, it was the first thing waked mefor that night cap which I pulled on, made me sleep like a dormouse-Pshaw, I feel my brains giddy with it yet."

"And wherefore came you not on the instant? -I never needed help more."

"I came as fast as I could," answered Wildrake; "but it was some time ere I got my senses collected, for I was dreaming of that cursed field at Naseby-and then the door of my room was shut, and hard to open, till I played the locksmith with my foot."

"How? it was open when I went to bed," said Everard.

"It was locked when I came out of bed though,"

said Wildrake, "and I marvel you heard me not when I forced it open."

66

rard.

My mind was occupied otherwise," said Eve

"Well," said Wildrake," but what has happened?-Here am I bolt upright, and ready to fight, if this yawning fit will give me leave-Mother Redcap's mightiest is weaker than I drank last night, by a bushel to a barleycorn-I have quaffed the very elixir of malt-Ha-yaw."

"And some opiate besides, I should think," said Everard.

"Very like-very like-less than the pistolshot would not waken me; even me, who with but an ordinary grace-cup sleep as lightly as a maiden on the first of May, when she watches for the earliest beam to go to gather dew. But what are you about to do next ?”

"Nothing," answered Everard.

"

Nothing?" said Wildrake, in surprise.

“I speak it,” said Colonel Everard, "less for your information, than for that of others who may hear me, that I will leave the Lodge this morn

ing, and, if it is possible, remove the Commissioners."

"Hark," said Wildrake, "do you not hear some noise, like the distant sound of the applause of a theatre? The goblins of the place rejoice in your departure."

"I shall leave Woodstock," said Everard, "to the occupation of my uncle Sir Henry Lee, and his family, if they choose to resume it; not that I am frightened into this as a concession to the series of artifices which have been played off on this occasion, but solely because such was my intention from the beginning But let me warn," (he added, raising his voice,)-"let me warn the parties concerned in this combination, that though it may pass off successfully on a fool like Desborough, a visionary like Harrison, a coward like Bletson"

Here a voice distinctly spoke, as standing near them" Or a wise, moderate, and resolute person, like Colonel Everard."

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'By Heaven, the voice came from the picture," said Wildrake, drawing his sword; "I will pink his plaited armour for him."

"Offer no violence," said Everard, startled at the interruption, but resuming with firmness what he was saying,-"Let those engaged be aware, that however this string of artifices may be immediately successful, it must, when closely looked into, be attended with the punishment of all concernedthe total demolition of Woodstock, and the irremediable downfall of the family of Lee. Let all concerned think of this, and desist in time."

He paused, and almost expected a reply, but

none came.

"It is a very odd thing," said Wildrake; "but -yaw-ha—my brain cannot compass it just now; it whirls round like a toast in a bowl of muscadine; I must sit down-hew-yaw-and discuss it at leisure-Gramercy, good elbow-chair."

So saying, he threw himself, or rather sank gradually down, on a large easy-chair, which had been often pressed by the weight of stout Sir Henry Lee, and in an instant was sound asleep. Everard was far from feeling the same inclination for slumber, yet his mind was relieved of the ap prehension of any farther visitation that night; for he considered his treaty to evacuate Wood

stock, as made known to, and accepted in all probability, by those whom the intrusion of the Commissioners had induced to take such singular measures for expelling them. His opinion, which had for a time bent towards a belief in something supernatural in the disturbances, had now returned to the more rational mode of accounting for them, by dexterous combination, for which such a mansion as Woodstock afforded so many facilities.

He heaped the hearth with fuel, lighted the candle, and examining poor Wildrake's situation, adjusted him as casily in the chair as he could, the cavalier stirring his limbs no more than an infant. His situation went far, in his patron's opinion, to infer trick and confederacy, for ghosts have no occasion to drug men's possets. He threw himself on the bed, and while he thought these strange circumstances over, a sweet and low strain of music stole through the chamber, the words " Good night— good night-good night," thrice repeated, each time in a softer and more distant tone, seeming to assure him that the goblins and he were at truce, if not at peace, and that he had no more disturbance to expect that night. He had scarcely the courage