up to obey that summons, letting Maudra's unfinished robe fall upon the ground. She opened a door, and discovered Albinian with his head resting on a harp, of which some strings were broken. Iarine braced them up, and the greyhaired man began feebly to move the chords, murmuring an old melody, the burden of which was scarce intelligible to the prince; but when the damsel joined in the strain, he distinguished words like these: The winds were whispering, the waters glistering, Blasts came blighting, the bay-tree smiting, CHAPTER XXI. PHANTASMION JOINS IARINE ON THE LAKE. The PHANTASMION continued to gaze on Iarine, unperceived by her father, whose face was turned in an opposite direction, till he heard a key turn in the lock, and the voice of Maudra speaking to Albinet. Then he quitted the tower as he had entered it, and roamed about the island, pondering how he might obtain another interview with the princess. That day he poured out wine for a noble company, but Glandreth was absent, and Maudra's glances fell upon his empty chair, while Iarine seemed afraid to raise her downcast eyes, lest they should meet those of a present lover. banquet being ended, Phantasmion repaired to the lake side, and, looking out for Glandreth or Karadan, beheld only the light skiffs of the castle guests lying at anchor in the bay, their gay streamers rustling in a gentle breeze. Albinet sate and looked at them with tearful eyes; it seemed as if he loved to hear the varied intonations of his childish grief, so long drawn out was his sobbing and sighing. "I wish that breeze would rise to a tempest ere to-morrow's dawn," he murmured; my sister is to be upon the lake when the sun rises; and woe's me! I am not to be with her." Phantasmion's heart beat high with the thought of a scheme which these words suggested; he dreamed of it, L sleeping and waking through the night, and by daybreak the next morning he was hovering over the lake. There all was solitary and silent; Iarine was not come ; he flew back again to listen at her chamber window, and at last was so far carried away that he softly entered, and hung over her, like a guardian spirit, while she yet slept. Then he taxed himself to examine the separate charms which made up that sum of beauty, the graceful flowing line in which the whole was contained, the full eye, gently slanting at the outer side like a dove's, the soft gradation of colour, from locks of golden brown to the dark thread-like eyebrow and still blacker lashes, which, parting from fair white lids, appeared like foliage of a yew-branch laden with a pile of snow. It seemed as if the hand that streaks the tulip and the iris, and traces jetty lines down many a milkwhite petal, had just finished painting that exquisite picture, and left it with every tint bright and fresh as new blown flowers. But hush those eyes will quickly open, and the prince dares not wait to see them unclosed! He repassed the window, and, soaring upward, placed himself beside the pinnacles of the castle. From the top of the highest tower he watched Iarine as she went leisurely across the lawn, till she disappeared in a grove between the castle and the lake; and, full of impatience he still waited, with outspread wings, till the prow of her light shallop darted forth from the dark green alders that clustered on the shore; then, plying his ready sails, he launched into the air, swept over the lawn and grove, and, wheeling round the boat, alighted just in front of the beautiful damsel, who dropped the oars and sate motionless when she saw him arriving. "Ah, leave me !" she cried, "I must needs be alone; the queen bade me go unaccompanied to meet a messenger, and receive some token or message for her.” “And wilt thou be the blind servant of her wicked will, rather than reign in my fair land?" replied Phantasmion; "nay, sweet princess, thou shalt go with me, and never return to give an account of thy embassy." Then he seized the oars, and, turning the boat, made it fly over the waters like a swallow traversing the sky; Iarine sought in vain to arrest his movements; gaily the youth smiled, when her hand was laid on his strong arm, as if the snow would seek to impede the course of the torrent on which it falls. "My father!" she cried, "alas! my father! Thou hast taken his infant child, and wilt thou rob him of me also ?" "I took that child to place him in safety," answered the young monarch; and I will place thee in more than safety: thou shalt be a queen, and reign over all my subjects, as now thou dost over my heart." Karadan hast promised to aid my father against Glandreth," said Iarine." "What is his aid compared to mine?" exclaimed the youth; "and what his love compared to that I bear thee?" "He is my mother's kinsman," replied the maid; "my father loves him as he never will love thee; and for his sake I must shun thee, and seek to love him." Would it be less difficult to love me than him ?" cried the prince, " must thou shun me ere thou canst love bim ? O, if this be true, a thousand enemies and rivals shall never prevail against me!" Abandoning the oar he seized Iarine's hand, but with the one still left at liberty she pointed to the sky "See what clouds," she said, "have gathered on the mountain-top! how threatening they are how : rapidly they are overspreading the heavens!' She had scarce finished speaking, when the hills, the shores, and the island were shrouded in vapour, while the lurid waters glimmered in a flickering twilight. Lightning rent the clouds on the mountain head, and disclosed the black rocks beneath them; instantly they closed again, but, at that signal flash, thunder and a boisterous wind raised their loud voices together, one like sullen threats rising louder and louder into fury, the other like the prolonged scream of maniac rage. A skiff which tossed at a distance, its white sails fluttering as the wings of a tempest-beaten dove, was the last object visible on the dusky horizon. Phantasmion surveyed the sky, in the centre of which he seemed to discern one cloud blacker than all the rest, and round it a faint edge of lighter hue; on that dark mass the youth could not help gazing, it seemed so like the shroud of a winged form; here and there might be the outstretched pinions, and, above these, the head and floating hair. While his face was upturned, a sheet of lightning overspread the cope of heaven: dizzy and half-blinded he cast down his eyes upon the lake, and there beheld the glistering face of Seshelma, upraised by the side of the boat, while her hands were extended to catch Iarine. Phantasmion seized the oar, and driving it betwixt the water-witch and the vessel, he thrust her away, then uplifted it again to strike her with all his force; but, like an otter, she darted under the waves, and soon her bubbling laugh was heard at a little distance, amid the voices of the storm. Still the boat goes onward, riding up and down the waves, at each descent seeming about to enter the deep, yet again mounting to the summit of |