ror!" exclaimed the shuddering Montau

ban.

"Meaning," said Randolphe, smiling significantly," it has been a night of dreams."

"Could a dream have opened yon door?" interrogated Montauban. "Not a dream," replied the robber, "but the wind."

- Montauban shook his head.

""Tis high time," pursued Randolphe,

we returned to the cavern: by the mass! if we tarry here much longer, we shall bury all our courage in the ruins." My courage is unshaken," warmly

observed Montauban; "

cope me with human strength, and I shrink not from

the conflict."

"True," said Randolphe, smiling ironically, "there you meet your match;

but

but in a battle with the devil, a man stands

but a poor chance."

"Your jest is misplaced," sternly rejoined Montauban. "This night has pointed out one tract of duty, which my feelings enjoin ;-this past night" "What of the opened door?" interrupted Randolphe.

Montauban shuddered; then, with a deep and hollow groan, resumed-" Ere yon rising sun has tinged the tops of the mountains, you must be beyond the pineforest; Randolphe, you must hasten to Lurenville Abbey-you must seek the wanderer, Theodore."

"And what must I tell him?" questioned the robber.

"Tell him," repeated the chief, musing; but imagination wandered, and all alike was lost; his eyes were fixed on the opposite

opposite passage, and his hand was pres

sed

upon his forehead.

"Must I say 'tis illness?" resumed

Randolphe, or fright? or the fancied vision of the night? or"

"Fancied!" interrupted Montauban. "What else?" demanded Randolphe. "Question me not," said Montauban ; fly to Lurenville Abbey, and recallTheodore."

But when, in conformity to his order, Randolphe quitted the chamber, he would. have bade him tarry, had not shame checked the effort; fear subdued every power of exertion, fear filled his fevered brain with a thousand images. In vain he ar gued with his feelings, in vain he mourned the lapse of courage; every passing sound was magnified into some portentous omen; and when the intersecting shadow

shadow of the pinés, bending to the breeze, transiently darkened the chamber, the shrouded outline of the monk was again conjured into being. Such was the effect of fear on his deeply-disordered mind, that the fever of delirium returned; and when Randolphe entered the apartment, he found him yielding to all the wild wandering of frenzied irrationality; yet was the name of Theodore pronounced with anxiety and eagerness; and in each momentary flash of reason, his desire to behold him more apparent.

Trembling for the safety of their chief, for guilt often links the chain of unanimity, and establishes, even in minds depraved, the strong cement of interest, the troop courted each promise of alleviation. They remembered that Montauban had often, by daring exploits and

unshaken

unshaken courage, led them on to victory, that he had shared each hardship, and oft neglected self, to aid a wounded compeer; and now that he was disabled, fallen, a prey to weakness and imagined terrors, they felt upon humanity a claim, which honour might have sanctioned. Randolphe, in search of Theodore, was dispatched from Vermandois; and while, vainly conjecturing the interest which yoked the fates of the bandit and our hero, he pursued his toilsome path, Montauban, from the rough uncourtly hands. of his associates, experienced a solicitude, an eager anxious attention, which might have graced a juster cause.

CHAP.