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youth; which, renewing the bold, clear intellect, the pure, benevolent heart, that first won my love, will transfer them to the sky to await our second bridal.»

« Away with her!» cried the judge-« she raves. She is spotted all over with treason-away with her!» With these words he broke up the court, apparently in great dudgeon, at having been disappointed of his victim; and Jocelyn, as well as the other spectators, slowly retired out of the hall, many of the latter recalling to one another such passages as they recollected of Walton's early history. '

I

Valentine Walton, « the Bashaw of the Isle of Ely," as Heath calls him in his Chronicle, was made governor of King's Lynn and Croyland, with all the level of Ely. Walker, in his History of the Independents, says, that Boston, King's Lynn, etc. were able to support forty thousand men, besides the island's native inhabitants, and that it might be laid under water at pleasure. He adds—« there are but three paths to enter it, over three bridges, upon which they have or may build forts for their defence, and may from thence invade the adjacent country at pleasure, being themselves free from incursions; or they may, they list, break down the said bridges. These places, already strong by nature, they daily fortify by art; for which purpose great sums of money have been sent to him (Walton), and much arms, powder, ammunition, and ordnance, from Windsor Castle. Here, when all other belps fail, the godly mean to take sanctuary: this shall be their retreat from whence they draw the whole kingdom to parley upon articles of treaty, and enforce their peace from them at last.-These are the stra tagems of the godly.»

VOL. III.

CHAPTER VIII.

«Cases and deprecations are in vain :

The sun will shine and all things have their course,
When we, the curse and burden of the earth,
Shall be absorb'd, and mingled with its dust;
Our guilt and desolation must be told
From age to age, to teach desponding mortals,
How far beyond the reach of human thought,
Heaven, when incensed, can punish.>>
LILLO'S Fatal Curiosity.

OUR hero's feeling, at the scene we have just been describing, would have been of a still more painful and harrowing nature, had he been aware that he was in some degree instrumental, however unintentionally, in procuring the arrest and trial of the unfortunate prisoner. It will be recollected that at the time Mark Walton had borrowed money from him, he had declared his intention of appropriating it to a purpose in which, if successful, his fortune would be made for life. This nefarious project was no other than the discovery and capture of his uncle, by whom, as had truly been stated at the trial, he had been originally adopted, fed, and nurtured; atlhough the uncle's compulsory flight

from England, at the period of the Restoration, had of course broken off the intimacy, and severed all communication between them. By his acquaintance with the friends and agents whom his uncle still retained, and who were in the habit of occasional intercourse with him through the medium of the burgomaster of Rotterdam, Mark had contrived to possess himself of his place of concealment, a secret of which the heartless ingrate immediately saw the value, and as instantly resolved to turn it to account. Dissolute in his habits and involved in debt, he saw within his grasp the means of present relief and future gratification: others, by a similar exercise of treachery towards the late King's Judges, had made their fortunes, and were well received at court; and he could gloss over the atrocity, as they had done, by giving it the name of loyalty and public duty.

Reconciled to his projected enormity by these arguments, nothing remained but to provide the means of its execution. His pecuniary distresses offered an insur mountable obstacle, until the loan from Jocelyn removed this difficulty, when nothing remained but to make the best bargain in his power with Government, as to the remuneration he was to receive by way of bloodmoney; and to get instructions from some competent person, as to the most eligible method of proceeding. For this purpose he applied to Sir George Downing,1

This fellow, whom Wood calls a sider in all times and changes, had been originally a chaplain to Colonel Okey's regiment, by whose recommendation Cromwell sent him as his Agent to Holland, where he distinguished himself by his virulence and insolence towards the King,

who, from his long residence as Envoy at the States, was not only well qualified to afford the requisite information, but had actually advanced and enriched himself by procuring the seizure of three of the King's Judges abroad, under circumstances of treachery scarcely less atrocious than those which he was himself meditating. From this most worthy coadjutor he not only received full instructions how to act, but was introduced by him to one of the King's ministers, from whom he obtained a promise, that if he succeeded in his project, a portion of his uncle's confiscated estates should be restored to him.

Thus provided with the means of executing his perfidious design, and excited by the expectation of the reward, he set out for a port of the Spanish Netherlands, in a small government cutter, the captain of

and procured his expulsion from the territory of the States. Towards the close of the Commonwealth he obtained an interview with the Marquess of Ormond, when he offered himself as a secret spy to the King, was accepted as such, and was knighted by his Majesty before he embarked at Schieveling. In 1662, Miles Corbet, John Barkstead, and his former patron, Colonel Okey, who had taken refuge at Hanau, in Germany, were, by Downing's perfidy, decoyed to Delft, a letter being sent to them stating the arrival of their wives in that city. Here they were instantly seized by Downing, who hurried them on board the Blackmore frigate, which conveyed them to England, and they were executed on the 19th April following.

From Hume's language one might almost imagine that an act of lenity had been extended to Colonel Okey. After stating that he prayed for the King at the place of execution, and noticing that « in all his conduct he appeared to be a man of humanity and honour,» he adds- In consideration of his good character and of his dutiful behaviour-his body was given to his friends to be buried!»

which was instructed to hover upon the coast, for the purpose of seconding his enterprize. Two or three anonymous letters, and some suspicious demonstrations about the castle of Haelbeck, operated so effectually upon the watchful terrors of its inmate, that he was induced once more to change his quarters, and return into Holland, which country, being then at war with England, seemed to offer a more secure asylum. This was precisely what his unprincipled nephew intended. The road along which his victim must necessarily pass approached to within a small distance of the sea; the hour of his departure was ascertained; a party of sailors were placed in ambush, and the unfortunate exile and his family, falling into the trap laid for them, were surprised, seized, and conveyed on board the cutter, which carried them up the Thames, when Walton was committed close prisoner to the Tower, and the females were set at liberty.

The nephew, who had taken good care not to appear in this transaction, found his way back to England by a different conveyance, intending, by a refinement in treachery, to insinuate himself into his uncle's confidence, and learn his plan of defence, in order that he might defeat it. Set ashore in London under circumstances that rendered them objects of real or affected detestation, Mrs Walton and her daughter, being denied all immediate access to the prisoner, betook themselves in the first instance to Alderman Staunton, whose connections with the Government rendered him peculiarly sensitive as to any intercourse with the family of a regicide. In great trepidation of spirit, he requested

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