visionary. He had but to call to memory the various stratagems practised by his light-hearted companion, the young Earl of Derby, upon this forlorn girl-the conversations held in her presence, in which the character of a creature so irritable and sensitive upon all occasions, was freely, and sometimes satirically discussed, without her expressing the least acquaintance with what was going forward, to convince him that so deep a deception could never have been practised for so many years, by a being of a turn of mind so peculiarly jealous and irascible. He renounced, therefore, the idea, and turned his thoughts to his own affairs, and in his approaching interview with his Sovereign; in which meditation we propose to leave him, until we briefly review the changes which had taken place in the situation of Alice Bridgenorth. CHAPTER XXXI. I fear the devil worst when gown and cassock, Or, in the lack of them, old Calvin's cloak, Conceals his cloven hoof.-Anonymous. JULIAN PEVERIL had scarce set sail for Whitehaven, when Alice Bridgenorth and her governante, at the hasty command of her father, were embarked with equal speed and secrecy on board of a bark bound for Liverpool. Christian accompanied them on their voyage, as the friend to whose guardianship Alice was to be consigned during any future separation from her father, and whose amusing conversation, joined to his pleasing though cold manners, as well as his near relationship, induced Alice, in her forlorn situation, to consider her fate as fortunate in having such a guardian. At Liverpool, as the reader already knows, Christian took the first overt step in the villany which he had contrived against the innocent girl, by exposing her at a meeting-house to the unhallowed gaze of Chiffinch, in order to convince him she was possessed of such uncommon beauty as might well deserve the infamous promotion to which they meditated to raise her. Highly satisfied with her personal appearance, Chiffinch was no less so with the sense and delicacy of her conversation, when he met her in company with her uncle afterwards in London. The simplicity, and at the same time the spirit of her remarks, made him regard her as his scientific attendant the cook might have done a newly invented sauce, sufficiently piquante in its qualities, to awaken the jaded appetite of a cloyed and gorged epicure. She was, he said and swore, the very corner-stone on which, with proper management, and with his instructions, a few honest fellows might build a Court fortune. That the necessary introduction might take place, the confederates judged fit she should be put under the charge of an experienced lady, whom some called Mistress Chiffinch, and others Chiffinch's mistress -one of those obliging creatures who are willing to discharge all the duties of a wife, without the inconvenient and indissoluble ceremony. It was one, and not perhaps the least prejudicial consequence of the license of that ill-governed time, that the bounds betwixt virtue and vice were so far smoothed down and levelled, that the frail wife, or the tender friend who was no wife, did not necessarily lose their place in society; but, on the contrary, if they moved in the higher circles, were permitted and encouraged to mingle with women whose rank was certain, and whose reputation was untainted. humour of the Duchess of Portsmouth, his reigning Sultana, prevented his supping with her. The hold which such an arrangement gave a man like Chiffinch, used as he well knew how to use it, made him of too much consequence to be slighted even by the first persons in the state, unless they stood aloof from all manner of politics and Court intrigue. In the charge of Mistress Chiffinch, and of him whose name she bore, Edward Christian placed the daughter of his sister, and of his confiding friend, calmly contemplating her ruin as an event certain to follow; and hoping to ground upon it his own chance of a more assured fortune, than a life spent in intrigue had hitherto been able to procure for him. The innocent Alice, without being able to discover what was wrong either in the scenes of unusual luxury with which she was surrounded, or in the manners of her hostess, which, both from nature and policy, were kind and caressing-felt nevertheless an instinctive apprehension that all was not right-a feeling in the human mind, allied, perhaps, to that sense of danger which animals exhibit when placed in the vicinity of the natural enemies of their race, and which makes birds cower when the hawk is in the air, and beasts tremble when the tiger is abroad in the desert. There was a heaviness at her heart which she could not dispel; and the few hours which she had already spent at Chiffinch's, were like those passed in a prison by one unconscious of the cause or event of his captivity. It was the third morning after her arrival in London, that the scene took place which we now recur to. The impertinence and vulgarity of Empson, which was permitted to him as an unrivalled performer upon his instrument, were exhausting themselves at the expense of all other musical professors, and Mistress Chiffinch was listening with careless indifference, when some one was heard speaking loudly, and with animation, in the inner apartment. "O gemini and gilliflower water!" exclaimed the damsel, startled out of her fine airs into her natural vulgarity of exclamation, and running to the door of communication-"if he has not come back again after all!-and if old Rowley". A tap at the further and opposite door here arrested her attention-she quitted the handle of that which she was about to open as speedily as if it had burnt her fingers, and, moving back towards her couch, asked, "Who is there?" "Old Rowley himself, madam," said the King, entering the apartment with his usual air of easy composure. "O crimini!-your Majesty !-I thought" "That I was out of hearing, doubtless," said the King; "and spoke of me as folks speak of absent friends. Make no apology. I think I have heard ladies say of their lace, that a rent is better than a darn.-Nay, be seated. Where is Chiffinch ?" "He is down at York-House, your Majesty," said the dame, recovering, though with no small difficulty, the calm affectation of her usual demeanour. "Shall I send your Majesty's commands?" "I will wait his return," said the King.-"Pernat me to taste your chocolate." There is some fresh frothed in the office," said the lady; and using a little silver call, or whistle, a black boy, superbly dressed like an Oriental page, with gold bracelets on his naked arms, and a gold collar around his equally bare neck, attended with the favourite beverage of the morning, in an apparatus of the richest china. While he sipped his cup of chocolate, the King A regular liaison, like that of Chiffinch and his fair looked round the apartment, and observing Fenella, one, inferred little scandal; and such was his influ- Peveril, and the musician, who remained standing ence, as prime minister of his master's pleasures, that, beside a large Indian screen, he continued, addressas Charles himself expressed it, the lady whom we ing Mistress Chiffinch, though with polite indifferintroduced to our readers in the last chapter, had ob-ence, "I sent you the fiddles this morning or rather tained a brevet commission to rank as a married wo- the flute-Empson, and a fairy elf whom I met in man. And to do the gentle dame justice, no wife the Park, who dances divinely. She has brought us could have been more attentive to forward his plans, the very newest saraband from the Court of Queen or more liberal in disposing of his income. Mab, and I sent her here, that you may see it at leisure." She inhabited a set of apartments called Chiffinch's -the scene of many an intrigue, both of love and po- "Your Majesty does me by far too much honour," litics; and where Charles often held his private parties said Chiffinch, her eyes properly cast down, and her for the evening, when, as frequently happened, the ill-accents minced into becoming humility. "Nay, little Chiffinch," answered the King, in a | his habitual guard over his passions, resented the attone of as contemptuous familiarity as was consistent with his good-breeding, "It was not altogether for thine own private ear, though quite deserving of all sweet sounds; but I thought Nelly had been with thee this morning." "I can send Bajazet for her, your Majesty," answered the lady. "Nay, I will not trouble your little heathen Sultan to go so far. Still it strikes me that Chiffinch said you had company-some country cousin, or such a matter-Is there not such a person?" "There is a young person from the country," said Mistress Chiffinch, striving to conceal a considerable portion of embarrassment; "but she is unprepared for such an honour as to be adınitted into your Majesty's presence, and" "And therefore the fitter to receive it, Chiffinch. There is nothing in nature so beautiful as the first blush of a little rustic between joy and fear, and wonder and curiosity. It is the down on the peach --pity it decays so soon!-the fruit remains, but the first high colouring and exquisite flavour are gone.Never put up thy lip for the matter, Chiffinch, for it is as I tell you; so pray let us have la belle cousine." Mistress Chiffinch, more embarrassed than ever, again advanced towards the door of communication, which she had been in the act of opening when his Majesty entered. But just as she coughed pretty loudly, perhaps as a signal to some one within, voices were again heard in a raised tone of altercation-the door was flung open, and Alice rushed out of the inner apartment, followed to the door of it by the enterprising Duke of Buckingham, who stood fixed with astonishment on finding his pursuit of the flying fair one had hurried him into the presence of the King. Alice Bridgenorth appeared too much transported with anger to permit her to pay attention to the rank or character of the company into which she had thus suddenly entered. "I remain no longer here, madam," she said to Mrs. Chiffinch, in a tone of uncontrollable resolution; "I leave instantly a house where I am exposed to company which I detest, and to solicitations which I despise." tempt to seduce his destined mistress, as an Eastern Sultan would have done the insolence of a vizier, who anticipated his intended purchases of captive beauty in the slave market. The swarthy features of Charles reddened, and the strong lines on his dark visage seemed to become inflated, as he said, in a voice which faltered with passion, "Buckingham, you dared not have thus insulted your equal! To your master you may securely offer any affront, since his rank glues his sword to the scabbard." 66 The haughty Duke did not brook this taunt unanswered. My sword," he said, with emphasis, "was never in the scabbard, when your Majesty's service required it should be unsheathed." Your Grace means, when its service was required for its master's interest," said the King; "for you could only gain the coronet of a Duke by fighting for the royal crown. But it is over-I have treated you as a friend-a companion-almost an equal-you have repaid me with insolence and ingratitude." Sire," answered the Duke, firmly, but respectfully, "I am unhappy in your displeasure; yet thus far fortunate, that while your words can confer honour, they cannot impair or take it away. It is hard," he added, lowering his voice, so as only to be heard by the King,-"It is hard that the squall of a peevish wench should cancel the services of so many years!" "It is harder," said the King, in the same subdued tone, which both preserved through the rest of the conversation, "that a wench's bright eyes can make a nobleman forget the decencies due to his Sovereign's privacy." "May I presume to ask your Majesty what decencies are those ?" said the Duke. Charles bit his lip to keep himself from smiling. "Buckingham," he said, "this is a foolish business; and we must not forget, (as we have nearly done,) that we have an audience to witness this scene, and should walk the stage with dignity. I will show you your fault in private." "It is enough that your Majesty has been dis pleased, and that I have unhappily been the occasion," said the Duke, reverently; "although quite The dismayed Mistress Chiffinch could only im-ignorant of any purpose beyond a few words of galplore her, in broken whispers, to be silent; adding, while she pointed to Charles, who stood with his eyes fixed rather on his audacious courtier than on the game which he pursued, "The King-the King!" "If I am in the King's presence," said Alice, aloud, and in the same torrent of passionate feeling, while her eyes sparkled through tears of resentment and insulted modesty, "it is the better-it is his Majesty's duty to protect me; and on his protection I throw myself." These words, which were spoken aloud, and boldly, at once recalled Julian to himself, who had hitherto stood, as it were, bewildered. He approached Alice, and whispering in her ear that she had beside her one who would defend her with his life, implored her to trust to his guardianship in this emergency. Clinging to his arm in all the ecstasy of gratitude and joy, the spirit which had so lately invigorated Alice in her own defence, gave way in a flood of tears, when she saw herself supported by him whom perhaps she most wished to recognise as her protector. She permitted Peveril gently to draw her back towards the screen before which he had been standing; where, holding by his arm, but at the same time endeavouring to conceal herself behind him, they waited the conclusion of a scene so singular. The King seemed at first so much surprised at the unexpected apparition of the Duke of Buckingham, as to pay little or no attention to Alice, who had been the means of thus unceremoniously introducing his Grace into the presence at a most unsuitable moment. In that intriguing Court, it had not been the first time that the Duke had ventured to enter the lists of gallantry in rivalry of his Sovereign, which made the present insult the more intolerable.. His purpose of lying concealed in these private apartments was explained by the exclamations of Alice; and Charles, notwithstanding the placidity of his disposition, and lantry; and I sue thus low for your Majesty's pardon." So saying, he kneeled gracefully down. "Thou hast it, George," said the placable Prince. "I believe thou wilt be sooner tired of offending, than I of forgiving." "Long may your Majesty live to give the offence, with which it is your royal pleasure at present to charge my innocence," said the Duke. "What mean you by that, my lord?" said Charles, the angry shade returning to his brow for a moment. "My Liege," replied the Duke, "you are too honourable to deny your custom of shooting with Cupid's bird-bolts in other men's warrens. You have ta'en the royal right of free-forestry over every man's park. It is hard that you should be so much displeased at hearing a chance arrow whizz near your own pales." "No more on't," said the King; "but let us see where the dove has harboured." "The Helen has found a Paris while we were quarrelling," replied the Duke. แ 'Rather an Orpheus," said the King; "and what is worse, one that is already provided with a Eurydice -She is clinging to the fiddler." "It is mere fright," said Buckingham, "like Rochester's, when he crept into the bass-viol to hide himself from Sir Dermont O'Cleaver." "We must make the people show their talents," said the King, "and stop their mouths with money and civility, or we shall have this foolish encounter over half the town." The King then approached Julian, and desired him to take his instrument, and cause his female companion to perform a saraband. "I had already the honour to inform your Majesty," said Julian, "that I cannot contribute to your pleayoung person is" sure in the way you command me; and that this "A retainer of the Lady Powis," said the King, upon whose mind things not connected with his pleasures made a very slight impression. "Poor lady, she is in trouble about the lords in the Tower." "Pardon me, sir," said Julian, "she is a dependent of the Countess of Derby." "True, true," answered Charles; "it is indeed of Lady Derby, who hath also her own distresses in these times. Do you know who taught the young person to dance? Some of her steps mightily resemble Le Jeune's of Paris." "I presume she was taught abroad, sir," said Julian; "for myself, I am charged with some weighty business by the Countess, which I would willingly communicate to your Majesty." "We will send you to our Secretary of State," said the King. "But this dancing envoy will oblige us once more, will she not?-Empson, now that I remember, it was to your pipe that she danced-Strike up, man, and put metal into her feet." Empson began to play a well-known measure; and, as he had threatened, made more than one false note, until the King whose ear was very accurate, rebuked him with, "Sirrah, art thou drunk at this early hour, or must thou too be playing thy slippery tricks with me? Thou thinkest thou art born to beat time, but I will have time beat into thee." The hint was sufficient, and Empson took good care so to perform his air as to merit his high and deserved reputation. But on Fenella it made not the slightest impression. She rather leant than stood against the wall of the apartment; her countenance as pale as death, her arms and hands hanging down as if stiffened, and her existence only testified by the sobs which agitated her bosom, and the tears which flowed from her half-closed eyes. "A plague on it," said the King, "some evil spirit is abroad this morning; and the wenches are all bewitched, I think. Cheer up, my girl. What, in the devil's name, has changed thee at once from a Nymph to a Niobe? If thou standest there longer, thou wilt grow to the very marble wall-Or-oddsfish, George, have you been bird-bolting in this quarter also? Ere Buckingham could answer to this charge, Julian again kneeled down to the King, and prayed to be heard, were it only for five minutes. "The young woman," he said, "had been long in attendance on the Countess of Derby. She was bereaved of the faculties of speech and hearing.” "Oddsfish, man, and dances so well?" said the King. "Nay, all Gresham College shall never make me believe that." "I would have thought it equally impossible, but for what I to-day witnessed," said Julian; "but only permit me, sir, to deliver the petition of my lady the Countess.' And who art thou thyself, man?" said the Sovereign; "for though every thing which wears bodice and breast-knot has a right to speak to a King, and be answered, I know not that they have a title to audience through an envoy extraordinary." "I am Julian Peveril of Derbyshire," answered the supplicant, the son of Sir Geoffrey Peveril of Martindale Castle, who" "Body of me the old Worcester man?" said the King. Oddsfish, I remember him well-some harm has happened to him, I think-Is he not dead, or very sick at least?" "Ill at ease, and it please your Majesty, but not ill in health. He has been imprisoned on account of alleged accession to this Plot." "Look you there," said the King; "I knew he was in trouble; and yet how to help the stout old Knight, I can hardly tell. I can scarce escape suspicion of the Plot myself, though the principal object of it is to take away my own life. Were I to stir to save a plot ter, I should certainly be brought in as an accessory.Buckingham, thou hast some interest with those who built this fine state engine, or at least who have driven it on-be good-natured for once, though it is scarcely thy wont, and interfere to shelter our old Worcester friend, Sir Godfrey. You have not forgot him?" "No, sir," answered the Duke; "for I never heard the name.' 2 H VOL. IV. "It is Sir Geoffrey his Majesty would say," said. Julian. "And if his Majesty did say Sir Geoffrey, Master Peveril, I cannot see of what use I can be to your father," replied the Duke, coldly. "He is accused of a heavy crime; and a British subject so accused, can have no shelter either from prince or peer, but must stand to the award and deliverance of God and his country." "Now, Heaven forgive thee thy hypocrisy, George," said the King, hastily. "I would rather hear the devil preach religion than thee teach patriotism.Thou knowest as well as I, that the nation is in a scarlet fever for fear of the poor Catholics, who are not two men to five hundred; and that the public mind is so harrassed with new narrations of conspiracy, and fresh horrors every day, that people have as little real sense of what is just or unjust, as men who talk in their sleep of what is sense or nonsense. I have borne, and borne with it-I have seen blood flow on the scaffold, fearing to thwart the nation in its fury-and I pray to God that I or mine be not called on to answer for it. I will no longer swim with the torrent, which honour and conscience call upon me to stem--I will act the part of a Sovereign, and save my people from doing injustice, even in their own despite.' Charles walked hastily up and down the room as he expressed these unwonted sentiments, with energy equally unwonted. After a momentary pause, the Duke answered him gravely, "Spoken like a Royal King, sir; but-pardon me-not like a King of England." Charles paused, as the Duke spoke, beside a window which looked full on Whitehall, and his eye was involuntarily attracted by the fatal window of the Banqueting House, out of which his unhappy father was conducted to execution. Charles was naturally, or, more properly, constitutionally, brave; but a life of pleasure, together with the habit of governing his course rather by what was expedient than by what was right, rendered him unapt to dare the same scene of danger or of martyrdom, which had closed his father's life and reign; and the thought came over his halfformed resolution, like the rain upon a kindling beacon. In another man, his perplexity would have seemed almost ludicrous; but Charles could not lose, even under these circumstances, the dignity and grace which were as natural to him as his indifference and his good-humour. Our Council must decide in this matter," he said, looking to the Duke; "and be assured, young man," he added, addressing Julian, your father shall not want an intercessor in his King, so far as the laws will permit my interference in his behalf." Julian was about to retire, when Fenella, with a marked look, put into his hand a slip of paper, on which she had hastily written, "The packet-give him the packet." After a moment's hesitation, during which he reflected that Fenella was the organ of the Countess's pleasure, Julian resolved to obey. "Permit me then, Sire," he said, to place in your royal hands this packet, intrusted to me by the Countess of Derby. The letters have already been once taken from me; and I have little hope that I can now deliver them as they are addressed. I place them, therefore, in your royal hands, certain that they will evince the innocence of the writer." The King shook his head as he took the packet reluctantly. "It is no safe office you have undertaken young man. A messenger has sometimes his throat cut for the sake of his despatches-But give them to me; and, Chiffinch, give me wax and a taper.' He employed himself in folding the Countess's packet in another envelope. "Buckingham," he said, "you are evidence that I do not read them till the Council shall see them." Buckingham approached, and offered his services in folding the parcel, but Charles rejected his assistance; and having finished his task, he sealed the packet with his own signet-ring. The Duke bit his lip and retired. And now, young man," said the King, "your errrand is sped, so far as it can at present be forwarded." Julian bowed deeply, as to take leave at these words, which he rightly interpreted as a signal for his departure. Alice Bridgenorth still clung to his arm, and motioned to withdraw along with him. The King and Buckingham looked at each other in conscious astonishment, and yet not without a desire to smile, so strange did it seem to them that a prize, for which, an instant before, they had been mutually contending, should thus glide out of their grasp, or rather be borne off by a third and very inferior competitor. Mistress Chiffinch," said the King, with a hesitation which he could not disguise, "I hope your fair charge is not about to leave you?" "Certainly not, your Majesty," answered Chiffinch. Alice, my love-you mistake-that opposite door leads to your apartments." "Pardon me, madam," answered Alice; "I have indeed mistaken my road, but it was when I came hither." "The errant damozel," said Buckingham, looking at Charles with as much intelligence as etiquette permitted him to throw into his eye, and then turning it towards Alice, as she still held by Julian's arm, "is resolved not to mistake her road a second time. She has chosen a sufficient guide." "And yet stories tell that such guides have led maidens astray," said the King. ་་་ 'We make but an indifferent figure in this scene, methinks," said the King, addressing the Duke o. Buckingham, and speaking in a whisper; "but she must go-I neither will, nor dare, stop her from returning to her father." "And if she does," swore the Duke internally, "I would, as Sir Andrew saith, I might never touch fair lady's hand." And stepping back, he spoke a few words with Empson the musician, who left the apartment for a few minutes, and presently returned." The King seemed irresolute concerning the part he should act under circumstances so peculiar. To be foiled in a gallant intrigue, was to subject himself to the ridicule of his gay Court; to persist in it by any means which approached to constraint, would have been tyrannical; and, what perhaps he might judge as severe an imputation, it would have been unbecoming a gentleman. Upon my honour, young lady," he said, with an emphasis, "you have nothing to fear in this house. But it is improper, for your own sake, that you should leave it in this abrupt manner. If you will have the goodness to wait but a quarter of an hour, Mistress Chiffinch's coach will be placed at your command, to transport you where you will. Spare yourself the ridicule, and me the pain, of seeing you leave the house of one of my servants, as if you were escaping from a prison." The King spoke in good-natured sincerity, and Alice was inclined for an instant to listen to his advice; but recollecting that she had to search for her father Alice blushed deeply, but instantly recovered her and uncle, or, failing them, for some suitable place of composure so soon as she saw that her liberty was secure residence, it rushed on her mind that the atlikely to depend upon the immediate exercise of re- tendants of Mistress Chiffinch were not likely to solution. She quitted, from a sense of insulted deli-prove trusty guides or assistants in such a purpose. cacy, the arm of Julian, to which she had hitherto Firmly and respectfully she announced her purpose of clung; but as she spoke she continued to retain a instant departure. She needed no other escort, she slight grasp of his cloak. "I have indeed mistaken said, than what this gentleman, Master Julian Pevemy way, she repeated, still addressing Mistress Chif- ril, who was well known to her father, would willingly finch, but it was when I crossed this threshold. afford her; nor did she need that farther, than until The usage to which I have been exposed in your house, she had reached her father's residence. has determined me to quit it instantly." "I will not permit that, my young mistress," answered Chiffinch, "until your uncle, who placed you under my care, shall relieve me of the charge of you." "Farewell, then, lady, a God's name!" said the King; "I am sorry so much beauty should be wedded to so many shrewish suspicions. For you, Master Peveril, I should have thought you had enough to do with your own affairs, without interfering with the humours of the fair sex. The duty of conducting all strayed damsels into the right path, is, as matters go in this good city, rather too weighty an undertaking for your youth and inexperience.' "I will answer for my conduct, both to my uncle, and, what is of more importance, to my father," said Alice. "You must permit me to depart madam; I am free-born, and you have no right to detain me.' "Pardon me, my young madam," said Mistress Julian, eager to conduct Alice safe from a place Chiffinch, "I have a right, and I will maintain it too.' of which he began fully to appreciate the perils, "I will know that before quitting this presence,' answered nothing to this taunt, but bowing revesaid Alice, firmly; and, advancing a step or two, she rently, led her from the apartment. Her sudden apdropped on her knee before the King. "Your Ma-pearance, and the animated scene which followed, jesty," said she, "if indeed I kneel before King Charles, is the father of your subjects." "Of a good many of them," said the Duke of Buckingham, apart. 'I demand protection of you, in the name of God, and of the oath your Majesty swore when you placed on your head the crown of this kingdom!" "You have my protection," said the King, a little confused by an appeal so unexpected and so solemn. "Do but remain quiet with this lady, with whom your parents have placed you; neither Buckingham nor any one else shall intrude on you.' His Majesty," added Buckingham, in the same tone, and speaking from the restless and mischiefmaking spirit of contradiction, which he never could restrain, even when indulging it was most contrary, not only to propriety, but to his own interest,-"His Majesty will protect you, fair lady, from all intrusion, save what must not be termed such." Alice darted a keen look on the Duke, as if to read his meaning; another on Charles, to know whether she had guessed it rightly, There was a guilty confession on the King's brow, which confirmed Alice's determination to depart. "Your Majesty will forgive me," she said; "it is not here that I can enjoy the advantage of your royal protection. I am resolved to leave this house. If I am detained, it must be by violence, which I trust no one dare offer me in your Majesty's presence. This gentlemen, whom I have long known, will conduct me to my friends." had entirely absorbed, for the moment, the recollection of his father, and of the Countess of Derby; and while the dumb attendant of the latter remained in the room, a silent, and, as it were, stunned spectator of all that had happened, Peveril had become in the predominating interest of Alice's critical situation, totally forgetful of her presence. But no sooner had he left the room, without noticing or attending to her, than Fenella, starting, as from a trance, drew herself up, and looked wildly around, like one waking from a dream, as if to assure herself that her companion was gone, and gone without paying the slightest attention to her. She folded her hands together, and cast her eyes upwards, with an expression of such agony as explained to Charles (as he thought) what painful ideas were passing in her mind. This Peveril is a perfect pattern of successful perfidy," said the King: he has not only succeeded at first sight in carrying off this Queen of the Amazons, but he has left us, think, a disconsolate Ariadne in her place. But weep not, my princess of pretty movements," he said, addressing himself to Fenella; "if we cannot call in Bacchus to console you, we will commit you to the care of Empson, who shall drink with Liber Pater for a thousand pounds, and I will say done first." As the King spoke these words, Fenella rushed past him with her wonted rapidity of step, and, with much less courtesy than was due to the royal presence, hurried down stairs, and out of the house, without attempting to open any communication with the Monarch. He saw her abrupt departure with | No other protectress but her whose ruin has, I fear, more surprise than displeasure; and presently after- been accelerated by Julian, I dare not appear wards, bursting into a fit of laughter, he said to the before your mother! she must hate me for my family, Duke, "Oddsfish, George, this young spark might and despise me for my meanness. To be a second teach the best of us how to manage the wenches. I time cast on her protection, when the first has been have had my own experience, but I could never yet so evil repaid-Julian, I dare not go with you!" contrive either to win or lose them with so little ceremony." 66 "She has never ceased to love you, Alice," said her conductor, whose steps she continued to attend, Experience, sir," replied the Duke, 'cannot be even while declaring her resolution not to go with acquired without years." him, "she never felt any thing but kindness towards "True, George; and you would, I suppose, in-you, nay, towards your father; for though his dealsinuate," said Charles, "that the gallant who acquires ings with us have been harsh, she can allow much it, loses as much in youth as he gains in art? I defy for the provocation which he has received. Believe, your insinuation, George. You cannot overreach me, with her you will be safe as with a mother-peryour master, old as you think him, either in love or haps may be the means of reconciling the divisions politics. You have not the secret plumer la poule by which we have suffered so much." sans la faire crier, witness this morning's work. I will give you odds at all games-ay, and at the Mall, too, if thou darest accept my challenge.-Chiffinch, what for dost thou convulse thy pretty throat and face with sobbing and hatching tears, which seem rather unwilling to make their appearance?" "It is for fear," whined Chiffinch, "that your Majesty should think-that you should expect""That I should expect gratitude from a courtier, or faith from a woman?" answered the King, patting her at the same time under the chin, to make her raise her face-"Tush! chicken, I am not so superfluous." "There it is now," said Chiffinch, continuing to sob the more bitterly, as she felt herself unable to produce any tears; "I see your Majesty is determined to lay all the blame on me, when I am innocent as an unborn babe-I will be judged by his Grace." "No doubt, no doubt, Chiffie," said the King. "His Grace and you will be excellent judges in each other's cause, and as good witnesses in each other's favour. But to investigate the matter impartially, we must examine our evidence apart.-My Lord Duke, we meet at the Mall at noon, if your Grace dare accept my challenge." His Grace of Buckingham bowed, and retired. "Might God grant it!" said Alice. "Yet how shall I face your mother? And will she be able to protect me against these powerful men-against my uncle Christian? Alas, that I must call him my worst enemy!" "She has the ascendency which honour hath over infamy, and virtue over vice," said Julian; "and to no human power but your father's will she resign you, if you consent to choose her for your protectress. Come, then, with me, Alice; and" Julian was interrupted by some one, who, laying an unceremonious hold of his cloak, pulled it with so much force as compelled him to stop and lay his hand on his sword. He turned at the same time, and, when he turned, beheld Fenella. The cheek of the mute glowed like fire; her eyes sparkled, and her lips were forcibly drawn together, as if she had difficulty to repress those wild screams which usually attended her agonies of passion, and which, uttered in the open street, must instantly have collected a crowd. As it was, her appearance was so singular, and her emotion so evident, that men gazed as they came on, and looked back after they had passed, at the singular vivacity of her gestures; while, holding Peveril's cloak with one hand, she made, with the other, the most eager and imperious signs that he should leave Alice Bridgenorth and follow her. She touched the plume in her bonnet, to remind him of the Earlpointed to her heart, to intimate the Countess-raised her closed hand, as if to command him in their name -and next moment folded both, as if to supplicate him in her own; while, pointing to Alice with an expression at once of angry and scornful derision, she waved her hand repeatedly and disdainfully, to intimate that Peveril ought to cast her off, as something undeserving his protection. Frightened, she knew not why, at these wild gestures, Alice clung closer to Julian's arm than she had at first dared to do; and this mark of confidence in his protection seemed to increase the passion of Fenella. JULIAN PEVERIL, half-leading, half-supporting Alice Bridgenorth, had reached the middle of St. James's Street ere the doubt occurred to him which way they should bend their course. He then asked Alice whither he should conduct her, and learned to his surprise and embarrassment, that, far from knowing where her father was to be found, she had no certain knowledge that he was in London, and only hoped Julian was dreadfully embarrassed; his situation that he had arrived, from the expressions which he was sufficiently precarious, even before Fenella's unhad used at parting. She mentioned her uncle governable passions threatened to ruin the only plan Christian's address, but it was with doubt and hesita- which he had been able to suggest. What she tion, arising from the hands in which he had already wanted with him-how far the fate of the Earl and placed her; and her reluctance to go again under his Countess might depend on his following her, he could protection was strongly confirmed by her youthful not even conjecture; but be the call how peremptory guide, when a few words had established to his con- soever, he resolved not to comply with it until he had viction the identity of Ganlesse and Christian.-seen Alice placed in safety. In the mean time, he What then was to be done? 86 seemed so far to have soothed her, that she seized upon his right arm, and, as if despairing of his following her path, appeared reconciled to attend him on that which he himself should choose. determined not to lose sight of Fenella; and disre"Alice," said Julian, after a moment's reflection, garding her repeated, disdainful, and impetuous reyou must seek your earliest and best friend-Ijection of the hand which he offered her, he at length mean my mother. She has now no castle in which to receive you--she has but a miserable lodging, so near the jail in which my father is confined, that it seems almost a cell of the same prison. I have not seen her since my coming hither; but thus much have I learned by inquiry. We will now go to her apartment; such as it is, I know she will share it with one so innocent and so unprotected as you are. "Gracious Heaven!" said the poor girl, am I then so totally deserted, that I must throw myself on the mercy of her who, of all the world, has most reason to spurn me from her?-Julian can you advise me to this?-Is there none else who will afford me a few hours' refuge, till I can hear from my father? Thus, with a youthful female clinging to each arm, and both remarkably calculated to attract the public eye, though from very different reasons, Julian resolved to make the shortest road to the water-side, and there to take boat for Blackfriars, as the nearest point of landing to Newgate, where he concluded that Lance had already announced his arrival in London to Sir Geoffrey, then inhabiting that dismal region, and to his lady, who, so far as the jailor's rigour permitted, shared and softened his imprisonment. |