portion as their number is many in bearing a burden that would overwhelm one. The Artist then proceeded to put certain questions to the Countess, leaving Mistress Turner to be entertained by Trunco, and having set his scheme and methodized the various characters, proceeded to the conclusions or judgments, but the aspects were malignant, and as he strove to muster his reasons for this unpropitious configuration, the setting glass broke, to the utter dismay of the inquirer and the astrologer. The Countess shrieked through fright, the Doctor muttered a long jargon of cabalistical phrases, and then with great ceremony touched a particular part of the wainscotting in his chamber, whereupon a secret door flew open and discovered to the disconsolate lady a man in the dress of an earl, sumptuously clad, and bearing in his hand a parchment roll, which by some ingenious contrivance of the artist gradually unfolded from the hand of the figure, and displayed the following words richly illu minated, as if they had belonged to an ancient missal : "Robert won thee without art; This unintelligible jargon pleased and bewildered the Countess, as Forman thrice called upon her to read the “destiny fate awarded"She did so, and was now sufficiently furnished with presentiments of good fortune, for the designa tion of “ Robert" applying equally to the Earl of Essex and the Viscount Rochester, the Countess repeated and interpreted the words to suit her inclinations and hopes. The lady now proposed to Forman that he would employ his art to make Rochester love her wholly, and this he promised to do when the hour arrived for his conference with a familiar, "as by uniting the power of figures with the incantations of a talisman," said he, "we of my craft arrive at more certain conclusions in our judgments." In the mean time he opened a cabinet of antique workmanship, and took from one of its drawers a small case, inclosing a ring which opened after the fashion of a watch by a spring, and contained a peculiar but exquisite perfume, which he assured the Countess could not be smelt by any one without fixing his love irrevocably. "And this ring," said he, "which one of my nation brought from the innermost parts of Arabia, even upon the borders of Persia, and which with great peril he carried secretly bound up in a curl of his hair throughout many coun ན་ tries and regions, your grace will wear as an amulet to charm the Lord Rochester but beware ye use it not in company of your Lord of Essex, and by no means when in the society of Prince Henry. The price is indifferent high, but the power irresistible; the pawn of it for a season will be the deposit of its worth, returnable when it is returned, and ten gold nobles a week for its use." 66 Any thing, father, any thing to rievt the affections of Rochester. This purse is tolerably heavy; will it satisfy for principal and interest till I call on the sabbath when the people are all making merry with their games and interludes ?" "As I am one of the sons of affliction," said Forman, "the purse is not half the value; but that cross round your peerless neck, and that ring on your fore finger, they may help, as God is my judge, to make up the ba. lance." "Avaricious wretch," thought the Countess, as she undid the clasp of a cross which round her neck she bore, "That jews might kiss and infidels adore." The ring she pulled from her fore finger with even more reluctance, for it was studded with a brilliant of the loveliest violet colour, and so valuable that the Emperor looked on it as the richest jewel he could bestow on Robert Earl of Essex, when that young nobleman last passed through Vienna on his way to London. Having thus secured both the cross and the ring, in addition to the purse of gold nobles, the wary astrologer put up the " enchanted ring" in its case, gave it to the Countess, and then proceeded to reset his scheme which had turned out so luckless when the glass |