true meaning, the page that records the memorable things of Elizabeth, would have been stained with the blood of one victim less. "I would it were in my power," said the sheriff, "to bid these attendants upon her who is herself the mistress of Scottish beauty, as welcome to England as my poor cares would make them. But, our Queen's orders are positive in case of such an emergence, and they must not be disputed."

The horrors of a prison were fresh in Mary's mind-and she felt herself rather an object of pity than of fear to Elizabeth. Escape into France was dangerous, and, if accomplished, she would then have to endure the chagrin of appearing as a fugitive and exile, where she had once enjoyed the splendour of a queen. This mode of reasoning conducted to the ever-to-be-regretted conclusion-a conclusion over which history mourns-that England was the only asylum that remained to her.

In spite of the entreaties of Lord Herries, the supplication of Fleming, and the tears of her most devoted attendants and followers, who conjured her, on their bended knees, not to confide in the promises of generosity made by Elizabeth, her infatuation was invincible, and she resolved on flying to the court of one of the most politic and powerful, but not the most merciful, of queens. Lord Herries wrote to the deputy-governor of Carlisle, to inquire what reception his Queen was to expect from him; but before his answer reached, her fear and impatience were so great, that she embarked in a fishingboat, and, crossing the Firth, landed at Workington in Cumberland.

WAYLAND SMITH'S CAVE.

"The hissing steel is in the smithy drowned;
The grot with beaten anvils groans around;
He turns the glowing mass with crooked tongs,
The fiery work proceeds with rustic songs."

DRYDEN.

[Kenilworth, Vol. I. p. 187.

"The instant the sound ceased, Tressilian, instead of interposing the space of time which his guide had requested, started up, with his sword in his hand, ran round the thicket, and confronted a man in a farrier's leathern apron, but otherwise fancifully attired in a bear-skin dressed with the fur on, and a cap of the same, which almost hid the sooty and begrimed features of the wearer. 'Come back, come back!' said the boy to Tressilian, or you will be torn to pieces,-no man lives that looks on him.' In fact, the invisible smith (now fully visible) heaved up his hammer, and showed symptoms of doing battle. But when the boy observed that neither his own entreaties, nor the menaces of the farrier, appeared to change Tressilian's purpose, but that, on the contrary, he confronted the hammer with his drawn sword, he exclaimed to the smith, in turn, Wayland, touch him not, or you will come by the worse! the gentleman is a true gentleman, and a bold.'

"So thou hast betrayed me, Flibbertigibbet?" said the smith; it shall be the worse for thee !'

"Be who thou wilt,' said Tressilian, thou art in no danger from me, so thou tell me the meaning of this practice, and why thou drivest thy trade in this mysterious fashion.'"

This altercation led to threats on the part of Master Tressilian, and exculpation on that of Wayland, but ultimately to a truce of the most hospitable kind. The smith, in pleading his cause before his newly-acquired enemy, introduced the actual name of the young gentleman, which so startled him, that he demanded an explanation, and learned that this was not the first occasion on which he and Wayland had been confronted.

Having accepted the smith's invitation to rest and hear the mysterious history of his life, Tressilian, Wayland, and Dickie Sludge descended into the cave, by a narrow staircase of a few steps, where was a small square vault, containing a smith's forge, glowing with charcoal. Light afforded by the red fuel, and by a lamp suspended from an iron chain, served to show that, besides an anvil, bellows, tongs, hammers, a quantity of ready-made horse-shoes, and other articles proper to the profession of a farrier, there were also stoves, alembics, crucibles, retorts, and other instruments of alchemy. The grotesque figure of the smith, the ugly but whimsical features of Dickie, seen by the gloomy light of the charcoal fire and expiring lamp, harmonized well with the mystic apparatus, and in such an age of superstition would have tried the courage of the stoutest man. Tressilian, however, lacked not that valuable commodity, and becoming reconciled also to his companions, he sat down in this gloomy cavern, and listened to the history of Wayland's life.

The meeting in front of Wayland's cave arose from the circumstance of Flibbertigibbet having undertaken to act as guide to Tressilian, and assistant in obtaining a shoe for his horse; and, being desirous of serving his friend Wayland, he conducted the gentleman to his retired smithy. Here he directed Tressilian to tie his horse to an unpright stone, in which a ring was inserted, then to whistle three times, lay down a silver groat upon the flat stone adjacent to the other, walk outside the circle of stones, sit down on the west side of a thicket of bushes near to them, look neither right nor left so long as he heard the hammer clink, and whenever it ceased, to say his prayers for the space he could tell a hundred, then return into the circle, when he would find his money gone, but his horse shod.

After much distrust, expressed by threats against the personal safety of Dickie Sludge, Tressilian suffered himself to be placed in the position required by the little urchin's specification, but not being able to control himself longer than the last clink of the hammer, he started up from the thicket, sword in hand, and, running round, encountered Wayland in his whimsical dress.

The scene around was one to which those of Tressilian's name and country were much accustomed-a bare and extended moor, in a conspicuous part of which a circle, marked out by large grey stones, like the enclosure of some ancient barrow, and near them three or more upright stones, sustaining an inclined one, which in this particular instance served as Wayland's counter.