up such a shower of sparks from the stones
that the passage of the vehicle was vividly
delineated in a running stream of fire. Mark
wondered who the traveller might be: but
much time was not allowed him for conjecture,
as the swiftness at which the carriage
was drawn soon brought it up to his house;
and his astonishment was great when he
perceived it came suddenly to a dead halt
precisely at that spot. He now observed
that the vehicle, as well as the horses, was
black, and that the coachman and the footmen
were clothed in mourning liveries.
"Some family that has lost a relation or two
in the Plague," thought Hansel.

The door of the carriage was opened by
one of the footmen, and a very handsome,
stately gentleman alighted. He, too, was
clothed in black; and, on his head, he wore a
hat with a large drooping feather.

"Good evening, Mark Hansel! " he said,
making a kind of salutation. " I want to
have a word with you."

"At your service," returned Mark, bowing
profoundly. "You seem, sir, to know
something of me; but I have not the honour of
recollecting you."

"No? " said the stranger, with a momentary
smile. " I have known you,
however, from your birth upwards."

"Indeed, sir," exclaimed Mark. " I should
have supposed you were a younger man than
myself, by a good score of years."

"Older, older," replied the stranger.
"But I must admit I bear my years well,
considering all I have had to go through;
and yet there are times when I feel I should
like to lie down somewhere and rest."

He spoke this in a low, meditative tone;
and Hansel could not help remarking that
he seemed to carry with him a palpable
darkness, which alternately dilated and
contracted with a wavering motion. And yet
there was nothing very singular in this,
either; for the night was rapidly falling, and
the fluctuating outline of the black velvet
mantle which the stranger wore, mingled
heavily with the gloom.

"Will you walk into my poor house, sir?"
inquired Mark. " We shall be quite alone;
all here except myself have died of this
dreadful sickness."

"No," replied the gentleman; " that is not
my object. I want you first to accompany
me to a place where you will see some friends
of yours; and then to ask you to do me a
favour, — to be paid for, mind, and
handsomely. Will you follow me?"

"I shall be proud," said Hansel, "to go
wherever your worship may command."

Stepping into the carriage, the stranger
beckoned Mark to follow him; and the
horses immediately set off at full gallop.

"How suddenly the night has fallen!"
observed Hansel; "and how close the air
has grown!"

"No wonder," replied his companion:
" there is mischief in the air; and a great
cloud of death hangs over all London."

Faster and faster went the coach; every
instant seeming to add obviously to its
speed. Mark looked out of the windows,
and saw the houses on each side of the way
spinning past in a long, indistinct, dull line, in
which all details were blurred and lost, like
the painted sides of a humming-top in the
intensity of its whirl. Faster and faster yet;
until, by the fervour of the motion, the
stagnant air was wakened into life, and rushed
past the carriage windows with a long, wailing
sigh. Faster and faster still; and darker
and darker grew the night; and through the
blackness Mark could see nothing but the
eyes of his companion gleaming like two
small fires at the back of a deep, dusky
cavern. And now the town was passed; and
Mark beheld a wide open country, very
bare and grim, which he did not recognise.
He began to feel uneasy. Still, faster and
faster went the coach; and darker and
darker grew the night; till it appeared as
if they were being carried on the wind itself
into a great black empty gulf. During all
this time the stranger did not utter one
word. Nor did Mark; for his breath was
gone.

At length the carriage came to a dead halt
with so much suddenness, that the ground
reeled beneath their feet, and a long, dark
hedgerow on each side of the road, still
appeared to rush giddily past into the wide
obscurity. As soon as Hansel could get the
use of his eyes, he perceived that they were
standing before a vast, dimly-defined building,
which rose far up into the air, until it
became one with the night. It belonged to
an order of architecture which Mark had
never seen before; and had a look of great
age and melancholy grandeur. Columns of
an indescribable fashion—grotesque faces
and prodigious sculptures, that seemed each
one an awful riddle—made themselves
heavily manifest through the darkness; and,
though Mark was anything but an imaginative man,
it struck even him that the whole
edifice was a sort of shadowy symbol, and
that it typified an unutterable mournfulness
and desolation. He observed all this in a
single moment; for the stranger, without a
word, drew him through a wide doorway
into the interior. A spacious, but dimly
lighted hall was then disclosed; and the
strange gentleman, turning to Mark, said—

"This is one of my country mansions.
You must come with me, and look over all
the rooms."

Hansel, though fear was in his heart, and
he would gladly have been away, bowed
humbly, and walked by the side of his
conductor. They passed through several
magnificent apartments, filled with objects of
great pomp and majesty; but a sense of
sadness and wickedness was over all; and
not a living being was to be seen; and the