tions of awe; and when she heard it rage round a corner of the ancient building, and close with sudden fury a distant door, felt for the first time that she was really in an abbey. Yes, these were characteristic sounds: they brought to her recollection a countless variety of dreadful 5 situations and horrid scenes which such buildings had witnessed and such storms ushered in; and most heartily did she rejoice in the happier circumstances attending her entrance within walls so solemn ! But, in a house so furnished and so guarded, she could have nothing to ex-10 plore or to suffer, and might go to her bedroom as securely as if it had been her own chamber at home.

Thus wisely fortifying her mind as she proceeded upstairs, she was enabled to enter her room with a tolerably stout heart; and her spirits were immediately assisted by 15 the cheerful blaze of a wood fire.

"How much better is this," said she, as she walked to the fender, "how much better to find a fire ready lit than to have to wait shivering in the cold till all the family are in bed, as so many poor girls have been obliged to do, 20 and then to have a faithful old servant frightening one by coming in with a fagot!"

She looked round the room. The window curtains seemed in motion. It could be nothing but the violence of the wind penetrating through the divisions of the 25 shutters; and she stepped boldly forward, carelessly humming a tune, to assure herself of its being so, peeped courageously behind each curtain, saw nothing on either low window seat to scare, and, on placing a hand against the shutter, felt the strongest conviction of the wind's 30 force.

She scorned the causeless fears of an idle fancy, and began with a most happy indifference to prepare herself for bed.

"She should take her time; she should not hurry her5 self; she did not care if she were the last person up in the house. But she would not make up her fire; that would seem cowardly, as if she wished for the protec tion of light after she were in bed."

The fire, therefore, died away; and Catherine was be10 ginning to think of stepping into bed, when, on giving a parting glance round the room, she was struck by the appearance of a high, old-fashioned black cabinet which had not caught her notice before. She took her candle and looked closely at the cabinet. 15 and yellow Japan, of the handsomest kind; and as she held her candle, the yellow had very much the effect of gold.

It was Japan, black

The key was in the door, and she had a strange fancy to look into it; not, however, with the smallest expecta20 tion of finding anything, but it was so very odd. In

short, she could not sleep till she had examined it. So, placing the candle with great caution on a chair, she seized the key with a very tremulous hand and tried to turn it, but it resisted her utmost strength. Alarmed 25 but not discouraged, she tried it another way; a bolt flew, and she believed herself successful; but, how strangely mysterious! the door was still immovable.

She paused a moment in breathless wonder. The wind roared down the chimney, the rain beat in torrents against 30 the windows, and everything seemed to speak the awfulness of her situation. To retire to bed, however, unsatis

fied on such a point, would be vain, since sleep must be impossible with the consciousness of a cabinet so mysteriously closed in her immediate vicinity.

Again, therefore, she applied herself to the key, and, 5 after moving it in every possible way for some instants, with the determined celerity of hope's last effort, the door suddenly yielded to her hand. Her heart leaped with exultation at such a victory; and, having thrown open each folding door, the second being secured only by 10 bolts of less wonderful construction than the lock, though in that her eye could not discern anything unusual, a double range of small drawers appeared in view with some larger drawers above and below them, and in the center a small door, closed also with lock and key, secured 15 in all probability a cavity of importance.

Catherine's heart beat quick, but her courage did not fail her. With a cheek flushed by hope, and an eye straining with curiosity, her fingers grasped the handle of a drawer, and drew it forth. It was entirely empty. 20 With less alarm and greater eagerness, she seized a second, a third, a fourth—each was equally empty. Not one was left unsearched, and in not one was anything found. Well read in the art of concealing a treasure, the possibility of false linings to the drawers did not escape 25 her, and she felt round each with anxious acuteness in

vain. The place in the middle alone remained now unexplored. It was some time, however, before she could unfasten the door, the same difficulty occurring in the management of this inner lock as of the outer; but at 30 length it did open; and not vain, as hitherto, was her

search; her quick eye directly fell on a roll of paper

pushed back into the farther part of the cavity, apparently for concealment, and her feelings at that moment were indescribable. Her heart fluttered, and her cheeks grew pale. She seized, with an unsteady hand, the precious manuscript, for half a glance sufficed to ascertain written 5 characters; and she resolved instantly to peruse every line before she attempted to rest.

The dimness of the light her candle emitted made her turn to it with alarm; but there was no danger of its sudden extinction, it had yet some hours to burn; and 10 that she might not have any greater difficulty in distinguishing the writing than what its ancient date might occasion, she hastily snuffed it. Alas! it was snuffed and extinguished in one. A lamp could not have expired with more awful effect. Catherine, for a few moments, 15 was motionless with horror. It was done completely; not a remnant of light in the wick could give hope to the rekindling breath. Darkness impenetrable and immovable filled the room.

A violent gust of wind, rising with sudden fury, added 20 fresh horror to the moment. Catherine trembled from head to foot. In the pause which succeeded, a sound like receding footsteps and the closing of a distant door struck on her affrighted ear. Human nature could support no more. A cold sweat stood on her forehead; the manu- 25 script fell from her hand; and, groping her way to the bed, she jumped hastily in, and sought some suspension of agony by creeping far underneath the clothes.