various and affecting ideas, I hardly heard a sound, which made lord Leicester start forward, with an eagerness that might easily have deprived me of the little strength Heaven had left me. The antichamber into which I immediately followed him was dark, but in the room beyond I perceived a light, and heard the voice of a woman apparently supplicating. Scarcely had I distinguished, in that of the man who answered her, the dreaded Williams, ere I saw lord Leicester start forward, levelling the bar with so desperate a boldness, that the fall of the villain ascertained our safety. Instantly snatching a knife from the wretch's hand, he pointed it at his bosom, but perceived a perforation in the brain, which made his punishment as terrible as his guilt, and his death immediate. "Execrable monster," cried my lord, dropping the knife, "by unlooked-for means Heaven at last has finished thee!"

"Gracious God!" cried the lady, " do I hear the voice of lord Leicester ?" Amazed at this discovery, and the preceding event, hardly could my trembling limbs

convey me into the chamber. " Approach, my dear Matilda," cried my lord, "never more shall this wretch appal thee. Eternal justice is satisfied with one blow, nor need I turn assassin even to him. Happy at the same moment in saving this lady, endeavour to interest her for those misfortunes in which she already seems interwoven."-" Can lord Leicester ever know a misfortune in which I am not interwoven?" cried the lady; "to have received my life from his hands alone could reconcile me to it." Had I not known the speaker by her voice to be the fair Rose Cecil, such language must have ascertained it: yet to find ourselves under the roof of our most mortal enemy, was a cruel stroke. "Is it possible we should be in the house of lord Burleigh ?" cried lord Leicester, disdainfully. She, sighing, replied-" He fortunately is absent; nor can you ever be unsafe in any house where I am mistress.""You know not to whom you speak," cried I, in turn: "alas! Miss Cecil, do you still remember the friendship you have so often professed for the unfortunate Ma

tilda?

Ever has she lamented the sad necessity of veiling her fate from a heart so noble; accept then, at this unexpected moment, that confidence I always longed to place in you; and tell me whether you still can resolve to love her who was the wife of lord Leicester long ere she saw you-her, who at this moment renders him a fugitive in his own country?" Miss Cecil's distressful eyes wandered from him to me for some moments in silence; then taking a hand of each, she first kissed, and afterwards uniting them, said, with a Spartan firmness, "My friend!" but turning instantly from him, to hide her glowing cheeks and impassioned tears in my bo som, sobbed out, "my deliverer!" Her beauty (which was rendered more obvious by her disordered appearance, the ruffian having compelled her to rise and half-dress herself), her innocence, and her generosity, appeared at last a little to affect lord Leicester, who had hitherto shewn her an indifference almost amounting to disgust. "It remains with you, madam,” returned he, in a softer voice, "now to become

mine. Miss Cecil no longer sees the worshipped favourite of an imperious queen. United alike by choice and law to the dear companion of my dangers, a chain of occurrences reduces us to escape by unknown means from England, and with the utmost dispatch. Nevertheless, those even Elizabeth's rage might have spared, were only an hour ago devoted by that lifeless villain. Escaped this moment almost from a den of slaughter, hardly can we tell whether the banditti, of whom this was the ringleader, are not now surrounding us. Summon all your courage and your domestics; and, while providing for your own safety, I need not solicit you to remember ours."—"When I forget it, may I be condemned to see you perish!" cried she; then turning to me, with that innocent candour which eminently distinguished her, sought a pardon in my eyes. Collecting all her thoughts, she continued, in a few moments-"Astonished as I must be, both at your circumstances and your visit, my noble friends, curiosity yields to friendship. With the morning I expect my father, nor

is there any safety for you but immediate flight: nevertheless, this danger with which you say we are environed, must be the first consideration." I then explained to her the secret of the Recess; the direful mistake which had thrown us into the power of its present diabolical tenants; and the desperation which the discovery of our escape, with the means by which it was effected, must inevitably cause; except in-. deed the loss of Williams should abate their ferocity. While I talked, I frequently perceived her mind wandered on another subject. She surveyed the disguised persons and pale faces of both my lord and me a thousand times over. By fits she shook with horror at the story I was relating; and by starts she forgot I had been speaking, and obliged me to go back in my tale. Employed solely in concerting the means of securing our safety, her own seemed hardly a consideration. Such is the nature of love in the mind of a virtuous woman. I see," said she, when I had finished, the necessity of somebody's appearing, to account to my servants for