with Charles, by turns. But such a dread had she taken at the robbers, that she seemed scarcely to conceive herself out of their reach, and had much reluctance to remain at Pistoia that night, proposing to go on to Florence, though Mary could scarcely hold up her head, with all the fatigue and terror she had undergone.

As Charles concluded his tale, which Mary had frequently interrupted, to supply parts of his own conduct on which he did not choose to dwell, lord Burton shook him warmly by the hand." I owe you much, Charles," said he-" very much. I will not praise the way you have behaved, for it is above any commendation that I could bestow."

Charles was highly gratified-lord Burton's approbation was not that of a common man. But that was not all; he was Mary's brother, and the beam which lighted up her eyes as Frederic spoke, told that she too participated in all he said.

"There is one circumstance," said Fre

deric, "which weighs more upon my mind than any other, because it leaves something to be accounted for, of which I perceive no possible explanation.-You say, Charles, that the man who once before attempted to carry off my sister, when at Ilfracombe, was with the robbers when you came up; but are you sure it is the same? may you not have made a mistake? it is very unlikely that he should be in Italy."

"He is certainly in this country," replied Mary," though I did not see him this time; but we met with him not far from Turin," and she detailed all that had occurred on that occasion.

lord

At the name of the baron de S Burton turned his eyes with a smile towards Charles, into whose cheek the blood began to rise with no very comfortable feelings." I hope we shall meet with the "I baron," said Frederic-" he is a very old friend of mine; and though there are some parts of his conduct I do not understand,

yet I never found him personally any thing

but most estimable."

This conversation was so little to Charles's taste, that he was glad to retire to his own apartment to avoid it, which had the effect of breaking up their party for the evening.

The next morning Mary found herself sufficiently refreshed to proceed, and they pursued their journey to Florence, where they calculated on remaining a month at least. But the adventure of the Apennines had given lady Anne so great a distaste to the whole neighbourhood, that she prevailed on the rest to proceed to Rome, it being seemingly determined on, by tacit agreement, that they were to pursue their tour through Italy together. Mary, on whose health the fatigues she had undergone made no serious impression, soon recovered her bloom; and it being stipulated that they should return by Tuscany, they quitted the banks of the Arno, after a sojourn of five days, lady Anne wishing

most

most devoutly that all the carbonari, &c. might be exterminated from the face of the earth before she ever saw it again, which lord Burton assured her was very likely to be the case, at least so far as concerned the banditti, for that the Austrian government could not long remain inactive spectators of the atrocities that were daily committed.

Their journey to Rome was without incident; but they had not long been in that city, before Charles began heartily to wish they were any where else. He had, in the first instance, naturally conceived the idea that lord Burton would, of his own accord, give some explanation of the line of conduct he had hitherto pursued; but, on the contrary, he remained most pertinaciously silent on every subject in which Charles's happiness was concerned, or his curiosity excited. He neither explained his motives for accompanying him in disguise, nor the means he had taken to prevent any circumstance from betray

ing his concealment of name. But his conduct now seemed still more extraor dinary; for thinking, as Charles did, that he had at one time thrown every obstacle in the way of his union with Mary, he could not at all reconcile it with his allowing them to travel constantly together, and be often for hours alone in each other's society. There was only one way of explaining it, and Charles soon taught himself to believe, that lord Burton had been deceived by the kind of unconscious hypocrisy he had practised, as well upon his own heart as others, and supposed that he merely felt towards Mary the common regard of near relations. This was bitter enough, and Charles again and again accused himself for his former behaviour.

་

But a strange alteration in Mary's manner towards him was a new source of disquietude. Uniformly, at their first meeting in the morning, she appeared reserved, almost cold, towards him; but, in a little, this would wear off, and she would grow

as