But the conqueror, Time, hath thy banner o'erthrown, And crumbled to ruin the courtyards that shone With chivalry's gorgeous array; And where music, and laughter so often have rung, In thy tapestried halls, now the ivy hath flung A mantle to hide their decay. Through the hush of thy lone haunts I wander again, Where these time-hallow'd relics, familiar remain, As if charmed into magic repose; The pass subterraneous,--the fathomless well, The mound whence the violet peeps--and the cell Where the fox-glove in solitude grows. In the last rays of sunset thy grey turrets gleam, Yet I linger with thee--as to muse o'er a dream, That mournful truths soon will dispel; My pathway winds onward--life's cares to renew, And I feel, as thy towers now fade from my view, 'Tis for over--I bid thee farewell! E.L.J. * * * * * THE NOVELIST. * * * * * THE HUNTSMAN. _A Traditionary Tale: by Miss M.L. Beevor._ "The merciful man is merciful to his beast." "The worm we tread upon will turn again." Charles, the chief huntsman of Baron Mortimer, was undeniably a very handsome young man, the _beau ideal_ of the lover, as pictured by the glowing imagination of maidens, and the beau _real_ of a dozen villages in the vicinity of Mortimer Castle. Yet, was his beauty not amiable, but rather calculated to inspire terror and distrust, than affection and confidence: in fact, a bandit may be uncommonly handsome; but, by the fierce, haughty character of his countenance, the fire which flashes from his eyes, and the contempt which curls his mustachoed lip, create fear, instead of winning regard, and this was the case with Charles. One, however, of those maidens, unto whom it was the folly and vanity of his youth to pay general court, conceived for him a passion deep and pure, which in semblance, at least, he returned; but how far to answer his own nefarious purposes, for Charles Elliott was a godless young man, we shall hereafter discover. Annette Martin was the daughter of a small farmer who resided about a mile and a half from the Castle; but, being the tenant of Lord Mortimer, had not only frequent occasion to go thither himself with the rural produce of his farm, (for which the Castle was a ready market,) but also to send Annette. Thus then commenced that innocent girl's acquaintance with the Baron's chief huntsman, not long after Elliott's induction into that office, by the resignation of his superannuated predecessor.