BOOK THE FIFTH.
CHAPTER I.
GRASSDALE.—THE MORNING OF THE MARRIAGE.—THE CRONES' GOSSIP.—THE BRIDE AT HER TOILET.—THE ARRIVAL.
"Jam veniet virgo, jam dicetur Hymenæus,
Hymen, O Hymenæe, Hymen ades, O Hymenæe."
Catullus.—Carmen Nuptiale.
It was now the morning in which Eugene Aram was to be married to Madeline Lester. The Student's house had been set in order for the arrival of the Bride, and though it was yet early morn, two old women whom his domestic (now not the only one, for a buxom lass of eighteen had been transplanted from Lester's household, to meet
