looked back into the valley. There he saw a group of people bearing a wounded youth towards the town; while in the town itself the voice of lamentation was loud,-torches hurried to and fro,-man stopt man, and asked whom the fierce stranger had slain. Dalveen smiled grimly on beholding this, and muttered, "Hell and Heaven have taken part against me; so I may retire from the contest. But, lonesome valley, which I am never to behold again, I have written my name in blood upon thy bosom. I have let thee taste of the bitterness of an insulted and disappointed heart. Nor had I touched thy children in wrath, had they not braved me when I wooed somewhat too boldly that haughty maiden." He undid the clasp of his mantle as he spoke, laid his hat and feather on the grass, and, taking from his pocket a small ivory pipe, blew a shrill quavering note, which trembled away to a distance amongst the woods.

For some minutes no answer was given to the summons, and Lord Dalveen had the pipe at his lips to repeat the call, when he heard a slight rustling, such as a bird makes among the boughs, and then he saw a form like a shadow gliding among the shafts of the trees, sometimes upright and sometimes winding its way like a serpent." Wulik, Wulik," cried Lord Dalveen, "come !-why couch ye there like a panther about to spring ?Our horses man, our horses !-mine errand is done

in this new world of thine, and I may hasten to the old with what speed I may." Wulik sprang to his feet with a shout, and hastening to Lord Dalveen, touched his arm, and said, "The Evil Spirit came to me in thy likeness, and well it was that he mounted not the steed, else I must have followed and served him." He then gave a shrill cry, two horses came to his side, and they mounted, and proceeded on their journey back.

"So you had an interview with an American fiend, friend Wulik," said Lord Thomas, "and he had the good sense to come in my likeness?. discreet devil. He could not take the He could not take the appearance

a

wind 66 Speak low,

of one more after his own nature." Lord Thomas," said Wulik with a shudder, and glancing his eye in terror around; "Machtando is here and there and everywhere,-in the wind, in the rain, in the moonbeam, in the stream, in the tree, in the howl of the wolf, the yell of the leopard, and the cry of the eagle. Speak low, and speak not in bitterness against either the Evil Spirit or thyself; he is terrible to those who fear him not and who scorn his name."

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"You mistake me, Wulik," said Lord Dalveen; you know not the nature of your own fiend of the woods. He is a discreet devil, and disguises the fierceness of his disposition in the cry of the eagle and the howl of the wolf. But the fiend whom I dread was born in the hour of my birth,

-nursed on my mother's knee,-warmed in her bosom,-is now in this wilderness a demon, an incarnate demon."-" Then I saw him, as I said, Lord Thomas," answered his companion mournfully. "Alas! that a woman's tender breast should nourish a child of perdition!-he is not so tall nor so noble-looking, yet he seemed your very image. But there is blood on your dress,-warm blood,— it dyes all your garments through.”

Wulik leaped to the ground, lifted Lord Thomas from his seat, and, placing him tenderly on the grass, said, "With all the woes wrought by sword, by arrow, or by ball, I am familiar. Let me look on your side, for there are you wounded.” Removing mantle and shirt, a wound was seen by the light of the moon slanting along for a hand's breadth, from which the blood descended in large dark drops. The warrior opened a little box curiously made of a nut-shell, took from it a sovereign herb-salve, as green as grass and of a pleasant smell, and, crushing it into the juice of a little flower which he found where he sat, he applied it, and bandaged the wound up with the neatness and despatch of an experienced surgeon.-"This is the war-salve of our tribe," said Wulik; "it stanches blood, softens the wound, and allays the burning heat. The Good Spirit taught my mother's tribe the secret of this precious ointment.-Ah! you smile.-Well, a crumb of bread,

-a mouthful of drink,-and then our thighs over our horses again ;-for your wound you will feel

"Thanks to thee, Wulik, for thy war-salve," said Lord Dalveen, "for it is precious; and thy food and thy liquor, there is merit in them all. But where may the tents of thy tribe lie?-By wandering with thee in the desert the love of boundless nature has come upon me, and I have a wish to become one of the warriors of thy people. To roam the wild wood at will, to enjoy the glories of munificent nature, freed from the absurd laws and usages of man, is worthy of man's ambition. Law, custom, opinion, and religion, have all put their fetters on him whom God made free, naked, and noble. A man of the wild desert lives without one wish ungratified;-I shall become one of thy people, Wulik.”

With an eye in which much doubt and trouble were visible did Wulik look in the face of Lord Thomas as he made answer. "To the brave, the undaunted, and the enduring, the door of my mother's house stands ever open; and thou art them all. To the changeful, the giddy, and the ungenerous, her doors are bolted and barred; and thou art all these also. The meanest of the tribe of Wulik would scorn thee for what thou didst in yon valley."-" Indeed, my friend," answered the other, "you have formed a hasty opinion. I am neither giddy nor changeful: yon moon is not

more constant to the sky than I am in all my undertakings." Wulik's face darkened. "Into yon valley," he replied, "did Lord Thomas go with words of affection and reverence on his lips; out of yon valley has he come with blood on his hands. The sin of impure words is even worse than the sin of blood."

"So thou wert there then, friend Wulik?-it was well I saw thee not," said Dalveen, "else my sword might have sent thee elsewhere."-" And well was it for thee,” replied the other, " that I was so near. A bloody corse wouldest thou have lain in the valley but for Wulik and his weapons. He struck the hand off which levelled the rifle, he smote the arm which laid the arrow to the bowstring,-and when the sword which pierced thy side was about to repeat the stroke, it dropt from a dead man's hand.""I thank thee for such good tokens of thy presence, Wulik; and I remember me now of having observed for a moment a form like thine at my hand when I was somewhat closely pressed by those peasants. Thou art a frank and a forward friend. But how could'st thou save one from the sword and the rifle whom thou reckonest unworthy of living in thy tribe? Expound that, thou upright man of the desert."-" You spared my life, Lord Thomas, and saved me from the poison of the snake. You are worthy of being a leader amongst the hordes of Europe, but too giddy and changeful to be my brother or my chief. One