it necessary to deprive the count of the office he
held. Other misfortunes followed. The family
fell into discredit. Their lands were sold, or
forfeited to the crown; till little was left but the
old castle of Breitenburg and the narrow domain
which surrounded it. This deteriorating
process went on through two or three generations,
and, to add to all other misfortunes, there was
always in the family one mad member.

"And now," continued the count, "comes
the strange part of the mystery. I had never
placed much faith in these mysterious little
relics, and I regarded the story in connexion
with them as a fable. I should have
continued in this belief, but for a very
extraordinary circumstance. You remember my
sojourn in Switzerland a few years ago, and
how abruptly it terminated? Well. Just before
leaving Holstein, I had received a curious wild
letter from some knight in Norway, saying that
he was very ill, but that he could not die without
first seeing and conversing with me. I
thought the man mad, because I had never heard
of him before, and he could have no possible
business to transact with me. So, throwing the
letter aside, I did not give it another thought.

"My correspondent, however, was not satisfied.
He wrote again. My agent, who in
my absence opened and answered my letters,
told him that I was in Switzerland for my
health, and that, if he had anything to say, he
had better say it in writing, as I could not
possibly travel so far as Norway.

"This, however, did not satisfy the knight.
He wrote a third time, beseeching me to come to
him, and declaring that what he had to tell me
was of the utmost importance to us both. My
agent was so struck by the earnest tone of the
letter, that he forwarded it to me: at the same
time advising me not to refuse the entreaty.
This was the cause of my sudden departure from
Vevay, and I shall never cease to rejoice that I
did not persist in my refusal.

"I had a long and weary journey, and once
or twice I felt sorely tempted to stop short,
but some strange impulse kept me going. I
had to traverse well-nigh the whole of Norway;
often for days on horseback, riding over
wild moorland, heathery bogs, mountains and
crags and lonely places, and ever at my left the
rocky coast, lashed and torn by the surging
waters.

"At last, after some fatigue and hardship, I
reached the village named in the letter, on the
northern coast of Norway. The knight's castle
—a large round tower—was built on a small
island off the coast, and communicated with the
land by a drawbridge. I arrived there, late at
night, and must admit that I felt misgivings
when I crossed the bridge by the lurid glare of
torchlight, and heard the dark waters surging
under me. The gate was opened by a man,
who, as soon as I entered, closed it behind me.
My horse was taken from me, and I was led up
to the knight's room. It was a small circular
apartment, nearly at the top of the tower, and
scantily furnished. There, on a bed, lay the
old knight, evidently at the point of death. He
tried to rise as I entered, and gave me such a
look of gratitude aud relief that it repaid me
for my pains.

"'I cannot thank you sufficiently, Count of
R.,' said he, 'for granting rny request. Had I
been in a state to travel I should have gone to
you; but that was impossible, and I could not
die without first seeing you. My business is
short, though important. Do you know this?'
And he drew from under his pillow, my long-
lost fish. Of course I knew it; and he went on.
'How long it has been in this house, I do not
know, nor by what means it came here, nor, till
quite lately, was I at all aware to whom it rightfully
belonged. It did not come here in my
time, nor in my father's time, and who brought
it is a mystery. When I fell ill, and my recovery
was pronounced to be impossible, I heard one
night, a voice telling me that I should not die
till I had restored the fish to the Count R. of
Breitenburg. I did not know you; I had never
heard of you; and at first I took no heed
of the voice. But it came again, every night,
until at length in despair I wrote to you. Then
the voice stopped. Your answer came, and again
I heard the warning, that I must not die till you
arrived. At last I heard that you were coming,
and I have no language in which to thank you
for your kindness. I feel sure I could not have
died without seeing you.'

"That night the old man died. I waited
to bury him, and then returned home, bringing
my recovered treasure with me. It was
carefully restored to its place. That same year, my
eldest brother, whom you know to have been
the inmate of a lunatic asylum for years, died,
and I became the owner of this place. Last
year, to my great surprise, I received a kind
letter from the King of Denmark, restoring to
me the office which my fathers once held. This
year, I have been named governor to his eldest
son, and the king has returned a great part of
the confiscated property; so that the sun of
prosperity seems to shine once more upon the
house of Breitenburg. Not long ago, I sent one of
the silberlingen to Paris, and another to Vienna,
in order that they might be analysed, and the
metal of which they are composed made known
to me; but no one is able to decide that point."
Thus ended the Count of R.'s story, after
which he led his eager listener to the place
where these precious articles were kept, and
showed them to her.

STORY OF THE INCUMBERED ESTATES
COURT.

IN TWO CHAPTERS. II. THE OPERATION.

IN this way, then, the court came into the
world. It should have been announced officially,
in this wise: " On the—ult., at
Westminster, the United Parliament of Great Britain
and Ireland, trins!" for there were to be three
judges.

Even out of so dry a function as an official
appointment, came something like a snatch of
romance. The Master of the Rolls in Ireland, casting