"Stay thy tongue. Yet I bethink me now," said she, looking earnestly at him, "thou art from my cousin: a messenger from him, I trow."

   "Nay," said the ambiguous hind, "'tis from other guess folk,

   belike; but—who—I—Like enough that the Lady Eleanor will go a fortune-hunting with such a simpleton as I am."

   "Go with thee?" said the lady in amazement.

   "Why, ay—I was bid to bring you to the Fairies' Chapel, beyond the waterfall in the wood by Healey, and that ere to-morrow night. But I am a doomed and a dying man, for how should the Lady Eleanor Byron obey this message?"

   Here the unhappy miller began to weep; but the lady was dumb with astonishment.

   "Forgive me, lady, in this matter; but I was in a manner bound to accomplish mine errand."

   "And what if I should accompany thee? Wouldest thou be my champion, my protector from onslaught and evil?"

   Here he opened his huge grey eyes to such an alarming extent that Eleanor had much ado to refrain from smiling.

   "If you will go, lady, I shall be a living man; and you"—a dead woman, probably he would have said; but the denunciation did not escape his lips, and the joy and surprise of the wary miller were beyond utterance.

   "But whence thy message, friend?" said the deluded maiden, eyeing him suspiciously.

   "Why; the message was whispered in my ear. A stranger brought it together with a dismal threat should I not bring you at the time appointed."

   Here the miller again became uneasy and alarmed. A cold shudder crept over him, and he looked imploringly upon her.

   "But they say, my trusty miller, that this chapel of the fairies may not be visited, forbidden as it is to all catholic and devout Christians, after nightfall."

   At this intimation the peccant miller displayed his broad thumbs, and looked so dolorous and apprehensive, sprawling out his large ungainly proportions, that Eleanor, though not prone to the indulgence of mirth, was mightily moved thereto by the cowardly and dismal aspect he betrayed.

   "Nay, lady, I beseech you," he stammered out. "I am a dead dog—a piece of useless and 

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