On the graver expounding of the chances and changes which had ended by fixing Sir Richard Lovell as a resident on the lands of his fathers, it appeared that the worthy gentleman had both taken and given disgusts at the court (if court it could be styled) of the exiled king. The freedom of his remonstrances with a youth, of whose boyhood he had been at one time governor, was received by Charles, not with the careless levity to have been expected from his habitual listlessness, but with a degree of resentment, inspired by the worthless woman who at that period exercised unlimited influence over his mind, and whose contempt of all decency, and offensiveness in the eyes of even his most devoted subjects, founded the groundwork of the old general's reprehensions.

"I loved the boy too well not to bear much at his hands," said Sir Richard, as he narrated, over a tall bottle of Rhenish, to Master Elias, the grievances which had stirred up his wrath; "more especially from knowing that it was as much as his kingship could manage out of his French pension, (scarce as much, by our lady, as would have kept the hounds of his royal father's kennel in meal,) to find himself in cloak and doubtlets, with a couple of crowns per diem for bread and board. But when I saw, forsooth, that the hussy Barlow was suffered to make game of my blunt bearing for his majesty's sport, and that Bob Sydney, Harry Jermyn, and who not, was listened to with complaisance, (let them use what hard terms they list,) while my slightest aspersion of blame was pished and pshawed away with the freest contempt, I got weary of wasting my years among a nation of parly vous, and a handful of countrymen who despised me; and as the king, on his departure from France to take up his abode at Cologne, made no motion to me to resume my service and follow him, I being left behind, like a needy bisognan, of whom he had no longer occasion, was entreated of Judge Lockhart, when he arrived in Paris as negociator betwixt the Cardinal and the Protector, to suffer him to pave the way for my return to my native country. That the concession was obtained without loss of honour to myself, be the name of Dick Lovell my guarantee! That it was obtained without loss of profit to Master Nolles's exchequer, be the noble advances made in my behalf by my good niece a sterling evidence!"

"Nevertheless, it was scarcely to have been hoped," replied the wary attorney, convinced that part of the truth was withheld from him by his bluff companion, "that the brother of the late Lord Lovell would consent to receive grace at the hands of his highness."

"Would you have had him consent to receive insults at the hands of a brainless boy?" cried Sir Richard, falling instantly into the snare. "Did not Charles Stuart (doubtless at the instigation of the arch-caitiff Hyde) presume to propose to a loyal servant of his sainted father, a faithful son of his native country-did he not presume, I say, to propose to me, Dick Lovell, the Wors'ter man, to become fellowcutthroat and brother-stabber with such bravos as Sexby and Syndercomb? 'Twas well for his majesty that I bore the offence against my honour with no worse reproof than snapping my sword asunder, and throwing it at his feet. But, thanks to the babbling of Mistress Lucy, the thing got wind; and so it fell out, that when the court moved

to Cologne to make way for the emissaries of the Protector, it left behind on the causeway some wagon-load or so of unpaid tapster's reckonings-some score or two of fatherless bantlings, and one Dick Lovell in a threadbare suit and patched hose, but without speck or blemish on his reputation."

"I could have sworn it!" cried the old notary, his eyes filled with tears. "Still the same high spirit that gave me so many wounds to salve over, ere I could manage to bring him in safety through the warder's gate."

"The caitiffs fancied, my good Master Wright," resumed Sir Richard," that their killing no murder' had thrown dust in my eyes as in those of Gonthier's, to whose hot blood 'twas addressed by Master Titus, whom I shame me (damn him!) to call colonel. But, for myself, I was ever a crabbed hand at sophistry. Fighting in fair field is a trade accordant with my notions ; but your assassins on political principles, (ay, even including Madame Judith and Madame Jael, of saintly memory,) I hold no better than any other gibbetbird."

"And my young Lord Lovell ?" interposed Elias, lowering his voice, though aware that three chambers' space lay between the eating-room and the favourite saloon of her ladyship.

"My nephew abideth still at Cologne," replied Sir Richard, bluntly.

"No offence having been offered him at the hands of the king," persisted Elias, "his lordship felt perhaps that there was none to be taken ?"

"So would not have felt his noble father," cried the old general, smiting the table impatiently with his fist. "In my brother's time, an insult offered to any member of the house of Lovell was instantly felt and resented at its fountain-head. The honour of the family vibrated to him as to its centre. It was not my poor Lovell, (God bless him!) who would have remained boon companion and fellow-ruffler with the man, were he thrice a Stuart, and thrice a king, who could propose to a Lovell to embrue his hands in blood."

"There is as much difference of nature 'twixt the late and the present lord, as betwixt jet and ivory," quoth Master Wright, with a sorrowful sigh. "Would he, who was so loving and regardful a husband, even to the shrewish daughter of Lord Bristol, have left yonder sweet rose to wither unnoticed on the virgin-stem, a martyr to his disdains?"

"There lives not another gentleman in Europe beside my nephew capable of such ungrateful injury !" cried Lovell, "that (ta'en at a moment's disadvantage) the boy, prompted by his mother, may have. been apt to resent a too arbitrary disposal of his hand, I can well understand. But that when, having looked upon the fairness of his young wife, and heard proof of her excellence-her forbearance with his vixen-mother-her prodigal care of his old profitless uncle-her goodness to his servitors, his tenants, his dependants-her unspotted prudence and modesty-(nay, I shall scarcely end if I come to make the catalogue of her admitted perfections !)—that knowing all this, I say, he should prefer to fling away the substance yet remaining to

him, his youth, his honour, his renown, by emulating the vices of the prince, of whom he hath become the tag and parasite, is a thing to make mad those who have an interest in his welfare. I swear to you, good Master Wright, that since I have abided here, and been hourly witness of the good deeds of the sweetest and most mettlesome wench that ever stepped a coranto, or sat on saddle, scarce have I forborne a curse upon the delusion which keepeth young Lovell a slave to the meretricious attractions of a Parisian light o' love."

"And is it even so? Alas! for my want of charity, I did interpret as much!" ejaculated the old notary.

"Hush, hush!" cried Sir Richard, laying his finger on his lips, in token of caution. "Trusting that the chances of time may bring round happier prospects for the family, which, as matters stand, and in my presumptive heirdom, whereafter the ancient name of Lovell ceaseth to be, I have studiously concealed from my sweet niece my own bootless pains to bring her graceless spouse to a more becoming mood. Lady Lovell knows nothing, as I trust, of his misdeeds, and her noble concession of the net rent-roll of this estate, is, I fancy, now remitted to Cologne, where, since the departure of the court from Paris, the young libertine abideth.

"A noble concession have you rightly termed it, honoured sir," replied Elias Wright, " for by law (redemption by fine having been refused by his lordship) the last penny is solely and by clause of excouverture her own. Nay, sorely doth it go against my conscience, as trustee of the same, to observe that no sooner doth the quarterly payment reach her hand, than 'tis despatched to the agency of Messrs. Whitecross, of the Barbican, to be by them remitted to the exiled lord."

"To be lost at primero to the sauntering scapegrace of a king; or worse, to be lavished on laces and brocade in order that there may be a rival to the profligate prodigality of Bess Killigrew, Kitty Pegge, and the worshipful Mistress Lucy Walters!"

"Fie on it!" cried old Elias, lifting his hands and eyes with a look of consternation. "No wonder the Lord Protector hath ceased to take heed of the movements of a court, whose morals, being thus heinously misgoverned, entail upon Charles Stuart an obloquy fatal to all projects of restoration."

"Under your favour, master notary," cried Sir Richard, “ Old Noll would do ill to withdraw his cognisance from the movements of a set whose motto is, Take and slay, for of the blood of an usurper the Lord absolveth thy hand!'"

A summons from Lady Lovell now invited them to the saloon; when, the evening being fair and mild, Sir Richard proposed to his lady niece that Master Wright should accompany them to visit his new abode.

"This wilful child," quoth the old general, (throwing on his beaver, and placing his arm in that of Lady Lovell, as though choosing to accept support from her rather than offer her the protection of his unwieldly feebleness,) "was pleased to opine that the old swashbuckler knight of Naseby and Marston Moor would scarce find his sufficient independence as a denizen under her roof. She willed me,

in sport, to be my own master, without regard to the time and convenience of her dainty ladyship; and so hath she escaped, maybe, the filthy fumes of her nuncle's evening pipe, the ungodly ejaculations (Anglicé oaths) of his body servant, Sergeant Swatchem, whose profaneness defies mulct of church-session or the stocks of the quorum! -to say nothing of the ill-manners of Stark and Sturm, my two Flemish boarhounds, who, as you may perceive, await me yonder on the threshold, as if apprized of the boundaries of Dickon's Fort, whereto their mischiefs are by statute confined."

"My worthy guardian perceives also, I trust," added Lady Lovell, "that though provided with a sulking-den of your own wherein to pursue your whims and avocations, my dear uncle's word is a law at Lovell Court, even to her by whose hands he condescended to be raised to the power of legislation."

Sir Richard now hastened to exhibit to his venerable guest the admirable distribution of his snuggery; his cool chamber he styled his barrack-room, shaded by lofty beech-trees, that threw their smooth branches over the southern frontage of the house, hung with maps and charts, and a few choice specimens of armour, interspersed with curiosities, then really rare, trophies of the old soldier's Guiana and Jamaica voyages, removed by Anne from the hall of the family mansion, wherein, in happier years, they had been deposited. Close beside the fireplace, and within immediate view of the arm-chair of the general, hung miniature copies of Vandyke's stately portraits of his brother and nephew ; but while Lady Lovell withdrew, (to speak a few kind words to the veteran sergeant, who was busy at his favourite occupation of digging in the little garden, which, anticipating the general's wishes, she had caused to be laid out in the rear of the house,) Sir Richard did not fail to remark, with an expressive wink to his companion, "Were it not in regard to yonder poor girl's feelings and the precept that Blessed are the peacemakers,' into the fire would go that noble-faced picture of my ignoble nephew. But the smallest of Nancy's gifts is dear to me, so even let it hang there, though the original deserves to hang elsewhere."

It was a happy night's rest that awaited the pillow of the good old notary. He had not courage to reprove his light-hearted ward for practising upon his credulity. It was not to be expected that, at buoyant three-and-twenty, Lady Lovell should intuitively assume the sober starchness which sat upon the pinched cap of Mistress Corbet. She had enjoyed her laugh at her guardian's expense, and Elias was not the man to grudge so innocent an indulgence to her whose sole enjoyment on earth was manifested in the promotion of the happiness of others. Nay, the very morrow brought convincing proof, if proof were wanting, of this tendency of her disposition. To the great amazement of Elias Wright, he found, on returning from a visitation to the different farms, in company with the resident steward and auditor, his nephew, Enoch Shum, that his two nieces and the major had been secretly brought over from Oakham, to meet him under the hospitable roof of Lovell House.

"Now that you are at ease in your mind, my honoured friend, touching the decorum of my household connexions," cried Lady

Lovell, laughing heartily, as she drew forward the blushing Hope and smiling Rachel, to be saluted by their startled uncle and agitated cousin, "I have ventured to secure the company of these damsels. Rachel shall be my guest so long as it pleaseth you to spare her from your solitary fireside. But of my young friend Hope prepare yourself to see no more, either at Oakham or Dalesdene Grange."

The whole party gazed wonderingly at Lady Lovell, uncertain to what new device this strange announcement tended.

Young eyes and ears are in some matters shrewder than old," resumed the noble lady, still holding within her own the hand of young Mistress Wright. "It hath been whispered to me that between certain cousins, now in presence, there is so much liking as will determine my young Master Shum to seek in marriage the hand I hold, when by his industry he shall have achieved the means of maintaining a household. These means are henceforward his own. His stipend is from this day doubled—his limit of apartments at Lovell House extended to afford fitting residence to a wife who will become (your good leaves obtained) my daily companion. My dear friend yonder, Mistress Corbet, who looks on amazed at my proceedings, hath a child whom nature endows with stronger claims upon her affection than the grateful girl to whom she hath been a more than mother; yet hath she not courage to remind me that her son, recently a widower, hath appealed earnestly to his mother to come and preside over his helpless household. But finding me henceforth provided with fitting female companionship, my excellent friend will no longer feel reluctant to absent herself for a time from my roof, returning thither when peace and happiness shall be re-established in the home in which she is to plant the olive-branch. I will not talk to you of worldly interests, my precious mother," continued Lady Lovell, turning with a warm embrace to her gouvernante; yours are provided for as becomes us both; and you may feel assured that Master Shum will be expeditious in forwarding the execution of the necessary deeds, since, till they are complete, not a pen-stroke shall be made towards the settlements disposing of the dower which, in addition to what her grandfather may be disposed to bestow, I offer to the acceptance of her whom I trust he will obtain the consent of his family to salute this moment as his bride."

66

To throw obstacles in the way of measures thus considerately projected, was not in the nature of those already so largely indebted to the bounty of Lady Lovell. Ten days afterwards, the wedding, albeit solemnised according to the Presbyterian ritual, was held with high festivities at Lovell House; and the honeymoon, spent by the young couple at Dalesdene Grange, was curtailed only by a few days, to enable Mistress Corbet to hasten her visit to the afflicted household of her son, a Chancery lawyer, of rising reputation, established in the city of Westminster.

Sir Richard, warmed by the spectacle of the general joy, was the life and soul of the gaieties arising from these well-assorted nuptials; but he could not help whispering aside to Master Elias Wright, upon the wedding-day, 66 Body o' me! but I scarce refrained from a tear when I beheld my niece conducting our pretty Hope with motherly