likely to rain, let us be quick;" and he stretched out his neck towards the hangman, who stood by his side. In another minute the knot was tied, and the murderer swung between earth and heaven, a livid corpse!

CHAPTER XXIV.

Thus through the doubtful streams of joy and grief
True love doth wade, and finds at last relief.

The Woman-hater.

OUR history now touches upon its close, and the reader will bring but a listless mind to what remains. Like the last scene of an eventful tragedy, where the hero and heroine have committed suicide under the most interesting circumstances, and the lovers, having sighed through five acts, receive the nuptial benediction, if the dialogue be protracted but for five more minutes, it is carried on amid preparations for departure, and that general buzz and motion through the theatre which denote that the spell is broken; so with the last chapter of a romance: the reader considers himself released from whatever influence the author may have been able to exercise during the progress

of the story; settles in his own mind how all the rest is to happen; and is disappointed rather than pleased, if any attempt be made to alter the prescribed course of events, by introducing incidents which shock all his notions of what should be the fate of the remaining characters. We shall, therefore, as briefly as may be, narrate the few events which will conduct us gently to the end.

When Mr. Azledine was made acquainted with the death of Sir Stephen, (which at once restored him to his title and estates,) he rejoiced exceedingly that the untimely end of his nephew had protected the family name from the dishonour of a criminal process, and it might be, of a public execution.

"This is something," said he; "for though it is greatly to be feared the guilt of the unhappy youth was beyond all doubt, still there is now no public record of it; nothing to which an envious and malignant world can turn at any time, and bring forward to reproach me or mine. Rumours, suspicions, recollections, are fleeting things: they rarely live as long as the generation among whom they are born; and in a few years, at most, they perish utterly."

This was almost the only consolation he derived from the occurrence that had opened his prison doors. Any other satisfaction which it produced, had reference rather to his wife and children than himself. He was glad (because he saw it made her so,) that Lady Azledine could resume her station in the world: he rejoiced that Cameron would now inherit what he had always been taught to consider as his birthright; and he looked forward with serene pleasure to the more than probability of this unexpected change in their fortunes removing the only obstacle that stood in the way of his beloved daughter, Arabella's, and his almost equally beloved friend, Aston's, happiness. Beyond these considerations, there were none else that touched him. Long confinement had undermined his health; its solitude had broken down his mind. Fortune beckoned with smiles, and called with a jocund voice; but the shroud, and the coffin, and the grave, seemed to lie between: there was no fountain of joy welling from the heart, to bear upon its sparkling tide the blithe hopes and the buoyant feelings which should return her smile or respond to her call.

It was with this saddened spirit that he turned his back upon his prison, accompanied by Lady Azledine, his daughter Arabella, his daughter-in-law, the gentle and inly-rejoicing Caroline, her husband, Aston, the faithful, grey-headed, but dejected, because his master was so, Judiah, and more friends, than he had seen for many a day-so suddenly does the warm sunshine of prosperity bring forth these delicate blossoms of the world!

With the same saddened spirit, but now melting into tears, he rode through a living avenue of glad hearts, gathered together from all the country round, to welcome with song, and dance, and minstrelsy, his return to Azledine Hall. Flowers were strewn in his path, blessings were poured upon his head, honest, toil-worn hands were stretched forth to greet him, as the carriage slowly moved along; and when it stopped at the ancient, well-remembered door, and he saw all the principal gentry of the county, headed by his attached friend, the Rev. Jonas Dankes, assembled to welcome him back; while at the windows stood their wives and daughters, impatient to embrace the females of his family, it is no wonder he wept,