They came, humbly and penitentially demanding pardon for their unconscious aggression of the squire's carriage, and entreating their captain's instant advice.

If Clifford had before wavered in his disinterested determination,--if visions of Lucy, of happiness, and reform had floated in his solitary ride too frequently and too glowingly before his eyes,--the sight of these men, their conversation, their danger, all sufficed to restore his resolution.

"Merciful God!" thought he, "and is it to the comrade of such lawless villains, to a man, like them, exposed hourly to the most ignominious of deaths, that I have for one section of a moment dreamed of consigning the innocent and generous girl, whose trust or love is the only crime that could deprive her of the most brilliant destiny ?" Short were Clifford's instructions to his followers, and so much do we do mechanically, that they were delivered with his usual forethought and precision.

"You will leave the town instantly; go not, for your lives, to London, or to rejoin any of your comrades.

Ride for the Red Cave; provisions are stored there, and, since our late alteration of the interior, it will afford ample room to conceal your horses.