born, whose design having by this time transpired, himself and all his accomplices had been seized and committed to the Tower.* * "Their indictment was for conspiring the King's death, and the overthrow of the Government; having in the King's absence from the city, laid their plot and contrivance for surprisal of the Tower, the killing General Monk, Sir John Robinson, the Lieutenant of the Tower, and Sir Richard Brown, Major-General of the City; and then to have declared for an equal division of lands. The better to effect this design, the city was to have been fired, and the portcullices to have been let down to keep out all assistance; the Horse-Guards to have been surprised in the several innes where they were quartered, several ostlers having been gained for that purpose. The Tower had been viewed, and its surprisal ordered by boats over the moat, and so to scale the wall. There was in the conspiracy one Alexander, who made his escape, who had distributed several sums of money to these conspirators; and for the carrying on the design more effectually, they were told of great ones that sate constantly in London, who issued out all orders; which council received their directions from a council in Holland, who sate with the States. The 3rd of September was pitched upon for the attempt, as being found, by a scheme erected for that purpose, a luckie day, a planet then ruling which portended the downfall of the monarchy. They were found guilty of High Treason, and executed at Tyburn."-Heath's Chronicle. No sooner had Jocelyn learnt the real nature of the charge against him, than he wrote to the Duke of Monmouth and Lord Rochester, explaining the circumstances of his connection with Colonel Rathborn, and soliciting their good offices in exculpating his character, and effecting his discharge. At the same time he communicated all particulars to his friends at Pippingford Lodge, considering the whole affair as so unimportant, and speaking so confidently of his early liberation, that Julia felt considerably re-assured as to his fate; though it was an additional pang to her to reflect that his efforts for her preservation had entailed upon him his acquaintance with this dangerous Colonel, and all the vexations of which it might be the eventual cause. The powerful noblemen, for whose favourable influence Jocelyn had solicited, were neither indifferent to the injustice he was suffering, nor remiss in their efforts for his extrication; but he had one enemy at court, much more powerful than all his friends. This was the vindictive Lady Castlemaine, who eagerly seized this opportunity of crushing a man whom she had never forgiven, by poisoning the King's ear with the darkest insinuations against him. The tragical and inexplicable death of Mark Walton at Brambletye House, the seat of the Comptons, just as he was preparing to substantiate his charges against Jocelyn, quite satisfied her mind, she said, not only as to the cause of his destruction, but as to its author. Walton had been an approved friend of the King's; Compton had already been once in disgrace for his insolence and disaffection. The intimacy of such a man with Colonel Rathborn, and his dining with the assembled conspirators against his Majesty's life, facts which he himself had not the hardihood to deny, admitted but of one interpretation:-and she had even the baseness to insinuate that he would have wronged his Majesty in the tenderest point, by insulting her with licentious propositions, merely because she had once condescended to dance with him, a circumstance to which she attributed the dislike she had ever since felt against him. By such arts the King's prejudices were so strongly excited, that he was persuaded, without further inquiry, to give orders for his dismissal from the post he held as the Queen's Private Secretary. This announcement excited the greatest consternation among his friends at Pippingford Lodge. Day after day, had they been feeding their hopes by anticipating his emancipation; but this unexpected proof of royal displeasure, was a startling evidence that the proceedings against him were of a darker and more alarming character than they had contemplated; and they began to give way to the most sinister forebodings as to his ultimate fate. Buoyant and vivacious as it usually was, the mind of Julia began to sink under the sickness of hope deferred; but the fortitude of Constantia seemed to gather strength 'with the necessity for its exertion, and the mixture of romance, and generous enthusiasm, that constituted her character, impelled her to undertake an enterprize for Jocelyn's liberation, which the imagined urgency of his danger first suggested to her mind, and which she immediately proceeded to execute with her customary promptitude and energy. "Be of good cheer,” she said to Julia, as she embraced and bade her adieu: "I will not tell you my plan, lest I should excite hopes which the event may not justify; it has reference, however, to the rescue of Jocelyn from the Tower; and lest the apparent inadequacy of my means should excite despondency, it may be well to remind you that the mouse has been able to extricate the lion from the toils. I have saved Jocelyn before-I may do so again— Adieu !" It was Constantia's purpose to seek an interview with the King, whose ear she believed to have been abused; to undertake Jocelyn's vindication; and to implore that he might be either brought to trial and allowed to exculpate |