judgment alike to subdue the deep regrets of silent sufferance, or to yield to them. My mind could never hold any correspondence with his; and by this means alone was I ignorant, for a time, of a calamity, which, when known, totally overwhelmed me: alas, my sister! by a refinement in barbarity, our sainted mother was led to execution, almost at the very moment that I was defaming you and myself to save her. This climax of grief and misfortune was too mighty for my reason-I had passed from fear to fear, from sorrow to sorrow, in such rapid succession, that there were only intervals enough of time to render each more poignant. In one short month to behold myself deceived, defamed, and sacrificed how could I avoid blending the bitter tears of self-love with those of filial duty and affection? The idea of Essex remained engrained on my heart, and doubled every agonizing sensation. Lord Arlington, however, returned to court, which gave me the little relief of solitude:

Severed thus at once from every tie, both of nature and of choice, dead while

yet breathing, the deep melancholy which had seized upon my brain soon tinctured my whole mass of blood-my intellects, strangely blackened and confused, frequently realized scenes and objects that never existed, annihilating many which daily passed before my eyes. I sometimes observed the strong surprise of my attendants when I spoke of these visions, but much oftener I remained lethargic and insensible. There were moments when I started as from a deep sleep, (and oh, how deep a sleep is that of the soul!)-turned my dubious eyes around with vague re membrance-touched my hand, to be con vinced that I yet existed-trembled at the sound of my own voice, or raising my uncertain eye toward the blue vault of heaven, found in the all-cheering sun a stranger. Alas, my sister! look no more in this sad recital for the equal-minded rational being you once saw me; sensations too acute for either endurance or expression, from this fatal period blotted every noble faculty, often substituting impulse for judgment. Always sensible of my

wandering the moment it was past, shame continually succeeded, and united every misery of madness and reason.

Spring, reviving all nature, extends its genial influence even to the withered heart. My intervals became more calm and fre quent. I gathered strength to walk into the garden-there I slowly retraced to my. self the fatal whole, and began to find, or fancy it more supportable. That I had been a dupe to Elizabeth and her minister, was too obvious; but I was willing to acquit the weak man, perhaps sufficiently punished in a wife like me, of having been a confederate in their plots. I had long been the object of his choice, and it is a common error among his sex to be careless of the means by which their views succeed, provided they attain them. But my feeble efforts towards recovery requiring every indulgence, I wrote to lord Arlington, assuring him, I would make the best use of my returning reason, in forming my heart to the future performance of those painful duties a combination of fatal circumstances had imposed on it; but that

the task was too difficult not to claim every allowance on his part; and concluded with hoping, solitude would enable me one day to meet him with feelings less embittered.

With my intellectual powers too returned my affections. The mystery of your fate, my sister, and that of lord Leicester, racked my weary imagination in vain. I enclosed in the letter to lord Arlington a billet to lady Pembroke. It contained only an inquiry for you.

When these letters were dispatched, I bent my every thought to fulfilling the promise made in the first. A thousand times, on my knees, I besought the Almighty to confirm those upright sentiments he alone could inspire; I strove to obliterate every remembrance of the hu man means by which his will was effected, and considering it only in the light of his will, tried meekly to submit to it. Alas! the answer of lady Pembroke shook every just determination-astonishment, terror, and affection, were obvious in every line of it-eagerly she solicited news of myself,

and the incomprehensible means which first restored me to St. Vincent's Abbey, as well as those which fixed me there by so extraordinary a marriage.

From her letter I at last understood a part of your motives for so suddenly absenting yourselves. I found too that you had happily arrived in France, by the accounts many had received from you; when all at once (she added) the correspondence broke off, and every effort at renewing it only increased the sadness and perplexity of your friends. That Le Val having obeyed the orders left by his lord in hastening to Kenilworth, came on from thence to the Recess, which he found thrown open, as well as that his lord had infallibly been there. Not able to gather any farther information, he hastened back to London, there to wait lord Leicester's directions; but none arriving, this extraordinary and alarming silence induced the faithful steward to return to his native country in search of his lord. Fear and grief having however seized upon his heart, a bad passage wrought both up to a crisis,