The preparations for departure were commenced immediately. Mrs. Griffith was saddened a little when Helen brought her the news; but she recovered her spirits under the influence of her old pupil's animation. And strange it would have been, if the anticipation of so great a change had not produced considerable excitement in those upon whom it was about to fall. They had never--as Mrs. Pendarrel remarked--spent a night away from the castle; they had seen no town larger than Penzance; they had been familiar with none save the household around them. Wonderful it would have been, if with a calm pulse they could contemplate abiding in mighty London, among a host of strangers, and competing in the great race of life. Yet upon their earnest tempers the prospect produced less effect than it would on dispositions less serious; and they watched and superintended the necessary arrangements with a foresight which delighted Polydore, and was satisfactory even to the steward. At length, these were completed, and the eve of the journey arrived. The autumnal sun was setting in radiance over the opposite side of Mount's Bay, when the orphans, moved by a sympathetic impulse, took their way for a farewell visit to Merlin's Cave. A purple flush lay on the uplands above Gulvall and Ludgvan; there was scarce a ripple on the sea, and the fishermen of Newlyn were obliged to use their oars to gain the offing. The tranquillity of the evening sank into the hearts of the brother and sister, as they sat in silence, side by side, under their little canopy of rock. But at last, Helen interrupted the reverie. The sun had reached the crest of the hills; the tower of St. Paul's Church stood out dark against the sky, with its edges fringed by the level rays; the flush on the heather had grown deeper and warmer; when she suddenly began to sing, to an old Jacobite air, a ballad, composed by an ancestor who fled to Switzerland at the Restoration, and known in the family as "Trevethlan's Farewell:"-- "Farewell to Trevethlan! A farewell for ever! Farewell to the towers that stand by the sea! Ah! hard is my fortune from home so to sever, And seek me a shelter where still men are free! "No more at midsummer to see our hills lighted With bonfires that welcome the eve of St. John; No more by old Christmas to frolic invited, To greet our fair orchards with glad benison;-- "Nor yet in the May-time, at Helston's gay furry, With garlands of oak-leaves to dance to the song; But far o'er the waters an exile to hurry, And pine for my kinsmen strange faces among. "Ay, sad as the children of Morvah retreating To Pendeen's dark caverns beside the sea-swell, While the crags of Penvonlas bewailed the fierce meeting, And Mên Skryfa marked where Rialobran fell.