tween the defenceless state of its garrisons and fortified places, and the general dissaffection of the inhabitants, was rather prepared to welcome than to resist. Ratcliffe, who neither sought to assist at their consultations on this subject, nor was invited to do so, had, in the meanwhile, retired to his own apartment. Miss Ilderton was sequestered from society in a sort of honourable confinement, "until," said Mr Vere," she should be safely conveyed home to her father's house," an opportunity for which occurred on the following day.
The domestics could not help thinking it remarkable how soon the loss of Miss Vere, and the strange manner in which it had happened, seemed to be forgotten by the other guests at the castle. They knew not, that those the most interested in her fate were well acquainted with the cause of her being carried off and the place of her retreat; and that the others, in the anxious and doubtful moments which pre-
