good Loscho, I have marked thee diligently thou hast a peculiar zeal for my service, and wert thou where Pandulfo is, we should have done with these cavils-but no more, my excellent Loscho. Here he comes! Keep your self sober," he whispered: "I must drink."

They returned to the table. When the wine had for a short time circulated,

"I have been thinking, Chevalier," said Pandulfo, "that now the Duke of Friedland is no more, your charge of his son has expired with him. It is not probably your intention to detain the young Count much longer ?"

"Certainly not; I have no object in his detention; yet as his health has declined within these walls, I would fain see it restored ere he quits them,—the Friar you know is another Galen."

The commandant felt satisfied, and did not press the subject.

"I am happy, my gallant friends," said Wolfstein, "in the thought that I shall ere long be in possession of means worthily to reward your services. The enormous spoil of that Leviathan, who has lately perished beneath the weight of his own ambition, will now be divided among those who assisted in his ruin, in proportion to the part each took in that prodigious event. Mine was a leading one: my power to supply the Duke both with men and intelligence compelled him to trust me, to admit me into the very centre of his intriguing breast. Fieramosca, Devereux, and myself, were the grand instruments of his destruction."

He now proceeded to expatiate on the boundless possessions of the fallen general, and the share thereof which would probably be his allotment; till the avarice of his mercenary companions began to inflame, and as the wine operated

on their spirits, they became profuse in declarations of attachment and fidelity to a chief, who could so nobly remunerate their love. For a while Pandulfo had

very dexterously evaded the subject in discussion; for he abhorred treachery, though his situation had obliged him to witness and connive at much, but it was with a revolting. spirit. Wolfstein had pressed the goblet upon him with such perseverance, that his discretion, at length, began to waver; and the wily chief, watching his moment, let fall some expressions, on which he knew his now unguarded commandant would instantly seize. A short but sharp parley passed between them, Pandulfo's part in which proved sufficiently that his reason was reeling; but Wolfstein made a most pathetic appeal to the remainder of the company, "Whether it was fitting for a chief to sit tamely, listening to the re peated and aggravated contumelies of his

own officer; whether they would refuse their consent to his avenging himself by degrading the offender from an office he held under his appointment and by his sufferance; or, whether they deemed it meet he should submit himself, day by day, to be thus braved to his face?"

Loscho, who had scrupulously attended to the caution he had received, and who was the only sober man present, cried out,

"The man who can sit to see his chief insulted is a traitor!"

And was immediately echoed by every other voice. Pandulfo's situation was critical, for every man's hand was on the guard of his sword; but Wolfstein and Loscho appeased them.

"Look," whispered the former," we can secure him without difficulty :—he is defeated already, and we have neither strength nor sense to contend with. Go, good Loscho, summon Scharaffa, and bid

him bring Vespo and Scorezzo-make no noise, and speak only to Scharaffa. I like to transact business quietly."

The commandant elect soon returned

with his myrmidons.

"Scharaffa," said Wolfstein, winking as he spoke, "Captain Pandulfo is, as you may see, a little unsettled by this evening's libation-he cannot walk to his apartment. Do him the courtesy to convey him thither."

Scharaffa looked earnestly at his master; he did not half like the commission with which that wink charged him, for he knew that the times were critical, and that the step was hazardous; but Wolfsteïn, now inflamed by intoxication, said, stamping as he spoke,

"What is this? Thou hideous son of darkness, what dost thou glare at? Take him away, I say, and let him sleep himself sober in the vaulted room! Turn him in and bar the door on him, and thou shalt receive farther orders in the morning."