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"That is at present, impossible. Till Stephen's death, I am but the dependant of a party, promise me, at least, my Rosamond, that you will have no other, and I will wait till happier hours may come to make thee mine."
"By every star above us!" cried Rosamond, "I vow that, if I am not thine, I never will be another's."
Rosamond, pressed to the throbbing breast of Henry, had uttered this vow ere she had time to reflect that she had thus sworn to frustrate the intentions of her father. The lovers parted.
Lord Clifford urged the suit of his noble friend, and Rosamond at length peremptorily refused him. Wonder gave place to rage in the bosom of her father, and he punished his disobedient child by confinement to his castle. She had no means of communicating to Henry her situation, and the agony of restraint was increased by the conviction, that her lover awaited her coming at the usual spot, and must be torn with surmises as to the cause of her absence.
Henry, however, judged that their meetings had been discovered; but, emboldened by love, he, at midnight approached the castle, and bribing the sen-
