There was so much good sense in Mr. Michelet's remarks, who was the senior Fellow then in residence, and whose opinion was respected by the whole corps of College authorities, that Mr. Knox, who already had his hand on the door, paused; and finally retraced his steps to the fire-place; where, thrusting his thumbs into the respective arm-holes of his waistcoat, he planted himself in an attitude of immoveable reverie.

"St. Just is an excellent lad," pursued Mr. Michelet. “I have seen a good deal of him lately; indeed I have had my eyes on him ever since he came up,' and I never saw a young man who took my fancy more. So unpretending, and well behaved. Possessed too of considerable ability; and then such a fine, active, handsome fellow. I am told there has not been any one so popular amongst the young men for a long time."

"I have heard the same thing," subjoined Mr. Rouse, “I can easily fancy they are loath to lose him, I confess I am sorry myself that

he is leaving us.

I understand he is going into

the North with Vernon."

“I never knew anything against Mr. St. Just," said Mr. Tugwell," although I have always thought his popularity and high animal spirits, and the aptitude he seems to have for manly sports, were likely to lead him into mischief, and to divert his thoughts from more important pursuits. I was however present to-day during his vivâ voce examination, and was glad to see the satisfactory manner in which he acquitted himself. I heard the Examiners compliment him when he had finished. There was one passage in his Iliad which he translated very beautifully."

"Well, Michelet," said Mr. Knox, “I have been thinking over what you were saying, and I believe you are right. At all events, in the present instance, under the circumstances of the case, and as you say you know that the party is intended as a farewell one to St. Just, it may be better not to disturb it. It might appear personally unkind to him, which I should be very

sorry for, especially as he is on the eve of his departure, and has passed his Academical career so much to the satisfaction of us all."

So saying, the pompous tutor withdrew his hands to their accustomed places, moved his rotund person from the fire-place, which it had effectually screened from the rest of the party, and once more sought the door; not indeed this time to destroy, by his ill-boding presence, the festivities which were going on, the other side of the quadrangle, but to seek his own apartments, there to prepare his instructions for the lecture-room on the morrow, by the help of his midnight oil.

As the College clock beat the first stroke of twelve, Stirling's rooms were cleared of his company. And presently after wakeful Don, and slumber-loving undergraduate, yielded to the general repose; and the gray walls of the quaint old buildings once more resumed their wonted and appropriate stillness.

CHAPTER II.

"And oft the blessed time foretells,
When all men shall be free,
And musical, as silver bells,

Their falling chains shall be."

LONGFELLOW.

HE family of the St. Justs was as old as the Conquest; and the curious in

genealogies might have read their names in the Battle Abbey Roll at the College of Heralds. They had eventually settled in West Sussex, where a very considerable property had, for upwards of two centuries, been transmitted from father to son in an unbroken course of succession. The history of Sir Marmaduke, the present baronet, was somewhat a romantic one. Like many eldest sons, he had travelled in the East during his father's life.

At that time Turkish slave-dealers were in the habit of fitting out expeditions for the purpose of supplying the Stamboul market. These expeditions met with more or less resistance according to the character of the invaded districts, but they were generally considered services of sufficient danger, to partake of the nature of hostile incursions, and to justify military precautions. One of them had recently returned from a depredation of unusual atrocity, and with a valuable freight of slaves, at the time when young Marmaduke had, in the due course of his travels, arrived at Constantinople. Pitsounda, a village of Circassia on the Eastern borders of the Black Sea, had this time been the place selected for the piratical descent: Circassia-that land where the Spirit of liberty reigns unsullied, in the midst of voluptuous and effeminate Asia-that land, whose sons are the bravest, and whose daughters the fairest, among nations. The inhabitants offered, as might have been expected, an heroic, but it was an useless, resistance; the most beautiful of their women,