specting the presumed shield, which it was impossible to contradict or support. Peter agreed with me, that it was very like an old pot-lid; but he also joined his Lordship in thinking it might have been a target; and he seemed to believe, with the doctor, that Prince Ailech had worn it on his arm on the day of his death, and that it had been buried with that renowned chief.

Next morning we resumed our task with increased spirit, and before noon had cleared out another apartment, about fourteen yards square, composed of immense stones, and having an urn in its centre, which contained a quantity of earth resembling turf mould. The doctor was considering the nature of this with all his faculties erect, and his Lordship's curiosity was in a state of great excitement, when we heard several voices eagerly inquiring for Lord Conamore. You may judge of our surprise immediately after, and of the distraction of this nobleman, when he was informed, that during the night, Conamore Lodge had been attacked by a band of armed men, who announced themselves as part of General Rock's liberating army, and his daughter carried away by their

ruffian leader. It was added, that Lionel had been stunned by a violent blow he received whilst defending Lady Emily, and that his life was in imminent danger. I shall not attempt any delineation of the horror with which this dreadful intel

ligence was received. We all hastened back to Conamore, where we found the news literally and substantially true.

Lady Constantia was the only person who could give us any thing like a connected account of the atrocity. She informed us that, late at night, while Emily and Lionel were amusing themselves with music, and she with her needle, suddenly the room was filled with armed men, who wore white long frocks, and whose faces were blackened. They must have been admitted by the treachery of the servants. "We screamed," said Lady Constantia," at such a terrifying sight. Lionel endeavoured to defend us with all his power, but I soon saw him stretched lifeless on the floor. Emily was carried away by some of the villains, whilst others bound me, so that I was unable to move. The whole was the work of a few moments; accomplished as it were by magic,"

Suspicion flashed across my mind, that Sir Bagnall Moncey was the General Rock of this foul invasion of right. I inquired for Lionel. He had received a blow from a club, or some heavy instrument, on the head. Such was its violence, that it had nearly deprived him of life. He lay, mad with pain and memory, unable to exert his faculties, or to compose himself to rest. Lord Conamore was nearly in as feeble a state from grief; totally unable to reason, or to pursue any rational mode of recovering his daughter. In this exigency, Dr. Seymour being fully occupied in attendance on Lionel, I was left entirely to my own resources. I endeavoured to discover the road the party had taken; but no trace of the robbers remained. I mounted my horse, and galloped to Moncey Hall. Here I was immediately admitted to the presence of Sir Bagnall, who was, when I arrived, deciding a bet of a thousand pounds, with Sir Alexander Gore. The Baronet expressed his astonishment at hearing such news, pledged his honour that he was entirely free from act or part in the abduction, and offered to assist me to the utmost; so that I left him, staggered in my suspicions. In short, after

three days of incessant fatigue and fruitless inquiry, I returned to Conamore.

By this time Lionel had recovered so far from the injury he had received, as to be able to mount his horse. He was convinced, he said, that Sir Bagnall Moncey had committed the atrocity of carrying off Lady Emily, for the purpose of terrifying her into marriage with him. Under this impression, and possessed of proper authority, we went in an armed body to make strict search for

her person.

There is, at some distance from Moncey Hall, a romantic glen, down which a mountain torrent brawls fearfully after heavy rain. Sir Bagnall's grandfather had expended a considerable sum of money in building a small castle here, which afterwards went by the name of " Moncey's Folly," because there was nothing of utility connected with it. Neither was it a conspicuous ornament; for we should have passed it in our search, if crazy Ellen had not stood singing on a precipitous part of the glen immediately over it. We approached rapidly towards her. Her beautiful black hair

was floating as before described, but over white drapery; for she had something like a winding sheet around her black dress. As we were moving up the steep hill, and getting round the glen towards her, we heard these words charmingly warbled by her melodious and melancholy voice :

SONG.

O lay me in the grave!

You said you loved poor Ellen well;
Thy sweet words pleased me: 0,
I thought no bitterness could dwell
In accents sugared so.

But thou hast said farewell to me,

And left me in despair,

To think of oaths once sworn by thee,

Now melted into air.

The buds thy kisses used to start
My cheek nor lip now shows;
The rose-root withered in my heart,
Beneath thy killing snows.-
And still I feel thy icy blast;

In vain I shelter crave;
O hear this one request my last
O lay me in the grave!