overcome by her terrors, or rendered helpless and dizzy by the smoke. Momentary as was the glance that the King obtained of her face, he saw that she was beautiful, a circumstance which would at any time have interested him in her fate, and which in the present imminence of her danger, excited his sympathy in the most intense degree. «Save the lady in the blue and yellow balcony! he exclaimed, with a loud voice.—« Fifty guineas to any one who saves her !» Several of the by-standers echoed the cry, but the heaving and rocking of the impending brick-work deterred them all from attempting to claim the prize. There was one, however, in his retinue who had contemplated the female with a tenfold deeper thrill of interest and agony than the King. Jocelyn had instantly recognised her to be Julia Strickland, and the delay of his appearing as her rescuer was no longer than the time required for throwing himself from his horse, and bursting through the intervening mob. This was no sooner accomplished, than he rushed up the ladder with a desperate energy, gained the balcony, snatched the insensible Julia into his arms, and was preparing to descend, when a gush of dense smoke from one of the windows concealed him for a moment from the spectators, whose terrified cries testified their apprehension that both were lost. The mass, however, rolled away, and Jocelyn brought down his precious charge in safety; but utterly spent with his exertions, almost blinded with the flame, and half suffocated with the smoke, he had no sooner reached the ground, than he staggered and fell into the arms of one of the spectators, com pletely deprived for the moment of all sciousness. power and con On recovering his senses, he found himself in an apothecary's shop on the outside of Temple-Bar, attended by a shop-boy, who was holding sal-ammoniac to his nose, and a strange gentleman, who no sooner observed his returning animation than he tendered him a cordial, which Jocelyn swallowed, and from its restorative properties derived an almost immediate benefit. As soon as he could speak, he inquired in an incoherent manner about the lady he had rescued, so anxious to learn whether she had been restored to animaton, and what had become of her, that his feelings almost overpowered his utterance. « You may be quite easy respecting the lady," replied the stranger; « she came to herself almost immediately upon being fanned with the cold air, and I warrant she is safe enough, for the King would not move from the spot till a coach was procured, when he whispered to one of his attendants, who stepped into it with the lady, and off they drove. His Majesty is ever kind and considerate when a pretty wench is in trouble." There was a sneer upon the speaker's face as he gave this information, which Jocelyn did not notice, and he was much more gratified by his tidings at the moment than he found reason to be afterwards.—« And to whom am I indebted for taking charge of me and conveying me hither?» inquired Jocelyn. « In good sooth, Sir,” replied the stranger, « if I had not exercised authority after you fell into my arms, the smoke you had been swallowing might have proved your last meal upon earth; for some of the rabble, restore under the notion of bringing you to yourself, began to throw water in your face with a liberality that was rather likely to produce suffocation than resuscitation. Conjecturing that quiet and a cordial were more likely to than you uproar and cold water, I assisted in conveying you into this shop, and I am most happy that your recovery has done such speedy justice to my medical skill." Jocelyn expressed the deepest sense of obligation for his interference, and gladly accepted the further offer of his accompanying him to his lodgings, as he hardly felt sufficiently recruited to return thither without assistance. During their walk to Whitehall, the stranger introduced himself to Jocelyn as Colonel Rathborn, one of the disbanded officers of the old army; and having sate with him some time, withdrew, promising to call on the next day to inquire after his health. Of this he was not enabled to give a very favourable account, when his new friend repeated his visit; for the water which had been so profusely poured over him when he was in a violent heat from the effect of the fire, as well as of his own exertions, had brought on so severe a cold and fever, that he was for some days unable to quit his apartment. The agitation of his mind rather irritated his complaint; for it was sufficiently vexatious to have lost Julia in the very moment of regaining her, without the aggravation of being thus imprisoned by sickness, when his whole soul was bent upon following up the discovery he had so accidentally made. To these annoyances were now added apprehensions of the most painful and jealous nature. Colonel Rath born, who had become a daily visitant to his sick chamber, began to instil into his ear the darkest suspicions of the motives by which the King had been actuated in interesting himself for Julia's preservation. He recalled his libidinous character, his notorious profligacy with regard to women, his secret haunts about the palace and elsewhere, for the gratification of his libertinism; and coupling these dispositions with the fact of his even neglecting the urgent occasion that called him into the City until a carriage could be procured, his whispering to one of his myrmidons, and desiring him to accompany the lady to a place of safety, he submitted to his auditor whether a doubt could be entertained, as to the real motives of his conduct. These suggestions were indeed more than plausible; and when he saw they had wrought their effect upon Jocelyn, by exciting him to a passion of jealousy, he began to inveigh bitterly against the general depravity of the court, the degradation of the country, and the ruinous tendency of all the King's measures; obscurely intimating that public affairs had now arrived at a crisis that called upon every true-born Englishman to come boldly forward, and lend his assistance towards averting the impending calamities. Jocelyn acknowledged the demoralised and humiliating state of the country, and professed his readiness to contribute towards its regeneration, could any honourable mode of effecting that object be pointed out to him. By dark and mysterious hints, the colonel gave him to understand that a plan was already in agitation for remedying the evils of the state, that some of the most distinguished characters were at that moment engaged in maturing it, and that its success, of which there could be no doubt, would redound not less to the interest and advancement, than to the glory, of the parties embarked in it. When pressed to be more explicit, he declared that the time was not yet ripe for a full communication, quoted long passages from the Revelations, whose accomplishment he pronounced to be at hand, and talked so wildly about astrological predictions, and a ruling planet, portending the subversion of monarchy, that Jocelyn began to set him down for one of those narrow-minded and desperate enthusiasts, whose society it would be much safer to avoid than to cultivate.. Rathborn's attention, however, during his sickness, continued unremitted, and the service he had conferred would not allow Jocelyn to refuse his urgent solicitations to dine with him at Battersea; after which visit he determined to drop his acquaintance altogether, and not listen any more to dark and undefined propositions, of which he only understood enough to see that they were of a dangerous nature. On the very first day accordingly of his quitting his chamber, he took boat with the colonel, who had come to escort him to his residence, and proceeded to Battersea. The house was a lone and sufficiently forlornlooking tenement, standing in the fields at a little distance from the water. "I have invited a few friends to meet you," said the colonel, as they debarked, «with whom I wish you to become better acquainted; they are men of right religion, of approved zeal and courage, |