rt our readers from the distant forest to Aescendune, speedil

our when tired mortals shut doors and windows, turn instinctively to the cheerful hearth, and while they hear the wind roar without, thank G

to himself an English wife and the manor of Wylmcotte; then Gilbert D'Aubyn of Bearleigh. One after another the troops came in from the outer darkness, white with snow, and shook their mantles and jerkins in the guard chamber within the entrance archway, after whi

hour of the night--six in the evening we should

ed in flowing robes of richest texture, w

my lord, but the guests

son re

yet, my lord. Shall

the oth

ville has not yet c

delayed hal

a turn, and he feared the reputation of the ten cooks, who

mpatiently up and

rself slay King Duncan, "he looked so like her father," and the one weak point in the armour of

the minds of our gentle readers--his pride, his carelessness for the bodily or mental sufferings of others--all these things were nought to the

the English--that Etienne might flesh his sword and win hi

ather to Wilfred, in whom he could only see the rival of his boy, and both mother and son

rived that night, came in, and the baron, to the

r mien. He descended calmly to the banquet, the chaplain blessed the food, and the t

it hung trophies of war or the chase--arms borne in many a conflict, swords, spears, arrows--to each of which some leg

ver trestles, and covered with coarse white cloths. At these sat the retainers, the men whose rank did not entit

ound the tables, and the guests cut off--with the knives which hung at their girdles, and which, perchance, had been more than once stained by the blood of their foes--such portion

merous bands which had scoured the forest; one, and only one, wa

ords washed their fingers, and after waving them gracefully in the air, dried them with the delicate napkins with which t

r arms today? Doubtless some o

ay wolf, although I have tramped the forest from

id one after the oth

or of old, wise, and qualified by age to act as counsellor, he let fall his weigh

t assigned to the son of our host. We had already completed our task, and were on the point of returni

uarter?" sai

pain fell upon our ear, amidst the increasing darkness of the forest. We found the victim, his horn by his side, dead--pierced through by an arrow. The life had been ebbing when, hearing our

arty did h

shoulder somewhat higher than the other, and he wore this bel

of all his efforts at composure, and knew it to belong

" he said in a voice whic

in the woods, when our dogs began to growl. Dimly in the shade we saw three or four beings creeping forw

hy

s, and tails,

ood is haunted

wert afraid

but we shrink from Satan and his hosts. Still

ce near enough

; it mattered not if they we

d been masquerading for the purpose of f

e previous fall, lay lightly on the ground, for the storm of tonight had hardly set in. There were marks of one of our parties, and we

contending with demons, and not with mortals, fell upon them, and perhaps the br

there were no signs of his son, he selected a band of trusty warriors, who, in spite of the story of t

and with torches and horns made night hideous, until cold and fatigue

saw his son surrounded by the demons of Sir Eustace's tale, and in every other var

s the "Dismal Swamp" p

, reflected keenly from the white ground, the trees hung with frozen snow, which ha

the baron, again entered the forest. They reached, in due cour

en, but it was evident that the knight's description given the previous evening was all too correct. The man had died in great horror and anguish

trict," said the baron; "but

shared thi

rnatural powers were arrayed against them, that the English had cal

by ghostly disguise to affright t

ere our party had rested, and the body of the man first sl

he had fallen by

allen became general, and expressed itself

was soon found in the fragments of food--the remains of the carcase of the wild boar--to show th

ey gazed upon those distorted features--fear, mingled with dread--so mysterious were the circumstances. They buried the

he dead body of his son. They still pursued the same line:

g upon that deso

ld penetrate there,

ry

ut sank almost directly in a quagmire covered

place is

ed by

ste

and dogs came

the pit, who would lea

d like hum

, we will search the place," said the baron. "Come, my me

alacrity, for they dreaded the approach of night, and the terrors o

ootsore they reached the castle, but the h