OR, Cavaliers and Roundheads. A NOVEL. BY ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF THE "REJECTED ADDRESSES.” i.e. Smith, Horatio "Now universal England getteth drunk For joy that Charles her monarch is restor❜d. The stale grown vizor from her face doth pluck, With which she jingling goes through all her towns and villages." Lamb's John Woodvil. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. BOSTON: WELLS AND LILLY-STATE STREET 1826. 7X284 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. CHAPTER I. "Out of my door, you witch! you hag, you baggage! you polecat, you runnion.” SHAKSPEARE. Ir was on a dark and gusty night of autumn, during the latter years of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, that a black covered cart, drawn by two horses of the same sable hue, emerged from the umbrageous recesses of Ashdown forest, which, at that period, nearly extended to the northern extremity of Sussex. It was attended by two armed men, one of whom kept close to the horse's heads, while his companion, who was about a hundred paces in advance, and was provided with a dark lantern, occasionally directed its narrow stream of light upon the tufts of scattered trees and underwood into which the outskirts of the forest were broken up, earnestly fixed his eye upon them for a minute, and then exclaiming, "all safe!" instantly concealed his light and walked on, when the vehi cle advanced to the position which he had quitted. From the darkness of its hue, and its rolling silently over the soft grass, it could neither be seen nor heard, unless by any person who should happen to be in its immediate course, a circumstance little likely in that unfrequented tract of country, and at the hour of midnight. Such, however, was the hazardous nature of their enterprise, that its conductors did not for a moment relax in their precautions, not only peering around them in all direcstions, as far as their timid light could steal into the darkness, but frequently stopping to listen. Nothing, however, was to be seen but the trunks of the trees, which, as they caught the faint glare of the lantern, seemed to be stepping forward out of the dense gloom that enshrouded them; and nothing was to be heard but the hoarse rustling of the wind, as it came by fits to agitate the boughs above them, and died away into a distant moaning as it swept the forest behind. Winning their way in this slow and suspicious manner, without a syllable being uttered except the occasional "all safe!" of the leader, they had reached the last glade that bordered upon the open country, when a low whistle was heard ahead of them, and the foremost of the two men halting, and brandishing the weapon with which he was provided, exclaimed in a loud whisper-"Who's there?"" A friend !" was the reply." What's the word?" continued the first speaker.-" Boscobel!" answered the second, and at the same moment a |