ALICE;

OR,

THE MYSTERIES


BY

EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
(LORD LYTTON)



BOOK I.

"Thee, hid the bowering vales amidst, I call."
--EURIPIDES: _Hel._ I. 1116.



CHAPTER I.

Who art thou, fair one, who usurp'st the place
Of Blanch, the lady of the matchless grace?--LAMB.

IT was towards the evening of a day in early April that two ladies were
seated by the open windows of a cottage in Devonshire. The lawn before
them was gay with evergreens, relieved by the first few flowers and fresh
turf of the reviving spring; and at a distance, through an opening