 secret to his attendants. Of these, the first, and principal in his confidence, was a man nurtured in courts; long practised in the arts of flattery, and the homage of dependance; trained to watch the looks, the smiles, the frowns of a superior, to aid his pleasures, to indulge his passions, to love,

to hate, as he directed, with an obsequiousness equalled only by the insolence and oppression which he dealt out with unfeeling severity to all beneath him. Subtile and expert he was in the arts of fraud and circumvention; ever attentive to his own private intetest; patient, persevering, and sagacious in the means of advancing it. His name was Grey. To him Raymond unbosomed his disordered thoughts; lamented his despised love, and the unrelenting pride of Ela, which threatened to blast all his hopes of ambition. The flatterer expressed the utmost indignation; and as if the resolution of the Countess had been unwarranted and injurious, injurious to the honour and dignity of Raymond, he censured him with an artful semblance of sincerity and zeal, as if he himself had been the cause of his own repulse: He accused him of indulging the perverseness and pride of this high dame, by the humble and abject strain of his addresses. He persuaded him that in this place he was now absolute lord and inheritor, who should command, and not intreat, graced as he was by the royal favour, and supported by the power of Hubert. The slightest hint was more than sufficient to enflame the pride of Raymond. He yielded entirely to the pleasing delusion, and already fancied himself undoubted heir of the house of Salsbury, and master of its ample domain. The conditions on which the king had assented to his petition, were totally forgotten: and he now determined to act agreeably to that high character, in which his imagination had arrayed him, and to extort that compliance to his wishes, which his sollicitations could not obtain. Every thing was disposed at his command; and the domestics and inhabitants of the castle taught to acknowledge a new lord. To the Countess, he affected to appear, not as an humble lover, but an imperious sovereign master. Yet, awed by her dignity and beauty, he acted this part, not without constraint and shame; and still repulsed, and still despised, he required all the artifice and flattery of Grey, to suport him in his purpose. Yet, this extraordinary change could not fail to alarm

the fears of the Countess. With surprise and helpless indignation she found herself the prisoner of her guest. Her usual attendants were removed
