A loud noise and murmur interrupted her. The entrance of the Count Gondimar, pale and trembling, supported by Lord Glenarvon and a servant, gave a general alarm.—"Ruffians," said Gondimar, fiercely glancing his eyes around, "attacked our carriage, and forced the child from my grasp." "Where?—how?" "About twenty miles hence," said the Italian. "Curse on the darkness, which prevented my defending myself as I ought." "Those honorable wounds," said Glenarvon, "prove sufficiently that the Count wrongs himself." "Trelawny," whispered Gondimar, "do me a favour. Fly to the stables; view well Glenarvon's steed; mark if it bear any appearance of recent service: I strongly suspect him: and but for his presence at these grates, so calm, so cleanly accoutred, I could have staked my soul it was by his arm I received these wounds." "The horse," said Lord Trelawny, when he returned, "is sleak and far dif-
