go the vole, I have taken care you shall dip as deep as I; it
signifies nothing plunging. You are fairly in the bog, and must

struggle through."
"You are mistaken with respect to one of us, Mr. Mareschal," said

Sir Frederick Langley; and, applying himself to the bell, he
desired the person who entered to order his servants and horses

instantly.
"You must not leave us, Sir Frederick," said Ellieslaw; it we

have our musters to go over."
"I will go to-night, Mr. Vere," said Sir Frederick, "and write

you my intentions in this matter when I am at home."
"Ay," said Mareschal, "and send them by a troop of horse from

Carlisle to make us prisoners? Look ye, Sir Frederick, I for one
will neither be deserted nor betrayed; and if you leave Ellieslaw

Castle to-night, it shall be by passing over my dead body."
"For shame! Mareschal," said Mr. Vere, "how can you so hastily

misinterpret our friend's intentions? I am sure Sir Frederick
can only be jesting with us; for, were he not too honourable to

dream of deserting the cause, he cannot but remember the full
proofs we have of his accession to it, and his eager activity in

advancing it. He cannot but be conscious, besides, that the
first information will be readily received by government, and

that if the question be, which can first lodge intelligence of
the affair, we can easily save a few hours on him."

"You should say you, and not we, when you talk of priorities in
such a race of treachery; for my part, I won't enter my horse for

such a plate," said Mareschal; and added betwixit his teeth, "A
pretty pair of fellows to trust a man's neck with!"

"I am not to be intimidated from doing what I think proper," said
Sir Frederick Langley; "and my first step shall be to leave

Ellieslaw. I have no reason to keep faith with one" (looking at
Vere) "who has kept none with me."

"In what respect," said Ellieslaw, silencing, with a motion of
his hand, his impetuous kinsman--"how have I disappointed you,

Sir Frederick?"
"In the nearest and most tender point--you have trifled with me

concerning our proposed alliance, which you well knew was the
gage of our political taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking. This carrying off and this

bringing back of Miss Vere,--the cold reception I have met with
from her, and the excuses with which you cover it, I believe to

be mere evasions, that you may yourself retain possession of the
estates which are hers by right, and make me, in the meanwhile, a

tool in your desperateenterprise, by holding out hopes and
expectations which you are resolved never to realize."

"Sir Frederick, I protest, by all that is sacred--"
"I will listen to no protestations; I have been cheated with them

too long," answered Sir Frederick.
"If you leave us," said Ellieslaw, "you cannot but know both your

ruin and ours is certain; all depends on our adhering together."
"Leave me to take care of myself," returned the knight; "but were

what you say true, I would rather perish than be fooled any
farther."

"Can nothing--no surety convince you of my sincerity?" said
Ellieslaw, anxiously; "this morning I should have repelled your

unjustsuspicions as an insult; but situated as we now are--"
"You feel yourself compelled to be sincere?" retorted Sir

Frederick. "If you would have me think so, there is but one way
to convince me of it--let your daughter bestow her hand on me

this evening."
"So soon?--impossible," answered Vere; "think of her late alarm--

of our present taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking."
"I will listen to nothing but to her consent, plighted at the

altar. You have a chapel in the castle--Doctor Hobbler is
present among the company-this proof of your good faith to-night,

and we are again joined in heart and hand. If you refuse me when
it is so much for your advantage to consent, how shall I trust

you to-morrow, when I shall stand committed in your taking" target="_blank" title="n.任务；事业；计划">undertaking,
and unable to retract?"

"And I am to understand, that, if you can be made my son-in-law
to-night, our friendship is renewed?" said Ellieslaw.

"Most infallibly, and most inviolably," replied Sir Frederick.
"Then," said Vere, "though what you ask is premature, indelicate,

and unjust towards my character, yet, Sir Frederick, give me your
hand--my daughter shall be your wife."

"This night?"
"This very night," replied Ellieslaw, "before the clock strikes

twelve."
"With her own consent, I trust," said Mareschal; "for I promise

you both, gentlemen, I will not stand tamely by, and see any
violence put on the will of my pretty kinswoman."

"Another pest in this hot-headed fellow," muttered Ellieslaw;
and then aloud, "With her own consent? For what do you take me,

Mareschal, that you should suppose your interference necessary to
protect my daughter against her father? Depend upon it, she has

no repugnance to Sir Frederick Langley."
"Or rather to be called Lady Langley? faith, like enough--there

are many women might be of her mind; and I beg your pardon, but
these sudden demands and concessions alarmed me a little on her

account."
"It is only the suddenness of the proposal that embarrasses me,"

said Ellieslaw; "but perhaps if she is found intractable, Sir
Frederick will consider--"

"I will consider nothing, Mr. Vere--your daughter's hand to-
night, or I depart, were it at midnight--there is my ultimatum."

"I embrace it," said Ellieslaw; "and I will leave you to talk
upon our military preparations, while I go to prepare my daughter

for so sudden a change of condition."
So saying, he left the company.

CHAPTER XIV.
He brings Earl Osmond to receive my vows.

O dreadful change! for Tancred, haughty Osmond.
TANCRED AND SIGISMUNDA.

Mr. Vere, whom long practice of dissimulation had enabled to
model his very gait and footsteps to aid the purposes of

deception, walked along the stone passage, and up the first
flight of steps towards Miss Vere's apartment, with the alert,

firm, and steady pace of one who is bound, indeed, upon important
business, but who entertains no doubt he can terminate his

affairs satisfactorily. But when out of hearing of the gentlemen
whom he had left, his step became so slow and irresolute, as to

correspond with his doubts and his fears. At length he paused in
an antechamber to collect his ideas, and form his plan of

argument, before approaching his daughter.
"In what more hopeless and inextricable dilemma was ever an

unfortunate man involved!" Such was the tenor of his
reflections.--"If we now fall to pieces by disunion, there can be

little doubt that the government will take my life as the prime
agitator of the insurrection. Or, grant I could stoop to save

myself by a hasty submission, am I not, even in that case,
utterly ruined? I have broken irreconcilably with Ratcliffe, and

can have nothing to expect from that quarter but insult and
persecution. I must wander forth an impoverished and dishonoured

man, without even the means of sustaining life, far less wealth
sufficient to counterbalance the infamy which my countrymen, both

those whom I desert and those whom I join, will attach to the
name of the political renegade. It is not to be thought of. And

yet, what choice remains between this lot and the ignominious
scaffold? Nothing can save me but reconciliation with these men;

and, to accomplish this, I have promised to Langley that Isabella
shall marry him ere midnight, and to Mareschal, that she shall do

so without compulsion. I have but one remedy betwixt me and
ruin--her consent to take a suitor whom she dislikes, upon such

short notice as would disgust her, even were he a favoured lover
--But I must trust to the romanticgenerosity of her disposition;

and let me paint the necessity of her obedience ever so strongly,