met, coldly bad Sir Charles good morning; and Sir Charles felt for the moment that he had nothing to hope either from resentment to the husband, or approbation of himself. Well then, thought he, if I cannot make her love, I shall know how to make her fear me! CHAP. XXII. "Strait my eye hath caught new pleasures, The lab'ring clouds do often rest." MILTON. ISABELLA had hastened her departure, that she might arrive as early in the day as possible at Eagle's Crag; and she soon lost every thought of what had passed between herself and Sir Charles during the last few hours, in anticipating what she should find in those that were coming; every object which she now saw, might have reference to Eagle's Crag. Her inquiries were incessant. "Not yet "It not yet, madam you cannot see it yet," was the constant answer. lies quite down there; but that great mountain-the greatest of all-that with the strange shape and the high top; that-that's Eagle's Crag; the house and lake lie just under it.” Isabella looked until her eyes ached, to see that which was not to be seen. At length, as she reached the top of a moderate ascent, the voices of the postillions, and her own sagacity, assured her that she did then indeed behold the object so ardently desired to be seen. But it was seen from the pinnacle of a mountain, down which wound a road, steep, rugged, and narrow, the most tremendous that Isabella had yet encountered, and to the bottom of which she thought it impos sible she should ever arrive with an unbroken carriage and whole bones. But the drivers and the horses were alike accustomed to such passes; and to Isabella's exclamation, "Surely this is not the road!" she received the encouraging admonition of, "Don't be afraid, my lady: I'll warrant you we'll soon bring you safe to the bottom." And which she soon found was justified by the ease and safety with which she descended. A few seconds only were given to what she thought the peril of her situation. Every succeeding moment was occupied in examining the objects that lay before her; and there could scarcely be found, in nature or art, any more calculated to fix the attention. The gigantic mountain of Eagle's Crag raised its huge form in strangely grotesque features innumerably varied. Here a ponderous mass of unshapen stone; there the light minaret of Saracenic architecture; the sacred cathedral, in all its Gothie magnificence, here carried up the thoughts to heaven while there, the meek appearance of the shepherd's lowly hut recalled them to the scanty comforts of human existence. Towers of every shape-gateways-arches—all were there pourtrayed by the hand of Nature, or arose under the plastic power of imagination. At the foot of this mighty work of the great Creator, stood the mansion of the ancient family of the Willoughbys; a turreted stone building of irregular form, and extended dimensions, largely occupying with its gardens and appendages parts of the capacious basin which was formed on three sides by the surrounding heights. To the South spread a lake, clear as crystal, with its deeply indented out |