CHAPTER XX.

Of an outlawe, this is the lawe-
That men him take and bind;
Without pitie hanged to be,

And waive with the wind.

The Ballad of the Nut Brown Maid.

MORDAUNT had caused the sentinels who had been on duty since midnight to be relieved ere the peep of day, and having given directions that the guard should be again changed at sun-rise, he had retired to a small parlour, and placing his arms beside him, was slumbering in an easy chair, when he felt himself pulled by the watch cloak in which he was enveloped.

"Is it sun-rise," said he, "already?" as, starting up, he discovered the first beams lying level upon the horizon.

"Mordaunt!" said a voice, every note of which thrilled to his heart.

He turned his eyes on the speaker, and Brenda Troil, to his joyful astonishment, stood before him. As he was about to address her eagerly he was checked by observing the signs of sorrow and discomposure in her pale cheeks, trembling lips, and brimful eyes.

"Mordaunt," she said, "you must do Minna and me a favour-you must allow us to leave the house quietly, and without alarming any one, in order to go as far as the Standing Stones of Stennis."

"What freak can this be, dearest Brenda?" said Mordaunt, much amazed at the request" some Orcadian observance of superstition, perhaps; but

the time is too dangerous, and my charge from your father too strict, that I should permit you to pass without his consent. Consider, dearest Brenda, I am a soldier on duty, and must obey orders." "Mordaunt," said Brenda, "this is no jesting matter-Minna's reason, nay Minna's life, depends on your giving us this permission."

"And for what purpose?" said Mordaunt-"let me at least know that.

"For a wild and a desperate purpose," replied Brenda-“It is that she may meet Cleveland."

"Cleveland!" said Mordaunt-" should the villain come ashore, he shall be welcomed with a shower of rifle-balls. Let me within a hundred yards of him," he added, grasping his piece, "and all the mischief he has done me shall be balanced with an ounce bullet!"

"His death will drive Minna frantic," said Brenda; and he who injures Minna, Brenda will never again look upon."

"This is madness-raving madness!" said Mordaunt-" Consider your honour-consider your duty.'

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I can consider nothing but Minna's danger, said Brenda, breaking into a flood of tears; her former illness was nothing to the state she has been in all night. She holds in her hand his letter, written in characters of fire rather than of ink, imploring her to see him for a last farewell, as she would save a mortal body and an immortal soul-pledging himself for her safety, and declaring no power shall force him from the coast till he has seen her.-You must let us pass.

"It is impossible!" replied Mordaunt, in great perplexity-"This ruffian has imprecations enough, doubtless, at his fingers' ends, but what better pledge has he to offer?—I can not permit Minna to

go.

"I suppose," said Brenda, somewhat reproach

fully, while she dried her tears, yet still continued sobbing," that there is something in what Norna spoke of, betwixt Minna and you; and that you are too jealous of this poor wretch to allow him even to speak with her an instant before his departure."

"You are unjust," said Mordaunt, hurt, and yet somewhat flattered by her suspicions, "you are as unjust as you are imprudent. You know-you can not but know that Minna is chiefly dear to me as your sister. Tell me, Brenda-and tell me trulyif I aid you in this folly, have you no suspicion of the Pirate's faith?"

"No, none," said Brenda; "if I had any, do you think I would urge you thus?-he is wild and unhappy, but I think we may in this trust him."

"Is the appointed place the Standing Stones, and the time day-break?" again demanded Mordaunt.

"It is, and the time is come," said Brenda"for Heaven's sake let us depart!"

"I will myself," said Mordaunt, "relieve the sentinel at the front door for a few minutes, and suffer you to pass-You will not protract this interview, so full of danger?"

"We will not,' ," said Brenda, "and you, on your part, you will not avail yourself of this unhappy man's venturing hither, to harm or to seize him."

"Rely on my honour," said Mordaunt, "he shall have no harm unless he offers any."

"Then I go to call my sister," said Brenda, and tripped out of the apartment.

Mordaunt considered the matter for an instant, and then going to the sentinel at the front door, he told him to run instantly to the main guard, and order the whole to turn out with their arms-to see the order obeyed, and to return when they were in readiness. Meantime, he himself, he said, would

remain upon the post. During the interval of the sentinel's absence, the front door was slowly opened, and Minna and Brenda appeared, muffled in their mantles. The former leaned on her sister, and kept her face bent on the ground, as one who felt ashamed of the step she was about to take. Brenda also passed her lover in silence, but threw back upon him a look of gratitude and affection, which doubled, if possible, his anxiety for their safety.

The sisters, in the meanwhile, passed out of sight of the house, when Minna, whose step, till that time, had been faint and feeble, began to erect her person, and to walk with a pace so firm and so swift, that Brenda, who had some difficulty to keep up with her, could not forbear remonstrating on the imprudence of hurrying her spirits, and exhausting her force, by such unnecessary haste.

"Fear not, my dearest sister," said Minna, "the spirit which I now feel will, and must, sustain me through the dreadful interview. I could not but move with a drooping head and dejected face while I was in view of one who must necessarily deem me deserving of his pity or his scorn. But you know, my dearest Brenda, and Cleveland shall also know, that the love I bore to that unhappy man, was as pure as the rays of that sun, that is now reflected on the waves. And I dare attest that glorious sun, and yonder blue heaven, to bear me witness, that, but to urge him to change his unhappy course of life, I had not, for all the temptations this round world holds, ever consented to see him more."

As she spoke thus, in a tone which afforded much confidence to Brenda, the sisters attained the summit of a rising ground, whence they commanded a full view of the Orcadian Stonehenge, consisting of a huge circle and semi-circle of the Standing Stones, as they are called, which already glimmerVOL. II.- -23

ed a grayish white in the rising sun, and projected far to the westward their long gigantic shadows. At another time, the scene would have operated powerfully on the imaginative mind of Minna, and interested the curiosity at least of her less sensitive sister. But, at this moment, neither was at leisure to receive the impressions which this stupendous monument of antiquity is so well calculated to impress on the feelings of those who behold it; for they saw, in the lower lake, beneath what is termed the Bridge of Broisgar, a boat well manned and armed, which had disembarked one of its crew, who advanced alone, and wrapped in a naval cloak, toward that monumental circle which they themselves were about to reach from another quarter.

"They are many and they are armed," said the startled Brenda, in a whisper to her sister.

"It is for precaution's sake," answered Minna, "which, alas, their condition renders but too necessary-fear no treachery from him-that, at least is not his vice.

As she spoke, or shortly afterwards, she attained the centre of the circle, on which, in the midst of the tall erect pillars of, rude stone which are erected around, lies one flat and prostrate, which supported by short stone pillars, of which some reliques are still visible, had once served, perhaps, the purpose of an altar.

"Here," she said, " in heathen times (if we may believe legends, which have cost me but too dear,) our ancestors offered sacrifices to heathen deitiesand here will I, from my soul, renounce, abjure, and offer up to a better and a more merciful God than was known to them, the vain ideas with which my youthful imagination has been seduced."

She stood by the prostrate table of stone, and saw Cleveland advance towards her, with a timid pace, and a downcast look, as different from his usual character and bearing, as Minna's high look and