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An hour, a lover's hour, spent in mutual vows and sweet anticipations of the future, passed away with the rapidity of lightning, and Jocelyn was expressing his hopes that the great suit pending, by which his father's estates had been so long withheld from him, would now quickly be decided, and that they would soon be enabled to restore the splendours of Brambletye House, the seat of their ancestors, when a sepulchral voice, sounding from behind the arbour, ejaculated-" Anathema! maranatha !

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curse be upon its sacrilegious walls, and never again may they be covered with a roof! Amen!"

Julia uttered an exclamation of terror, and even Jocelyn was startled: but almost immediately vaulting over the hedge, he beheld a dark object moving rapidly away towards the forest. He pursued it, but fleet as he was of foot, the gathering gloom of evening, and the deep shades of the forest, enabled it to escape, and as he did. not wish to leave Julia, he gave over his search, and returned to her, exclaiming“ There is a

mystery attaches to our family, as well as to your's; for this strange being, whom Sir John has christened the Black Ghost, has for several years continued to haunt Brambletye and its neighbourhood, uttering malisons against the house and the whole race of the Comptons; a circumstance which we can no otherwise explain than by supposing her to be some wandering lunatic, although even this supposition will not account for her inexplicable power of eluding apprehension."

The tender conversation, so suddenly interrupted by this incident, was resumed, and in the course of the explanations that ensued relative to her escape from the fire, Julia saw fresh reason to despise her cousin for his contemptible falsehoods, and was not at all sorry at being enabled to transfer to her lover the gratitude that was due to him for her rescue. So indignant was Jocelyn at the recital of the insolent persecutions they had all suffered from Mark Walton, that even the presence and the entreaties of Julia could hardly restrain his

wrath, or prevent the expression of his resolution to inflict personal chastisement upon the caitiff, wherever he should encounter him.

That wary and watchful personage, rendered suspicious by a knowledge of his own artifices, and now in intimate connection with the Government spies, had planted myrmidons about Pippingford Lodge, by whom he was presently apprized of Jocelyn's arrival; and well knowing that his own exposure would ensue, even if he escaped a personal skirmish with his rival, of which he was by no means desirous, he took immediate measures for placing him in a situation that should effectually debar him from prosecuting either his love or his revenge, and which might ultimately, as he hoped, entail destruction upon his head. During the time that he had been tormenting Julia and her friends by his hateful solicitations, he was in the habit of residing, or at least of sleeping, in a woodcutter's cottage, in the recesses of the forest, not far from Pippingford Lodge. Thither did he

arm.

now betake himself, to superintend the machinations he had been devising for Jocelyn's ruin; stealing to his obscure hiding-place in the dusk of the evening, as he was, at this juncture, not less apprehensive of his rival's eye than of his He was passing the last of the thickets in which the cottage was embowered, when a deep solemn voice exclaimed, "Stop, Mark Walton! stop!" and at the same moment a black figure, in a female garb, started from the brake.-"Stand aloof! keep back!" cried Walton, jumping on one side, and presenting a pistol; “I am armed, and if you move a step further you are dead!"

"Put up your weapon,” cried the figure, “I am your friend; I bring you tidings that may give you fortune, distinction, and Julia.”

"Julia!" cried Walton, in amazement, know of her ? "

"what can you

"I know that without my aid she is lost to you for ever; I know that your rival, Jocelyn Compton, is at this moment at Pippingford

Lodge; I know that she has received him as her lover; I know that I have a secret to divulge which will render you the master of her fate, and thereby, in all probability, of her person, and the fortune to which she is entitled: and this secret I am now ready to reveal, if you agree to certain conditions."

"Name them," said Walton.

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"Not here: there is an oath to swear, and deed to do, but not here. If you are prepared to listen to the secret, and to execute its conditions, follow me!"

"Lead on," said Walton-"I am ready." She walked forward, threading the thickest mazes and most unfrequented recesses of the pathless forest, muttering malisons and Scriptural quotations to herself, while Walton followed with his pistol in his hand, until they emerged at the back of Brambletye House, when she clambered over the dismantled wall, and having made her way into the midst of the vaults and ruins of the building, she turned to her

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