the billow. It drives toward the foot of the lake, and soon approaches the skiff which has been seen on the horizon. Karadan is standing at the prow! vainly does he stretch out his arms and call upon Seshelma; she cannot bring about that meeting which her arts contrived, for a mightier power than hers presides over the storm. The dark youth beholds Iarine and Phantasmion together; he may not look upon them long; the skiff is going down; it sinks! O save him!" exclaims the maid; and Phantasmion leaps into the tumbling element. It is a desperate enterprise; those wings, not made for the water, now only encumber him, and Karadan clings round his body with the clasp of a drowning man. Long did he struggle, but in vain he and his rival were nigh sinking together, when a vessel, conducted by the old fisherman from the lower end of the lake, arrived in time to save them from death. In a little while they were rescued from the waves, and laid at the bottom of the wide bark, where the crew surrounded them, intent on their restoration, and none save the aged husband of Telza, bestowed a thought on the damsel in the narrow boat.

:

But the storm now abated, and Iarine, waving her hand to the fisherman, in token that she needed no help, slowly pursued her way homewards. On the

horizon of the plain, beyond the foot of the lake, a border of pale brightness was visible; it seemed to show that there was a silver firmament behind those tumultuous volumes of cloud which had remained unmoved throughout the chaos of the storm. The maid was alone, but for herself she felt no fear; she thought not of Karadan or of Glandreth, of the water witch or

of an angry step-dame; she was thinking only of Phantasmion. Her love had hitherto been as a distant strain of music, scarce noted by one that is busily occupied; but now the harmony sounds fuller and more distinct; it will be heard, and the hum of many voices falls into an undersong. With reluctance she recedes from the vessel where she lately saw him taken in, dripping and senseless. That bark was filled with servants of Magnart, who had been despatched from Polyanthida in search of their master's son. Learning from the old fisherman that he had gone upon the lake, they ventured through the storm, guided by the old man, in the direction of the island, whither they supposed he might have taken his course. Phantasmion recovered wholly while Karadan was but just beginning to revive, and, while the men in the boat were still bending around the dark youth, he took flight from the stern, and hastened to rejoin Iarine.

Black clouds were yet rolled around the body of the hills, while the head of the lake and one side of the island were still thickly veiled with mist; but the sun began to gild the peaks of the mountains, and a vivid rainbow spanned the waters, which now lay motionless and inky black, as if a trance had succeeded to violent agitation. Again Phantasmion stood by the side of Iarine with moist wings he hovered over the boat, when the maid looked up and continued to ply the oars without speaking: but there was a smile on her face, and the youth entered the narrow vessel. Ere that splendid phantom which bent around them had faded away, Iarine and Phantasmion were bound to each other by the strongest ties that words can form; clouds or

sunshine might reign without, but their faith was to remain like the dial, which stands fixed and changeless, while day and night roll on, and can but brighten or darken its face as they are passing over it. Now the youth feels that perfect satisfaction in the present hour which lulls in its tranquil ecstacy, all hope, all effort, all reflection, all forecast; even the certain knowledge that the dream must dissolve, cannot lessen its charm, that joyfulness of feeling which thought has no power to shake. He took from beneath his girdle the chaplet which had been worn by Zalia, and on which was inscribed, "The Queen of Palmland." He showed her the ruby flowers with their leaves of emerald, and the lady smiled, but turned away, and again pointed to the heavens. "How strange it is," she said, "that those wreaths of vapour are yet lying on the lake, when every cloud has left the mountain, and almost all have melted from the sky!" Phantasmion cast his eyes around and saw that the welkin was clear, except above the vapoury mass to which Iarine pointed; there he descried the same noticeable cloud which he had gazed upon in the beginning of the tempest; it was in the form of a cross, and the shape was more conspicuous now that it was alone in the sky. "Let us fear nothing," cried the youth; "these clouds too will disperse like the rest, and we shall have perfect sunshine." Scarce had he spoken thus, and placed the chaplet on Iarine's brow, when a boat shot forth from the dark mist. Glandreth was standing at the prow, and that vessel was followed by a train of others, which, at his command, surrounded Phantasmion and Iarine.

In a few moments the youth was bound with cords

which fastened his arms and delicate pinions to his body, and, while Glandreth's armed men were dragging him away to the Castle, he beheld the chieftain conducting Iarine to the shore, then Maudra hidden among the trees, jealously watching his actions, then the drooping Albinian with his lame child on their way to the lake side. Albinet pulled his father's arm as Phantasmion passed him. "Look at his shoulders," he said; "now see his wings by daylight!" The cross-formed cloud had disappeared, and the sky seemed an endless depth of sunny blue when Phantasmion was hidden from daylight in a subterranean vault of the castle.

CHAPTER XXII.

PHANTASMION ESCAPES FROM PRISON AND PRESENTS HIMSELF TO IARINE IN DISGUISE.

DARK and cold was the place in which Phantasmion was confined, and such as might have chilled a less ardent temper than his, but he paced the stone floor, like a leopard in a cage, devising plans of escape, and nursing hopes of vengeance. He had now leisure to review the events of the morning, and now he surmised that Maudra had sent Iarine to meet Karadan at the suggestion of her wily counsellor, because she desired, at any cost, to remove her from the eyes of Glandreth; that the dark youth had planned to carry her away, and that their schemes and his own had been frustrated by the intervention of Oloola. "The spirit of the storm cannot conquer the heart of Iarine!" cried he; "other things may change for the better, and that will never change for the worse."

Thus he hoped and triumphed, but no food was given him, and his limbs were painfully pinioned, so that after a certain length of time he sank on the floor, exhausted and spiritless. His eyes were fixed in anguish on the massy door, at the top of the stone steps, by which he had descended into the dungeon, when he heard the bolts withdrawn and, in a few moments, Glandreth stood before him, sumptuously attired, and