"Fear not that," said Miss Vere, suddenly recollecting the
incident of the rose; "I remember he desired me to call upon him

for aid in my extremity, and gave me this flower as a token. Ere
it faded away entirely, I would need, he said, his assistance:

is it possible his words can have been aught but the ravings of
insanity?"

"Doubt it not fear it not--but above all," said Ratcliffe, "let
us lose no time--are you at liberty, and unwatched?"

"I believe so," said Isabella: "but what would you have me to
do?"

"Leave the castle instantly," said Ratcliffe, "and throw yourself
at the feet of this extraordinary man, who in circumstances that

seem to argue the extremity of the most contemptible poverty,
possesses yet an almost absolute influence over your fate.--

Guests and servants are deep in their carouse--the leaders
sitting in conclave on their treasonable schemes--my horse stands

ready in the stable--I will saddle one for you, and meet you at
the little garden-gate--O, let no doubt of my prudence or

fidelity prevent your taking the only step in your power to
escape the dreadful fate which must attend the wife of Sir

Frederick Langley!"
"Mr. Ratcliffe," said Miss Vere, "you have always been esteemed a

man of honour and probity, and a drowning wretch will always
catch at the feeblest twig,--I will trust you--I will follow your

advice--I will meet you at the garden-gate."
She bolted the outer-door of her apartment as soon as Mr.

Ratcliffe left her, and descended to the garden by a separate
stair of communication which opened to her dressing-room. On the

way she felt inclined to retract the consent she had so hastily
given to a plan so hopeless and extravagant. But as she passed

in her descent a private door which entered into the chapel from
the back-stair, she heard the voice of the female-servants as

they were employed in the task of cleaning it.
"Married! and to sae bad a man--Ewhow, sirs! onything rather

than that."
"They are right--they are right," said Miss Vere, "anything

rather than that!"
She hurried to the garden. Mr. Ratcliffe was true to his

appointment--the horses stood saddled at the garden-gate, and in
a few minutes they were advancing rapidly towards the hut of the

Solitary.
While the ground was favourable, the speed of their journey was

such as to prevent much communication; but when a steep ascent
compelled them to slacken their pace, a new cause of apprehension

occurred to Miss Vere's mind.
"Mr. Ratcliffe," she said, pulling up her horse's bridle, "let us

prosecute no farther a journey, which nothing but the extreme
agitation of my mind can vindicate my having undertaken--I am

well aware that this man passes among the vulgar as being
possessed of supernatural powers, and carrying on an intercourse

with beings of another world; but I would have you aware I am
neither to be imposed on by such follies, nor, were I to believe

in their existence, durst I, with my feelings of religion, apply
to this being in my distress."

"I should have thought, Miss Vere," replied Ratcliffe, "my
character and habits of thinking were so well known to you, that

you might have held me exculpated from crediting in such
absurdity."

"But in what other mode," said Isabella, "can a being, so
miserable himself in appearance, possess the power of assisting

me?"
"Miss Vere." said Ratcliffe, after a momentary pause, "I am

bound by a solemn oath of secrecy--You must, without farther
explanation, be satisfied with my pledged assurance, that he does

possess the power, if you can inspire him with the will; and
that, I doubt not, you will be able to do."

"Mr. Ratcliffe," said Miss Vere, "you may yourself be mistaken;
you ask an unlimited degree of confidence from me."

"Recollect, Miss Vere," he replied, "that when, in your humanity,
you asked me to interfere with your father in favour of Haswell

and his ruined family--when you requested me to prevail on him to
do a thing most abhorrent to his nature--to forgive an injury and

remit a penalty--I stipulated that you should ask me no questions
concerning the sources of my influence--You found no reason to

distrust me then, do not distrust me now."
"But the extraordinary mode of life of this man," said Miss Vere;

"his seclusion--his figure--the deepness of mis-anthropy which he
is said to express in his language--Mr. Ratcliffe, what can I

think of him if he really possesses the powers you ascribe to
him?"

"This man, young lady, was bred a Catholic, a sect which affords
a thousand instances of those who have retired from power and

affluence to voluntary privations more strict even than his."
"But he avows no religious motive," replied Miss Vere.

"No," replied Ratcliffe; "disgust with the world has operated his
retreat from it without assuming the veil of superstition. Thus

far I may tell you--he was born to great wealth, which his
parents designed should become greater by his union with a

kinswoman, whom for that purpose they bred up in their own house.
You have seen his figure; judge what the young lady must have

thought of the lot to which she was destined--Yet, habituated to
his appearance, she showed no reluctance, and the friends of--of

the person whom I speak of, doubted not that the excess of his
attachment, the various acquisitions of his mind, his many and

amiable qualities, had overcome the natural horror which his
destined bride must have entertained at an exterior so dreadfully

inauspicious."
"And did they judge truly?" said Isabella.

"You shall hear. He, at least, was fully aware of his own
deficiency; the sense of it haunted him like a phantom. 'I am,'

was his own expression to me,--I mean to a man whom he trusted,--
'I am, in spite of what you would say, a poor miserable outcast,

fitter to have been smothered in the cradle than to have been
brought up to scare the world in which I crawl.' The person whom

he addressed in vain endeavoured to impress him with the
indifference to external form which is the natural result of

philosophy, or entreat him to recall the superiority of mental
talents to the more attractive attributes that are merely

personal. 'I hear you,' he would reply; 'but you speak the voice
of cold-blooded stoicism, or, at least, of friendly partiality.

But look at every book which we have read, those excepted of that
abstract philosophy which feels no responsive voice in our

natural feelings. Is not personal form, such as at least can be
tolerated without horror and disgust, always represented as

essential to our ideas of a friend, far more a lover? Is not
such a mis-shapen monster as I am, excluded, by the very fiat of

Nature, from her fairest enjoyments? What but my wealth prevents
all--perhaps even Letitia, or you--from shunning me as something

foreign to your nature, and more odious, by bearing that
distorted resemblance to humanity which we observe in the animal

tribes that are more hateful to man because they seem his
caricature?'"

"You repeat the sentiments of a madman," said Miss Vere.
"No," replied her conductor, "unless a morbid and excessive

sensibility on such a subject can be termed insanity. "Yet I
will not deny that this governing feeling and apprehension

carried the person who entertained it, to lengths which indicated
a deranged imagination. He appeared to think that it was

necessary for him, by exuberant, and not always well-chosen
instances of liberality, and even profusion, to unite himself to

the human race, from which he conceived himself naturally
dissevered. The benefits which he bestowed, from a disposition

naturally philanthropical in an uncommon degree, were exaggerated
by the influence of the goading reflection, that more was

necessary from him than from others,--lavishing his treasures as
if to bribe mankind to receive him into their class. It is

scarcely necessary to say, that the bounty which flowed from a