and my left, and the castle-gate right before me at the end of a long avenue, How does all this agree with my uncle's account of things? Did he not talk of a good master, and a wise master, and of a powerful_master, and of one who is able and willing to serve and protect his faithful followers? How comes it then that he should allow of such disorders in his domains, and that he should permit his vassals to brawl in the streets, and to scoff at that which every man must know to be decent and proper? But, added I, speaking to myself, I will presently know the rights of this, and forthwith I turned in at the gate of a house of entertainment, which stood on the way-side, and seeing a parcel of men sitting on a bench, I stepped up to them and said, "My friends, will you please to tell me to whom does this castle belong which I see just beyond ?"-" Are you come so far, and don't you know?" replied a man, who seemed to be the chief on the bench, and forthwith he began to laugh, and the laugh went round, whereat I was wellnigh thrown off my guard; however, I repeated my question, on which one of the company answered and said, that the castle and all the neighbouring domain, nay, for all he knew, many a good acre beyond what the naked eye of any man could reach unto, was said to belong to a person whom I knew to be the same mentioned by my uncle. "Well," I replied, "what may the character of your Lord be; does it answer to what I have heard?"

"You must first tell us what that may be," replied the man, looking at his fellows under his eyelids, with a sort of side-glance which I by no means liked, "before I can answer the question."

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Why," replied I, boldly, for I was nettled at the manners of the man, "I have heard that he is one of ten thousand."

This brought a laugh, which ran round the bench again; and then the landlord coming out across the yard with a fresh tankard, what had passed was repeated to him, whereupon he called up a grave face, and turning to me, asked, "What my business might be at the castle?"

I mentioned my uncle's name, and said whence I had come in search of him, and how I had been invited to enter into the service of the Lord.

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Ay!" returned the landlord, with a look which I could not understand, "so, it seems, you have had a call, and there is no question but you will find your profit in

obeying it; your uncle has a good berth there, no doubt and may speak well of the bridge which carries him over."

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Meaning his Lord," I replied; "I hear that he is the best of masters."

"Some find their interest in serving him," replied the landlord; "and I have no doubt but that your uncle has turned his services to good account."

"There is no question of that," replied the first speaker, i. e. the man at the head of the bench," for things are not carried on now as in times past, when it was as much as a man's life was worth to declare himself on the side of him that some call Master."

He was going on when the host began to whistle, which was a token, I supposed, that enough had been said. Then, turning again to me, he remarked, "Well, my friend, if your credentials are true, you have nothing to do but to walk on, and you will come to the castle ere long; but you will not find your Lord, as you call him, in the way, he has been gone from here I don't know how many years, and those must be wiser than I who can say when he will come back again."*

"Gone," I said; "gone!" for I was all amazement, "and shall I not see him at the castle ?"

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Ay," replied the first speaker, "that is what doctors differ upon that he is not there now is certain enough; but there are some who will tell you that he will be there anon-to-morrow-perhaps to-day-perhaps the next moment;-is it not so, landlord? But, for my part, I am not one of those who look for prodigies."

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Well," replied the host, "time will show."

"The Master gone!" I repeated, for I was sadly put out with this news, "and no certainty respecting the time of his return; this is bad for me; but no doubt he has left those behind him who will see his orders executed." And then I proceeded to ask concerning the persons who were in command during the Master's ab

sence.

The host replied, "There were those at the head of affairs who were quite as capable of managing matters

"Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." 2 Peter iii.

as the Master himself;" and as he spoke he winked at the person at the head of the bench, as much as to say, You understand what I mean; but still continuing to address me, he went on as follows:-" The present head of the household is Mr. Fitz-Adam, the steward, or intendant as some call him; he has been master here time out of mind, and the people for the most part desire no better than that he should continue to rule to the end of the chapter. And then, in the female department, there is Madame le Monde; she is a foreigner,* they say, and therefore keeps her foreign title; she is housekeeper, and carries the keys, as you will see, hanging by a golden hook at her girdle; and to my mind, she is as comely a woman, and as agreeable withal, as any my eyes ever chanced to light upon. Then there are two principal chaplains in the house, that is, Father Peter and the doctor; some say that the father is got childish and in his dotage, though he is not so old as the doctor; but be that as it may, he is not the man just now for such a one as you, young master, who no doubt wish to get on in the house, to be paying your court to, for he is losing ground fast; and few of the good things which are to be got by serving him you call Master, are now at his command. On the other hand, the doctor is rising, they say, as fast as the old chaplain falls; and though he is no favourite of mine, yet I am much mistaken if he does not know on which side of the haunch the fat lies, as well as any man in the whole household. Well, but to return to the steward and housekeeper-I promise you that every thing is well and handsomely managed under their direction; and I do not see why your uncle, and some others in his train (for he is a sort of leader among one set) should be always peering and spying and looking up towards the hills, from whence, as he pretends, his Master will come."t

"I cannot understand all this," I replied; "if my uncle loves his Master, surely it is no wonder if he should wish to see him; and although those that rule under him may be very worthy, yet after all the true owner

* "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." John i. 10.

"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help." Psalm cxxi. 1.

of the land, and true Lord* of the people, must have more interest in it and them, than strangers can have." "Well, well," returned the host, somewhat peevishly, one man may have one opinion, and another another, thoughts are free; but if you are bound for the castle, young man, I have shown you the way, and you had as good be going forward; when you get there you will see how the land lies; and as the old saying is, Least said is soonest mended."

Thus we parted; and I went straight along the street towards the castle gates, which fronted me as I stepped out from the inn-yard.

The little discourse, however, which I had heard by the way had put many perplexing thoughts in my head; neither could I make out any thing either from what I heard, or from what I continued to see as I proceeded, for there was this peculiarity in all which I observed as I went on, viz.—that as every thing looked fair and well at a distance, whether it were a thatched cottage with its rustic porch projecting into the street from beneath the shade of a tree,-or a garden set with flowers and fruit trees, or it might be a group of children playing on a bank, or what not; whenever I drew near to any of these things, I saw something I did not like in them either the house was ruinous,-the garden slovenly, or the persons ill-conditioned. Nothing that I saw seemed to give evidence of care, or order, or cleanliness; in short, there seemed a sort of blight, natural or moral, on every thing that met the eye.t Neither was the ear more satisfied in this place than the other senses, for as I passed along, I was addressed by many harsh voices;-the children calling rudely after me and inquiring what brought me there, and the women mocking at me from the door-steads, because the cut of my coat varied from that commonly worn in those parts. Such, indeed, as 1 afterward found, had

"I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep." John x. 11, 12.

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.-For we that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened." 2 Cor. v. 1, 4.

been prescribed by the housekeeper to the servants for this same housekeeper is, as I afterward had reason to know to my cost, one who looks into every thing with a minuteness and activity which would do her credit if her cause were better: but of this more in the sequel. So I passed on through this village, and soon came to the gate at the end of the avenue, and found myself within the more immediate domain of the castle, and then I had again occasion to observe, that although the place abounded with all which might make a residence desirable, there wanted not the same tokens of waste, destruction, and carelessness of the good things which the soil produced, which I had observed elsewhere.

Coming at length near to the castle, and seeing two ways, one of which led to the front of the house, and the other into the outer courts or offices, I thought it behooved me to take the latter, and soon found myself among the stables; and I promise you that they were uncommonly spacious and handsome, being prepared for the convenience of many horses for as I afterward learned, the steward, who, like most of his description, is a person of no small consequence in his own eyes, affects much state in his horses and equipages.* Moreover, there were many grooms, as might be expected, in the stable-yards,-some being busied in one way, and some in another, while a third sort were lounging and basking themselves as if they had nothing to do but to look on upon what others were about: but all I saw wore a sort of livery, as belonging to one master, and I, being a sort of Johnny Newcome among them, took it for granted that the livery they wore was that of my uncle's master, even of him of whom I had heard so inviting a report, viz. the true Lord and proprietor of the place.

Now it was not to be supposed that I should be allowed to pass without comments; accordingly, one or two of the young men called out to me as I was proceeding quietly forward, and bringing me to a stand, would have it that I should answer the questions usually put to strangers, viz.-Whence I came? Whither I was going? And what might be my business?

"With the hoofs of his horses he shall tread down all thy streets." Ezek. xxvi. 11.