January 18. Return, signed by the Earl, tion, do not contain important historical of Themond and others, of the revenues details, they illustrate the amusements of of public institutions in Ireland," and an the period. In one letter, undated, Charles "account of the 16,500l. remitted by or- tells his daughter her brother was at Winder of his Highness and Council to be dis- chester, and would go in a few days to tributed among the poor distressed Prot- see Holland, and by the time he returned estants of Piedmont, &c., perfected by S. he would have worn out in some measure Morland during the time of his abode in the redness of his face, so as not to fright Geneva, in qualitie of his Highness's Com- the most part of the ladies. James, Duke missioner Extraordinary for the affairs of of York (afterwards James II.), tells his the Valleys." Among the papers of Clare niece "the Duchess plays often at bassett, College, Cambridge, is an order, signed my daughter dances country dances, which by the Protector, July 1, 1652, stating, the Duchess cannot do, her leg not being "These are to charge and require you, quite well enough for that." From Edinupon sight hereof, not to quarter any offi- burgh he writes: "The letters of this day cers and sooldiers on any of the colledges, brought the news of Tom Thynne having halls, or other houses belonging to the been assassinated, and how ready some University of Cambridge, nor to offer any people are to lay it on the poor Catholics, injury or violence to any of the students and 'tis well the murderers were soon or members of any of the colledges or found out. We have plays twice a week howses of the said Universitie, as you in this house, the Duchess not caring to shall answere the contrary at your perill." stir out. When Lent comes we shall have A curious letter in Lord Lyttelton's MSS., no more plays, so that bassett will be the from Philip Cary to Sir Henry Lyttleton, chief diversion within doors." From Edalludes to the change in the ceremony of inburgh, July 18, 1681, he says: "This marriage made by the Parliament. town begins to fill with company again, the meeting of Parliament being to be soon, which I am confident will behave themselves better than those of late have done in England. Cargill the great Coven 66 been twice to see the cockfighting. Her Majesty had not yet played at basset, which made the drawing-room very dull.' Another letter says they generally had cockfighting twice a day at Newmarket. The notices of papers scattered through the Report relating to the reign of Charles II. afford some curious illustrations of the events of the time. A letter dated September 20, 1670, in the Earl of Mount Edg-anting field preacher is taken; he has been cumbe's collection, states: "The Prince of once examined before the Council, and Orange is coming over. He will land at will be again to-morrow, after which he Harwich, and thence go to Newmarket. I will be tried and I believe condemned." am told his coming is not so much a com- (Cargill was executed July 26, 1681.) In pliment to his Majesty as to get in a debt a letter dated March 22, no year, the Duke of 200,000l., lent by his father to the late states: Was fox-hunting yesterday. King, and interest ever since, which will Very little company till the last day or make the sum double." In the same col- two. The Duchess and his daughter had lection a letter (January 27, 1672) says: "A fire at the King's play-house between 7 and 8 on Thursday evening last, which half burned down the house and all the scenes and wardrobe; and all the houses from the Rose Tavern in Russell Street A certificate in Mr. Bromley Davenon that side of the way to Drury Lane are port's collection, signed and sealed by P. burned and blown up, with many in Vine- Venables and H. Lucy, that Philip Ward gar Yard; 20,000l. damage. The fire began and his servant had not been in any places under the stairs where Orange Moll keeps infected by the plague (September 7, her fruit. Bell the player was blown up." 1665), shows the care that was taken to About this time Ursula Woolryche writes prevent the spreading of the dreadful disto her daughter, Lady Wrottesley (Wrot- ease. Every one has heard of the power tesley MSS.): "They say there is the supposed to be possessed by the monarch greatest galantry may be in towne; silver of curing the Evil by touch. In a letter and gould lace all over the peticotes and from Sir Charles Cotterell to Robert Dorthe bodies of their gounes; but sleeves mer (November 15, 1683) among Mr. Cotand skirts blake; abundance of curles very trell Dormer's MSS. he says: "Charles small on their heads, and very fine their was touched by the King yesterday, by heads dressed." Though the letters of which and his drink together his lip is Charles II. to his daughter the Countess now very well, and will, I hope, be no of Lichfield, and from the Duke of York worse.' To show the vast number of to the same, in Viscount Dillon's collec- MSS. some of these collections contain, with the strongest asseveration, he would go if they went about to make him regent. The Bishop of Salisbury, a dangerous man, and had no principles, bade me speak with those who came from Dr. Oates; said he would give him something, though it went hard with him. On another day he said he would have some of us talk together, to see to find some expedient in Oates's matter. N.B. - This was not pursued." Dr. Lyons, of Dublin, submitted to the Commissioners a large collection of papers and letters addressed to or connected with William King, Archbishop of Dublin (6,1650 d. 1729). Selections from these letters occupy about twenty pages of the Report, and these contain interesting information on the History of Ireland. From Macmillan's Magazine. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PHAETON. BY WILLIAM BLACK, AUTHOR OF "A DAUGHTER CHAPTER XVI. affording a promising field for the labours | tablish a Commonwealth, and he was sure of historical students we may mention of one thing, he would not stay in England that in the Earl of Dartmouth's collection if King James came again. He said also at Patshull, Stafford, there are more than 2,100 documents illustrating the period between 1660 and 1688, and there is for unately in the Earl's possession a catalogue of every item. Colonel William Legge was a faithful supporter of Charles I., and Mr. Howard points out that there must have been a severe struggle in the mind of his son George (First Lord Dartmouth) before he could transfer the fleet which he commanded to the service of William of Orange; but he spared much bloodshed. There is a letter in this collection from Lord Berkeley at London, to Lord Dartmouth (December 3, 1688): "Reached London at noon, when the King was at dinner. After he had dined I kissed his hand; he carried me into the Queen's bedchamber, where I read the address; he was well pleased; gave him Lord Dartmouth's letter; he asked about the fleet. Abundance of people railed at Lord Dartmouth, but the King continually justified him. The whole Dutch fleet are at Plymouth, where they were saluted by the citadel at their coming with about 40 guns. Bristol in the Prince of Orange's hands. The Marquess of Worcester, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Blessington, Capt. Steveningham, and several others, have gone over to the Prince. The Lords of Halifax, Nottingham, and Godolphin are gone to negotiate, but the trumpeter that was sent before for leave they found drunk asleep at Reading, so they are forced to stay there till they have an answer by another." December 11. Letter by Phil. Frowde at London: "The Queen and Prince went away down the river on Sunday night. The King followed about two or three o'clock. The mob are now pulling down the Mass-houses and burning, &c." December 19. Letter by Sir R. Beach. "The King taken to Faversham; the Chancellor taken; he was going to Hambro' in a collier; when taken to the Lord Mayor, he knelt to kiss his hand; the Lord Mayor so astonished that he fell into a swound." The original journal by Bell, who has a fine colour in her face the Marquis of Halifax, in Earl Spencer's from the light breeze and the brisk walkcollection, is of great interest, as showing ing, puts her hand affectionately within King William's opinion on persons and her friend's arm, and says, in gentle acparties. On December 30, 1688, in a conversation with the Marquis, “The King said that the Commonwealth party was the strongest in England; said that at best they would have a Duke of Venice. In that perhaps he was not so much mistaken. Said that he did not come to es OUR UHLAN OUT-MANEVRED. Whar now it's but the wand." We are climbing up the steep ascent which leads from the village of Ellesmere to the site of an ancient castle. The morning is full of a breezy sunshine, and the cool north-wester stirs here and there a grey ripple on the blue waters of the lake below. "I hope you have not had much experience in that direction," I observe. "Very pretty. That is very nice indeed. We are improving, are we not?" she says, turning to Bell. cents "It is a shame to tease you so, you poor innocent little thing. But we will have our revenge. We will ask somebody else to protect you, my pet lamb!" "Lamb-hi! Not much of the lamb visible, but a good deal of the vinegar auce," says one of us, mindful of past fa vours. It was a deadly quarrel. I think it had arisen out of Tita's inability to discover which way the wind was blowing; but the origin of our sham-fights had seldom much to do with their subsequent rise and prog ress. "I wish I had married you, Count von Rosen," says my Lady, turning proudly and graciously to her companion on the right. 66 "Don't alarm the poor man," I say: and indeed the Lieutenant looked quite aghast. Madame," he replied gravely, when he had recovered himself, "it is very kind of you to say so; and if you had made me the offer sooner, I should have accepted it with great pleasure. But would there have been any difference? No, I think not-perhaps it would be the worse. It is merely that you are married; and you make believe to chafe against the bonds. Now I think you two would be very agreeable to each other if you were not married." 66 66 Ah, well," said Tita, with an excellently constructed sigh; I suppose we must look on marriage as a trial, and bear it with meekness and patience. We shall have our reward elsewhere." Beil laughed, in a demure manner. That calm assumption of the virtues of meekness and patience was a little too much; but what was the use of further fighting on a morning like this? We got the key of a small gate. We climbed up a winding path through trees that were rustling in the sunlight. We emerged upon a beautiful green lawn a bowlinggreen, in fact, girt in by a low hedge, and overlooked by a fancy little building. But the great charm of this elevated site was the panorama around and beyond. Windy | clouds of white and grey kept rolling up out of the west, throwing splashes of purple gloom on the bright landscape. The trees waved and rustled in the cool breeze -the sunlight kept chasing the shadows across the far meadows. And then down below us lay the waters of Ellesmere lake here and there a deep, dark blue, under the warm green of the woods, and here and there being stirred into a shimmer of white by the wind that was sweeping across the sky. her to take flight herself, and disappear like a wild bird amid the shifting lights and gloom of the windy day. The Lieutenant, indeed, seemed continually regarding her in rather an anxious and embarrassed fashion. Was he afraid she might escape? Or was he merely longing to get an opportunity of plunging into that serious business he had spoken of the night before? Bell was all unconscious. She put her hand within Tita's arm, and walked away over the green lawn, which was warm in the sunshine. We heard them talking of a picnic on this lofty and lonely spotsketching out tents, archerygrounds, and what not, and assigning a place to the band. Then there were rumours of the "Haymakers," of Sir Roger de Coverley," of the "Guaracha," and I know not what other nonesense, coming towards us as the north-wester blew back to us fragments of their talk, until even the Lieutenant remarked that an oldfashioned country dance would look very pretty up here on such a fine piece of green, and with all the blue and breezy extent of a great English landscape forming the circular walls of this magnificent ball-room. A proposal is an uncomfortable thing to carry about with one. Its weight is unconscionable, and on the merriest of days it will make a man down-hearted. To ask a woman to marry is about the most serious duty which a man has to perform in life, even as some would say that it is the most unnecessary and those who settled the relations of the sexes, before or after the Flood, should receive the gratitude of all womankind for the ingenuity with which they shifted on to male shoulders this heavy and grevious burden. The Lieutenant walked down with us from the hill and through the little village to the inn as one distraught. He scarcely even spoke and never to Bell. He regarded the getting out of the phaeton with a listless air. Castor and Pollux - whose affections he had stolen away from us through a whole series of sneaking kindnesses - whinnied to him in vain. When my Lady, who now assumed the responsibility of apportioning to us our seats, asked him to drive, he obeyed mechanically. Now Bell, as I have said, was uncon"And to-day we shall be in Chester, and scious of the awful possibilities that hung to-morrow in Wales!" cried Bell, looking over our adventures of that day; and was away up to the north, where the sky was in as merry a mood as you could desire to pretty well heaped up with the flying masses see. She sat beside the Lieutenant; and of cloud. She looked so bright and joyous scarcely had we gone gently along the narthen, that one could almost have expected' row village street and out into the broad er country road that leads northward, by the shoulders because he threw a stone "You would not think it, would you?" she asked. 66 Then you do assist, Mademoiselle," inquires the Lieutenant, "in this overseeing of the parish?" "Oh, I merely keep the books," replied "No," said the Lieutenant, "I should Bell. "I am the treasurer of the savings not think she was a very ferocious lady." | bank, and I call a fortnightly meeting to 29 says a announce the purchase of various kinds of "Then you don't know her,' "Don't cotton and woollen stuffs, at wholesale voice from behind; and Tita says, Then we have the begin again," in an injured way, as if we prices, and to hear from the subscribers were doing some sort of harm to the fine what they most need. materials cut into patterns, we pay so morning. much to the women for sewing, and then we sell the things when they are made, so that the people pay for everything they get, and yet get it far cheaper than they would at a shop, while we are not out of pocket by it." "I can assure you," said Bell, seriously, "that she rules the parish with a rod of iron. She knows every farthing that every labourer makes in the week, and he catches it if he does not bring home a fair proportion to his wife. Well, Jackson,' she says, going into a cottage on her way home from church, I hear your master is going to give you fourteen shillings a week now.' Thank ye, ma'am,' he says, for he knows quite well who secured him the additional shilling to his wages. 'But I want you to give me threepence out of it for the savings bank; and your wife will gather up a sixpence a week until she gets enough for another pair of blankets for you, now the winter is coming on, you know.' Well, the poor man dares not object. He gives up threefourths of the shilling he had been secretly expecting to spend on beer, and does not say a word. The husbands in our parish have a bad time of it "One of them has, at least," says that voice from behind. 66 Here a deep groan is heard from the hind seat of the phaeton. That beautiful fiction about the ways and means of our local charities has existed in our household for many a day. The scheme is admirable. There is no pauperization of the peasantry around. The theory is that Queen Tita and Bell merely come in to save the cost of distribution; and that nothing is given away gratis except their charitable labour. It is a pretty theory. The folks around about us find it answer admirably. But somehow or other-whether from an error in Bell's book-keeping, or whether from a - all I sudden rise in the price of flannel, or some other recondite and esoteric cause know is that the system demands an annual subvention from the head of the house. Of course, my Lady can explain all that away. There is some temporary defect in the working out of the scheme; the selfsupporting character of it remains easy of demonstration. It may be so. But a good deal of bread-in the shape of cheques - has been thrown upon the waters in a certain district in England; while the true author of the charity - the real dispenser of these good things-is not considered in the matter, and is privately regarded as a sort of grudging person, who does not understand the larger claims of humanity. And you should see how our Tita will confront a huge fellow who is half bemused with beer, and order him to be silent in How dare you speak to her presence. your wife like that before me!' - and he is as quiet as a lamb. And sometimes the wives have a turn of it, too— not reproof, you know, but a look of surprise if they have not finished the sewing of the children's frocks which Tita and I have cut out for them- -or if they have gone into the alehouse with their husbands late on the At length we have our first glimpse of Saturday night - or if they have missed being at church next morning. Then you Wales. From Ellesmere to Overton the should see the farmers' boys playing pitch road gradually ascends, until, just before and toss in the road on the Sunday fore- you come to Overton, it skirts the edge of noons how they scurry away like rabbits a high plateau, and all at once you are when they see her coming up from church confronted by the sight of a great valley, they fly behind stacks, or plunge through through which a stream, brown as a Welsh hedges-anything to get out of her way." rivulet ought to be, is slowly stealing. "And I am not assisted, Count von That narrow thread that twists through Rosen, in any of these things," says my spacious woods and green meadows is the Lady, "by a young lady who was once river Dee; far away beyond the valley that known to catch a small boy and shake him it waters, rise the blue masses of Cyrn-y Brain and Cefn-y-Fedn, while to the south or the taking of sketches, or some such of the latter range lies the gap by which idyllic employment, the party would in all you enter the magic Vale of Llangollen. likelihood have got divided. It would have On this breezy morning there were white been a pleasant opportunity for him to ask clouds blowing over the dusky peaks of this gentle English girl to be his wifethe mountains, while ever and anon, from with the sweet influences of the holidaya blue rift overhead, a shimmering line of time disposing her to consent, and with silver would strike down, and cause the the quiet of this wooded valley ready to side of some distant hill to shine in pale catch her smallest admission. Besides, brown, and grey, and gold. who could tell what might happen after Bell had reached Chester? That was the next of the large towns which Arthur had agreed to make points of communication. I think the Lieutenant began at this time to look upon large towns as an abomination, to curse telegraphs, and to hate the penny post with a deadly hatred. "That is a very strange sight to me," said the Lieutenant, as the horses stood in the road; "all these great mountains, with, I think, no houses on them. That is the wild country into which the first inhabitants of this country fled when the German tribes swarmed over here all that we have been taught at school; but only think of the difficulty the Berlin boy-living with nothing but miles of flat sand around him has to imagine a wild region like this, which gave shelter because no one could follow into its forests and rocks. And how are we to go? We cannot dirve into these mountains." "Oh, but there are very fine roads in Wales," said Bell; "broad, smooth, wellmade roads; and you can drive through the most beautiful scenery, if you wish." However, it was arranged we should not attempt anything of the kind, which would take us too far out of our route to Scotland. It was resolved to let the horses have a rest in Chester the next day, while we should take a run down by rail to Llanrwst and Bettws-y-Coed, merely to give our Uhlan a notion of the difficulties he would have to encounter in subduing this country, when the time came for that little expedition. So we bowled through the little village of Overton, and down the winding road which plunges into the beautiful_valley we had been regarding from the height. We had not yet struck the Dee; but it seemed as though the ordinary road down in this plain was a private path through a magnificent estate. As far as we could see, a splendid avenue of elms stretched on in front of us; and while we drove through the cool shade, on either side lay a spacious extent of park, studded with grand old oaks. At length we came upon the stream, flowing brown and clear, down through picturesque and wooded banks; and then we got into open country again, and ran pleasantly up to Wrexham. Perhaps the Lieutenant would have liked to bait the horses in some tiny village near to this beautiful stream. We should all have gone out for a saunter along the banks; and, in the pulling of wild flowers, The But in place of any such quiet restingplace, we had to put up Castor and Pollux in the brisk little town of Wrexham, which was even more than usually busy with its market-day. The Wynnstay Arms was full of farmers, seed-agents, implement makers, and what not, all roaring and talking to the last limit of their lungs - bustling about the place and calling for glasses of ale or attacking huge joints of cold roast beef with an appetite which had evidently not been educated on nothing. streets were filled with the vendors of various wares; the wives and danghters of the farmers, having come in from the country in the dog-cart or waggonette, were promenading along the pavement in the most gorgeous hues known to silken and muslin fabrics; cattle were being driven through narrow thoroughfares; and the sellers of fruit and of fish in the marketplace alarming the air with their invitations. The only quiet corner, indeed, was the churchyard, and the church, through which we wandered for a little while; but young folks are not so foolish as to tell secrets in a building that has an echo. Was there no chance for our unfortunate Uhlan? 66 Hurry-hurry on to Chester!" cried Bell, as we drove away from Wrexham, along the level northern road. A gloomy silence had overtaken the Lieutenant. He was now sitting behind with my Lady, and she was doing her best to entertain him-(there never was a woman who could make herself more agreeable to persons not of her own household) - while he sat almost mute, listening respectfully, and half suffering himself to be interested. Bell, on the other hand, was all delight at the prospect of reaching the quaint old city, that evening, and was busy with wild |