CHAP. VIII.

I will despair, and be at enmity

With cozening hope: he is a flatterer,

A parasite

RICHARD II.

ILL-STARRED Edward! thy doom is then sealed; the tyrant of thy fate holds thee the captive of his triumphant bonds, and exults in the drops of agony which chase each other down thy fevered cheek -which spring from thy racked heart, as it dwells on the painful idea that thy Rosalind may never again meet thy embrace. But despair not, thou suffering youth: however delayed the hour of retribution, its arrival still is certain; the hand of Cruelty

VOL. III.

H

Cruelty shall wither, when it stretches itself out to execute the master-stroke of its unfeeling purpose; and the victim of its machinations, although every ray of cheering hope be fled from its heart, shall meet that reward which is indivisible from the firm exercise of virtuous principles.

For several hours no step approached the apartments in which the anxious and astonished Edward was confined. At length, the fall of feet was audible, they stopped near the door, and he called aloud to have it opened; no answer was returned, but he heard a creaking noise, and suddenly a lighted lamp appeared in the apartment: he went up to it, and found that it had been introduced into the room by means of a shelf, which turned upon a pivot in the wall; on the same shelf was also some fruit and bread in a basket, a 'flask of wine, and a pitcher of water.

Again Edward called aloud, demanding enlargement; but the steps of the person who had brought him this supply of necessaries,

cessaries, hastily receded from the spot, and all was again solemnly silent.

The mind of Edward was on the rack: he had no hesitation in determining why he was made a captive; not a doubt remained to him of his marriage with his adored Rosalind having been discovered by her father, and of his having taken this method of preventing him from ever returning to claim her as his wife. To what torments might not she be doomed by a father, whose ruling passion of pride had met with so unexpected, so severe a disappointment in the resolution of his daughter! he shuddered at the sufferings to which the intemperate rage of the Baron might have condemned her, and sinking on his knees, he breathed forth a prayer to Heaven for her preservation and protection.

The night was passed by Edward in waking thought; he augured it the forerunner of a train of others similar to it, and despair almost benumbed his faculties.

On the following morning, the shelf introduced into his apartment a change of linen, and various other articles requisite to the comfort of life; and a paper lying on the top of them, directed him to write for whatever he wanted, and to place his demands upon the shelf, by which means they would be received on the other side, and attended to with the greatest punctuality; as there was only one thing which was desired to be interdicted to him, and that one thing was his liberty.

Well assured that the governor, Garcias, was better paid for his detention than he was able to reward him for his enlargement, he forbore to offer him terms, which be was convinced he should only receive the additional mortification of having refused. From endeavouring to make any impression on the hearts of his keepers, the sentiments expressed by Sanchez on the preceding evening deterred him. The nian who had lately died in those very apartments

apartments which he was now doomed to inhabit, Sanchez had said, "was detained a prisoner in them, only because he was one more than his family wished for." In: a place where atrocities of this nature were spoken of with such cool indifference, the voice of the sufferer could not expect to be attended to, nor the cries of the innocent victim to reach the heart.

When the dancing at the governor's broke up, and the brother officers of Edward were about to return to the camp, they inquired for him, and not being able to discover him in any of the apartments, they concluded him gone forward towards his tent; and departed, satisfied that they should find him already in bed.

In passing his tent, they enquired of the sentry, whose patrol was before it, whether his captain was returned? his reply in the negative rather surprised them; but Sanchez, who had followed them from the prison, said, he doubted not but that Edward had been decoyed