means the least pernicious. Suspecting that his friend was the dupe of Lord Percival, Flash, and their accomplices, he resolved to accompany him this evening to the gambling-table.

Grosvenor, on receiving the proposal, half suspected that Lord Montague was not so faultless as he had once imagined, and readily consented to repair with him to the rouge et noir tables. Having arrived at this scene, they deposited their hats and canes in the anti-chamber, and approached the shrine of the fickle goddess.

The room was nearly full ;-some were eagerly engaged in play; some were seated by the table, carefully calculating the chances, as they noted on a card the success of either colour. The votaries of Circe, on retiring from her banquet, could scarcely have appeared more inhuman than some of the adventurers round this table. Every horrible passion was successively called into action ;--avarice, envy, and revenge seemed predominant; and the favourites of chance, on retiring, frequently found it necessary to summon a guard to protect them through the avenues of this infernal cell, lest they should be despoiled of their booty.

Few feelings acquire more complete ascendancy over the human mind than the love of play, when it has once taken root there. It is a sort of desperate vortex, which engulfs by degrees all that is great and elevated it preys continually upon the soul, as the fabled vulture upon the liver of Prometheus.

Lord Montague was absorbed in the reflec

tions to which such a scene gives rise, when Grosvenor took his seat at the table.

His better star appeared ascendant, and after playing an hour and a half, he rose a winner of three hundred pounds. Though nothing could be conducted with more equity and decorum, Lord Montague would not congratulate. him on his success in a pursuit, in which he felt angry to see him engaged.

But it was far otherwise with Mr. Flash, who was particularly clamorous on the occasion, and declared that Grosvenor would indubitably net a considerable sum, if he were to follow up his success that evening, and urged him to adjourn with himself and Lord Percival to the house of the Countess of

fortune at hazard.

to try his

This countess was a woman of first-rate fashion, residing in a noted square at the western extremity of the metropolis, and supporting a very splendid establishment from the product of a gambling-house.

Lord Montague took his station at the elbow of his friend, determined to observe every throw with the most severe scrutiny. The conviction of some unfair tactic was speedily impressed on his mind; but the exact moment in which it was put into execution, he could not discover. The critical throws were uniformly against Grosvenor, and he was soon minus several hundred pounds.

Lord Montague resolved to bring the matter to an issue. Seizing the arm of Mr. Flash with one hand, and taking the dice in the other,

he declared his conviction that they were loaded, and insisted upon their being instantly seized, and carried to the police for examination.

A considerable tumult ensued; Lord Percival stormed, and raved a good deal of the honour of his family, and so forth. Mr. Flash thought, that the sacredness of his function might have secured him from so degrading an imputation; the Countess exerted all her eloquence to appease the irritated feelings of her guests but Lord Montague was inexorably firm; and, at length, it was agreed that he should make what examination of them he pleased at that time; and only on the earnest entreaty of the Countess, he consented to waive the final exhibition of them.

Proper instruments were procured, and on the dice being cut, it was discovered that they contained lead so ingeniously introduced, as almost always to throw a certain number.

Nothing could exceed the astonishment of Grosvenor at this discovery, except, perhaps, the rage of Lord Percival, and the embarrassment of Mr. Flash, whom Lord Montague openly charged with having the other set of dice in his pocket, and only producing these on certain throws. Mr. Flash denied most vehemently the accusation of his lordship, who cooly proposed his refuting them entirely by submitting his person to be searched. He indignantly refused, and immediately with Lord Percival quitted the apartment.

Lord Montague took the arm of Grosvenor,

and bowing with polite coldness to the Countess, quitted her mansion, leaving her completely subdued by a mixed feeling of awe and disappointment.

Having gained the open air, they passed on rapidly and in silence, immersed in profound, and, as far as Grosvenor was concerned, in painful reflection, until, having reached the corner of -square, they were rudely attacked by three men; one of whom, in the dress of a sailor, aimed at Lord Montague with a short dirk'; but the nervous grasp of the Earl immediately prevented respiration, and he threw the villain on the ground with a violence that threatened his immediate destruction. He immediately looked round for Grosvenor, who was leaning against the wall a few paces distant; his assailants had disappeared.

The ruffian, who had hitherto lain prostrate, rose instantly. The light of the moon for a moment played on his face, and discovered the features of Lord Percival. In a second he was out of sight.

"Most exquisite villain!" said Lord Montague, approaching Grosvenor. "Excellently matched associates! This Lord Percival and the Duke's chaplain appear not to be aware, that in adopting the trade of the assassin, they should likewise have secured some portion of his courage and dexterity!- Hah! Grosvenor, you are wounded!"

"I believe rather stunned."

"Lean on me, then, for I fancy we have no

time to lose;" and they proceeded immediately to the apartments of Grosvenor.

It was found, on examination, that although Lord Montague had escaped, the blood was flowing copiously from the shoulder of Grosvenor. A surgeon being procured, he pronounced that it was, in fact, nothing more than a slight cut; it had evidently been aimed at the heart.

"If I mistake not, Grosvenor," said Lord Montague, when the surgeon had withdrawn, you desire to escape from the trammels of Lady Jane Lorn."

"I!-really" stammered Grosvenor, a fine glow overspreading his face: "your lordship must certainly perceive the injustice of implicating the sister in the crimes of the brother."

:

"Without doubt but if your inclination leads you to wish to regain your freedom, I would observe, that, at least, you have now a plausible reason: human nature shrinks from the idea of an union with the sister of the man who would have murdered you

"It is a foolish prejudice," said Grosvenor, with persevering obstinacy: "I detest the semblance of injustice, and I abhor the deception of giving one reason for a conduct which is dictated by another."

"Certainly the sentiment is admirable; but it appears to me that the late occurrence, independent of any other consideration, imperatively forbids any idea of an union with Lady Jane Lorn."