And a man of the world, and of experience, will hold it for no stain on the immaculacy of his honour, that he hath been obliged (as many great men in ancient and modern times) to succumb to the storm, and await in peace a more happy season.”

"You are shooting beside the mark," replied the matron, shortly; "your man hath said nothing which might improve our acquaintance with your Lordship's true character. We seek it not; for the Lord is our protection; his eyes are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."

"My true character, madam," said Caryfort, (rejoiced in the thought that his treachery was undiscovered,) is, doubtless, pourtrayed in my bearing; and so long have I had the honour of being here intimately acquainted, that it would seem somewhat strange and eccentrical, were I not as clearly esteemed as my professions are naked and sincere. I should not, in verity, have undertaken a defence, which my character needeth not, had any persons less dear to me than Miss Bradshaw and her mother, been my auditors and judges; but I am effectually convinced, that, in these times of anarchy and malignancy, no man living, who hath any respect for the purity of his fame, may silently contemn the aspersions of this backbiting world. What say you, Miss Esther? Am I not correct in my conclusion?"

Lady Sydenham raised her head, (for she was engaged in reading an author commented upon in the hand-writing of her father), and with a look of sarcastic intrepidity, which his Lordship had never before observed in her, she replied, "Your Lordship speaks feelingly the world is indeed a bad one; and the stricter scrutiny we make into the characters of our acquaintance, the greater will be our security, I fancy, from scandal and detraction."

She resumed her study, and the peer, wonderstruck at the change in her manner, sat for some time silent. He was plainly touched with his guilt, for Caryfort was not a person to be daunted by a

shrewd or angry answer either of man or woman. Acute in spying out an advantage, he never gave any to his adversary, either by inaccuracy of judgment, or irresolution of soul. Bold, yet prudent; crafty and subtle, but fierce and forward; it was seldom that Murray met his match; and it was only when he did, that he most cautiously exercised his coolness and cunning; but here he had been foiled and out-talked by one short sentence, and that from the mouth of a lovely female.

"There must be some magic in her words," muttered Caryfort to himself, that I should be thus tongue-bound like a fool: surely she calculates on some hidden power, that she talks thus freely and promptly. How well does even that proud smile become her lip! and that haughty glance her eye! but the rose has somewhat faded from her cheek, and the swimming brightness which gave a glory to those eyes hath softened into a less lustrous but more languishing bewitchingness. Her father's death still preys upon her heart: grief, says the poet, is akin to pity, and pity is akin to love: why may not I then seek to fill up that void in her heart, which it now bewails in the loss of her father."

The peer was in a full dress of lilac-coloured satin, barred, edged, and mounted with a latticed device of gold and silver, and was, in the language of Shakspeare," a marvellous proper man.' "It is no wonder, then, that he had vanity enough to count upon winning the heart of the fair mourner, although she had hitherto been deaf to his prayers. He rose from his seat, and edged himself gradually beside that of Lady Sydenham; her hand, which lay extended upon her lap, he took in his, and with a squeeze betokening the softness of his feelings, he said in a low and gentle tone, "I have dared, Miss Esther, to-"

But before he could proceed, she withdrew her hand from his, and laying down the book, regarded him, with a solemn and steadfast countenance. The peer was again abashed: his tongue faltered, his

cheek felt in flame, and a purple hue spread over it in a moment, like that colouring the face of a rustic, on first telling his soft tale to his as rustic mistress.

"My Lord," said Lady Sydenham, "you were speaking; pursue your discourse, and fear not interruption."

"I was in the act of saying, most lovely Esther," reylied Caryfort, "I mean I was in the act of intimating to ye, the most devoted respect, the most sincere and unaffected estimation, the most irretrievable and undone attachment, the most sacred and holy love, which ever warmed the breast of mortal man, for the most amiable and lovely of her sex."

"And is it of love, Sir," cried Lady Sydenham, that you come here to talk, when the coffin of my father is scarcely settled in his grave? Have you no respect for the feelings of a daughter, to whom her father was as a deity? For shame, my Lord! My mother sits before ye, and if you mark not my sorrow, at least respect her's."

"Most fully and absolutely," said the peer, "do I mark and appreciate the depth of your sorrow, and the acerbity of your feelings; and, believe me, it was with the intention of soothing the one, and mollifying the other, that I forced myself, however out of season, to disturb the tranquillity of your grief."

"What mean you, my Lord, by this trifling ?" said Esther.

"Have you not lost your protector?" answered Caryfort.

"What need is there of so heartless a question?” said Lady Sydenham. "Alas! would we had not!" "It is in the hope of supplying his place," pursued Murray," that I have dared to wound your ears with the mention of love."

"Ah! who can supply the place of a father so dear?" exclaimed Esther.

"At least I would try," answered the peer;" and he lives not who can do more."

"May the lamb couple with the wolf?" said Mrs.

Bradshaw. "May the dove mate with the vulture? What sort of protection would the tiger of the forest afford to the young kid, if she sought his safeguard ? Answer that, my Lord."

"At present, madam," replied Caryfort, "I perceive, though for what cause I am unknowing, that I labour under the yoke of your heavy displeasure. Much gratification would it give to me, would you allow me, out of your bounty and former friendship, to be acquaited with my crime, that I may so, understanding the grounds upon which I have been prejudged, undertake my defence; and trust me, most worthy madam, that I, being arrayed in the milkwhite armour of innocence, would come out of the crucible like refined gold, and cover my enemies, for enemies I have, with confusion and despair.”

"We do not accuse you, my Lord, of any crime,” replied Mrs. Bradshaw; the Lord is a searcher of hearts, and if you have been guilty of vices, He, depend upon it, will mete unto you your punishment; but your presence here, my Lord, is no longer grateful; and I beg, once for all, that when your Lordship shall have repassed our gate, it may never again be darkened by your presence."

“You shall not need, madam," said Murray in a rage which he could not repress, "to repeat your injunction; but before you discarded one protector, you should have made friends able to supply his loss: it may be, madam, you will repent your resolution." He then bowed to Lady Sydenham, and quitted the house.

CHAPTER IX.

It was a hot and dangerous enterprise?
But trust me, Warwick, right well executed:
The Towers were fired, and dusky Nox surpris'd,
With the red streaming of the illuminate air,
Before the foe had knowledge of his danger.

Old Contention of York and Lancaster.

IT is a fact, borne out by historical testimony, that General Monk, governor of Scotland, and the offi cers acting under his command, ruled that unfortunate country with a rod of iron, at least on their first residence there. Many persons, not only of the inferior classes, but of noble blood, suffered, by the arbitrary caprice of their rulers, imprisonment and death; and it was by submission alone that those of the nobility who remained in their native country, could ward off the one punishment or the other. Among the most insolent and most rigorous of the General's deputies was Colonel Snell, who behaved himself in his station of Governor with all the pride, and all the inhumanity, which ever accompanies a fierce and uneducated plebeian in power. Caryfort, whom we have described as sufficiently haughty, was obliged to bend before this bashaw, with the ceremony of a mandarin before the footstool of his emperor; and at times it was not even by deference that the Scotch peer could engage the placability of the Roundhead warrior. Snell, (who, though an uneducated man, was by no means deficient in acuteness) soon pierced the veil of Murray's hypocrisy, and, convinced that this politician would herd with the uppermost faction, though he did not dare openly to join either, he held him in utter detestation and contempt. Snell was himself of that class of men who