brother Joel, appeared to her by no means a dreadful fate, for it was one which she herself would have embraced with indifference, if not with alacrity-but that he should die unconverted to those peculiar notions, which she believed necessary, if not to salvation, at least to the procurement of the highest and holiest place in that heavenly house where St. John hath declared that there are many mansions, this did appear to her to be a sacrifice of his eternal inheritance, which she was bound to avert by every means in her power, and which she laboured to effect with the most zealous pertinacity, because the death which would finally seal his doom appeared to be near and immiSuch had been the sole motive with which she had haunted him in the first instance, like a shadow, and plied her proselyting skill with such an earnest importunity.

nent.

But as her interviews multiplied, other feelings, unconsciously to herself, began to mingle with this absorbing sentiment, though not so as to offer the smallest alloy to its purity. From Reuben's confession she imagined him to have

been a common soldier in Monmouth's army, to have moved in the same rank of life as herself, and with this impression she was the more forcibly struck by his gentility of manner, his superior attainments, his polished demeanour and discourse, and the respect with which he ever listened to her exhortations, and invariably defended her against the jeering boorishness of the other servants. All these, while they appeared to be only animating her religious enthusiasm in his behalf, were gradually, and unknown to herself, awakening a more tender feeling in her bosom: compassion is ever closely allied to love, and when, as in the present instance, its object was at once so young, so comely, so unfortunate, and so highly gifted, it could surprise no one except Grace herself, who remained in utter ignorance of the fact, that the feelings of this world should eventually become blended and interwoven with that interest in Reuben's fate which she still imagined to be of the same spiritual nature in which it

had exclusively originated. The progress of this

change was marked by her increased anxiety

for his temporal preservation and welfare. When the cruelty of the executions in the neighbourhood brought home to her bosom the fate that awaited him if he were discovered, she no longer thought that it was so little terrible to become one of the slaughtered saints, to join the army of foregone martyrs. On the contrary, she now turned her thoughts from such a catastrophe with aversion and horror; her conversations imperceptibly glided from those topics which involved eternity, to discussions about the means of procuring his escape, should he be compelled to fly from his present place of refuge, in which alternative she most earnestly pressed him to take sanctuary with her father, who inhabited a lone farm, absolutely hidden and sequestered in a chalky glen of the neighbouring downs; who would glory in sheltering a fellow-soldier of his brave and pious Joel; and to whom, as she reminded Reuben, he was bound to deliver the Bible which had been entrusted to him on the field of battle for that purpose.

Such was the state of affairs at Harpsden

Hall, when Lord Trevanian thought fit to announce his intention of giving a grand dinner to the neighbouring gentry, in honour of the Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, who was discharging his high functions with such an exemplary loyalty and zeal, and who was to be invited to the entertainment. For the appropriate honouring of such a man, no moment, indeed, could have been more happily chosen than the present, when he had converted the country through which he was to proceed to the festive board, into a human shambles and an Aceldama, and would be surrounded in his progress by the trophies that he loved the best-the grisly heads and mangled limbs of his victims. Revolted as she was at this communication, Lady Trevanian knew that her husband's purpose was not to be altered by argument or persua sion, for she had never found him wiser to-day than he had been the day before. No alternative was therefore allowed her but to issue the requisite orders for a banquet, which it was his Lordship's command should be rendered as magnificent as possible, and to which he himself personally undertook the task of inviting

the guests. This announced festival was not less repulsive than alarming to Helen and Adeline, whose feelings were little in unison with such ill-timed revelry, and who dreaded the discovery that might result from bringing Reuben in collision with the whole assembled neighbourhood. Urging the delicate health of her sister, Helen even ventured to solicit her father's permission for their being both absent from the dinner-table, but his Lordship angrily and peremptorily commanded their presence, adding that he had written to their brother, the Captain, to come over for the occasion from Lyme, as he desired to give his whole family the honour of an introduction to their illustrious visitant. Reuben had, in the first instance, been not less startled than his fair preservers, at the danger of recognition from some of the visitants, and had even entertained the thought of decamping quietly before the day of the entertainment; but relying upon his disguise, believing that in the bustle of such a numerous assemblage he might keep himself in the background unnoticed, and not hearing mentioned among the expected guests any of those to