feel any shadow of distrust of one of the skilled and far-famed 'Physicians of Glyn Helen!' It is not every maiden who has been privileged from her cradle with such high and sacred ministrations!" "Is the Black Horseman indeed that one living descendant of the Mystic Brethren, who has ever been said to dwell apart in some unknown haunt, and practise in secret their ancient arts for the good of his fellows?" asked Primrose eagerly. "I have oft wished to meet with one in whose existence I have believed from childhood, but of whose dwelling-place none have ever been able to give account! How came you to discover him, sweet mother, or what led him to reveal himself to you?" "His ancestors," replied Lady Bryn Afon, "have these some centuries past enjoyed high favour and repute with the royal houses in Wales, and our loved Black Horseman is descended in direct line from that far-famed and learned Rhiwallon who for his wondrous skill in medicinal lore was chosen by Rhys Grug, Prince of South Wales, in the thirteenth century, to be his private physician. I know not whether or no before that time the descendants of the Craig Aran shepherd's mystic bride had practised their healing arts in such high places, but there is no doubt of the renown of this bygone Rhiwallon, nor of our own dear physician's descent from his family; nor again of the favour shown to each learned doctor successively by noble Welsh families from the time of Rhys Grug and onwards. Our present Rhiwallon's father was in the service of the Caradocs for years, and through their means he himself became acquainted with your father in their boyhood, and also, to his own sorrow, with the fair Lady Gwendolen, whom I afore mentioned, with whom, by means of the secret passage, he enjoyed many a stolen interview, your father knowing their mutual love, and delighting, with all a younger brother's pride, in being permitted to share their secret and abet their schemes and stolen meetings. They were but boy and girl, but his love for her was true and deep; and when, as I told you, at the age of seventeen, death overtook her, he was sorely broken-hearted, and to this day has ever remained faithful to her memory. During his stolen visits to the castle, he discovered its fatal secret, and for the sake of his lost love, whom he believed a victim, though indirectly, to the family curse, he resolved to devote himself to her house for the remainder of his life, and so, being commended by the Caradocs to your grandfather's notice, became in due time your own father's private physician, since when his sole desire has been to seek the removal of his secret sufferings by every means in his power. He puts great faith in a certain herb, on which he is ever experimenting in his laboratory, and from which he even yet hopes some future day to work wondrous effects. Yet at present he is sadly forced to own himself at every turn baffled by this dread evil, which he can as yet mitigate only, but not overcome.