sad havoc was committed by the soldiery, all the armorial bearings, and every symbol of rank and gentility, being wantonly mutilated or destroyed. Not a single one of these would the sturdy and wrathful Sir John suffer to be restored, preserving them as so many scores against the wall, of what he owed to the Puritans,— debts which, with curses_« not loud but deep," he swore to seize the very first opportunity of repaying upon their crop-eared sconces. Cromwell was too formidable and vigorous an adversary to be openly bearded; but Sir John was in constant correspondence with those members of his family who were in attendance upon the absent King, as well as with the leading partisans of the royal cause at home, and had engaged with more zeal than prudence, as the reader will already have guessed from our first chapter, in certain premature machinations for effecting the downfall of the usurper. Of all men living he was, perhaps, the least qualified for the successful management of, or even the safe participation in, a plot of any sort; for his scorn of the hypocritical arts, by which his adversaries had gained the ascendancy, incapacitated him from imitating them; and though he practised an ostensible obedience to the established authority, he was perpetually blurting out some term of reproach against it, singing scraps of his old cavalier songs, or launching some ambiguous menace, which suggested more than it expressed. From its not being a place of any strength or notice, it was imagined that Brambletye might better escape the keen and jealous watchfulness, which kept the Protector's eye ever fixed upon the strong

holds and defensible mansions of the nobility and gentry; while its proximity to the metropolis, combined with the seclusion of its situation, adapted it to any enterprize which required at the same time secrecy, and an easy communication with the capital.

The defences of the house, such as they were, received, however, several additions; there were occasional meetings in it of strange gentlemen, who came and departed with a secrecy which gave rise to half-smothered whispers in the neighbourhood; and the covered waggon, which we have already noticed, having more than once been seen returning from the premises after midnight, and being known not to belong to any of the surrounding farmers, was vehemently suspected of being engaged in some business much more dangerous than smuggling.

So little pains did the stout and sturdy Sir John give himself to conceal his hatred of the present government, that even in his favourite recreation of hunting, which, with the roaring of cavalier songs at his select parties, formed his principal resources against the ennui of idleness and submission, he named his hounds after Rupert, Maurice, Digby, Astley, Langdale, and other leaders of the royal cause: cheering them on with redoubled ardour, not unmixed with shouts of laughter, in running down Cromwell, Lambert, Ireton, Fairfax, and Skippon, as he christened the different stags, who were turned out for the day's amusement. While thus engaged in the chase, and listening to the echoes of names, with which his ears had been familiar in the battles of the civil war, from Edge-hill, Roundway,

Marston Moor, and Naseby, down to the fight of Worcester, his past exploits were recalled in so lively a manner to his imagination, that he sometimes fancied himself still riding at the head of his regiment, or presiding over a cavalier dinner-party, and was not unfrequently heard shouting out with stentorian lungs -«Forward my lads! for the King and St George! pepper the Puritan rogues! cut off their Roundhead ears! hammer away at Cromwell's regiment of ironsides! crack the shells of Sir Arthur Haselrigg's lobsters!»-or roaring aloud, as if seated at the convivial board,

« A hound and a hawk no longer

Shall be the token of disaffection,

A cock-fight shall cease to be breach of the peace,
And a horse-race an insurrection.-

Then off with your pots, English, Irish, and Scots,
And loyal Cambro' Britons,

From lobster-like jump, and the Head-playing Rump,
You'll soon have an acquittance.»

He was absent upon one of these excursions, when Nick. Groombridge, the warrener, with whom we parted just now at the Swan, galloped full speed into the court-yard of Brambletye House, his poney covered with foam, and inquired, with a look of consternation, for Mr Waynfleet, the secretary. Hurrying with this gentleman through the great hall into the waitingroom, he stated that, upon learning the news about the Parliamentary troops, he had hurried forward to meet them, when their commanding-officer stopped him to inquire the road to Sir John Compton's; and as some

of the soldiers conversed together, he heard one of them tell the other that they could not be far off now, that they had got a full warrant from the Lord Protector for searching Brambletye House, and he trusted they should rout the old malignant fairly out of his den, for he had owed him a grudge ever since the affair of Colchester, when Sir John had ridden right over him.

« Good God!" exclaimed the secretary, changing colour, << then they will be here immediately.»

« Will 'um?” replied the warrener, while a knowing smile and a wink of the eye gave a peculiar expression to his heated face;-« I'll bet ye two cans of ale to one that they won't. Noa, noa, Master Waynfleet, I be too far north to be such a flat as that comes to; for hang me, if I didn't tell 'um the shortest way to the house were right down Massiter's Lane, and soon as ever I seed 'um turn into the woods, I galloped here as fast as ever old Dapple could lay legs to the ground. They'll be cotch'd in a rare queach down Massiter's Lane, and as their horses were pretty well blow'd already, I reckon they can't be here in less nor an hour, let 'um flounder out which way they will."

« How truly unfortunate," said Waynfleet, walking up and down in great agitation, « that Sir John should be absent at this critical moment, when his very life may depend▬▬▬▬Groombridge, my good fellow, do run for Mr Charnley, and fetch him here as fast as you can, and bring Jack Whittaker with you; quick, quick; we shall not have a moment to lose.»>

The former of these personages was the chaplain,

who was in the entire confidence of the baronet, and well acquainted, as has already been shown, with all the state secrets and perilous machinations of which Brambletye House had for some time been the headquarters. The latter, who still retained the name of Serjeant Whittaker, from his having served several campaigns under Sir John in that capacity, was also a confidential personage, and had been retained in his service as armourer, for which office the old arquebusses, pikes, and swords, that had mounted guard in the hall ever since the time of James the First, afforded less employment than certain other arms, of all sorts, deposited in a much more unobtrusive situation. No sooner had the chaplain, who arrived first, learnt the cause of his being summoned, than he was seized with a consternation even more conspicuous than that of the secretary, and ejaculated, in a trembling voice,"What 's to be done? Where's Serjeant Whittaker?»

« Not at his proper post, of course,» replied Groombridge, `« but, I dare say, I shall find him with his pipe and cannikin on the kitchen chimney bench, or telling his old story of Worcester Fight to Patty, at the buttery hatch."

Just as he was about to run to these respective haunts, the object of their search, a morose-looking, bald-headed figure, rendered more grim by a deep scar across his cheek, was seen marching towards them, whiffing his pipe, and at the same time mumbling execrations against the new batch of ale, which he declared ought to have had at least another strike of malt to make it fit for any one but a cuckoldy Roundhead.-No sooner,