“The imagination
    Become impregnate with her own desire,”

yet she had performed her office well.  Not all the realities, all the blandishments that woman ever displayed, even the most resistless, could have wrought half so dexterously or gained such swift access to the heart.  The vision faded, and a momentary darkness ensued.  Suddenly a blaze of light irradiated the apartment.  Rodolf beheld, for one short glimpse, a Gothic hall.  Kate was there, and a lover kneeling at her feet.  Madness seized him, agonising and intense.  In vain he sought the features of his tormentor; the vision had departed, and with it his repose.

A new and overwhelming emotion had overpowered him.  It arose with the speed and impetuosity of a whirlwind.  All just and sober anticipations, reflections, possibilities, and a thousand calm resolves, were swept as bubbles before the full burst of the torrent.

His first impulse was to seek his mistress.  But—­she had another lover!  The bare possibility of this event came o’er his bosom like the icy chill of the grave.  He shuddered as it passed; but the pang was too keen to return with the same intensity.

Soon a low murmur, like the distant sough of the wind, gradually approached.  A faint light flashed through the chamber.  He saw his own wild woods and the distant castle.  It was just visible, dimly outlined on the horizon, as he had last beheld it in the cold grey beam that accompanied his departure.  It arose tranquilly on his spirit.  The voice of other years visited his soul.  His eyes filled—­he could have wept in the very overflowing of his delight.  He dashed his hand across his forehead; but the pageant had disappeared.

Daylight once more shone into the apartment; but nothing was discerned, save a dark curtain concealing one extremity of the room, and the seer sitting at his elbow.

“Boy, what sawest thou?” said Kelly, not raising his head as he spoke, but intently poring over a grim volume of cabalistic symbols.

“In troth, I am hard put to it, Master Kelly.  The maid I have just seen is accounted the veriest shrew in the parish, and one whom no man may approach with a safe warranty.  I am like to lose all hope of wiving, if this be the maiden I am to woo.  And yet”—­The form of the comely suitor he had seen kneeling at her feet just then flashed on his mind, yet cared he not to show the seer how much the phantom had disturbed him.

“Idle tales?” said Kelly.  “I wot not but half the gay gallants in the town would give the best jewel in their caps to have one sweet look, one pretty smile from her cruel mouth.  ’Tis but the report of those whom she hath slighted with loathing and contempt, that hath raised this apprehension in her disfavour.  The churls know not what is hidden beneath this outward habit of her perverse nature, and she careth not to discover.  Should some youth of noble bearing and condition but woo her as she deserves, thou shouldest see her tamed, ay, and loving too, as the very idol of her worship, or I would forfeit my best gift.”