The cause of this conduct, and the immunity which attended it, was to be found in various circumstances. When deprived of his office, and dismissed from the councils of the king nineteen years before, my father had been told by the monarch's own lips that he was discharged from his service for ever, and had been warned never to show himself in the sovereign's presence again. On that occasion, my father, in the bitterness of his heart, had vowed to obey to the letter; and never-whatever were the misfortunes which the conduct he had opposed might bring to exert either his mental or corporal powers in behalf of a monarch he judged ungrateful.

With a man of my father's disposition, the oath itself not only remained binding under all circumstances, but the impressions under which it had been taken were never in the slightest degree effaced; and he beheld the whole progress of the calamities which fell both on Charles and his people with grief, indeed, but without one effort to support either of the parties into which the country had become divided.

There was a time in the civil war when the aid and influence of such a man might have turned the scale in favour of the king; and an officer of high station near the person of Charles visited my father about that period. No change, however, resulted from their conference. The officer and Lord Masterton parted with cold civility, and the house resumed its quiet.

To Charles himself the neutrality of Lord Masterton was of course far more favourable than his enmity; and as the king well knew that his sword, though not wielded in his favour, would never be drawn against him without some deep provocation, he took care that the most scrupulous respect should be paid to his property by the royal adherents in all parts of the country.

On the other hand, the commonwealth party had not forgotten that my father had been one of the first sufferers from opposing that extension of the prerogative which gave them their original ground of complaint. They

looked upon him, therefore, as in some sort a martyr to their own cause; and were at first in great hopes that he would openly espouse their side, in the hostilities which soon took place. Although disappointed in this, they too were glad to suffer him to remain neutral; and as he made no levies of armed retainers, and took no steps which could be regarded as military preparation, further than the defence of his own house and property required, they remained satisfied that that neutrality was sincere and unfeigned.

His former friendship with Fairfax greatly contributed to relieve my father from any of those military visitations which the parliamentary generals did not scruple to inflict upon all who were doubtful in their polities; and the situation of Masterton House, in a remote part of Devonshire and on the seacoast, removed it from the general line of march of the fanatical forces.

All these circumstances combined to afford us more perfect immunity from the troubles and disasters to which England in general was subject than perhaps any other house could boast. It is true that from time to time my father received a summons to attend the parliament at Westminster or at Oxford, and I have seen him so far moved as to take two slow and silent turns in the great hall before his determination seemed fixed; but never more. He always found some good and valid excuse for withholding his presence, and those anxieties passed away. It is true also that every day we heard of battles fought, of beleaguered cities, and of all the turns of the long and deadly struggle which tore the bosom of our country. But neither my brother nor myself were permitted to share any further in the strife than by offering our prayers for the king's

success.

It was impossible to stand calmly by and witness all the exciting events which were passing around us, without feeling an ardent desire to take some part in the contest; and where is the youth who, in his eager gaze over the busy scene in which he has never mingled, does not attribute to himself powers and energies

to will and do far more than the might of man could ever accomplish? Oh how I dreamed of glory and of victory! and how sincerely I believed, that were my arm but free and a hundred stout troopers at my back, I could have turned the fate of any of the thousand fields that were fought and lost in the king's

cause.

Nay, one day, I did the boldest thing that it was in my conception to do. I remonstrated with my father on the indifference to which he not only compelled himself, but me. It was not long before the fatal surrender of the monarch to the Scottish troops, and Lord Masterton happened to be in a far milder and more easy mood than he usually displayed. He had been talking to me with kindness and confidence, and the conversation naturally turned to the passing occurrences of the day. I spoke youthfully and ardently; and for some time my father listened with a smile, one of the very few I ever saw beam upon his lip. He even went further, and explained to me his views in regard to the result of the war. The king, he said, would soon be obliged to accede to the proposals of the parliament, and would then reassume the reins of government. The terms imposed would doubtless at first be hard enough, he said, but then, the more moderate of all parties, gradually recovering from the phrensy of civil strife, would soon unite with the true friends of the monarch to regain for him that full portion of power which ought to be intrusted to the chief magistrate for the benefit of the whole community.

His arguments, however, did not satisfy me. It seemed to me that the parties in the state were farther and farther dividing, instead of uniting; and that the only likely termination to their strife was in the extinction of the weaker. In the mean while I thought that the best blood of the country was being shed, her commerce, her agriculture, her arts were going to ruin, and a thousand evils were daily impressed by fate with the stamp of certainty, which no problematic benefits could ever outvalue, while he and, as I believed, many

others-stood inactive when their influence might have. terminated the struggle, and restored peace to England.

All this, and perhaps much more, I should probably have poured forth in the warmth of my feelings; but my father stopped me in full career. "Be satisfied, sir," he said, "that I shall do my duty to my country and to myself as becomes me; and if ever the time should come that the king be really in danger, as some men judge even now, you, Henry, and your brother shall have, not only liberty, but command, to peril all in defence of the monarchy."

He spoke sternly, and I was silent; but an adventure in which I was engaged not many months after served to hasten the period which was to see our family also enter with tardy steps the arena of civil contention.

On the morning of one fine day in the middle of June, I had laid out a scheme for taking Emily quite across the bay in my boat to visit the beautiful ruins of St. Helen's Abbey, which lay among the woods on the other side. Emily had agreed to make the excursion, the boat was prepared, and every thing promised us a day of pleasure, when my brother deranged our whole plan by asking whether Lady Emily Langleigh would not accompany him to fly his hawks on the banks of the stream. Emily at once assented; and I, mortified and angry, got up from the breakfast-table, where the proposal was made, and, descending to the court, ordered my horse, to ride away the irritation which my disappointment had occasioned. mounted I caught a glance of Emily, standing at one of the windows, and looking at me with an expression which I construed into a reproach for my hasty passion.

As I

I spurred on my horse, however, and, followed by two servants, rode on towards Exeter, which lay at the distance of perhaps sixteen miles from Masterton House. Thither I often went, to gather news of the passing events; and I now took that road habitually. When riding or walking with Emily, no tortoise ever retarded its steps more than I was willing to do; but the moment I was alone, I instinctively put my horse

upon his quickest paces, and in three-quarters of an hour I was more than half-way to Exeter.

I had galloped up one hill and down another all the way, with my thoughts in a state of very unreasonable confusion; but about six miles from the city the road dives down a steep declivity on one side of the valley, and, after taking two or three turns among the trees of Bewley Wood, rises abruptly up the opposite ascent. By the time I had reached this spot my first impatience had evaporated, and I began the descent with somewhat more caution than I had hitherto thought necessary. The wind set towards me; and, as I descended, I heard some voices singing a psalm in the wood below, no unusual occurrence in those days. The very puritanical howl with which the singers poured forth their canticle turned me sick; and preparing myself to encounter some of their hypocritical impertinence as I passed, I rode on, mentally giving all the fanatics in England to the devil, by the way. Before I had turned the corner of the wood, the psalm had ceased, and I heard one untuneful throat admonishing another not to sing so loud.

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Verily, Habacuc, if thou pourest forth the song of rejoicing so vehemently," said the one, "the prey over which thou rejoicest shall escape from thy hand. Art thou not bidden to do all things in season?"

"Yea, verily !" answered the other: "but is it not written Rejoice, for God hath delivered thine enemy into thy hand; and do I not, even now, hear his horse's feet approaching?"

As he spoke, I turned the corner of the wood; and perceived, about fifty paces in advance, four men on horseback, with their backs towards me, and evidently watching for some one whom they expected to come from the opposite side. They were all clothed in stout buff coats, with large riding-boots, steeple hats, broadswords in their hands, and wide breeches of rough frieze; and it was plain that they were either-as they would themselves have called it" bent upon spoiling the Egyptians, or leading some one away cap