"Oh my sainted mother," he ex! claimed," and do your precious remains lie unentombed in the dreary prison where the fell assassin pierced your innocent heart? This moment will I go and water them with my tears: dreadful indeed is the mystery contained in the gloomy recesses of the Tower."

He arose from his seat with an intention of exploring the dungeon where the remains of the Marchesa lay, but on looking at the declining shadow of the sun, he found the day was too far spent to admit of his carrying his design into effect, in the present disturbed state of his mind; he was not sorry

at

at being prevented going, and he determined to employ the

intervening

hours between the present and the melancholy spectacle that he well knew would meet his eyes of the sad remains of a murdered mother, in composing the agitation of his bosom, to render him able to endure the sad

scene.

It was a gleam of comfort to his soul to know that his father was not guilty, as he supposed he was, of the murder of Signor Valvano; and the hour of repast drawing nigh, he endeavoured to compose himself as much as possible, in order to conceal from

Louisa

Louisa the grief that oppressed his

his bosom.

But her anxious gaze when she saw him enter the hall pale and agitated, soon rendered his endeavours useless; and when with fond solicitude she inquired the cause of the evident melancholy that oppressed him, he found himself unable to frame any other reason for it than the true one, which he then related to her.

The gentle heart of Louisa swelled at the sad recital, and sorrowfully passed away the time devoted to the banquet; when it was concluded, Ricardo returned to the privacy of his

chamber,

chamber, and passed the hours in painful reflections on the dark deed. which had deprived him of a mother.

The sun had long withdrawn his beams, and the moon now began to shew her bright form above the summit of the hills that bounded the horizon, when Ricardo, leaving his chamber walked pensively on the lawn; raising his eyes, he beheld the rugged walls of the South Angle Tower illumined by the silver beams of the nocturnal lamp. Sadly he gazed on them, while the dreadful act that had been performed in its gloomy interior returned

returned to his recollection with in

creasing grief.

Unable to support the painful emotions that arose in his breast, he slowly returned to the Castello, to seek in his Louisa's converse that comfort he was so much in need of; determined, that ere another night covered with its shades the face of the creation, that the remains of his mother should be consigned with all holy rites and ceremonies of the church, to the tomb; that done, he hoped that time would soften the acuteness of the sorrow he then endured.

Some of his domestics were ordered

to