sin, for his want of honour-I will not believe it." Then, after a few moments' deliberation: "But I will unravel this mystery. Yes; I will go at the hour appointed by this traitor, and drag him to instant justice." With this resolve, he folded the paper, and put it in his pocket, awaiting the coming night, to descend to the vaults. The bell tolled eleven: all the castle was still: Ali Sheing alone was restless and disturbed: sleep could not close his eyes-gloomy thought devoured him. Iserlt flew to his chamber, as the half hour bell sounded through the courts, and engaging him in conversation, drew him towards the vaults. Crossing a long corridor, they descended a marble staircase together, and the door was open before them that led to the caverns. Adelfred was seen at a distance, bearing a torch in his hand: he seemed much disturbed, and often paced the narrow passage, as wounded by suspense. length, he stopped, and raising the torch above his head, looked towards Ali Sheing and Iserlt. At Iserlt now appeared, with a torch in his hand. "Do you still doubt?" he enquired. "Oh, Ali Sheing, where is the fervid fire of Asia, the soul of the followers of Alla? Where that nobleness of spirit, which thou boasted of? Will Ali Sheing stoop to slavery? Oh! thou God of Heaven! ennerve my arm to stab the wretch who has subjugated the soul of Ali." "Iserlt, he shall die," exclaimed the frantic Moor. ma. "He slew great Persia's Soldan: him who gave to your arms the lovely ZuleAdelfred, whose life you saved, stabbed him who plucked his heart out, that you might enjoy eternity of bliss." With rage trembled the Moor, while he grasped his dagger. He slew the Soldan, yet spared you. Ah!-Zulema was present-what a horrible thought! Did he not lust for her? By Heaven--" "No! no! no!” cried the heart-torn Ali. "You, in return, saved his life; and when he was in your power, was he not all affection? Would Adelfred then have thrown Ali Sheing from him? He tore you from the arms of a wife you loved-from children-your own children-the children of Zulema! Just God! to save him, you sacrificed your own peace and what is his return? You are made his slave. Already he hates and lothes you. Oh! it is certain that power is wrested from the hands of the generous Ali-he can no longer save his services are at an end." "No more, no more-he dies!" "For your wife and children, strike the blow." "He dies!" "For the Soldan." "For the loss of your liberty." Adelfred appeared, wrapped in a cloak, at the farther end of the vault; and Ali Sheing rushed forward with drawn dagger. He stabbed; bathed in his blood, the victim fell, and with a groan, expired. Iserlt now alarmed the castle. The Moor stood over the bleeding corpse in an attitude of horror: the most dreadful thoughts crowded upon his brain. All the various passions were at work in his bosom, and holding conflict with nature. No cry escaped his lips; his heart was rent asunder; and retreating a few steps from the body, he fell, heart-broken, and gave up life without a groan. Now various torches were seen in the different vaults, and numbers of vassals, directed by Iserlt, approached the spot. All the caverns seemed in a blaze of light. The vassals knelt over the bleeding body, and with one accord exclaimed, "Owain!" Iserlt himself drew near. It was Owain, who, instead of Adelfred, was slain. The villain trembled on beholding the accomplice in his guilt become the victim of their united artifice. His cheek became livid and pale with fear; a cold sweat hung upon his contracted brow. In this moment of confusion, Adelfred himself was seen leading from an inner vault, a female, faint and languid, who hung upon his arm, while her tottering limbs dragged upon the ground, unable to sustain her feeble frame. The vassals now, with united voice, exclaimed, "Long live Lord Adelfred!" Iserlt, with conscious guilt in his face, threw himself at his feet, and confessed the whole. The Baron of Llanbedder, awaiting the promised coming of the author of the billet he had received, after he had broke from Ali Sheing, and while traversing the vaults in impatience, heard some faint murmurs from an inner cave, and the voice that made these lamentations mentioned his name. Astonished, he paused awhile to listen; the voice broke forth again in the same plaints; and, eager to relieve distress, he burst into the vault from whence the sounds proceeded, where he beheld a female whom he instantly recognized to be Elfrida, stretched upon a bed of straw. A solitary lamp hung suspended from 66 the concaved roof, which shed a dim light upon the dilapidated walls. Adelfred could scarce believe his eyes.— " Perfidious cousin!" after an interval of horror, he exclaimed. Elfrida raised up her head, on hearing his voice, and uttering a wild scream of joy, fainted upon his bosom. She soon recovered, and confirmed the words of Ruthwold. Adelfred instantly conveyed her from the vault; and, directed by the torches of the vassals, came to the spot where the bleeding Owain lay. During the confusion of Iserlt, Elfda was borne to a chamber in the cas tle, and every means used to recover her. While Adelfred execrated his perfidious cousin, Iserlt confessed how he had worked up the passions of the generous, unsuspecting Ali; who, in an agony of thought, contemplating on the orime he had committed, instantly expired. It appeared, that Iserlt had made Owain acquainted with his scheme; who, fearing the failure, had come to the vaults, which had a communication with the convent, to which he had gained access, habited for immediate light with Elfrida. The villain tortured by doubt, lest his victim should be discovered in her confinement; and, seeking to avoid this, found a deserved death. Iserlt was ordered for immediate execution: the body of Owain was privately buried: while that of Ali Sheing was interred with all funeral pomp. A rich urn was erected over his tomb on it was engraven his many virtues; and no breath of approach ever sullied the marble remembrance. Elfrida soon recovered; and her former beauty once more revelled on her cheek. The nuptial rites were soon performed, that made her the bride of the Baron of Llanbedder; and thousands blessed the united names of Adelfred and Elfrida, for their nuptial-day was the first of true happiness to the vassals of Llanbedder, since the death of the brave Caradoc. him. But what pen can describe his astonishment at the total change he observed in the surrounding scenery, as he beheld it from his station on the snowy summit of the Giant Mountain. No longer was to be seen the gloom of impenetrable forests; in their room ap glimpses of the moon. Here he holds his court in the mountains well known in Germany by the title of Riesen-ge biirge (Giant Mountains); where his whole delight consists in sporting with the feelings of men, and teazing them by every species of mischief and terror which his fertile imagination can sug-peared arable land, whose surface was gest. enriched with extensive crops of golden grain. From the bosom of blooming orchards he could discern the thatched It may be necessary to inform the reader, that this monarch is a contrariety of the passions; cunning, rude, and wasp-roofs of many a social village just peepish, quarrelsome and insolent; tinctured with pride and vanity, and withal so inconstant, that no lasting criterion can be formed of him. To-day he may appear your warmest friend : to-morrow he will not deign to own you. Sometimes, indeed, the distressed have found in him a kind and generous friend; but he is so much, and so perpetually at variance with himself, that a traveller may follow a Will o' the Whisp with as much certainty as depend upon his promises or pretensions. In ancient days, when the sun and moon were young, and creation had but just burst into life, and long before the descendants of Japhet had reached so far northward as to clear and plant the regions bordering on his domain, NumberNip would then shoot aloft on pranks of love and mischief, and as he roved among the barren heaths and rugged hills, would frequently exercise his mischievous disposition upon the brute inhabitants of the fields and forests,-urging wolves to tear the mighty buffalo-bewildering the weary traveller, blighting the fruitful vine, and scaring whole herds of timorous deer down roaring cataracts and gloomy precipices. Having amused himself this way till he grew tired, he changed the scene, and thought proper to descend into the regions of the lower world. He remained for several centuries immerged in the depths of the globe, without a wish to leave his golden caves; till at length the desire to feel the genial warmth of the sun, and once more survey the works of external creation, again arose within ing forth, and chimnies diffusing forth their comfortable wreaths of smoke into the unruffled atmosphere. In some few places, stood a solitary watch-tower, on the brow of a hill, formed for the purpose of guarding the land. The meadows below were crowded with sheep and cattle, enjoying the pasture: and the ear was ravished with the most harmonious sounds, which proceeded from beneath the refreshing shade of the spacious oak. So far from feeling the least displeasure at the planters, who had presumed to take possession without waiting for his leave, this lord of the domain was so delighted with the novelty and quietness which reigned throughout this landscape, that he had not the least wish to disturb them. On the contrary, this sprite, in a placid mood, waved all privilege, and freely surrendered the territory which they had thus taken possession of. Nay, he went farther. He felt a strong desire to make himself acquainted with the intermediate species between a brute and an angel, to learn their manners, customs, and disposition. For this purpose, he assumed the form of a hardy ploughman, and hired himself to the first farmer chance happened to throw in his way. Whatever kind of labour he undertook, throve well under his hand; and our elfin monarch (now known by the name of Waldmann, i. e. woodman) was universally esteemed the best workman of the village. But his master was an idle, dissipated fellow, and continually in a state of intoxcation. Through his excesses, he squandered away whatever advantages he derived from the exertions of his faithful servant, and showed small gratitude to him for his fidelity and industry. It is not to be wondered, therefore that the sprite soon released himself from such an employer. Being highly esteemed for his abilities, a neighbour immediately engaged him; from whom he received the charge of his flock, which he carefully tended, and drove it to distant wilds and inaccessible steeps, abounding in wholesome herbs. Under his direction, the flocks rapidly increased and multiplied; not a single sheep was ever known to tumble over a precipice, nor was a harmless lamb ever destroyed by the rapacity of the wolf. In this master, poor Number-Nip was again unfortunate. He was mean, niggardly, and villanous. So far from rewarding his shepherd as he deserved, among his other actions, he stole the best wether out of the flock, and laid it to the negligence of the servant: for which, he stopped part of his wages. Number-Nip found it absolutely necessary to quit the service of such a knave. He next entered into a judge's employ. Here he became the terror of thieves, and the indefatigable promoter of justice. But this judge, instead of executing his office with impartiality and justice, perverted the law, and decided according to favor and affection: thus rendering himself, instead of a blessing, a curse to the human race. As Number-Nip possessed too much spirit to become the instrument of injustice and oppression, he gave the judge warning to quit his service. This so highly exasperated the tyrant, that he threw him into prison. Here his power, as a sprite, was of service to him; for he easily escaped through the key hole. Thus examples he met with in his first attempt to learn the ways of mankind, were but ill calculated to warm his heart to philanthropy. He therefore retired, in disgust, to the point of the rock; and, as he surveyed from that station the beautiful fields, cultivated as they were by human industry, he silently wondered that mother earth should have thus kindly bestowed her gifts on such an ungrateful and worthless brood. Unwilling to be foiled in what he had once set his heart on, he determined to try another experiment, for the purpose of studying mankind. Instead of appearing publicly, he now glided invisible into the vale, and lay concealed among the trees and bushes. In this situation he kept a sharp look-out, and at length perceived a sweet Silesian maid, beautiful as Venus, when she arose from the world of waters. Like that goddess she was unincumbered with drapery; for she was stepping out of a basin, in which she had been bathing. Her companions lay negligently around her upon the grass, by the side of a water-fall, which flowed fromthe rocks, and descended into the stream. In this retreat the sportive maidens amused themselves, and chatted with their mistress in that innocence of heart which knows no guile. The Gnome Spirit was so affected at this tender scene, that he seemed inclined to renounce his ethereal nature, and ardently longed to share the lot of humanity. He gazed upon these lovely objects with as warm desires as ever animated the breasts of those belonging to the terrestrial world; and he who never aimed till now above a village lass-a homespun blowzy wench, whose whole business consisted in driving her cow to the field, or making hay in sunshine, now felt the mould that clogged him, tempered and sublimed by a new flame; and he determined within himself to become possessed of the fairest star among the daughters of men. However strong the impression might be, at first, which this beauteous maid had made on him, he found it must soon evaporate, as the organs of spirits are too delicate to be susceptible of any lasting impression. He found, that a body was necessary to receive the image of the bathing beauty. He, therefore, metamorphosed himself immediately into the shape of a youth |