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Rh Robert's first suspicion; though he might well hesitate to recognise the cheerful, cordial friend of yore, in the cold, pale, and stern-looking horseman before him. "Surely you will not let me pass," said the youth, "without some token of remembrance, Mr. Johnstone?"

"Call me not," exclaimed the officer fiercely, "by the appellations of the ungodly! My name is now, 'Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord: I will repay!' and am not I His instrument on earth? Ride on, ride on, young man—spare neither whip nor spur; for the aged is even now in the valley of the shadow of death. Robert Evelyn," added he, in a softened and kinder tone, "must he sorely changed, if he speed not, that his father may bless him ere he die."

Evelyn waited no answer, but rode on; and the clang of heavy horse-tramp was faint in the distance before his companion recovered from his surprise. "My father ill!" thought he,—"he hinted not at this in his letter:—ah, he knew the wish he expressed for my return was enough, and he was fain to spare my anxiety. Ill—dying, and I not there!"

His horse was urged to its utmost speed, and in one hour arrived, covered with foam, at the abbey gate. It was barred, and he could hear