smiled as he witnessed in another, that which he had so often recognised in himself, and, after pausing for a few moments to enjoy the silent astonishment of his young friend, he directed his attention to the alterations which this part of the building seemed to have undergone from successive generations; to the depth and breadth of the outer ditch by which it was defended, and to the additional protection which it must have received from the circular towers at each angle of the castle, some of which, on the angles nearest to the great gateway, were yet remaining. "How often, my dear Hoel," he exclaimed, with all a poet's enthusiasm, "how often has the tide of war rolled with disappointed fury from these walls; and how often has the prisoner wept within their iron bounds! Here, however, no longer may the victor triumph, or the captive mourn; and where the trumpet pealed its praise, and where the minstrel swept his lyre, nought save the whisper of the evening breeze, or the shrill sounding of the midnight storm, can now be heard! And mark, my friend, where yonder central tower rears its embattled head! How does it look like some stupendous

giant, shrunk with, age and hoar with time, frowning, it is true, upon the plain beneath, but impotent for aught beside!"

Hoel now smiled, in his turn, at the unexpected enthusiam, and metaphorical language of his companion; but at the same time, the augmenting energy of his own manner, and the increased animation which beamed from his eyes, pretty plainly showed that he had himself caught a portion of the same infection. It was, indeed, scarcely possible, such was the striking character of these castellated remains, and such the beauty of their situation, to resist that appeal to fancy and to feeling, which so often powerfully, and almost involuntarily flows from the reviviscence of associated imagery; and more especially when beheld as now, on an evening of peculiar loveliness and serenity, and where all was breathing of repose and peace.

It is at this calm hour, indeed, that a ruin such as Helmsley Castle, once the chosen seat of military strength, or feudal splendor, must, from the very force of contrast, make its most effective impression; and as such was it felt both by Edward and Hoel, as they stood at the foot

of its massy and half fallen keep. The remains of an avenue leading from the grand gate of entrance, had conducted them to this the most important part of the fortress, the north-western aspect of which was entire, and surmounted at each angle by a lofty turret, which, together with every other portion of the tower itself, exhibited, both in its plan and execution, a specimen of architecture as beautiful and commanding as it was compact and strong.

Near this majestic keep, whose interior was pointed out by Edward as having undergone various successive modifications, and whose turreted summit formed, from its great elevation, a most interesting object to the surrounding country, were seen the vestiges of what had probably been a chapel, which, with the relics of another gateway on the north side, and some scattered fragments of foundation, constituted, together with the parts already enumerated, the whole of what the ravages of war had spared of this once importantfortress, whose scite, being not only elevated, but exhibiting in various parts masses of rock bare and projecting from its sides, added much to the force and sublimity of the effect.

Amid these ruins, fascinated by their awful and impressive character, and yet further seduced by the loveliness and tranquillity of the evening, whose yellow light still rested warm and glowing on the shivered summit of the keep, did Edward and Hoel long wander delighted, and regardless of the passing hour. The increasing gloom, however, which was gathering deep within the precincts of the castle, and the last farewell of the descending sun, tinging with a long line of bright red the verge of the western horizon, at length brought with them the remembrance that they had more than two miles to walk on their return to Rivaulx, a suggestion which breaking in upon the recollections of the days of old, and somewhat ungratefully dissipating the illusions which were rising fast around them, they reluctantly turned to retire. The singular beauty of the scenery, however, as beheld through the deep arch of the grand entrance, as through the massy frame of a picture, struck them so forcibly as they were about to retrace their path, that they paused to admire it. It was, in fact, striking and picturesque in a very high degree; or, whilst the

dark depth of the gateway cast almost a blackness on the ground throughout its whole length, the landscape seen beyond it was yet partially tinted with the crimson of the setting sun, which flung its rich light, not only on various portions of the foliage which overhung the stream of the Rye, and on the stems of some lofty and detached trees, but glancing on the cattle which were scattered feeding over the mound, rendered them, from the power of contrast, very distinct and luminous objects to the eye.

Whilst commenting on the effect of this delightful, but somewhat extraordinary view, and which looked, indeed, both in point of size and perspective, like a scene dropped on the stage of a theatre, Hoel, observing on the right of the gate-way an ascent resembling a broken flight of steps, and which conducted to a wide and open standing place or breach in the wall, directly over the crown of the arch, heedlessly, and with the intent of surveying the landscape from this more elevated and unobstructed station, sprang forward, and had just reached the spot he had wished to attain, when, his foot slipping in consequence of a stone loosening