Bram adzooks! you know where we are going to!"

At the suggestion of Whittaker, Culpepper moved on first with the cart, Whittaker himself followed at the distance of a hundred paces, and Sir John having again charged his cross-bow, brought up the rear, by which arrangement they hoped the better to discover and defeat any attempts that might be made to follow and track their footsteps. Nothing further, however, occurred to justify their precautions: they advanced without interruption, neither hearing a sound, nor discovering a living object, until they reached a high wall, which stretched away on either side as far as the gloom of the night would allow it to be discerned. At this moment the clouds being partially dispersed in the distant horizon before them, the faint light of the moon, then in her first quarter, threw into dark relief against the sky a lofty and massive building which stood within the wall we have mentioned, and exhibited at its opposite extremity, two lofty towers, whose bell-shaped roofs and gilt vanes caught the pale beam for a moment, and were again involved in gloom by the closing of the clouds.

"A pest upon thee, mistress pale-face!” exclaimed Sir John, looking up towards the moon ; "I will hire Waller and Milton, Roundheads as they are, to write sonnets to thee all the year through, so thou wilt but hide thy tinsel to-night, and leave the towers of Brambletye in the dark.

We want no candles in the sky, when a light the more may make us wear a head the less. Gramercy, dame! I thank thee for pulling that black nightcap over thy face, and, prythee, let us finish our job, while thou art taking thy nap. Come, Culpepper, unbar the cart, and let us to work while the darkness holds.”—So saying, he blew the same low whistle which he had previously sounded. It was answered from within, and after a short interval, a voice was heard inquiring the pass-word. "Boscobel!" cried Sir John, when heavy bolts were drawn back, and a low arched door being opened in the wall, two men appeared, whom Sir John addressed by the names of Waynfleet and parson Charnley, both of whom inquired whether all was right.

"Is all safe at Brambletye?" asked Sir John."Are all the household asleep and snoring, and all the lights put out?"

"All, except our own lanterns," was the reply. "Well then," resumed Sir John, "all has gone right with us, except that we have again encountered the ghost in sables, and unfortunately you were not with us, parson, or we would incontinently have laid the black rogue in the red sea."

"God be good unto us!" ejaculated the Chaplain, "did it pronounce a blessing or a ban ?"

"It sounded rather like a malison than a benediction," replied Sir John, "inasmuch as it cursed the house of Brambletye and all within it, for which I gave the utterer a shot of my cross-bow, and

would fain have stopped its mouth with my rapier; but it seems to have the hides and the hoofs of the foul fiend, as well as his colour; for it 'scaped scotfree from arrow and rapier, and took to its heels, with the silence and speed of a hare upon a mossdown."

"It is an inauspicious occurrence, and full of evil omen," replied the Chaplain. "I predicted this before you set out; for it is the fifth day of the moon, upon which no undertaking prospers. You must surely recollect, Sir John, what Virgil says upon this very subject:

"Ipse dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna

Felices, operum. Quintam fuge."

"Fiddle-faddle!-Virgil was an old woman, and you are another," replied Sir John, angrily. "What the dickens! are we in our first or second childhood, that we are to listen to such nursery nonsense, or be frightened at a mad woman, or an old scarecrow dressed up in black?"

"But if it should prove to be a spy," observed Waynfleet; "which, from its constantly beleaguering you in your night expeditions, seems to be the more probable surmise, would it not be madness, Sir John, to proceed, and had we not better abandon the enterprise, before we are too far committed to recede with safety?"

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Certainly, certainly," ejaculated the Chaplain, "and, I believe, we are all of the same opinion."

"All ?" exclaimed Whittaker indignantly "speak for yourself, master parson, and for any other dunghill cocks that are like you; but as for me, Jack Whittaker's no flincher. I will stand or fall with Sir John till the business is seen fairly out, and so I warrant will honest Nat. Culpepper, for he's no parson, he never talks nonsense, and understands no Latin."

'Ay, ay," said Nat, with an approving nod of the head.

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Why, you chicken-hearted cravens!" exclaimed Sir John, addressing Charnley and Waynfleet, what the devil are you frightened at? Our enterprise, I tell you, must and shall succeed; our friends are staunch, the accounts from London are every day more favourable, and as to this raw-head, and bloody-bones, this bugaboo woman in black,— this witch, this hag, this pole-cat, I care not a rush for her bedlamite freaks, for in another week the rising will take place, and we shall have the game in our own hands. However, if you wish to turn tail, do so, o' God's name, while you can escape scot-free; but as to me, on I go, though Beelzebub himself should stand in my path, and shake his horns at me as I proceed."

"Speak not so irreverently, Sir John," said the Chaplain "resist the devil, saith the Scripture, and he shall flee from you."

"Well, I am resisting him in this enterprise, an't I?-doing my best to trample him down with all the

false prophets and fanatics whom he has lifted up, and it is your duty, as a minister of the true church, although an ejected one, to be aiding and abetting in the recovery of your rights."

"Nay," replied the Chaplain, not a little encouraged by this declaration of Sir John's object, as well as by the confidence of his tone, "I threw out the suggestion for your own consideration, not with any intention of withdrawing myself from so holy an enterprise, if it may be safely undertaken."

"That was my only idea,” cried Waynfleet. "And a stupid one it was," exclaimed Sir John, "so let us lose no more time in palavering, but set to work in unloading the cart, like stout blades and willing." The end of the covered vehicle being now softly unbarred, several cases were withdrawn, carried through the gate into the garden, and down a short flight of steps, at whose extremity was a door opening into a vault. By the lantern suspended at its entrance, other cases of the same description were seen inside, and as soon as the contents of the cart were deposited with these, Sir John locked the door, and concealed the entrance by throwing down earth, which he covered with a cucumber-frame, so as to conceal effectually the little flight of steps. Around this, some dung was carefully thrown up by the party, to make the deception perfect, and they then prepared to separate for the night. Culpepper was directed to drive the cart back to the forest, and leave it in its usual place, and Sir John having re