General Fitzwalter retired early from the circle at the castle, and was passing rapidly through the hall to his carriage, when the figure of Lord Adelm caught his attention, moving under the projecting corridor, and tearing some paper in a thousand pieces, which he had trampled under his feet. His countenance was marked by strong traces of passion, and his obvious confusion and embarrassment, when his eyes met Fitz-/walter, almost tempted the latter to pass on without addressing him; suddenly, however, turning back upon his steps, under the influence of a prompt and ardent sympathy, as easily excited as it was uncontrolable, he demanded,

‘What is the matter? You appear to suffer. Has any thing happened to annoy you?’

‘Annoy me, indeed!’ he repeated, while the general took his arm, and walked for a minute in silence by his side.

‘What can have occurred within the last hour, when I saw you smiling in mockery at the buffoon, Lord Rosbrin? Fancies, not facts, I trust: for I would rather believe your nymph had discovered herself, and so dispelled your illusions than –’

‘Discovered herself with a vengeance! she has discovered herself.’

‘Ha! has she so?’ /

‘Oh! with a frankness perfectly original. For, with an ingenuous confession that she has made my vanity and credulity the dupes of her devices, and the instruments of her own views, she absolves me from her spells, restores me to my freedom of agency, releases me from leading strings, and with a mysterious allusion to the convent of Nuestra Señora de las Augustias, the ruins of the Holy-cross, and my visit to Court Fitzadelm, she signs herself mine au revoir, Mary Magillicuddy. And thus,’ he added, tearing to atoms the fragments of the letter he still held – ‘thus ends a dream I would not have exchanged for any real good life could have bestowed, which was to me as the spirit of the sun-beam to Tasso, as the airy voice to Des Cartes, as the resplendent light, which hovered over the shadow of Cellini.’