In the mean time, some of the robbers brought a cup of water, and with a gentleness he did not expect, assisted Charles in endeavouring to recall Mary to herself, but in vain, and he began to be seriously alarmed for her life. It was a curious sight to see the young Englishman bending with looks of eager anxiety over the lifeless form of her he loved, surrounded by the dark countenances of the rude Italian robbers, all seemingly more or less interested in the lovely girl that lay with scarce a sign of animation in the midst of them. The ferocity of their habits seemed suspended for the moment, and the kindliness of nature, long, long forgotten, seemed returned without a mixture of evil, while one supported her drooping head upon his knee, as Charles sprinkled the water on her forehead, and another chafed her fair and delicate hand, pure as innocence itself, in his own, embrowned by sun and storm, and stained with a thousand crimes.

But

But at length their captain, having cast many uneasy looks along the road, which was close by, told Charles that they could not remain any longer in that exposed situation, and Mr. Melville was obliged to raise his cousin in his arms, and carry her in the midst of the robbers, along a narrow path passing between the hill and the wood. Burdened with the weight of his cousin, Charles was now totally without defence, and had the banditti been so inclined, they might have murdered him without resistance; but the proverb, that there is honour amongst thieves, seemed to hold good, and their minds for a time at least seemed turned to other thoughts.

At the end of a mile they came to a house which bore the appearance of a solitary inn. It is true, there had been another house near it, the walls of which were still standing; but the windows, doors, and wood-work in general, had been long ago torn away, to patch up the dilapidated dwelling into which Charles was now con

ducted.

ducted. When they were arrived at this miserable-looking place, they made him carry Mary up stairs into a large bedroom, which was entered by an anti-room; and here the captain, who followed him, locked the door, telling him, that in a few minutes he would send his sister to see if she could be of any assistance to his wife, which he concluded Mary to be; and Charles, thinking some advantage might be drawn from the mistake, took care not to correct it.

As soon as they were alone, he laid Mary gently on the wretched bed which the room contained, and again endeavoured to recall her to recollection. He was now more successful, for in about five minutes she began to revive, though slowly, and a slight degree of colour came back into her cheek. As soon as she had recovered herself, she raised her head, gazed wildly round her, and fixing her eyes upon Charles's face, seemed striving to remember." Charles!" exclaimed she at

length,

length, "where am I? tell me what has happened? was it you, dear Charles, that saved me again?"

Charles had for years been deceiving himself he had been deceiving every one, with respect to his feelings towards Mary; but circumstances had opened his eyes, he could delude himself no longer, and yielding to all he felt, he pressed her to his bosom, telling her she was safe, and calling her by the fondest names that affection could suggest.

But Mary seemed scarcely to perceive the increased warmth of his manner. "Oh, Charles!" she replied, putting both her hands into his with her own sweet and peculiar look of innocent confidence, "what do I not owe you?"

"Nothing! nothing, dearest Mary!" he replied, and a further answer was trembling on his lips, which would at once have explained to Mary the feelings of his heart; but at that moment he heard a foot on the stairs, and he had just time to in

form

form his cousin that lady Anne Milsomé was safe-that the robbers detained them till such time as the ransom should be paid-and that they took her for his wife, when some one unlocked the door of the antichamber.

There was something in the mistake which the robbers had made, with respect to her connexion with him, that called a slight blush into Mary's cheek, that came and went like the purple of an evening sunbeam.

Every expression of countenance is a sort of silent language which we all translate in our own hearts, but which the customs of the world forbid us to notice in the ordinary modes of speech, and Charles instantly interpreted his cousin's blush, and answered it, without thinking, by asking her not to discountenance the mistake, for that it might be of the greatest consequence to them both that it should continue.

The request made Mary blush again;

and