The Tenants of Malory, Volume 1   By: Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814-1873)

TENANTS OF MALORY.

(Reprinted from the "Dublin University Magazine")

A Novel.

BY

JOSEPH SHERIDAN LE FANU,

AUTHOR OF "UNCLE SILAS," "GUY DEVERELL," "THE HOUSE BY THE CHURCHYARD," ETC. ETC.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. I.

LONDON: TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE ST., STRAND.

1867.

[ The Right of Translation is reserved. ]

LONDON;

BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

TO THE

RIGHT HON. THE LADY DUFFERIN,

This Tale is inscribed,

BY

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. CONCERNING TWO LADIES WHO SAT IN THE MALORY PEW 1

II. ALL THAT THE DRAPER'S WIFE COULD TELL 13

III. HOME TO WARE 21

IV. ON THE GREEN OF CARDYLLIAN 29

V. A VISIT TO HAZELDEN 40

VI. MALORY BY MOONLIGHT 51

VII. A VIEW FROM THE REFECTORY WINDOW 62

VIII. A NIGHT SAIL 70

IX. THE REVEREND ISAAC DIXIE 81

X. READING AN EPITAPH 93

XI. FAREWELL 104

XII. IN WHICH CLEVE VERNEY WAYLAYS AN OLD LADY 114

XIII. THE BOY WITH THE CAGE 122

XIV. NEWS ABOUT THE OLD MAN OF THE MOUNTAINS 135

XV. WITHIN THE SANCTUARY 154

XVI. AN UNLOOKED FOR VISITOR 170

XVII. THEY VISIT THE CHAPEL OF PENRUTHYN AGAIN 184

XVIII. CLEVE AGAIN BEFORE HIS IDOL 203

XIX. CLEVE VERNEY TAKES A BOLD STEP 214

XX. HIS FATE 227

XXI. CAPTAIN SHRAPNELL 236

XXII. SIR BOOTH SPEAKS 246

XXIII. MARGARET HAS HER WARNING 256

XXIV. SIR BOOTH IN A PASSION 263

XXV. IN WHICH THE LADIES PEEP INTO CARDYLLIAN 271

THE

TENANTS OF MALORY.

CHAPTER I.

CONCERNING TWO LADIES WHO SAT IN THE MALORY PEW.

THERE were tenants at last in Malory; and the curiosity of the honest residents of Cardyllian, the small and antique town close by, was at once piqued and mortified by the unaccountable reserve of these people.

For four years, except from one twisted chimney in the far corner of the old house, no smoke had risen from its flues. Tufts of grass had grown up between the paving stones of the silent stable yard, grass had crept over the dark avenue, which, making a curve near the gate, is soon lost among the sombre trees that throw a perpetual shadow upon it; the groves of nettles had spread and thickened among their trunks; and in the signs of neglect and decay, the monastic old place grew more than ever triste .

The pretty little Welsh town of Cardyllian stands near the shingle of a broad estuary, beyond which tower the noble Cambrian mountains. High and dim, tier above tier, undulating hills, broken by misty glens, and clothed with woods, rise from the opposite shore, and are backed, range behind range, by the dim outlines of Alpine peaks and slopes, and flanked by purple and gold tinted headlands, rising dome like from the sea.

Between the town and the gray shingle stretches a strip of bright green sward, the Green of Cardyllian, along which rows of pleasant houses, with little gardens in front, look over the sea to the mountains.