PETERSON’S MAGAZINE.
THE LADY MABEL.
BY CATHARINE BL PoRD,
The Lady Mabe! had been left an orphan while yet child, and hones bad never known a mother’s or a father’slove. Brought op alone, in her paternal castle, the only playmate of her years had been a page, in the service of the bold knight, who, in ber bebalf, commanded the garrieon of the fortress, Between these Iwo children an affection sprang up, whieb both remembered long years afterward, and which was the ‘cause of many a tear to the Lady Mabel.
For when she was in her tenth year, and the page in bie fourteenth, the latter had been removed, in order thet, as 2 equire at arms, he might Jearn the duties of a teue koight, to which station he was destined. Perhapr, too, the shrewd ofd warrior, who acied as goveraor of the castle, feared that the intimacy be- tween the rich heiress and the poor cadet might be- come dangerous, if allowed to continue. So the page Roland went (o France, to serve in the wars there; and the Lady Mabel was left alone with her handmaidens.
This separation was the Lady Mabel's first real torrow. For nearly a week she wept incessantly. Bat time at last softened her regrets. She grew up lovely and accomplished, and was courted by all. At eighteen there was not = lovelier female in all England. Her dark and lustrous eyes, the redundant maseos of her raven hair, and the mingled grace and tasjerty of her person were the admiration of all who beheld ber.
At first she beard occasionally of Roland. A war- dering minstrel, who bad been in France, would sometimes stop at the casite, and bring news from the camp; and, on ali euch occasions, the name of the young knight, a equire no longer, was ture to be mentioned with encomiums, The Lady Mabel beard bow he bad been dubbed knight on « Geld of battle, for hie heroiem, by the bands of the monarch himself’; how he had been foremort in the breach at the aneaalt of more than one fortified tower; bow be bad saved a noble countess from a fate worse than death, by ree- saing her from soine free-companions, at the rack of a city, Singular to relate, this last news, so honorable to Sir Rolaad, created a pang in the Lady Mabel's dorom. Was rhe jealous of the countess? If eo, ehe did sot continue jealous long, for suddenly she heard that Sir Roland, moved by the preaching of « holy monk, had assumed the croes and sailed fur Palestine.
And now months and years pateed without a word being heard at the castle of the absent pege. Ai the end of the third summer, however, a palmer arrived, who told that, when he left the Holy Land, Sir Roland was alive and woll, and was regarded as one of the tendom. How the heart of the Lady Mabel leaped at this intelligence! But her joy was 00a rudely dissipated. As a ward of the crown, according 10 feudal customs, her hand was at the disposal of the king; and he now announced his in- tention to give it away in epeedy marriage. This intelligence revealed to the Lady Mabel the state of her heart. In the near danger of becoming the wifo ofa stranger, she diecovered the secret of ber interest in Sir Roland. She loved him. And, at fret, even death seemed preferable fo her threatened fate.
But soon a gleam of hope was afforded ber, The sonarch, fading the applicants for her hand aumerous, gave notice that her person and estates should be the reward of the best lance; and announced a gmad tour tament to be held that day six moniba, in which the prize was tobe contested, Such methods of disposing of a beautiful heiress were not unfrequent int the age of chivalry. It was soon known that every knight of any pretensions, in the whole kingdom, hed aanounced his intention of being e candidate at the tournament. Some, in foreiga lands, had been ent for by their friends, in order that they might also contest the prise. A drowning person, it és said, will catch at a straw, and the Lady Mabel boped that, among others, Sir Roland would appear, She knew that most of the eruaders were retaraing home, and, with the san- guine heart of youth, she trusted that he would come back ia time, and prove the conqueror.
But a terrible blow awaited her, The eve of the tournament, when every hostel in London was crowded with knights, a palmer appeared at the cloister in Westminster, where the Lady Mabel temporarily resided, and desired to see her, saying that be bore a message to her from the Holy Land. With a beating heart she hastened down into the parlor of the nunnery, to receive her guest. Seating herself in a
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