
 
 <A\\E-UNIVER% v 
 
 * i 
 
 B
 
 COLBURN'S 
 MODERN NOVELISTS. 
 
 VOL. VII. 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE; 
 
 OB 
 
 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS. 
 
 BY 
 
 HORACE SMITH, ESQ. 
 
 L O N D O N : 
 PUBLISHED FOR HENRY COLBURN, 
 
 BY RICHARD BENTLKY ; BELL AM) BRAUFL'TE, EDINBURGH ; A N U J. CC'M.M INC. Ul'Bl.l.X.
 
 4MHIX LR : 
 STEREOTYPED AXD PRINTED BY B liLNSUV.
 
 Stack 
 
 Annex 
 
 5455 
 5? b 
 
 v. z

 
 
 

 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE; 
 
 CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS. 
 
 HORACE SMITH, ESQ. 
 
 B.ETISED EDITION, IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. II.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 -These things to hear 
 
 AVould Desdemona seriously incline ; 
 But still the house affairs would draw her thence, 
 Which ever as she could with haste dispatch 
 She'd come again, and with a greedy ear 
 Devour up my discourse. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 IN this miserable floating hovel, obliged to participate 
 in the coarse fare, and submit to the coarser fellowship 
 of boozing mer-men ; with no occupation by day, and 
 an old ticking stuffed with pea-shells for his bed at 
 night, did Jocelyn pass the greater part of a most 
 uncomfortable week, until his effects arrived from 
 Hampton-Court, as well as his credentials from Tracy's 
 uncle. Tracy himself did not again make his appear- 
 ance, suspecting that all his movements were watched, 
 and apprehensive that by this means an embargo might 
 be placed on the vessel, or an officer sent on board who 
 would infallibly curtail the travels of the pretended 
 merchant's clerk. The cargo was now completed ; and 
 our hero, anxious to escape from the wretched galliot, 
 in which he was the only passenger, gladly saw the 
 
 VOL. II. B
 
 6 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 hatch battened down, the mooring rope cast off, and 
 the sails hoisted. As if to atone for the previous delay, 
 the remainder of the voyage, under the speeding influ- 
 ence of favourable winds, proved rapid and fortunate. 
 In less than the usual period assigned to the passage, 
 they discovered Schonhoven aim the Island of Goree ; 
 then the mouth of the Maas, which river they shortly 
 entered ; and coasting along its low slimy shore fringed 
 with osiers, interspersed here and there with a stunted 
 polled willow, they passed Maaslandsleys. From this 
 point the banks began to assume a more picturesque 
 aspect, being lined with farm-houses, villages, and 
 handsome avenues of trees, enlivened by moving groups 
 of people, and herds of cattle that seemed to rival their 
 owners in sleekness and solidity of appearance. The 
 gates of the city being shut and the boom closed, when 
 they reached Rotterdam, Jocelyn was fain to remain 
 on board another night ; a penance which he endured 
 with the less patience as it was entirely attributable to 
 the obstinacy of the captain, who persisted in sending 
 a boat ashore to buy a pound of tobacco at a particular 
 shop, although warned by the pilot that it would oc- 
 casion his being shut out for the night. 
 
 At an early hour on the following morning, our hero 
 landed, and, entering the city by the old gate, was 
 struck with the numerous canals, covered with draw- 
 bridges, and lined with vessels of all sorts, the lofty 
 masts of which, surmounted with gallant flags and 
 streamers floating on the wind, imparted an animation 
 and gaiety even to the air above ; while the beautiful 
 streets below, the stately avenues of trees, the houses 
 faced with shining tiles, their stories projecting above 
 each other in gaily painted balconies, and their large 
 windows glittering in the 'rising sun, gave to the whole
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 7 
 
 scene a lively and exhilarating effect, which was 
 heightened by the activity and bustle of the thronging 
 population. As if to render his reception still more 
 cheerful and flattering, a celebrated Carilloneur from 
 Leyden was skilfully playing a favourite air upon the 
 chimes of the church of St. Laurence, whose merry 
 echoes appeared to awaken a correspondent feeling, 
 even in the phlegmatic natives of Rotterdam. 
 
 In the broad and magnificent street called the 
 Boompies, planted with a noble mall, and commanding 
 delightful views of the opposite country, stood the 
 house of Mijn Heer Adrian Beverning, one of the bur- 
 gomasters of the city, and the merchant to whom his 
 letter of introduction was addressed. The mansion, 
 partly built in the old Spanish style with the gable 
 ends embattled in front, and enlarged by subsequent 
 additions in the Dutch taste, formed a huge unwieldly 
 pile of massy construction, flanked round with a little 
 suburb of counting-houses and offices at the bottom ; 
 and terminated at top by a range of warehouses for 
 light goods, to the walls of which cranes were affixed. 
 The intermediate stories, fronted by projecting bal- 
 conies handsomely decorated, and embellished with 
 beautiful shrubs and flowers, seemed to be appropri- 
 ated to the residence of the family. Ringing at the 
 principal entrance, Jocelyn was surprised to find him- 
 self ushered into a spacious marble hall, whence a 
 broad flight of steps of the same material, adorned 
 with gilt balustrades, conducted to the upper apart- 
 ments. Early as was the hour, Mr. Beverning, he 
 was informed, was not only up, but employed in su- 
 perintending the landing of some goods, though he 
 would doubtless see Jocelyn "immediately if he sent in 
 his letter of introduction. This was accordingly done,
 
 8 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 and in a few minutes afterwards he was ushered up- 
 stairs. 
 
 The apartment which he now entered was hung 
 round with cabinet pictures of the Flemish and Dutch 
 schools, and opened by a folding window upon the 
 flat -leaded roof's of the counting-houses. At this 
 aperture, in an arm-chair of embroidered velvet, with 
 a small desk, and papers before him, sate the Burgo- 
 master, a portly, not to say a somewhat burly-looking, 
 personage, attired in a green cap edged with lace, a 
 flowered damask morning-gown lined with green silk, a 
 tabbinet waistcoat, trunk-hose, and green velvet slip- 
 pers. His commanding height, his large and rather 
 corpulent figure, his peaked grizzled beard, a cer- 
 tain appearance of richness in his costume, and the 
 sparkling of a magnificent diamond-ring, which lie 
 wore upon the little finger of either hand, imparted a 
 degree of grandeur and superiority to his look, which 
 Jocelyn had little expected to contemplate, and which 
 ',n his estimation did but ill assort with the pipe in 
 his mouth (although it was a richly embossed meer- 
 schaum), the silver spitting-dish at his feet, and the 
 burning turf in a little porcelain vase, which was to 
 relume that pipe in case it should be extinguished. 
 Stately, however, as was his appearance, the expres- 
 sion of his countenance was good-humoured, and his 
 manner frank, even to familiarity. " Aha ! Sir," he 
 exclaimed, speaking to Jocelyn in perfect good En- 
 glish " this is what I like in a young man smorgens 
 vroeg, as the Dutch proverb goes, to rise early is to 
 double life. You see I have not opened your letter of 
 introduction ; the hand-writing and seal of my excel- 
 lent and wealthy friend Alderman Staunton will ever 
 be a sure passport to Adrian Beverning. I was clerk
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 to his father upon London Bridge as early as the year 
 
 but what signifies the date? You may see 
 
 that time has taken me by the beard, a touch that 
 turns every thing to grey, to shew us that the evening 
 of life is coming on. You would have been welcome, 
 Sir, without the Alderman's autograph, if there be 
 truth in Seneca's averment that personal comeliness 
 is a letter of recommendation. Even merit is enhanced 
 by it : Petronius Arbiter was right : ' Gratior est pul- 
 chro veniens e corpore virtus.' You see, Sir, I am 
 giving you credit before-hand, for when I look at you 
 I can never believe you will justify the exclamation 
 applied to Ovid's larva ' O quale caput, at cerebrum 
 non habet." 
 
 Just as he had finished this somewhat unnecessary 
 and pedantic display of his classical lore, Jocelyn ob- 
 served that the window was darkened by a bale which 
 was being craned up to the warehouse above, at sight 
 of which the Burgomaster, putting his head to the 
 window, bawled out " Double S in a diamond. No. 
 278, what is the weight?" A voice from below gave 
 the necessary information, which the merchant entered 
 in a book before him, and then, turning to Jocelyn, 
 inquired, " Are not those delightful nutmegs?" 
 
 " Really, Sir, I cannot say," he replied, " as I never 
 tasted them." 
 
 " Tasted them !" exclaimed the Burgomaster, with 
 an expression of some contempt; " cannot you judge 
 by the smell ? They are just arrived from Amboyna." 
 
 Our hero declared that the odour was delicious, and 
 indeed the whole house was perfumed with the frag- 
 rance of spices, over which not even the smoke of its 
 master's pipe could predominate. 
 
 " Did you see my noble vessel in the river?" con-
 
 10 IBRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 tinued the merchant, " de Vrow Roosje; the Lady 
 Rose, the richest ship that ever entered Rotterdam. 
 These bales are just brought up from her in lighters, 
 for she is yet too deep in the water to come into the 
 harbour. And yet she has nothing in her but spices. 
 Aha! young man, think of that!" He evidently 
 thought a good deal of it himself, for his whole figure 
 expanded with delight as he took the pipe from his 
 mouth for a moment, inflated his capacious cheeks till 
 they resembled those of Boreas, and deliberately puffed 
 out the smoke with another interjection of " Aha ! 
 young man, think of that !" 
 
 One of the fragrant bales was again passing the 
 window, when, instead of contemplating it with the 
 same complacency as the former, his countenance was 
 marked with anger as he called out in a loud voice 
 " Peterkin Voorst ! Peterkin Voorst !" 
 
 " Ja, mijn heer, ja," replied some one from below. 
 
 " Who is in the lighter repairing the bales?" 
 
 " Wouter Vanwangen," was the reply. " Dismiss 
 him instantly," cried the wrathful Burgomaster ; "he 
 has left a hole in the last bale, and three of the nut- 
 megs have already fallen out. Stop yonder varlet of 
 a boy, he has picked up one of them. Donder ende 
 blixem ! are we to be ruined by such careless knaves ?" 
 
 As if not to notice this act of meanness in so impor- 
 tant a character as the richest Burgomaster of Rotter- 
 dam, Jocelyn had fixed his eyes upon one of the pic- 
 tures in the apartment, which his host observing, ex- 
 claimed, " Ah ! that is a curious picture; it was paint- 
 ed by Rembrandt, while yet a younker in his father's 
 mill, which, only admitting the light from above, inir 
 parted to his pencil that peculiar depth of light and 
 shade, from which he never afterwards deviated. Next
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 1 1 
 
 to it is the portrait of his maid-servant, which he 
 placed in the window of his house, and for several days 
 deceived the good folks of Amsterdam, who mistook it 
 for a real figure. I gave two hundred double ducats 
 for the pair. But if you are an admirer of these things 
 look at yonder gem, the shrimp-man, by Frans Mieris. 
 It cost me fifteen hundred florins. Aha ! think of that !" 
 It was indeed an exquisite specimen of the master, 
 and the whole collection seemed to have been made 
 with a taste and an indifference to expense that 
 formed a startling inconsistency in one who piqued 
 himself upon judging of nutmegs by the smell, and was 
 too sordid to lose a single one of those little aromatic 
 balls, without at the same time losing his temper and 
 crying out that he should be ruined. 
 
 " You have not examined this sea-fight by Gillem 
 Vandervelde," continued the Burgomaster, pointing to a 
 picture over the fire-place : "he went out to sea in a 
 light skiff during the last engagement of our fleet, in 
 order to take his sketch, and ventured into the midst 
 (Hallo ! Jan Oost ! Jan Oost ! put some grease to that 
 creaking crane. Bonder ende blixem ! we cannot hear 
 ourselves talk :) and ventured into the midst of the 
 bullets ; but the rogue made me pay for it. Eighteen 
 hundred rix-dollars. Money, sir, money ; but yet the 
 man must be a fool that would venture his life for it. 
 Half-mad, however, is sometimes double wise. What 
 says Seneca? Nullumfit magnum ingenium sine mixturd 
 dementice. Peterkin Voorst ! what is the weight of 
 No. 280?" 
 
 As Jocelyn still continued gazing on the sea-piece, 
 his host continued, " Aha ! Sir, since you are fond 
 of ships, I have a rare treat for you. You shall accom- 
 pany me in my cutter on board the Vrouw Roosje.
 
 12 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Such a beauty ! Round as a barge, at both bows and 
 stern; and deep, deep, deep to hold the nutmegs and 
 cinnamon, and spices from Amboyna. Aha ! young 
 man; think of that. And here, too, we have some 
 pretty little pictures of Nature's painting. Follow me, 
 follow me." 
 
 So saying, he passed his portly figure with some 
 difficulty through the folding window, and Jocelyn 
 following him out upon the leads of the counting-house, 
 found them encircled by low stands, on which were 
 leaden vases of the rarest and most expensive tulips, 
 whose names were inscribed upon the front in gilt letters. 
 
 " Aha ! the poor Grand Duke is dead," cried the Bur- 
 gomaster, pointing to one of the flowers that had perish- 
 ed. " I gave six hundred and twenty dollars for the 
 root ; but bulbs are mortal as well as men : he had been 
 ailing some time. This, however, is my pride, the yel- 
 low Sultan ; I dare not tell you how much it cost me ; 
 a fortune a fortune : unless, indeed, this streaked 
 emperor, or this queen of Hungary, may contest the 
 palm with it in beauty, as they did in price. Is it 
 not a paragon ? straight as Circe's wand, and fair as 
 Rhodope among the virgins. I know not which to 
 admire the most, nor how to satisfy myself with gazing 
 upon either. I am like Tantalus inter undas siticu- 
 Josus." 
 
 The floral enthusiast was becoming quite poetical 
 under the inspiration of his vegetable beauties, when he 
 espied a little caterpillar upon one of the leaves of 
 the " Queen of Hungary," an apparition that filled 
 him with unutterable horror. 
 
 " Genadigste God !" he ejaculated with a look of 
 dismay, as, falling on his knees and placing the bowl 
 of his pipe under the obnoxious insect, he fumigated
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 13 
 
 it until it rolled lifeless into a piece of paper which he 
 extended to receive it. 
 
 " Karl Vanhoven !" he exclaimed, in a loud and 
 angry voice " send me Karl Vanhoven." 
 
 In a few minutes the unfortunate gardener made his 
 appearance, when his master, deeming words inade- 
 quate to the enormity of his guilt, pointed to the de- 
 funct reptile, a silent and pathetic reproach, which 
 soon overspread the countenance of the offender with 
 a blush of consternation. 
 
 "Miss Beverning is managing the Queen of Hun- 
 gary herself," said the accused wight, " and desired 
 me never to touch it." 
 
 Though this was probably an off-hand falsehood, 
 ventured in the fellow's belief that his kind-hearted 
 mistress would take the blame upon her own shoul- 
 ders, it instantly appeased the wrathful Burgomaster, 
 who exclaimed : 
 
 " Nay, if Constantia will rear her own flowers, she 
 shall treat them as she lists, e'en should she kill me 
 half a dozen dynasties of kings, queens, and emperors. 
 Poor girl ! since her mother's death she has few plea- 
 sures, and I were a churl, indeed, to deny her anything 
 that wealth can procure. Get thee gone, Karl : here 
 is something to buy a bottle of schiedam for the Huis- 
 vrouw ; but forget not my Noordwyk roses in the blue 
 balcony, nor my Haerlaem jonquils." 
 
 '' Every leaf has been twice brushed this morning," 
 said the bowing gardener as he quitted his master's 
 presence with a re-assured countenance. 
 
 "The crane has stopped working," cried the Bur- 
 gomaster to Jocelyn : " the wharf-men are gone to 
 their breakfast ; and if you can drink Mocha coffee of 
 my own importation, to the tune of ' De Witt's Dream,'
 
 14 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 which this persevering carilloneur has been pealing on 
 St. Lawrence's chimes ever since six this morning ; or 
 sip some chocolate-cream which my daughter mixes 
 for me with her own hand, we will e'en seek the paint- 
 ed parlour, and see whether the jade have yet made her 
 appearance." 
 
 Jocelyn having bowed acquiescence to this propo- 
 sition, his host led the way to an apartment, the panels 
 and ceiling of which were decorated by the pencil of 
 Rubens and Jansan Mirevelt with figures and land- 
 scapes that seemed to unite the rich colouring of the 
 Venetian with the elaborate detail of the Flemish school. 
 On the table was a breakfast service of massy silver ; 
 but the nymph, who was to do the honours of the 
 repast, had not taken her station. 
 
 "Aha! Miss Constantia!" exclaimed her father, 
 " you must not read Celanire, ou la Promenade de 
 Versailles* so late o' nights, if it renders you such a 
 sluggard in the morning." Taking out a watch, en- 
 circled with rare diamonds, he continued : " Nay, it 
 is not so late ; these rogues have put the wharf-clock 
 too forward : they are paid by the hour, and see how 
 they cheat me ! We shall have time to visit my 
 museum." 
 
 At these words he led his guest to a large upper 
 room, hung round with baubles, curiosities, foreign 
 arms, dresses, and instruments of music, most of which 
 his own captains had procured in their traffic with the 
 islanders of the Indian Ocean. On a table, in the centre, 
 were divers quaint contrivances of clock-work, and 
 other pieces of mechanism of Dutch manufacture, such 
 
 * One of Madame de Scuderi's romances, which were at that 
 moment in high vogue.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 15 
 
 as water-works, in miniature, that performed all the 
 operations of larger machinery, artificial music, an au- 
 tomaton, a tumbler, and a farm-yard, the various 
 tenants of which, both birds and beasts, enacted a 
 most discordant imitation of the voices of the ori- 
 ginals. 
 
 " I have complied with the fashion," said the Bur- 
 gomaster, " in setting aside a room for all this trum- 
 pery, and dignifying it with the name of a museum. 
 The folks of Rotterdam are mad for these conceits and 
 toys, and it is wise, as the monkish adage runs, ' sinere 
 insanum mundum vadere quo vult ; nam vult vadere 
 quo vult.' For myself, I hold them but as poor and 
 puerile ; and, if your taste jump with mine, you would 
 rather possess one relic of my gallery below than all 
 these barbarous trophies and elaborate playthings. But 
 you shall judge for yourself if you will follow me." 
 
 Willingly accepting this invitation, Jocelyn accom- 
 panied his host into a long gallery at the back of the 
 house, supported by Doric columns, and filled with 
 statues, marbles, and antiques, of the greatest rarity 
 and beauty. Some of the former, in particular, were 
 of the most exquisite proportions ; and as he gazed 
 upon them with fervent delight, his admiration of the 
 Burgomaster's character was enhanced when he in- 
 formed him that he had at that moment two agents in 
 the Greek Islands expressly employed to discover and 
 purchase marbles for his collection. In the course of 
 conversation he also learned that he united the diplo- 
 matic avocations with those of the merchant and the 
 virtuoso, having been once despatched to Paris by 
 their High Mightinesses on a secret mission ; and twice 
 on a similar errand to the late Protector of England. 
 When he combined his little scraps of Latin, his atten-
 
 16 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 tion to the paltriest details of business, and his sordid 
 fear of losing a single nutmeg, with his utter indirler- 
 ence to expense in his magnificent establishment, his 
 love of the arts, and his presumed diplomatic talents, 
 he was at a loss to determine in what class to place 
 him, whether among the plodding and thrifty burghers 
 of Rotterdam, or with such enlightened and princely 
 merchants as the De Medici of Florence. 
 
 " Let us begone," said the Burgomaster " break- 
 fast must have been long since ready, and we shall in 
 our turn be keeping Constantia waiting." Jocelyn 
 tore himself away the more reluctantly from the con- 
 templation of a Venus Callipyges, which had just en- 
 gaged his attention, because he had from the first, by 
 some unaccountable association, anticipated a resem- 
 blance between the Burgomaster's daughter and his 
 Dutch step-mother. He was prepared, by all the Dutch 
 women he had hitherto seen, for voluminous protruding 
 hips, thick legs, a sodden sandy face, and that sort of 
 form and physiognomy which might in some degree 
 remind him of Sir John's admission as to Lady Comp- 
 ton, that she had become " a trifle fishy in the face, 
 and a thought so wish in the figure." 
 
 " Ah ! I thought so," he exclaimed as he entered 
 the apartment, and saw a female seated at the table, 
 whose prim and formal figure, white eye-lashes, grey 
 eyes, and old-maidish appearance, were far from pre- 
 possessing, although they would not by any means 
 have authorized Sir John's ungallant and disparaging 
 phrases. She saluted Jocelyn with a coldness of 
 manner and forbidding aspect, that seemed calculated 
 to repel any attempt at intimacy, even had he been 
 disposed to make it ; but, as he saw at once that all 
 his unfavourable presentiments were confirmed, so far
 
 BKAMBLETYE HOUSE. 17 
 
 at least as could be judged from her demeanour, he 
 determined to address himself to the Burgomaster, and 
 leave his sour-looking daughter to her own meditations. 
 The lapse of a few seconds, however, served to unde- 
 ceive him as to the notions he had so hastily and erro- 
 neously formed. "Aha! Miss Vanspaacken," cried 
 the Burgomaster, " I have just been saying that Con- 
 stantia must not read Celanire over-night, if I am to 
 expect my chocolate-cream in the morning. Though 
 she is now too old to be deemed any longer your pupil, 
 you should read her a lecture on the subject. As for me, 
 though I can scold upon occasion with any churl that 
 growls in Rotterdam, I could not twit the baggage, no 
 not for the value of the Vrouw Roosje's cargo, though 
 she contains nothing but spices : Aha ! Joffer Van- 
 spaacken, think of that." 
 
 " Miss Beverning has been up and waiting some 
 time for her breakfast," replied the person thus ad- 
 dressed, pursing up her mouth and bending stiffly to 
 the Burgomaster " but as you did not appear, she 
 has gone to look at her flowers, whence she will doubt- 
 less return in two or three minutes." Jocelyn smiled 
 at the idea of his having mistaken the governess, or 
 rather the duenna, for the damsel; though he still 
 thought that nothing very prepossessing could be 
 expected in the pupil, when he - contemplated the 
 starch and pragmatical institutrice. 
 
 In the midst of these lucubrations the door opened, 
 and he almost started from his seat at the apparition 
 of the two large and lustrous black eyes he had seen 
 at the Tournament in Paris, and which had too deeply 
 impressed his memory to permit any mistake as to 
 their identity. Nor was the recognition less instan- 
 taneous and electric on the part of the lady, who 
 VOL. 11. c
 
 18 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 stopped short, blushed deeply, drew down the blue- 
 veined lids over her large orbs, and seemed unable for 
 a few seconds to recover from her confusion and sur- 
 prise ; while Miss Vanspaacken perked herself up with 
 a keen suspicious look, and the astonished Burgomas- 
 ter, taking the pipe from his lips, and letting the smoke 
 escape as it liked from his open mouth, exclaimed, 
 " Hey, Slapperloot? wat is er in de weg? what's the 
 matter ?" These were the only sounds that were uttered 
 for a short interval, at the expiration of which, Jocelyn, 
 having in some degree recovered his self-possession, 
 explained to his host, that, if he were not mistaken, he 
 had had the pleasure of seeing Miss Beverning at the 
 royal Tournament, in Paris. 
 
 "And did you recollect her so immediately?" in- 
 quired the Burgomaster. " I was there with her, but 
 you did not seem to remember me when we first en- 
 countered." There might have been more reasons 
 for this difference than entered into the speaker's im- 
 mediate contemplation, though lie still seemed to be 
 at a loss to account for their mutual surprise and agi- 
 tation, when Constantia, who had now become more 
 collected, exclaimed, "This is the gentleman that 
 unhorsed the Bohemian Baron in the lists, and who 
 picked up my scarf, when, by mere accident, owing to 
 my leaning too forward, it slipped from my shoulders " 
 
 As Jocelyn noticed the alacrity with which she 
 seized the first opportunity of exculpating herself from 
 any intentional bestowal of that favour, he thought it 
 right to acquit himself also of any vain misconstruc- 
 tions he might have been supposed to put upon the 
 occurrence by declaring that he had made every 
 inquiry for the purpose of restoring it, but without 
 success. " Aha !" cried the Burgomaster. " were you
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 19 
 
 the young Cavaliero who bore off the Baron's casque 
 like a pennon to your lance ? Bonder en' blixem ! you 
 gave him a rough greeting and a sore fall. What was 
 the value of the sword the King gave you ?" 
 
 Jocelyn declared that he had never thought of esti- 
 mating it, as he only prized the honour, without ad- 
 verting to the intrinsic value. " But the honour is 
 sometimes more gratifying," replied the merchant, 
 " when we know that it is convertible into some certain 
 hundreds of ducats. I need not, then, as it seems, 
 introduce you and my daughter to one another ; nor 
 could I if I would, for though we have been chattering 
 together so long, I never thought to inquire your name. 
 It is time I should examine your credentials, and break 
 the seal of my good friend's letter. I am told he is 
 worth a hundred thousand double ducats. Aha ! think 
 of that, young man." 
 
 With these words he took the paper from his waist- 
 coat-pocket, and while he was engaged in perusing its 
 contents, our hero had an opportunity of contemplat- 
 ing his daughter, who had derived from her sire nothing 
 but her height and her commanding figure. From her 
 mother, a Frenchwoman of a distinguished Norman 
 family, whom he had married in his first embassy to 
 Paris, she inherited that cast of countenance which, 
 in this country, we should pronounce to be emphati- 
 cally foreign, although some might rather say that it 
 gave her the appearance of a most beautiful Jewess. 
 Her black eyes, which, as we have already noticed, 
 were large, round and lustrous, were surmounted by 
 dark, though delicately-arched brows ; her nose in- 
 clined to the aquiline, and her mouth might have been 
 pronounced too large, but that it disclosed, when 
 opened, a, set of teeth that were absolutely faultless. 
 
 c2
 
 20 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Her clear brown complexion harmonized admirably with 
 the profuse raven locks which, parting upon her high 
 forehead, fell in glossy curls down to her neck ; while 
 the general beauty of her features received an inex- 
 pressible charm from an interesting air of pensiveness 
 which, however, seemed to emanate from modesty and 
 depth of feeling, rather than from melancholy. 
 
 From this survey, which, although it has occupied 
 some time in the description, was comprehended by our 
 hero in a single delighted glance, he was recalled by 
 the Burgomaster's exclamation of " Bonder ende 
 blixem !" and on Jocelyn's casting his eyes upon the 
 apostrophiser, he clearly saw that the contents of the 
 letter had not only surprised him, but disturbed the 
 equanimity of his temper. " Wat de deivel !" he 
 continued, turning to Jocelyn, as he folded up the 
 paper; " does not the Alderman know my connection 
 with the English Government, that he asks me thus a 
 second time to harbour runaways from the royal frown ? 
 Am I not in jeopardy enough already about that un- 
 fortunate ? Does he think Charles the Second 
 
 will be played with, as if he were de Koning of Heer, 
 a king of cards ? An angry monarch has keen eyes, 
 and quick ears, and long hands, and sharp nails. Aha ! 
 young man, think of that ! In den naame Godes ! how 
 came you to take a man by the beard that wears a 
 crown upon his head?" 
 
 Our hero concisely related the cause of his intem- 
 perate expressions, and the unfortunate issue of the 
 contest they had occasioned with Bagot, concluding 
 by stating that he still possessed the favour and good 
 offices of the queen, whose portrait he produced, in 
 corroboration of his assertion. " Aha ! " cried the 
 Burgomaster, who, from the ambiguous terms of the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 21 
 
 letter feared that his offence was of a more treason- 
 able nature "is that all? then we may snap our 
 fingers., provided we make no noise in doing it. We 
 will take care of you, young man : but you must be 
 quiet and discreet ; neither so ready of hand, nor so 
 free of tongue ; for though Adrian Beverning be a Bur- 
 gomaster of Rotterdam, and I believe none of the 
 poorest aha ! yet is he surrounded by spies of the 
 Orange party, who, in these times of trouble and 
 faction, might, upon the slightest pretext, or even upon 
 none at all, expose him to the perilous suspicion of the 
 Hooghen Mooghens. Een word voor de wyzen. A 
 word to the wise, young man, is enough ; so taste the 
 Mocha ere it be cold ; and if Constantia will spare you 
 some of the chocolate-cream, in return for your taking 
 care of her scarf, I can recommend it as being spe- 
 cially balsamic, as well as grateful." 
 
 A second blush deeply suffused his daughter's face 
 as she obeyed this intimation ; and the founder of the 
 repast now setting the example of more active measures 
 by a vigorous assault upon the dried fish and smoked 
 meats, Jocelyn ? who had an accumulated appetite of 
 three or four days to allay, since he had found little 
 that was edible on board the galliot, did justice to the 
 hospitality of his host. What Miss Vanspaacken wanted 
 in activity, she supplied by perseverance ; for though 
 the formal way in which she executed every manoeuvre 
 of the knife and fork, and the mathematical precision 
 with which each piece of meat was cut, occasioned her 
 progress to be slow, the process went on with the stea- 
 diness of machinery, and the work accomplished was 
 proportionately considerable. Constantia was the only 
 one that seemed indifferent to the good cheer. Sitting 
 silent and abstracted, she was apparently too much
 
 22 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 occupied in feeding her thoughts, to attend to the re- 
 fection of the body, until her father exclaimed, " Aha, 
 Constantia ! has the sight of this doughty champion 
 robbed you of your appetite ? feed, child, feed !" when, 
 with renewed blushes, she endeavoured to obey the 
 injunction. 
 
 Just as the repast was concluded the Burgomaster 
 started up at the sound of a bell, exclaiming, " Hey, 
 Slapperloot ! there is the wharf bell. I must see the 
 remainder of the nutmegs landed ; but, at twelve 
 o'clock, Signor Cavaliero, we shall have emptied the 
 barge, and I shall be ready to give you your promised 
 treat, by showing you De Vrouw Roosje. Meantime, 
 Joffer Vanspaacken, will you order an apartment to 
 be prepared for the Queen's champion ; and you, Con- 
 stantia, must manage to entertain him till I return. 
 She is still too deep in the water to enter the canal ; 
 and all spices ! Aha ! young man, think of that !" 
 The conclusion of his speech was an unconscious soli- 
 loquy uttered as he was leaving the room, and while 
 his thoughts were on board De Vrouw Roosje. 
 
 In a short while, Constantia, discarding her embar- 
 rassment, commenced a more unrestrained conversation 
 with our hero, who was astonished at her proficiency 
 in English, until he learned that she had not only ac- 
 companied her father in his embassies to London, but 
 that it formed the more prevalent language at their 
 table, where some of his own countrymen were almost 
 daily visitants. " In my poor mother's time, 1 ' she con- 
 tinued, " we always conversed in French ; so that I 
 am perhaps as well acquainted with these two lan- 
 guages as with my native Dutch." 
 
 " Better !" ejaculated Miss Vanspaacken, opening 
 for the first time her thin compressed lips, " for you
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 23 
 
 never give our gutturals their full beauty, nor do you 
 impart the classical breadth to our double a's. Even 
 my own name is rendered less harmonious by your 
 manner of pronouncing it ;" and she then uttered it 
 herself, giving such a specimen of the true Dutch har- 
 mony as wonderfully resembled the quacking of a duck ; 
 which, after all, may have been the original and gen- 
 uine dialect of her amphibious countrymen. 
 
 Requesting another sight of the Queen of England's 
 picture, Constantia drew from Jocelyn a more detailed 
 account of the occurrence at Hampton Court, and of 
 the rencounter with Bagot, than he had furnished to 
 the Burgomaster ; fixing her large eyes upon him as 
 he spoke, and devouring every syllable of his narrative, 
 with an appearance of intense interest. As he con- 
 cluded his statement, he declared that he viewed his 
 exile and the loss of his appointment, with diminished 
 regret, since it had been the happy means of bringing 
 him acquainted with Miss Beverning, whose beautiful 
 eyes had never been absent from his memory since he 
 had first beheld them in the tilting-ground of the 
 Parisian tournament. At this avowal, Constantia again 
 became embarrassed ; Miss Vanspaacken assumed a 
 most forbidding and duenna-like demureness of look ; 
 and Jocelyn, in order to relieve them both, took down 
 a guitar which was hanging against the wall, and, ob- 
 serving that it was differently constructed from his own, 
 handed it to Constantia, requesting she would enable 
 him to judge of its powers, if he might venture to solicit 
 such a favour upon so short an acquaintance. Without 
 the least hesitation she began tuning the instrument ; 
 and wishing to compliment her visitant with a song in 
 his own language, she warbled in a low, mellow, but 
 withal a somewhat melancholy, tone of voice, the follow-
 
 24 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 ing song, which had been recently set to music by 
 Purcel : 
 
 SONG. 
 
 MY dear mistress has a heart 
 
 Soft as those kind looks she gave me, 
 When with love's resistless art 
 
 And her eyes she did inflame me. 
 
 But her constancy's so weak, 
 
 She's so wild and apt to wander, 
 That my jealous heart would break, 
 
 Should we live one day asunder. 
 
 in. 
 
 Angels listen when she speaks ; 
 
 She's my delight, all mankind's wonder; 
 But my jealous heart would break, 
 
 Should we live one day asunder. 
 
 " The musio is by Henry Purcel," said Constantia, 
 " but I know not the author of the words. " 
 
 Our hero informed her that they were by his friend 
 the Earl of Rochester ; and, after paying her the compli- 
 ments she so justly merited, both from her style of 
 singing and her command of the instrument, he men- 
 tioned the mad exploit in which his lordship had so 
 lately rendered himself conspicuous, and for which he 
 was at that moment doing penance in the Tower ; 
 explaining the manner in which he had been impli- 
 cated in that outrage, and the atonement he had made, 
 as soon as he had discovered its nature, by procuring 
 the restoration of Mistress Mallett to her friends. To 
 this narrative his fair auditor listened with an attention
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 25 
 
 that seemed to absorb every faculty of her soul. She 
 remained silent at its conclusion, as if anxious that he 
 should still continue to speak ; but suddenly recollecting 
 herself, and starting from her reverie, she handed the 
 guitar to Jocelyn, exclaiming, " You talked of its 
 being different from your own, and cannot therefore deny 
 that you are a performer. By the custom of minstrelsy, 
 I have a claim upon you for a song." 
 
 " It shall be willingly acknowledged, especially to 
 so fair and accomplished a claimant," cried Jocelyn ; 
 " but I am not one of those adroit workmen that are 
 indifferent about their tools. These wire and brass 
 strings, to which I have been unaccustomed, would 
 make but jangling music when touched by an unprac- 
 tised hand. If my effects, which I ordered to be con- 
 veyed hither, have arrived, I will cheerfully attempt a 
 ballad upon my own guitar." 
 
 Miss Vanspaacken volunteering her services to show 
 him the apartment to which the servants had received 
 orders to convey his luggage, he accompanied her up- 
 stairs to a room open ing into a balcony, filled with rare 
 exotics and the most beautiful shrubs. Every balcony, 
 she informed him, was supplied with choice plants, the 
 captains being instructed to bring home all the botani- 
 cal curiosities that could be collected in the countries 
 they visited ; and every floor had a small green-house 
 warmed by a flue, into which the tenderer plants were 
 removed when the season required it. Among his 
 other effects he soon found his guitar, with which he 
 returned to the breakfast parlour, attended by Miss 
 Vanspaacken, who watched him with all the jealousy 
 of a genuine duenna. His instrument was presently 
 put in order, and he accidentally selected for his coup 
 d' essai one of those simple Norman ballads which he
 
 26 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 had picked up in Paris, and which happened to have 
 been an old favourite with Constantia's mother, who 
 had often sung it to her when a child. France was 
 the country of her affections, not simply because it was 
 her mother's birth-place, but from the memory of the 
 pleasant hours she had passed there in former times, 
 and the cherished friends and relations she had left in 
 it. She doated upon the very language ; and when 
 she heard the sweet and manly voice of Jocelyn giving 
 its full expression to the plaintive ballad, to which she 
 had so often listened when sitting upon the knee of her 
 departed mother, it awakened a train of tender recollec- 
 tions that quickly overcame her feelings. As she gazed 
 upon the singer the big tears started from her eyes, 
 and rolled unrestrainedly down her cheeks, till Jocelyn 
 was himself deeply affected at the sight of her emotion ; 
 and Miss Vanspaacken reproved her tartly, declaring 
 that it was extremely ungenteel to v give way to one's 
 feelings at any time, and particularly indecorous in the 
 presence of a stranger. 
 
 Hoping to restore the tone of her feelings, which he 
 perceived to be acutely sensitive, Jocelyn changed the 
 strain to one of those brisk and lively chansonettes, of 
 which France supplies such a sparkling and abundant 
 variety ; but it seemed to touch upon no sympathising 
 chord in the heart of Constantia. She had recovered 
 her firmness, but was not to be exhilarated so easily as 
 she had been melted : though she was no longer sad, 
 she appeared to have little relish for gaiety. He ac- 
 cordingly laid aside his instrument; and, entering into 
 conversation with her, found that she discoursed with 
 intelligence upon all subjects, and with the eloquence 
 of a deep and earnest enthusiasm upon those which 
 more immediately interested her feelings. So pleasantly
 
 BRAMBLETYB HOUSE. / 
 
 was he absorbed in this colloquy, that he was not less 
 surprised than annoyed when the Burgomaster entered, 
 with his watch in his hand, exclaiming, " Aha ! Signor 
 Cavaliero, twelve o'clock, and not ready? You will 
 learn to be punctual when you have been with us a 
 little longer. Four hundred and thirteen bales of Am- 
 boyna nutmegs ; think of that ! I know you would be 
 disappointed if I did not give you the promised treat by 
 showing you my beauty, De Vrouw Roosje ; so, come 
 along, for the boatmen are waiting." 
 
 Though Jocelyn most devoutly wished the Vrouw 
 Roosje at the bottom of the Zuyder-zee, preferring the 
 beauty he was with to all the wooden charmers that 
 ever floated, he could not venture to offend his host, 
 but reluctantly accompanied him to the water- side ; 
 filled with admiration of his lovely daughter, and leav- 
 ing Constantia not less vividly impressed by the charac- 
 ter and accomplishments of her father's new guest. Her 
 mothei , who had lost two brothers in the religious civil 
 wars which for so many years desolated France, was 
 of a pensive character, and a strict Catholic, which 
 religion, as well as her sedateness, had descended to 
 her daughter ; but though Constantia was calm and 
 serious, and had hitherto seen nothing that had in the 
 smallest degree touched her heart, she by no means 
 deserved the imputation of indifference and coldness 
 with which she was sometimes charged. On the con- 
 trary, she was deeply susceptible ; her apparent want 
 of feeling being nothing but a want of sympathy with 
 the society among which she moved. It might be truly 
 said of her that her desires " were dolphin-like, and 
 showed themselves above the element she lived in." 
 Never was a young female more strikingly misplaced. 
 An enthusiast both in religion and virtue, lofty and
 
 28 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 perhaps even romantic in her notions, she was exposed 
 to the sordid solicitations of Dutch brokers, ship-owners, 
 manufacturers of madder, and vulgar wooers of all sorts, 
 who, courting her fortune, while they were indifferent 
 to her charms, floundered about her like somany por- 
 puses around a flying-fish. 
 
 From such a revolting reality she took refuge in the 
 dreams of imagination, devouring the romances of the 
 Scuderis and others, which then inundated France, 
 with an avidity that increased her distaste for the 
 sphere she occupied, by filling her with notions of a 
 more exalted and chivalrous state of existence. The 
 fancies thus imbibed, and the aspirations thus cherish- 
 ed, might be visionary and fantastic ; but her delusion 
 was not the craziness of a female Quixote, nor the 
 romance of a precocious school-girl. It was a high 
 and holy enthusiasm, which, while it fixed her thoughts 
 upon a model of perfection that was perhaps unattain- 
 able, at least stimulated her to every thing that was 
 virtuous and noble. At the perusal of any great and 
 magnanimous action in the books on which she doted, 
 her heart leaped, and the blood rushed thrilling through 
 her whole frame. If she encountered any thing of an 
 opposite tendency, her large eyes kindled ; while a 
 fiery look attested the fierceness of her scorn and in- 
 dignation. 
 
 Will it be deemed wonderful that such a young 
 enthusiast as we have been describing, accustomed 
 hitherto to no other society than that of the mercantile 
 boors of Rotterdam, or the plodding foreigners who 
 drove their bargains over her father's wine, should in- 
 stantly see realised in Jocelyn the bright creation of her 
 fancy, the very being for whom her soul had secretly 
 panted, and yield herself to the delusion with all the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 29 
 
 fervour of an ardent temperament ? His personal recom- 
 mendations, his prowess, his musical talents, would not 
 alone have thus inflamed her imagination ; though 
 these, it must be confessed, form a combination not 
 easily resisted. When the same hand that has wielded 
 with distinction the lance and the sword can tastefully 
 touch the guitar ; when the voice that has cheered the 
 war-horse in the field can warble a soft love-ditty in a 
 lady's bower, the ordinary avenues to a female heart 
 are already gained. These united qualifications Con- 
 stantia had seen in Jocelyn, and had been contented to 
 admire them ; but that which she had felt in her in- 
 most soul, that which had awakened the dormant 
 affections of her heart, was the knightly and chivalrous 
 impulse which prompted him to punish the ungenerous 
 Bohemian baron, to vindicate the insulted Queen of 
 England, to succour and liberate the fair victim of Lord 
 Rochester's violence. She looked upon him as her 
 sex's champion ; and seeing him ruined and exiled for 
 those very actions which would have raised him to the 
 pinnacle of glory in the pages of Clelie, Ibrahim, or the 
 Grand Cyrus, she considered him abundantly entitled 
 to her admiration and pity ; little reflecting, or perhaps, 
 not knowing, that those feelings are but the insidious 
 disguises under which Love masks his advances.
 
 30 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Your mind is tossing on the ocean, 
 
 There where our Argosies with portly sail, 
 
 Like signiors and rich burghers, on the flood, 
 
 Or, as it were, the pageants of the sea, 
 
 Do overpeer the petty traffickers, 
 
 That curtsey to them, do them reverence, 
 
 As they fly hy them with their woven wings. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 As Jocelyn entered the hall with the Burgomaster, for 
 the purpose of visiting the spice-ship, he found several 
 servants waiting in rich liveries, one of whom threw 
 over his master's shoulders a superb Palatine cloak, 
 which fastened across the chest with a broad golden 
 agraffe enchased with jewels. As he gazed upon his 
 companion's wide-flapped hat, looped up on one side 
 with a button of black bugles, on his peaked and griz- 
 zled beard, his old-fashioned basket-hiked sword, the 
 handle of which glittered as it now and then escaped 
 from beneath his cloak, and the commanding height 
 and portliness of his figure, he might almost have fan- 
 cied that he beheld some haughty Spanish grandee of 
 the olden time, had not his ideas been instantly recalled 
 to Holland by the meerschaum pipe, from which the 
 worthy Burgomaster seldom parted. When he remem- 
 bered that this grandeur of appearance was combined 
 with a reputation for immense riches, he was no longer 
 amazed at the reverence, almost amounting to awe, 
 which his presence seemed to inspire ; nor at the pro- 
 found obeisances with which he was every where 
 greeted as he moved along. Their progress to the water-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 31 
 
 side was impeded by a little bustle among the men, 
 owing to their having seized a caitiff in the act of filling 
 his coat-pockets from a sugar-hogshead. 
 
 " Who had the watching and repairing of those 
 casks?" inquired the Burgomaster, when he learned 
 the cause of the disturbance. 
 
 " Wout von Goocht," replied two or three voices. 
 
 " Hand me the wharf-book," continued the mer- 
 chant. 
 
 He took it ; and running the pen through the offend- 
 er's name, said : " Give him his wages and dismiss 
 him. My people are well paid, and they shall do their 
 duty. Besides, he who leaves the door open makes 
 the thief." 
 
 " Mercy ! mijn heer, for the love of God !" cried the 
 sugar-stealer, whom they were rudely hauling away. 
 " As you are rich and great, and powerful, have com- 
 passion ! Be not hard as Dives, because I am poor as 
 Lazarus." 
 
 " Lazarus was no thief, sirrah," replied the merchant 
 sternly. " Had you asked charity of me or my daugh- 
 ter, it would not have been refused, if found to be 
 merited. Away with him to the Rasp House ! I have 
 no objection," he continued, taking Jocelyn's arm and 
 leading him forward, " to throw away a thousand 
 ducats upon a toy, a trifle, a nothing ; but I will not 
 be robbed ; no, not of the tenth part of a stiver." 
 
 By this time they had reached the water-side, where 
 a six-oared cutter was in attendance ; the boatmen 
 handsomely dressed in the Burgomaster's livery, and 
 the whole vessel as scrupulously clean, and even elegant 
 in its appointment, as if they were entering a drawing- 
 room.- The spectators, who had collected to see them 
 embark, stood respectfully with their hats in their hands.
 
 32 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 exhibiting that homage to superior wealth, which is no 
 where more universally felt than in Holland. The sail 
 was hoisted, the wind was fair, the boatmen plied their 
 oars, and in an unusually short time, although it appear- 
 ed dismally long to Jocelyn, they approached the spot 
 where De Vrouw Roosje lay like a great unwieldly log 
 on the water ; her bows and stern rising considerably 
 above the centre of the deck, and bulging forward, as 
 if proud of the glistering new varnish with which they 
 had been profusely lacquered. 
 
 " Aha !" cried the Burgomaster, standing up as they 
 approached, and snuffing the air with an appearance 
 of most inordinate satisfaction " I smell them already ; 
 delicious ! and all from Amboyna ; think of that ! Ah, 
 my darling Vrow Roosje ! Is n't she a beauty ? As high, 
 and as deep, and as round as a church, and all spices, 
 aha !" 
 
 As soon as the cutter was identified, the Roosje fired 
 a salute from some small guns upon the deck, and the 
 crew gave three cheers, which the Burgomaster ac- 
 knowledged by taking off his hat and waving it above 
 his head. Apparently at a loss how to express the 
 overflowing of his satisfaction, he at last hit upon 
 the expedient of laughing outright, and continued 
 chuckling and ejaculating, " Aha !" till they came 
 under the vessel's side ; but he would not surfer Joce- 
 lyn to go on board till they had pulled round her and 
 admired the stern, whose two little deeply-inserted 
 cabin-windows resembled the disproportionately small 
 eyes in the monstrous head of the whale. Jocelyn 
 would not interrupt the ecstacies of her owner by re- 
 fusing to participate in his admiration ; although the 
 object before him appeared as shapeless as if it were 
 the floating carcass of a defunct kraken. Before they
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 mounted the ladder, the doating proprietor actually 
 kissed and mumbled the ship's side, ejaculating, " Aha ! 
 my aromatic charmer ! my darling Vrow Roosje ! what 
 a beauty art thou ! stately as the bark of the Argo- 
 nauts ; elegant as Cleopatra's yacht ; precious as the 
 sacred vessel of the Athenians !" 
 
 With this classical salutation, he mounted ; and, 
 seating himself on the capstan, while his whole frame 
 seemed to swell with exultation, he looked triumphantly 
 round, and continued " There ! show me the monarch 
 in Christendom that sits more proudly upon his throne, 
 than does Adrian Beverning upon the capstan of the 
 Vrow Roosje." Then calling for a silver goblet, which 
 he had brought with him in the cutter, he filled it with 
 Cyprus wine, and drinking health to the captain and 
 crew, with success to the Vrow Roosje, he emptied it 
 at a draught. Jocelyn was now paraded through 
 every part of the Indiaman, in whose capacious hold 
 he still saw such a mass of spices that he could not 
 help expressing a doubt whether they would ever be 
 consumed. " Dulce est e magno tollere acervo," cried 
 the Burgomaster; " they are Amboyna, young man, 
 and will keep for years ; think of that ! Fire is a sure 
 consumer, when the supply exceeds the demand ; but 
 all our warehouses are empty, and Europe is bare. 
 This whole cargo will shortly be turned into gold : is 
 not this the genuine alchemy, young man ? aha !" 
 
 Wearied with being obliged to descend ladders, 
 climb perpendicular steps, and pry into every noisome 
 nook of the vessel, Jocelyn gladly obeyed a summons 
 to partake of a collation in the captain's cabin ; and 
 with still greater satisfaction did he lower himself over 
 the swelling side into the cutter that was to re-convey 
 them to Rotterdam. A gratuity in money and a double 
 
 VOL. II. D
 
 34 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 allowance of liquor having been distributed among the 
 sailors, they cheered their owner upon his departure 
 with hearty shouts, in which our hero was half-dis- 
 posed to join, when he considered that he was leaving 
 this floating warehouse, and returning to enjoy the 
 society of Constantia. 
 
 On the way back his companion said but little ; in- 
 dulging apparently his own spicy thoughts, and confirm- 
 ing his complacency by the smoke of his meerschaum. 
 In this silent state of happiness he regained the quay 
 of the Boompies, when a bundle of letters was put into 
 his hand by a clerk who was waiting his appearance. 
 One of them proved to be a circular from a house at 
 Amsterdam, announcing the establishment of a shop 
 for the sale of madders. Instantly turning it round, 
 and observing by the direction that the postage had 
 not been paid, he angrily exclaimed, " Bonder ende 
 blixem ! are we to be ruined ? Wat de duivel ! cannot 
 those sordid varlets pay the postage when they ask a 
 favour ? Here, Dirk Jaagster ! run to the post office, 
 give up the letter, and get back the dubbeltje that we 
 have paid." His countenance brightened up as he 
 opened the second letter, whence he took a paper; 
 and, after ejaculating to himself, " Aha! that is well! 
 good luck, good luck !" he inquired where they had 
 placed the large case, of which he held the bill of 
 lading in his hand. Being told that it was in the 
 weighing-house, he thrust the remainder of the letters 
 into his pocket unopened, seized Jocelyn's arm, and, 
 leading him hastily forward, whispered in his ear : "A 
 case of antique marbles from my agent in the Island of 
 -^Egina. He ordered excavations to be made in the 
 ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, and has discovered 
 some rare entablatures. Aha, young man, think of
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 35 
 
 that ! But the rogue makes me pay gold for stones ; 
 lie has drawn upon me for twelve hundred ducats. 
 Hey, Slapperloot ! it is money, sir, money." 
 
 While he was superintending the unpacking of the 
 cases, and anxiously giving such directions as might 
 prevent injury to their contents, a messenger arrived 
 to inform him that his brother Burgomasters were 
 sitting in council upon the subject of ' despatches just 
 received, and requested the immediate attendance of 
 their chairman. Dismissing the man with a promise 
 of present compliance, he whispered to Jocelyn : " Not 
 an inch do I stir till I have perused my own more 
 interesting despatches from ^Egina ; so they may e'en 
 wag their heads at one another for the next half hour. 
 Have a care, Aart Graauw ! gently, Epje Loover ! 
 Aha ! a prize indeed ! Here is the goat Amalthaea, and 
 there are the Corybantes beating their cymbals at the 
 command of Ops : all beautifully executed, and in high 
 preservation. Think of that, Cavaliero Compton ! I 
 like to pry into these old stones. What says Cicero ? 
 ' Nescire quid antequam natus sis accident, id est 
 semper esse puerum.' Aha ! " 
 
 Although a second officer came to summon him 
 to the council-house, he continued looking on, and 
 cautioning the men not to hurry themselves, until the 
 case was emptied ; when, taking a leisurely survey of 
 his acquisition, and expressing his high satisfaction 
 with the execution and subjects of the marbles, he 
 prepared to take his seat at the council-board ; desiring 
 Jocelyn to proceed to the dinner-room, and direct 
 Constantta not to wait his arrival, as he knew not how 
 long he should be detained. 
 
 " We are accustomed to these disappointments," 
 said Constantia, upon his delivering his message. " My 
 
 D 2
 
 36 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 father has such a multiplicity of avocations, and would 
 so much rather neglect a meal than a commission, 
 that I am often obliged to do the honours of his table. 
 If he is, as they tell me, the greatest man in Rotter- 
 dam, it only means that he is the master of every body 
 but himself. For my part, I smile at the wealth that 
 cannot purchase comfort ; and would much rather be 
 unknown and independent, than a slave to the good 
 opinion of the public. I sometimes fear he surfers 
 
 himself to be so much absorbed " 
 
 " The dinner has been announced," interposed Miss 
 Vanspaacken; "the Burgomaster particularly desired 
 that we should not wait ; and there is a matelote of 
 eels, my favourite dish, which will be spoiled if suffered 
 to cool." Such weighty considerations were not to be 
 neglected ; and they proceeded accordingly to their 
 repast, during the progress of which Jocelyn first im- 
 bibed that mortal dislike of Miss Vanspaacken, which 
 every day's subsequent observation only tended to con- 
 firm. She was starch, prim, and pragmatical ; at the 
 same time that she was officious, meddling, and fidgety, 
 even to a degree of impertinence. Originally the keep- 
 er of a small school, she afterwards became governess 
 in the Burgomaster's family, where she was still retained, 
 rather out of kindness to herself than as being now 
 thought the most fitting companion for Constantia. 
 With an infirmity not uncommon in females of her class 
 after their official duties have ceased, she still seemed 
 to imagine herself surrounded by children, whom she 
 might annoy with her frivolous dictation. She piqued 
 herself upon the exact collocation of pins and pronouns, 
 of tuckers and tenses ; her favourite piece of pedantry 
 being the rigorous use of the subjunctive mood, where- 
 ever it was dictated by grammarians and was disre-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 37 
 
 garded in colloquial parlance ; while she was as precise 
 in the pronunciation of every syllable as if a pop-gun 
 were making its first attempt at an oration. For lack 
 of other pupils, she had established a kind of seminary 
 for household furniture. On first entering the drawing- 
 room in the morning, she cast a scrutinising mathe- 
 matical glance around her school ; and any scholar 
 that was even the tenth part of an inch out of its place 
 was instantly corrected and called to order. The 
 chimney-ornaments were taught where and how to 
 place themselves, the flowers were made to hold up 
 their heads, the tongs to turn out their toes, the poker 
 to carry itself upright, the shovel to assume a becom- 
 ing and decent attitude ; every chair was instructed 
 what position to assume, the truant pins upon the 
 carpet were made to return into their pin-cushion, and 
 she seemed to find a peculiar pleasure in imposing 
 penance upon a China jar, by making it stand by it- 
 self in a corner. With a plumasseau, or little feather 
 brush in her hand (the only rod that was left to her), 
 she went the round of her inanimate scholars, uttering 
 a malison against slatternly housemaids ; and switching 
 off any stray dust she encountered with an angry 
 jerk, that appeared to recal the former delight of 
 rapping her negligent pupils upon the sconce. 
 
 Had she been content to exercise none but a parlour 
 jurisdiction, this pedagogue in petticoats might have 
 been endurable ; but she unfortunately extended her 
 claims of pupilage over the kitchen. Her own reputa- 
 tion being as spotless as her gown, she thought herself 
 warranted to take the characters of the maids under 
 her proper surveillance ; checking their amusements, 
 and watching their little flirtations, as if she were at 
 once the mistress, mother, and duenna of the whole
 
 38 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 establishment. Men-servants who had been all their 
 lives acquiring a knowledge of their business, had to 
 learn it afresh from her. No napkin was ever folded 
 properly, no spoon was ever turned the right way, no 
 silver was ever cleaned as it ought to be, no salt- 
 cellar occupied its exact position. A mean inquisition 
 into cupboards and perquisites being added to this 
 teasing, troublesome, and petty persecution, she con- 
 trived to worry the best servants into mutiny, and to 
 make the family, the domestics, and the guests, all 
 equally uncomfortable. Minutely as the Burgomaster 
 attended to the most trivial mercantile details, he 
 never bestowed a thought upon household arrange- 
 ments ; Constantia was absorbed in loftier contempla- 
 tions than those of the manage ; and thus its entire 
 supervision fell into the power of Miss Vanspaacken, 
 who converted it into a perpetual domestic war. 
 
 In Jocelyn's eyes she could never have possessed a 
 single qualification for her office of governess except 
 her plainness, a recommendation which may appear 
 strange to the uninitiated reader, but which will be 
 duly appreciated by all those mistresses of families who 
 happen to have gay husbands or grown-up sons. When, 
 however, Jocelyn saw this superficial precisian, this 
 automatical smatterer, perking up her pinched unmean- 
 ing features towards the enlarged orbs and intellectual 
 countenance of Constantia, and presuming to catechise 
 one whose thoughts moved in a superior sphere, which 
 she could neither reach nor comprehend, he would have 
 been moved to indignation at her conceit, had it not 
 at the same time appeared so preposterously ludicrous, 
 as generally to terminate his observation by a vehe- 
 ment tendency to laughter. He could compare it to
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 39 
 
 nothing but the stupid owl upon Minerva's helm gravely 
 presuming to instruct the Goddess of Wisdom. 
 
 We perhaps" owe an apology to our readers for de- 
 taining them so long from the dinner-table, especially 
 for Miss Vanspaacken, who never suffered the guests 
 to delay their descent to the dining-room, when her 
 matelote of eels was ready. She had devoured the 
 whole of that ingratiating condiment with her usual 
 mechanical perseverance, and the repast was already 
 half finished, when the Burgomaster made his appear- 
 ance ; and, having affectionately kissed Constantia, 
 nodded familiarly to Jocelyn with an " Aha, Signor 
 Cavaliero !" and to the ex-governante, with a " Hoe 
 vaart gy, JofTer Vanspaacken," he sate himself hastily 
 down to the table. " Oh those tiresome old beard -wag- 
 gers !" he exclaimed to our hero : " despatches, indeed ! 
 they know not the meaning of the word ; nor would 
 they have sent them off till midnight, had I not arrived 
 to quicken them. While they were listening to the 
 nonsense that came out of their own mouths, they 
 forgot that no dinner had entered mine, though I had 
 fortunately secured a snack on board my darling Vrouw 
 Roo?je. See the difference between a beggar and a 
 burgomaster ! the former cannot find a dinner to eat, 
 and the latter cannot find time to eat his dinner, Aha ! 
 think of that!" 
 
 With an apparent resolution of atoning for lost time, 
 he plied his knife and fork vigorously for a few minutes, 
 when he again addressed Jocelyn : " Hey, Slapperloot 
 is't mogelyk ! I quite forgot the wine. What say you, 
 Signor Lansridder, Sir Knight of the Lance ? Merum 
 adimit moerorem ; so fill your glass. What shall it 
 be ? Cyprus, Canary, Rhenish, Malaga, Gascoigne, or 
 this rare old Constantia from my vineyards at the Cape J .
 
 40 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 I named my daughter after my own estate in that settle- 
 ment, and the baggage is now dearer to me than all the 
 estates in the colony ; more heart-cheering than all the 
 grape-juice that was ever quaffed from cup. Her gos- 
 sip's posset was made of this very batch of wine, when 
 she was christened ; so we '11 e'en drink her health in 
 it, now that the lapse of eighteen years has made the 
 
 one a cordial, and the other a no, I must not say 
 
 a beauty, but a grown maiden, and the darling of her 
 father's heart." 
 
 He filled his glass at the conclusion of this speech, 
 Jocelyn did the same, Miss Vanspaacken always took 
 care of herself upon such occasions, and the whole 
 party drank to the health of Constantia, who acknow- 
 ledged their courtesy with a gracious smile, which ap- 
 peared the more fascinating to Jocelyn because it was 
 so rarely seen to mantle upon her pensive countenance. 
 Shortly after the repast, the Burgomaster, as it was 
 the foreign-post-night, again betook himself to the 
 counting-house, whence he did not return till a late 
 hour, so that our hero enjoyed the society of Constan- 
 tia during the whole evening ; a pleasure, however, 
 that was not a little qualified by the jealous and inex- 
 orable presence of Miss Vanspaacken. 
 
 In a few days after he had thus been domiciliated 
 in the Burgomaster's family, he received the following 
 letter from Sir John, in answer to one he had written 
 to him, explaining the causes of his sudden flight from 
 England. 
 
 " Out upon thee! my dear boy, for a hot-headed 
 ass, and a hasty ! what ! the foul fiend ! is't not 
 enough to have a choleric old fool in the family, that 
 thou must add a young one to the list, and take pepper
 
 BKAMBLETYE HOUSE. 41 
 
 in the nose about matters that concerned thee not ? 
 What a plague had the Queen's Vice-Chamberlain to 
 do with the King's concubine, even had he presented 
 a dozen of them to the Portuguese gipsy, black Katha- 
 rine, who, I am told, is a dowdy, and is certainly a 
 papist, and wouldn't mind another gunpowder plot, I 
 dare say, if she met with a snug opportunity. 'Sblood, 
 sir ! has the country been ravaged with fire and sword 
 for ten years together, to bring back Rowland ; and 
 isn't he to do as he likes now we have got him, and 
 with his own Queen too ? One would think you were 
 as big a Roundhead as any of the crop-eared red- 
 coated saints ; and yet you ought to remember the 
 old royalist snatch I have often sung to you : 
 
 Yet in this we agree, 
 
 To live quiet and free, 
 
 To drink sack and submit, 
 
 And not show our wit 
 
 By our prating, but silence and thinking, 
 
 And prove our obedience by drinking. 
 
 " Had you attended to the last two lines, you luck- 
 less malapert ! you might soon have been in such 
 favour with Rowland as to get the Brambletye estate 
 restored, and the roguish Roundhead, that keeps me 
 out of it, shipped off to the Barbadoes, of which I see 
 no more chance now than I did when you left us. 
 
 " By the by, we were very near nabbing the black 
 ghost t'other night. Culpepper saw her squatting like 
 a great black toad in the stone niche of one of the 
 lodges, looking up at the towers, and spitting out 
 anathemas and curses, as if she were possessed by 
 Beelzebub. The fellow had heard so many stories 
 about this Will-o'-the-whisp in black petticoats, that 
 he was frightened and ran away. Indeed he swears
 
 42 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 that her eyes glared and sparkled in the dark like a 
 couple of candles, while the hair upon her head bristled 
 up, as he approached, like an angry boar's mane. 
 Curse the slippery witch ! if honest Jack Whittaker 
 had been there, he would have seized her by the throat, 
 as a terrier does a weasel : and if I do not give her 
 the witch's ordeal, when she is once caught, and drag 
 her nine times round the moat, sink or swim, may I 
 be nailed up against my own barn-door for a scare- 
 crow ! 
 
 " 'Ods-heart ! my dear boy, Jocelyn ! if things go 
 cross with thee, they go worse with thy father. The 
 gout still ties me by the leg, and this damned Juffrouw 
 Weegschaal, or Lady Compton, as I suppose I must 
 call her, baits and worries me like a bear at a stake. 
 I am sorry you have got among such a set of pot- 
 walloping, pinch-penny skin-flints ; but I don't think 
 they're so bad in their own country. I have been 
 trying to patch up a truce, but we can't agree even 
 about that. We are like the folks in the ballad 
 
 Come then, let 'shave peace, says Nell: 
 
 No, no, but we won't, says Nic : 
 But I say we will, says fiery-faced Phil : 
 
 We will and we won't, says Dick. 
 
 " Truly it's no laughing or singing matter, but sad 
 and melancholy work, to be mewed up as I am in the 
 moated house, with gouty feet, and a wife that threa- 
 tens to starve me till I am as lank as a greyhound. 
 Devil a guinea do I finger now-a-days ; and I suppose 
 I shall be ultimately reduced to tipple swipes, like a 
 ditcher or a swine-herd. Prythee, my dear boy, settle 
 matters with the Court, come over, and see what thou 
 canst do for me. I have got a bottle of claret to-day,
 
 BUAMBLETYE HOUSE. 43 
 
 in which I am now drinking your health ; but I have 
 no heart to write any more, for I have just finished the 
 last glass : so God bless you, my dear, choleric, ill- 
 starred, peppery, passionate, noble-hearted, own own 
 own Jocelyn ! These from your affectionate father, 
 
 JOHN COMPTOX." 
 
 In a few days after this, he received also a letter 
 from Tracy, stating that Bagot was still living, though 
 considered to be in continual danger ; and that, as it 
 was now understood that Jocelyn had made his escape 
 to Holland, the ardour of pursuit had relaxed, and the 
 subject ceased to be much talked of at Court. In this 
 despatch was an inclosure, which he perused with no 
 little pride. It was an autograph letter of a few lines 
 from the Queen, indited in French, and written on 
 yellow paper, stamped with the royal arms of Portu- 
 gal, bidding him be of good cheer, since she would 
 not fail to use her exertions for his re-appointment 
 when the proper moment arrived, and signed " Your 
 friend Katharine." This act of condescension Jocelyn 
 mentioned with a justifiable vanity to his host's family, 
 and even showed the communication to some visitants 
 who happened to be dining at the Burgomaster's on 
 the day that he received it. 
 
 Our hero had now abundant opportunity for observ- 
 ing the numerous virtues, and appreciating the exalted 
 character, of Constantia. Cut off, by an utter discre- 
 pancy of tastes, habits and pursuits, from all intimacy of 
 communion with the boozing boors and smoking money- 
 getters that occupied the upper sphere of society in the 
 mercantile town of Rotterdam, her sympathies found 
 a vent in the exercise of an almost unbounded charity 
 towards the lower and more necessitous classes. To
 
 44 
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 these pious offices she was impelled, not less by her 
 religious convictions, and a deep sense of duty, than by 
 the naturally overflowing and enthusiastic kindness of 
 her disposition. In founding schools for the young, 
 infirmaries for the sick, and alms-houses for the old 
 and helpless, she had already expended thirty or forty 
 thousand ducats of the Burgomaster's money, who 
 never grudged the supplies, when the poor formed the 
 object of his bounty, and Constantia was his almoner. 
 To the grievous discomfort of Miss Vanspaacken, that 
 lady was always doomed to be the companion of her 
 charitable visits to the abodes of wretchedness. In vain 
 did she turn up her nose, assume a still sourer and more 
 distasteful expression than usual, and exclaim about 
 the dangers of infection : in vain did she declare that 
 it was horribly ungenteel, not to say indecorous, for 
 two young ladies to be seen coming out of such disre- 
 putable-looking hovels : actuated by a high impression 
 of duty, alike unsolicitous of human applause, and 
 indifferent to invidious misconstruction, Constantia 
 continued her course undaunted, dispensing happiness 
 wherever she moved, and almost worshipped as a 
 ministering angel by the numerous objects of her 
 benevolence. 
 
 The charms of female friendship had been added to 
 the gratifications derived from charity ; for Jocelyn 
 had often heard her mention, in terms of fervent and 
 unbounded attachment, a young Englishwoman, called 
 Julia Strickland, who had for some time resided at 
 Rotterdam with her parents, though circumstances had 
 since compelled them to take up their abode in the 
 Austrian Netherlands. As to the fire of love, how- 
 ever, she had been hitherto ignorant of its existence, 
 because it had wanted an object on which to fix ; but
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 45 
 
 though dormant, it was not extinct. Jocelyn supplied 
 that object; and, when the spark was once awakened, 
 the natural enthusiasm of her temperament soon kindled 
 it into a flame. He was the first noble specimen of 
 human nature that she had ever contemplated ; for as 
 to the baser beings with whom she had been hitherto 
 surrounded, she would no more dignify them with the 
 name of men than would Miranda have bestowed that 
 appellation upon Caliban. Virtually, he was to her 
 what Ferdinand had been to the solitary island-nymph ; 
 and her attachment, like that of Prospero's daughter, 
 was sudden and deep, because it partook of surprise 
 not less than of admiration. She was no longer so happy 
 as she had been ; she felt an unsatisfied void in her 
 heart ; she knew that her bosom enjoyed not its wonted 
 peace ; but yet she knew not that her complaint was love. 
 Will it be believed that Jocelyn, who, from the first 
 moment that he had been transfixed by her large ex- 
 pressive eyes, had never lost the recollection of those 
 glorious orbs who had cherished the thought of again 
 encountering them, with all the romantic constancy of 
 a first love who had been so possessed with her charms, 
 even in a transient glance, as to look with apathy upon 
 every other beauty who, since he had become ac- 
 quainted with the being that had thus bewitched his 
 imagination, had seen nothing that was not calculated 
 to exalt and sublimise his passion will it be believed, 
 that Jocelyn was less devoted to her now, than when 
 he worshipped her as the unknown beauty with the 
 large and lustrous eyes ? And yet he had not been 
 deluded by his fancy : his warmest anticipations fell 
 infinitely short of the reality ; her personal attractions 
 exceeded all that he had pictured in idea ; and he had 
 never calculated upon her musical talents, her intellec-
 
 46 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 tual endowments, her fervent piety, her unwearied 
 benevolence, and the unassuming modesty that chas- 
 tened the effulgence of her virtues. 
 
 Inconsistent as it may sound, it was perhaps this 
 very excess above his hopes that excited in him some- 
 thing like a feeling of disappointment. When she 
 impressed upon him in her discourse the beauty of 
 holiness, the charms of charity, the happiness of virtue, 
 and illustrated by example that which she enforced by 
 precept, he looked up to her with respect, admiration, 
 reverence, but not with love. He could gaze upon 
 her with delight as a vestal, a saint, a superior being, 
 set apart for high and holy purposes ; but he could not 
 fancy the fair enthusiast as a mistress or a wife. Na- 
 turally gay and lively himself, he looked for something 
 spirited, sparkling, and vivacious, in the partner who 
 was to cheer his present hours and gladden the decline 
 of life. Constantia was pensive, if not grave ; and the 
 seriousness of youth might easily deepen into melan- 
 choly in maturer life. She sometimes smiled, but 
 rarely laughed. He liked not a monitress for his wife ; 
 still less did he desire a mope : and he was himself 
 startled at the versatility of the human heart, when he 
 recalled the passion of his first impressions, and wound 
 up his present summary of her qualifications, by eja- 
 culating "No; I feel that I could never love Con- 
 stantia !" 
 
 This conviction received confirmation from the lapse 
 of time : his admiration increased as every warmer 
 sentiment diminished ; and he was never less disposed 
 to desire her as a wife, than when she received his 
 most unqualified homage as a woman. An opposite 
 process was unfortunately developing itself in the mind 
 of Constantia ; the stranger whom she had at first
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 47 
 
 contemplated with simple admiration was now con- 
 verted into an inmate that had become necessary to 
 her happiness ; and she kept feeding her heart with a 
 passion that only grew more intense as it became more 
 hopeless. 
 
 War had now broken out between England and Hol- 
 land, a circumstance which in the first instance threw 
 Constantia more than ever into the society of Jccelyn, 
 by occasioning the Burgomaster to make frequent ex- 
 cursions to Amsterdam, and to become deeply impli- 
 cated in political intrigue and faction ; though ultimately 
 it necessitated our hero to fly suddenly from the asylum 
 he had chosen, leaving the love-stricken Constantia to 
 feel for the first time the depth of the wound that had 
 been inflicted upon her heart. 
 
 " Donder ende blixem !" cried the agitated Burgo- 
 master, as he hurried one evening into Jocelyn's apart- 
 ment ; "I told you that Alderman Staunton should 
 have known better than to consign you to me. Gena- 
 digste God ! it was a black day, nigro lapide notandus, 
 when you took up your ill-omened abode under my 
 roof! Aha! young man, you have the unlucky mark 
 upon you : Jonas was not a more inauspicious shipmate. I 
 remember, I met the Aansprecker* on the day of your 
 arrival." 
 
 " What can possibly have justified such forebodings?" 
 inquired Jocelyn, not a little dismayed at this exordium. 
 
 " Hey, Slapperloot ! forebodings ?" resumed the 
 Burgomaster ! " they are something worse than fancies, 
 Signor Cavaliero. You may find that your coming 
 hither has been ' Van den wal in de sloot,' as we say 
 in Holland ; out of the frying pan into the fire. Incidis 
 
 ' Messengers dressed in a funeral garb, who are sent to inform 
 peopie of the death of their friends.
 
 48 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 in Scyllam, young man. I told you I had enemies, 
 villains of the Orange faction, who will swear away a 
 man's life and fortune for a zesthalven or a dubbeltje. 
 Some of these pestilent rogues have not only laid an 
 information before their High Mightinesses that I hold 
 frequent and secret communications with the Austrian 
 Netherlands and with England, a circumstance which 
 I can easily and satisfactorily explain, but that I enter- 
 tain an English spy in my house, one who, it can be 
 proved, receives letters from the Queen of England, 
 and people about the Court, who sends despatches in 
 return, and is vehemently suspected of having given 
 the information that led to the recent defeat of our 
 fleet. Upon this statement, which is verified upon 
 oath, the great council are at this moment sitting ; and 
 there can be little question that you will be instantly 
 committed to prison, while I shall be cited to Amster- 
 dam. Aha ! young man, think of that ! For myself, 
 my wealth and influence, which are better than inno- 
 cence, will presently get me clear ; but the Govern- 
 ment are sadly in want of some victim to appease the 
 popular fury at our defeat ; and, to deal candidly with 
 you, I do not think your head is worth two days' 
 purchase, if you remain in Holland. Aha ! think of that!" 
 
 " Good heavens !" ejaculated Jocelyn, " they will 
 not murder a man who can prove his innocence ?" 
 
 " They will give you no opportunity of establishing 
 any such unwelcome truth," replied the Burgomaster. 
 " You will be put purposely in the way of the enraged 
 populace ; and, after you have been massacred, you 
 can have no occasion for a trial." 
 
 " What, then, do you recommend me to do ?" in- 
 quired Jocelyn, with some agitation. 
 
 " There is but one course to adopt," resumed the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 49 
 
 Burgomaster; " you must fly instantly. Circumstances, 
 which I must not divulge, have occasioned a friend of 
 mine, one^of your countrymen, a Mr. Strickland, to 
 secrete himself in the Austrian Netherlands ; and it is 
 my correspondence with this gentleman that has origi- 
 nated one of these rascally charges, which, instead of 
 falling upon my own head, shall presently crush my 
 accusers. I will not be acquitted only, but revenged. 
 Quanto innocentior, tanto frontosior, as was said of 
 Janus. I will pull down my accusers, were each of 
 them as tall as the statue of Erasmus. Hey, Slapper- 
 loot ! Adrian Beverning is not to be felled with a straw, 
 nor pounded with a feather, aha !" 
 
 " But you were speaking of Mr. Strickland," inter- 
 posed our hero. 
 
 "Bonder ende blixem !" continued the indignant 
 Burgomaster, not noticing this interruption ; " am I to 
 be cited to Amsterdam, as if I were a whipper-snapper 
 apprentice ? Are they to issue their orders to a man 
 of a million think of that, Signer Cavaliero ! to a man 
 of a million, aha ! as if he had not a stiver in his 
 pouch ? By de heere God ! they had better catch a 
 wild Tartar by the beard, or tweak the mustachoes 
 of the Great Mogul. What were you saying, young 
 man ?" 
 
 " You alluded to a Mr. Strickland, " repeated 
 Jocelyn. 
 
 "True, true; 'tis to his hiding-place, which is a sure 
 and snug one, that I mean to consign you. He is 
 timid, reserved, solitary, and will not like an interloper; 
 but ' Hy moet wel loopen die door de duivel gedreven 
 woed ;' how say you that in English ? Quick ! Signer 
 Cavaliero, quick ! Night draws on, and you must be 
 down at Dordrecht before the moon is up. You shall 
 VOL. 11, E
 
 50 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 have one of my servants to attend you, whom I have 
 always employed in my communications with Strick- 
 land, because he speaks English as well as Dutch ; and 
 the pony he always rides, and which, by this time, 
 must know the way blindfold, shi-Jl have the honour to 
 convey you out of the territory of these domineering 
 and suspicious Hooghens Mooghens. Never mind 
 your effects, they shall follow you. Besides, better 
 lose a hat-box than a head : so presto ! are you ready ?" 
 Jocelyn declared that he only required ten minutes 
 for preparation ; and hastily putting together, in a 
 small valise, such articles as were more immediately 
 necessary for his journey, he ran to take leave of Con- 
 stantia. A confused murmur through the house, and 
 the bustle incident to the Burgomaster's hasty arrange- 
 ments, had prepared her for some unusual intelligence ; 
 but she started and changed colour when she under- 
 stood the imminent danger with which he was threat- 
 ened. " This is sudden, indeed," she exclaimed, " and 
 not less painful than unexpected. We shall miss you 
 sadly, indeed we shall! To Haelbeck, did you say? 
 then you will see my beautiful friend, Julia Strickland." 
 Casting her looks down to the ground at these words, 
 she seemed for a few seconds to yield herself to some 
 painful thought; but quickly raising up her head, and 
 shaking back the locks that had fallen over her fine 
 eyes, she continued with a proud animation: "and 
 you will see the purest and noblest of her sex one of 
 whom I may well boast as my friend, and you as your 
 countrywoman. But why waste we a moment, when 
 your safety is at stake ? For God's sake ! fly, Mr. 
 Compton ! every instant is precious." 
 
 " I have first a restoration to make," said Jocelyn, 
 if which I ought to apologise to Miss Beverning fcr
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 51 
 
 not having sooner performed " and he put into her 
 
 hands the white scarf of which he had kept possess on 
 ever since the Tournament at Paris. 
 
 Perhaps Constantia was rather piqued that he had 
 not evinced a greater disposition to retain it as a me- 
 morial ; for, as she received it, she replied coldly, if 
 not proudly " It is a trifle, Sir, which I had alto- 
 gether forgotten." In a moment, however, her ten- 
 derness returned, and, holding out her hand to 
 Jocelyn, she exclaimed, " Farewell, Mr. Compton ; 
 lose not another second, I implore you ! You are in- 
 nocent ; you will have the consolations of religion. 
 God grant that you may be happy !" As if afraid of 
 trusting herself any longer to the emotions that were 
 already imparting a tremulousness to her voice, and 
 beginning to suffuse her eyes, she bowed with an af- 
 fectionate look to Jocelyn, and walked hastily out 01 
 the room. 
 
 " Aha, Sir Landsridder ! Sir Knight of the Lance," 
 cried the Burgomaster, who was coming to hasten his de- 
 parture, though he had stopped on the way to clear his 
 pipe with a silver picker ; the horses are waiting ; better 
 five hours too soon than as many seconds too late : your 
 head may move off before you do, if you linger in Rot- 
 terdam. Think of that, young man ! Here is a letter to 
 my friend Strickland. Away with you over the frontiers ; 
 write to me if you want money : and so fare thee well, 
 Signor Cavaliero ! Dii tibi dent quse velis !" With 
 this valedictory prayer and a hearty shake of the hand, 
 i he worthy Burgomaster took his leave; Jocelyn im- 
 mediately mounted his pony, trotted along the streets, 
 followed by his Anglo-Dutch servant, passed through 
 the gate, and turned his back upon the populous, busy, 
 and thriving city of Rotterdam.
 
 52 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 -This the seat 
 
 That we must change for heaven ? this mournful gloom, 
 For that celestial light ! 
 
 MILTON 
 
 THE servant who had been selected to accompany 
 Jocelyn had been several years in the Burgomaster's 
 family, where he bore the somewhat ludicrous name of 
 Winky Boss, the former being a sobriquet originally ap- 
 plied to him by some of the English clerks, from his 
 odd habit of winking his eyes ; and the latter, a nick- 
 name also, of uncertain Dutch origin ; but both so 
 naturalised by process of time, as to have completely 
 superseded his baptismal and patronymic appellations. 
 Under a boorish slouching exterior, and a heavy phleg- 
 matic physiognomy, he possessed a good deal of shrewd- 
 ness and some little humour; qualities for which no 
 one would have given him credit from a casual obser- 
 vation. His eyes seemed to be the only feature that 
 could express emotion of any sort. Their twinkling 
 was a sure index to his feelings ; his fellow-servants 
 being enabled to discover anger in the quickness of the 
 motion and sparkling of the orbs, or laughter in their 
 sleepy leer ; while all the rest of his countenance pre- 
 served its usual imperturbable phlegm. Like many of 
 his countrymen, he considered his pipe almost a part 
 and parcel of himself; while he stoutly maintained 
 that, owing to the moisture and fogginess of the climate, 
 it was highly salutiferous and desirable to swallow a 
 dram wherever and whensoever it could be obtained. 
 His sobriety, notwithstanding, was unimpeachable :
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 53 
 
 he could drink all day with impunity : you might as 
 well attempt to intoxicate a sponge^ 
 
 The pony upon which Jocelyn was mounted had so 
 long been accustomed to carry Winky Boss, who was 
 a sort of domestic courier in the family, that it had 
 acquired something of its master's phlegmatical charac- 
 ter. Out of the regular bumping jog-trot to which it 
 had been accustomed, but which its present rider held 
 in special abhorrence, it evinced a stubborn resolution 
 not to deviate; and when Jocelyn endeavoured to 
 substitute his own will, by a smart application of the 
 whip, the mutinous quadruped gave such a sudden 
 plunge, and then stopped short, that any less expert 
 horseman would have been infallibly shot over its head. 
 As it was, the present rider did not appear likely to 
 gain much by keeping his seat; for the only motion he 
 could prevail upon the little mulish mutineer to adopt 
 was the rotatory, which it increased in velocity in the 
 same ratio as he redoubled the chastisement.' Like a 
 squirrel in a cage, our hero was now in full motion, 
 though making very little advance ; and it would have 
 been difficult to pronounce which he was most effec- 
 tually losing his time or his temper. Any one who 
 could have inspected his attendant's eyes at this spec- 
 tacle would have observed five little wrinkles at the 
 corners, as if they were holding their sides with laugh- 
 ter ; the orbs glistened all over with a latent chuckle ; 
 but as to the varlet himself, he sate looking on, as 
 grave and unmoved as a judge ; smoking his pipe, 
 and apparently in no kind of hurry for the conclusion 
 of the discussion 
 
 " How far are we from Dordrecht ?" inquired our 
 hero, out of breath with his exertions, and still per- 
 forming an involuntary pirouette.
 
 1*54 BRAMBLEfYE HOUSE. 
 
 " About three pipes," replied Boss, who had no other 
 idea of mensuration. 
 
 " As you are accustomed to this restive and intract- 
 able brute," said Jocelyn, " you can perhaps manage 
 him better than myself, and in that case we may as 
 well change horses." 
 
 " He is the quietest and the best pony in all Hol- 
 land," replied Boss : " you may treat him as you like, 
 and make him do what you please, if you only attend 
 to two rules." 
 
 " And, prythee, what are these magical secrets," 
 said Jocelyn, " that are to convert a wrong-headed 
 mule, which seems to have been intended for a live 
 tetotum, into the best pony in all Holland ?" 
 
 " You must never strike him, and you must always 
 let him choose his own pace." 
 
 " Then, in fact, he is to be the master instead of 
 myself," said Jocelyn. 
 
 " Ja, mijn heer," replied Boss, " and that will be 
 the better for both of you ; for the pace he will choose 
 will be an easy trot, the best adapted for such a long 
 journey as our's, and which he will keep up for a day 
 and night together, when a stronger-looking animal, 
 such as that I am riding, would drop from under you." 
 Dismounting at these words, he went up to the little 
 animal, which was still angrily shaking its ears and 
 circumvolving, and calling to it by the name of Pun- 
 chinello, it instantly stopped, and, whinnying as it 
 recognized its old rider, held up its head to receive th 
 embraces which he bestowed upon it, with a greater 
 appearance of affection than could have been expected 
 from so lumpish a stoic. Better acquainted now with 
 its peculiar temper, Jocelyn patted and caressed his 
 nag, which instantly fell with alacrity into its regular
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 55 
 
 pace, and both parties continued to jog on for some 
 time with every external sign of amity and reconcilia- 
 tion. This truce, however, was not of long continu- 
 ance ; for, on their shortly afterwards approaching a 
 bridge, the animal suddenly bolted on one side, scram- 
 bled down the bank to the stream, where it had occa- 
 sionally been led to drink by Boss, and, laying itself 
 down in the middle of the current, left Jocelyn to 
 scramble from its back, and wade to the opposite shore 
 in the best way he could. Fortunately the water was 
 not deep, so that he escaped for a wetting, which was 
 sufficient, however, to render the remainder of his ride 
 uncomfortable. 
 
 Winky Boss, in the meantime, had drawn up his 
 heavy Flemish steed on the further side, where, by the 
 help of a full-moon, he sate enjoying the catastrophe, 
 his eyes rolling in laughter, but the rest of his counte- 
 nance solemn and imperturbable ; while the smoke 
 oozed from a little aperture at one corner of his mouth, 
 with its usual regularity of puff. 
 
 " Curse you, for a phlegmatical Dutch stock-fish !" 
 cried Jocelyn, provoked at his apathy ; " have you 
 mounted me upon this perverse and skittish devil, that 
 I might afford you amusement? Is this another cus- 
 tomary trick of the best pony in all Holland ?" 
 
 " Neen, mijn heer, not customary," replied Boss 
 calmly, " though he served me so once ; but that was 
 before I knew him, and when I was fool enough to 
 maltreat him. This is nothing but a little playful bit 
 of revenge; a ducking for a whipping, that's all. It 
 is his way of crying quits; and I will forfeit my head, 
 which you will please to recollect includes my pipe, if 
 he gives you any further trouble : that is to say, pro- 
 vided you observe the rules."
 
 />O BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 " And provided also," added Jocelyn, " that we 
 can coax or pelt the brute out of the water, where it 
 seems disposed to take up its quarters for the night." 
 
 " As he assuredly would, if you offered to pelt him," 
 continued Boss ; " but we will try a better method." 
 So saying, he went to the water-side, and calling out, 
 " So, ho ! Punchinello ! Punchinello ! " the pony 
 whinnied, raised itself from its position, and, trotting 
 up to Boss, rubbed its head against his arm with all 
 the familiarity and lameness of a dog. " Now, then, 
 for another essay !" said Jocelyn, reseating himself in 
 the saddle ; " we shall in time have a better insight into 
 one another's character, and may therefore hope to be 
 upon more friendly terms together during the remain- 
 der of our ride." As they approached Dordrecht, how- 
 ever, he began to be apprehensive of fresh bickerings; 
 for Punchinello again quitted the road, and trotted up 
 to the door of a low house, where he stood still and whin- 
 nied. Jocelyn was looking round to his companion 
 for an explanation of this new freak, when the door 
 opened, and a squat little Vrouw, muffled up in a 
 worsted hood, exclaimed : " Hoe vaart gy? Hoe vaart 
 gy, Meester Boss ?" at the same time extending to 
 Jocelyn a long narrow glass of Schiedam gin. The 
 party for whom the dram was intended rapidly inter- 
 posed his arm, took the glass, and, instantly tossing 
 off the contents to prevent further mistake, said to 
 Jocelyn : " This is the sign of the Herring-Buss, mijn 
 heer ; a very good house, where Punchinello, poor fel- 
 low! always stops for a drop of water." 
 
 " And yourself for a glass of Schiedam," replied 
 Jocelyn, " which seems to be most mechanically handed 
 forth, without even the ceremony of an order." 
 
 " They always come to the door when they hear
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 57 
 
 Punchinello, and give it," replied Boss, " and it saves 
 one the vexation of taking the pipe from one's mouth." 
 In justification of Punchinello's imputed share in this 
 short halt, a boy presently appeared with a pail of water 
 of which the pony took a draught ; when Boss tossed 
 a stiver to the young ostler, and they resumed their 
 journey. From subsequent observation, however, it 
 became evident that the man was much more interested 
 in these baits than the beast ; for the latter stopped, 
 as a matter of course, at every public-house upon the 
 road ; and Boss, with equal regularity, took his glass 
 of Schiedam ; Jocelyn being afraid to interfere with 
 Punchinello's whims and fancies, lest he should break 
 out into fresh acts of insubordination ; and the servin"- 
 
 ~ 
 
 man declaring that it would appear both mean and 
 rude if he refused the dram, after the pony had thus 
 expressly called for it Thus they continued travelling 
 all night, the little nag fully confirming the favourable 
 character he had received, by quietly pursuing his career 
 as fresh and strong as when they first started, until the 
 increasing fatigue of the jaded animal on which Boss 
 was mounted compelled them to put up for a few hours, 
 and give both their steeds the refreshment and rest 
 of which Jocelyn himself began by this time to be in 
 want ; although his companion, fortified by his frequent 
 drams, exhibited no symptons of fatigue or weariness. 
 
 After a short repose they continued their journey on 
 the following morning, their course lying for some time 
 along the banks of a canal, bordered by a fine road and 
 an avenue of trees on one side, and on the other by 
 rich pastures and sleek cattle, interspersed with country 
 residences, the gardens laid out in prim parterres of 
 flowers, and generally terminated by little grotesquely- 
 decorated summer-houses that overhung the canal. In
 
 58 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE; 
 
 these alcoves the proprietors were often to be seen in 
 their drugget caps taking their morning pipe; some 
 recreating themselves with the dun bier which Lady 
 Compton had recommended to Jocelyn, though Sir 
 John had pronounced it to be swipes ; others with the 
 Zwaar bier, which may be designated brown stout ; a 
 few of the wealthier or more extravagant sort, indulging 
 in Rhenish wine ; and all awaiting the appearance of 
 the next Treckshuyt, or passage boat, which passed 
 and repassed them with the utmost regularity at fixed 
 hours. By this conveyance they sometimes received 
 letters, for the reception of which a little box overhung 
 the canal ; and if they had no despatches, there was 
 a chance of a nod from an acquaintance on the roof of 
 the boat, or from one of the windows below ; and at 
 all events they might inquire the news, and learn the 
 last market-prices of madders, spices, indigo, and colo- 
 nial produce at Rotterdam. In the course of the morn- 
 ing's ride, our hero overtook one of these aquatic stages 
 gliding methodically forward, at the rate of about four 
 miles an hour, and having on its roof an iron pot of 
 burning turf for the smokers, of which Winky Boss 
 availed himself, having suffered his pipe, by a rare act 
 of inadvertence, to become extinguished. 
 
 Prosecuting their route without any other intermis- 
 sion than what was required by Boss's horse, for Punchi- 
 nello seemed to pick up strength and freshness as he 
 travelled, they at length passed the frontier, and enter- 
 ed the Austrian Netherlands, when they relaxed their 
 diligence, and proceeded more leisurely. On the second 
 afternoon of their travels in this new territory, after 
 ascending a gentle eminence, Winky Boss rode up to 
 Jocelyn, and, pointing before him with his pipe, ex- 
 claimed " Yonder is the castle of Haelbeck ;" when
 
 BttAMBLETYE HOUSE. 59 
 
 he replaced the tube in his mouth, and resumed his 
 regulated whiffs. Our hero, at this intimation, cast 
 his eyes over a wild watery waste, intersected with 
 causeways, and dotted here and there with stunted 
 alders and willows, that marked a few fields and pas- 
 tures in which the cattle had very much the air of be- 
 ing impounded. But at first he looked in vain for the 
 building, until upon a closer survey he distinguished 
 the forlorn towers of the castle rising from the midst 
 of the swamp, and so much resembling in colour the 
 waters by which they were surrounded that they might 
 be rather deemed exhalations from the marsh, than any 
 edifice of human construction and abode. 
 
 " Is yon miserable-looking place the residence of 
 Mr. Strickland ?" inquired Jocelyn. 
 
 Winky Boss saved himself a monosyllable by nodding 
 his head. 
 
 " And does it always look out upon such a sheet of 
 water ?" resumed our hero. 
 
 " Not always," replied the party thus addressed, 
 giving the risible leer to his eye : " in fine weather you 
 have less water and more mud and slime." 
 
 " A pleasant and healthy exchange !" exclaimed 
 Jocelyn : " and, in the name of wonder, what can a 
 man do with himself when imprisoned in this miserable 
 morass ?" 
 
 " There are some carp and tench to be caught in the 
 shallows," replied his companion. 
 
 " But if a man detests the cruelty of drawing them 
 out of these shallows ?" 
 
 " In that case," said Boss, " he had better seek a 
 deeper place, and throw himself in. I don't see what 
 else a man is to do who does not smoke." 
 
 " Consolatory prospects!" cried Jocelyn: and ab-
 
 60 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 staining from any further queries, since the answers 
 they elicited were so little cheering, he rode forward 
 in silence towards his destined place of refuge. Nothing 
 could present a more lonesome, melancholy, and insa- 
 lubrious aspect than the inundated marsh in which 
 Haelbeck formed the sole secluded habitation. Every- 
 where the waters were overspread with a mantle of 
 green weeds, the uniformity of which was only broken 
 where the shallows allowed the alders, mallows, flags, 
 osiers, and other aquatic plants, to shoot above the 
 surface in rank overgrowth. Communicating with the 
 sluices and canals of the interior, there was a sluggish 
 motion in the water which it required accurate inspec- 
 tion to believe, and which, when discovered, imparted 
 to it a more slothful and sleepy effect than it would 
 have derived from absolute stagnation. In the lattei 
 case, the element might have only appeared to partici 
 pate in the general immobility of matter or the quietude 
 of death ; but this crawling of the surface implied some 
 lingering remains of life, a power of locomotion with 
 too much laziness or lassitude to exert it. Now and 
 then some bulky fish, that seemed to have been fatten- 
 ing for many years in this undisturbed liquid desert, 
 floundered up from its oozy bed, breaking by its sullen 
 plash as it re-descended into the water, the deep, dead 
 silence that hung over these mournful swamps. The 
 water- fowl that frequented them did, indeed, some- 
 times interrupt it by the flapping of their wings ; and 
 at other times it was disturbed by the wailful cry of an 
 old solitary stork, which, having lost its mate, continu- 
 ed to haunt the castle, upon the roof of which it had 
 found a habitation. The very air seemed to hang 
 heavily and ominously over this watery wilderness ; and 
 Jocelyn felt an oppression of spirits, in his approach to
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 61 
 
 Haelbeck, which was rather deepened than dissipated 
 by a nearer survey of the castle. 
 
 Built in a remote age, and suffered to fall into decay, 
 it had been repaired and fortified, by the sanguinary 
 Duke of Alva, as a station the natural strength of which 
 rendered it a fitting depot for his treasures ; while it 
 might afford a safe place of refuge for himself, in case 
 of sudden disturbance. Frederic of Toledo, his son. 
 had inhabited it for some time ; but, at a subsequent 
 period, the castle being found to be useless as well 
 as unhealthy, the fortifications were dismantled, and 
 allowed to fall a second time into ruin ; no part oeing 
 kept up but the range of apartments which had formed 
 the residence of the last noble occupant. Neglect, 
 lapse of time, and the damp atmosphere, had rendered 
 these so forlorn as to be scarcely habitable, when the 
 present tenant, conceiving the abode well adapted to 
 his purpose of concealment, obtained permission, by a 
 small gratuity to the governor of the province, to bury 
 himself and family within its walls. The money which 
 he had since expended in partial repairs had only 
 rendered the general dilapidation more signal and em- 
 phatic, converting the whole pile into that most deso- 
 late of all objects, an inhabited ruin. A building that 
 is abandoned to the ravages of time lessens our sym- 
 pathy by appearing to be resigned to its fate ; but 
 when, as in this instance, man is seen struggling with 
 the fell destroyer, it awakens a painful sense of human 
 evanescency and of the eventual hopelessness of the 
 contest. 
 
 Surrounded on three sides by the water, on the fourth 
 it was connected with the land by a long narrow cause- 
 way, across which had been thrown a triple range of 
 fortified gates to protect the castle in its only accessi-
 
 62 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE 
 
 ble approach. All these were now heaps of rubbish, 
 through which Jocelyn and his companion rode unob- 
 structed, till they reached a small postern that fronted 
 the principal entrance, and formed the present barrier 
 to the mansion. No sooner had Boss pulled the bell, 
 than the sound was followed by the loud baying of 
 deep-mouthed dogs, answered instantly by others in a 
 remote part of the building ; and immediately after- 
 wards, a narrow gothic window over the inner gates 
 being opened, the head of a wild and haggard-look- 
 ing man was protruded. The glare of terror in the 
 eyes, the neglected beard waving in the wind, the 
 sallow cadaverous visage, all wore the semblance of 
 a maniac looking out from his place of confinement, 
 as he exclaimed in an angry and agitated voice 
 to Winky Boss "Villain and traitor! how dare 
 you bring a stranger to my lair ? Who is he ? what 
 is he ?" 
 
 " A countryman of your own," calmly replied the 
 party thus fiercely addressed, " and a friend of Mr. 
 Beverning, from whom he bears you a letter." 
 
 " The worse welcome for being an Englishman," 
 replied Mr. Strickland, for such was the gaunt figure 
 at the window, " and is not one man enough for a 
 letter ? Advance a step further at your peril ! the fire 
 arms are always loaded. Give in your paper through 
 the wicket." With these words he disappeared : Jocelyn 
 handed the letter through the wicket to a servant, 
 whose face he could not see ; and was then left for 
 some time to form his own conjectures, no answer 
 being returned from the castle. 
 
 " There is a house at a few pipes' distance, though 
 we cannot see it," said Boss, " that will furnish us with 
 good Schiedam, Spanish tobacco, and forage for our
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 63 
 
 horses, should we be denied admittance here, which is 
 not unlikely." 
 
 " After so long a journey," replied Jocelyn, " nothing 
 would be more vexatious than to be kept out." 
 
 " Except being kept in," said Boss, leering slily at 
 the prison-like pile. 
 
 " In good sooth ! it presents no great external at- 
 tractions," continued our hero ; " but there may be 
 that within which passeth show, and at all events, I 
 shall be safe here from all unwelcome visitants." 
 
 " Except damp air and cold water," drily replied 
 Boss, " and such occasional intruders as wearisomeness, 
 the marsh-fever, and death." 
 
 " Hold thy croaking tongue, thou Dutch raven ! " 
 cried Jocelyn, becoming irate at this ill-timed freedom, 
 
 " or by all the dykes and dams of Holland " 
 
 The unbarring of the postern, and the heavy rumbling 
 of the gate as it was thrown back for their admission, 
 cutting short the remainder of his speech, he entered 
 the small court-yard, followed by his companion, and 
 dismounted. Punchinello instantly trotted off to the 
 stable, or rather ruined shed, which abutted upon one 
 corner of the enclosure; the postern was again closed, 
 barred, and bolted ; and our hero, being cautioned to 
 keep the middle of the court on account of the dogs, 
 advanced towards the great door. It was well that 
 he had been put upon his guard against the mastiffs 
 secured to the wall on either side, for they flew at him 
 as if they would have broken their chains, while their 
 furious baying was again echoed from others, who 
 seemed to be keeping guard at the opposite extremity, 
 or water-gate of the castle. Passing these fierce senti- 
 nels uninjured, he reached the entrance, which was 
 not less carefully secured than the postern ; and was
 
 64 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 at length ushered into the hall, a dark gloomy Gothic 
 chamber hung round with harquebusses, pikes, match- 
 locks, cross-bows, shields, swords, and armour of 
 antique construction, surmounted with bare poles, from 
 which the banners had long since rotted away, and 
 the whole warlike apparatus enveloped in one uniform 
 shroud of dark-coloured dust, that seemed to have 
 accumulated in the silence and desertion of forgotten 
 ages. 
 
 From this gloomy vestibule, he passed into an apart- 
 ment looking out through deeply-pierced oriel windows, 
 upon the desolate expanse of waters, from which the 
 mists of evening were already beginning to arise in 
 impervious clouds that rolled heavily around the build- 
 ing, as if to wrap it up in the winding-sheet of death. 
 The room itself was hung with faded moth-eaten arras, 
 the designs upon which were no longer recognisable ; 
 the massy antique furniture was darkened by the breath 
 of time ; the dusty mirrors seemed about to follow the 
 mouldered beings whose faces they had reflected cen- 
 turies before ; the chairs were in the last stage of de- 
 crepitude; every thing was superannuated, neglected, 
 forlorn. " Who are you? what are you? why do you 
 come hither ?" rapidly exclaimed the gaunt figure, 
 whom he had seen at the window, as he suddenly 
 stalked into the room, with a sword in his hand, and 
 stood upon his guard at a little distance from Jocelyn. 
 
 " I thought that our mutual friend, Mr. Severnin^, 
 had stated the cause of my involuntary intrusion upon 
 your retreat," replied our hero. 
 
 " He has merely mentioned that circumstances im- 
 pelled him to a measure which I must term a most 
 unwarrantable liberty," resumed Strickland. "True, I 
 am under obligations to him, heavy and not forgotten
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 65 
 
 obligations ; but, knowing as he does the tremendous 
 doom that would overwhelm me were I discovered 
 what ! after being hunted by blood-hounds, like a wild 
 beast, chased from kingdom to kingdom, baited by the 
 curses and the cruelty of mankind, as if I were another 
 Cain, outlawed, excommunicated, and driven to seek 
 refuge in this desolate and pestiferous morass, am I to 
 be denied the miserable consolation of being alone of 
 not seeing a single individual of the human race the 
 foul, fickle, and treacherous beings that I abhor ? 
 Once more, sir, tell me, who are you ? what are you ? 
 why do you come hither ?" 
 
 Jocelyn was proceeding to state his history as con- 
 cisely as possible ; but he had no sooner declared that 
 he lately held a situation in the Court, than his com- 
 panion started back, grasped his sword more firmly, 
 and exclaimed "Ha, sir! the Court? but 1 shall 
 be prepared for you. Proceed ! proceed !" 
 
 " And pray, sir," he continued, when his visitant 
 had finished his relation, " hew am I know that your 
 name is really Compton, or that there is one single 
 word of truth in your assertions ?" 
 
 "This is language which I can brook from no man," 
 cried our hero indignantly, " nor shall you again 
 question my veracity with impunity. You say that you 
 are suffering unmerited persecutions and misfortunes ; 
 so am I : and if a fellowship in calamity does not 
 entitle me to your hospitality, it shall not at least 
 expose me to insult." 
 
 "Tush! tush!" replied Strickland ; " it is no time 
 to stand upon punctilio, when every man's knife is at 
 my throat. When you have been exposed to as many 
 plots for your destruction as I have ; when you have, 
 suffered as much from baseness, ingratitude, and trea- 
 TOL. it. F
 
 66 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 chery, you will not put trust in sugared words, nor 
 place your life in the power of every Judas that may 
 greet you with the kiss of friendship. Lookye, sir ! I 
 do put a certain confidence in you : not in your aver- 
 ments, for I have known stout swearers that were double- 
 faced as Janus, false as the Prince of Darkness, but 
 in the assurances of Nature, who has stamped honesty 
 and honour on your brow. Lest she too should attempt 
 to cajole me to my own betrayal, it is well that we 
 should understand one another. You are welcome to 
 the protection of this wretched haunt ; and, if you are 
 truly the victim of misfortune, as you assert, it may 
 reconcile you to your fate to know that you share it 
 with one who is ten thousand times more miserable 
 than yourself, more heart stricken and hopeless, indeed, 
 than any man that breathes. But the possibility that 
 you may be what you profess will not throw me off 
 my guard." 
 
 With these words he opened his cloak, and, pointing 
 to the pistols that were belted to his doublet, conti- 
 nued " Behold, sir, what you are to expect if you 
 come to me as a spy, an enemy, and a villain ! Nay, 
 sir, knit not your brows in wrath, nor lay your hands 
 upon your sword. Those terms were only applied to 
 him who shall deserve them; and merited or not, I 
 am unmoved by angry looks, and wear a sword myself. 
 From this trusty steel, from these loaded weapons, I 
 am never separated either by day or by night. I have 
 solemnly sworn never to be taken alive ; and you will 
 soon too well know the value of an existence wasted 
 in this hateful fen, to doubt that I would cheerfully lay 
 it down in the fulfilment of my oath. And now, sir, 
 that we comprehend one another, I am ready to ac- 
 company you to the noble beings who have sacrificed
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 67 
 
 their own happiness in endeavouring to alleviate my 
 misery. God knows, I wished them not to resign the 
 world, odious as it is, and share this joyless exile ; but 
 they persisted, because they were women, because they 
 were of that sex which has engrossed all the virtues, 
 leaving hollowness, heartlessness, cruelty, deceit, trea- 
 chery, and every baseness, to that incarnate fiend 
 man. Now, sir, shall we join these brighter and 
 redeeming specimens of humanity ?" 
 
 " I am ready to follow you," replied Jocelyn, 
 bowing. 
 
 " I suffer no one to follow me," said Strickland, 
 smiling in bitter spirit. " As I consider every man my 
 enemy, I like to keep my eyes upon my foes. I would 
 fall like Csesar, and have my wounds in front. Daggers 
 and assassins come from behind. Nay, nay, sir, once 
 more : prythee, no splenetic reddening of the cheek, 
 nor choleric gesture of the hand ; for if there be offence 
 in my words, it is not personal to the individual, but 
 general to the species. Bear with my infirmity, if you 
 come to share my exile ; and heed not the growling of 
 the bear, since you have dogged him to his den. I 
 shall not often put your patience to trial ; for, though 
 under the same roof, you will have little of my society, 
 and none of my confidence. Walk on, sir." 
 
 Discourteous as was the language of his host, Jocelyn, 
 justly attributing it to the morbid state of his mind, 
 considered it rather a subject of pity than resentment, 
 and therefore obeyed in silence a mandate conveyed 
 in imperious terms, which he would not have brooked 
 from any other. Receiving directions as to his course, 
 he ascended the spacious stairs, dim even in the day- 
 time from the sombre colour of the cedar panels, and 
 now darkened by the gloom of evening, and entered a 
 
 F 2
 
 68 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 small square apartment, much more comfortable and 
 cheerful than that which he had just quitted. A fire, 
 rendered necessary by the perpetual damps, was blazing 
 in the hearth, and there were lighted lamps upon the 
 table, at which, before an open bible, supported on a 
 pile of other books, sate an elderly female, whom he 
 found to be the wife of his host. Though somewhat 
 advanced in years, her physiognomy was striking, 
 rather from its lofty, and perhaps masculine, expression, 
 than from any comeliness of feature. In the moulding 
 of her capacious brow, in the calm steadfast look of 
 her eye, in the character of her compressed lips, were 
 to be traced energy, courage, and firmness of purpose. 
 She appeared to be serious, though not melancholy ; 
 offering in every respect a contrast to her fearful, sus- 
 picious, wild-looking, hypochondriacal husband. 
 
 " I will not say that I am glad to see you," she 
 exclaimed to Jocelyn, " for nothing but dire and deep 
 misfortune could have brought you hither ; but if this 
 forlorn abode can give you the security you seek, I 
 shall rejoice in your having chosen it, not less upon 
 your own account than upon our's." 
 
 Jocelyn bowed, as he observed, that if it had no other 
 recommendation, it at least seemed admirably calcu- 
 lated for the purposes of concealment, though he feared 
 it was little adapted for a lady's residence. 
 
 " Every place has attractions to a wife that is 
 cheered by her husband's presence," replied Mrs. 
 Strickland. 
 
 The wild and restless eyes of the exile lost for a 
 moment their haggard character, as he turned them 
 affectionately upon his wife, exclaiming, " If female 
 friendship and devotedness could assuage my woes, I 
 need not be unhappy ; but, alas ! it gives acuteness
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 69 
 
 to my misery to think that I am most afflicting those 
 who love me the best. Our lively Julia, too ; where 
 is she ?" 
 
 "The dear wild girl was so rejoiced at the idea of a 
 visitor, "replied Mrs. Strickland, " that she declared she 
 would consult her glass and her toilet before she saw 
 him, lest she should frighten him away again. She 
 will return immediately." Her eyes dropped upon the 
 Bible as she concluded this speech; her husband seated 
 himself opposite to his guest, and a pause ensued, dur- 
 ing which Jocelyn had leisure to contrast the silent 
 and sombre figures before him with those wrought on 
 the tapestry, which represented Bacchus and Ariadne 
 in joyous procession, preceded by satyrs and fauns 
 sounding their crooked shells, followed by dancing 
 Bacchanals and singing boys, and the rear occupied 
 by a drunken group, whose united exertions could 
 hardly keep Silenus upright upon his long-eared quad- 
 ruped. From this contemplation, and the reverie to 
 wliich it was conducting him, he was aroused by the 
 sudden entrance of Miss Strickland, of whom he had 
 so often heard Miss Beverning make mention as her 
 beautiful friend Julia. 
 
 To this praise, however, rigorous judges of female 
 charms might have denied her claim, by availing them- 
 selves of the single exception to which she was liable, 
 her height being a trifle under the prescribed standard 
 of perfection. Of a brilliant, fair complexion, her eyes 
 were hazel, her locks a bright glossy brown. Her eye- 
 brows, which were of a much darker hue than was 
 warranted by the colour of her hair, generally assumed 
 that high peculiar arch which accompanies risible 
 emotion, and appearing to sympathise with the dim- 
 ples in either cheek, which were full of lurking laugh-
 
 70 ERAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 ter, imparted to her countenance a singularly arch, 
 joyous, and fascinating character, without however in- 
 juring its capacity for loftier or more serious expression. 
 Her mother's sedate looks brightened as she approach- 
 ed, and even the grim and ghastly wildness of the exile 
 was softened into an appearance of complacency, as, 
 covering his overgrown beard with his right hand, he 
 gazed upon the cheerful features, and listened to the 
 sprightly tones, of his daughter. Jocelyn was the more 
 delighted, as he little expected to encounter vivacity 
 of any sort in an abode that seemed dedicated to me- 
 lancholy. Pleasure was heightened by surprise : her 
 appearance was like a sudden flash of sunshine irradiat- 
 ing the gloom of a prison cell : there was contagion 
 in her smiling happiness, and her animation was the 
 more bewitching, because it seemed perfectly spon- 
 taneous and natural. 
 
 In a short time, however, the countenance of her 
 unhappy father again became overcast ; he had ap- 
 parently been communing in silence with his own sad 
 thoughts, for his eyes rolled with a suspicious wildness ; 
 and he was about to quit the apartment without utter- 
 ing a syllable, when Julia, running up to him, exclaim- 
 ed " Nay, my dear father ! you will not retire for the 
 night without hearing your favourite hymn. Here is 
 your arm-chair in your own fire-side corner ; the vir- 
 ginals are in good tune ; you must sit down and let me 
 sing to you : you have often said it was consoling to 
 hear me ; and I am sure it is not less so to me when I 
 am playing." 
 
 Having led her father to an arm-chair, she hurried 
 to place herself at the virginals. The character of her 
 countenance was now altered : it was sobered into a 
 serious and tender expression, which became gradually
 
 BUAMBLF.TYE HOUSE. 71 
 
 exalted into religious fervour as she sang the necessity 
 of submission to the dispensations of Providence, the 
 charms and consolations of piety, the vanity of all hu- 
 man enjoyments, the imperishable beatitudes of Heaven. 
 The calm of resignation again stole over the exile's 
 ruffled features, as he listened to so sweet a voice, 
 breathing the words of peace to his wounded spirit. He 
 rose when she had concluded, kissed her fondly on the 
 forehead, and, putting his handkerchief to his eyes, 
 walked silently out of the room. 
 
 " Our dwelling is a hermitage, so far as seclusion 
 can render it such," said Mrs. Strickland, " and we 
 keep the hermit's hours. Long days are for the happy ; 
 but for my poor husband, sleep is the greatest of 
 blessings, when he can obtain it, because it brings for- 
 getfulness. We retire early, and we rise with the lark. 
 Mr. Strickland performs his devotions in his own closet ; 
 the rest of our household will be shortly summoned to 
 prayers, after which we shall be obliged to bid you 
 good-night, and leave you to withdraw to rest at your 
 accustomed hour." 
 
 Jocelyn declared that the fatigues of his journey 
 would make him gladly conform to the family arrange- 
 ments in this respect ; and accordingly, after prayers 
 had been read to the assembled household, he bade his 
 hostess and her fascinating daughter good-night, and 
 was shown to his apartment. It assimilated with those 
 he had already seen : the hangings were of faded arrts, 
 the furniture exhibited the forlornness of departed 
 grandeur, and the bed, of danske worked with flow-ers 
 of gold and silver thread, had its canopy surmounted 
 with a plume of feathers, which shook down the dust 
 of many years' accumulation as he stretched himself 
 beneath them. For some time he was unable to sleep.
 
 72 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 The lone desolation of his abode in the very midst of 
 the watery wilderness, the wild, terrified, and woe- worn 
 looks of his host, conjectures as to the crimes or mis- 
 fortunes which had thus occasioned him to be excom- 
 municated by his species, reverence for his devoted 
 wife, and an unbounded admiration of the vivacious 
 and bewitching Julia, occupied his thoughts in succes- 
 sion, until the weariness of his body at length subdued 
 the activity of his mind, and he sank into a profound 
 sleep. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 True it is, we have seen better days, 
 And have with holy bell been knoll' d to church, 
 And sat at good men's feasts, and wiped our eyes 
 Of drops that sacred pity hath engender'd : 
 And therefore sit you down in gentleness, 
 And take upon command what help we have, 
 That to your wanting may be minister'd. 
 
 SIIAKSPEARE. 
 
 THE sun had not yet broken through the dense va- 
 pours that every night enshrouded the water-girt castle 
 of Haelbeck, when Jocelyn was awakened by a faint 
 wailing cry, followed by the plashing of some substance 
 in the waves below. At first he imagined that a dream, 
 engendered by the melancholy change of his residence, 
 had deceived his senses ; for although Winky Boss 
 had most gravely assured him that the castle was 
 haunted, he was little disposed at any time to super- 
 stitious fears, and had too good an opinion of ghostly 
 taste to believe that any of the tribe would take up 
 their abode in that aguish swamp, when they could 
 obtain so much better quarters upon dry land. The
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 73 
 
 sounds, however, being distinctly repeated, he arose 
 and opened the window, when something again fell 
 plashing in the water beneath; and, looking up, he 
 beheld the stork scratching and loosening the mortar 
 on the top of a ruined tower immediately above him. 
 At the noise he made, the solitary bird, again uttering 
 a plaintive cry, flew oft", and it was soon lost in the 
 watery exhalations, although the flapping of its wings 
 was heard long after it was out of sight. Not feeling 
 any further disposition to sleep, he dressed himself, 
 and descended into the apartment where prayers had 
 been read the night before. The Bible remained on 
 the table ; and, having the curiosity to examine the 
 books beside it, he found them to be the controversial 
 and political works of Milton, in Latin, with copious 
 marginal annotations in a female hand-writing, which 
 lie subsequently ascertained to be that of Mrs. Strick- 
 land. 
 
 He had been for some time engaged in looking over 
 one of the volumes, when the door opened and Julia 
 entered. 
 
 " You have understood us literally indeed," she ex- 
 claimed, with a winning smile. " When we told you 
 that we kept the hours of the anchorite, we meant not 
 to impose upon you such matin vigils." 
 
 " To me they are no penance," replied Jocelyn, 
 " for I have been accustomed to rise with the sun." 
 
 " You must depart from that custom here," replied 
 Julia, " or you will be a sluggard indeed ; for the god 
 of day forfeits his name in this paradise of the frogs ; 
 being often so completely lost in the mist as to be 
 unable to find his way to Haelbeck till the afternoon." 
 
 Jocelyn explained the circumstance that had dis- 
 turbed him, and occasioned his early rising.
 
 74 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 " I warn you beforehand," resumed Julia, not to be 
 alarmed at any strange noises you may hear in the 
 night-time, for the old castle seems sometimes to be 
 bemoaning its own crazy state, and sends forth groans 
 at midnight that attest a deeper feeling than you would 
 expect from its heart of stone. Besides," she con- 
 tinued, with a more serious air, " my poor father occa- 
 sionally wanders about it all night long, a circumstance 
 which it grieves me to state, but of which it is right 
 that you should be apprised. But how comes it that 
 neither you nor your servant brought me any letter 
 from my dear Constantia ?" 
 
 " The suddenness of my departure rendered it im- 
 possible," replied our hero ; " but she specially charged 
 me with all kind and cordial remembrances, and never 
 mentioned her friend at Haelbeck but with expressions 
 of the tenderest attachment." 
 
 " I am proud that she considers me worthy of her 
 friendship," said Julia. " Is she not a good, a noble, 
 a fascinating creature ?" 
 
 "Perhaps too noble, too exalted, or, at all events, 
 too serious and enthusiastic," replied Jocelyn, " to 
 meet my notions of a fascinating creature." 
 
 " And I shall be of course, as much too giddy and 
 volatile to please you," cried Julia, " as my friend is 
 too sedate and contemplative. You must have a crea- 
 ture made on purpose for you ; one that shall unite 
 the gravity of Melpomene to the playfulness of Thalia ; 
 a tragi-comic monster of conflicting excellencies. 
 You will have much more reason to wonder at rny 
 sprightliness, perhaps I should say my levity, than at 
 Constantia's staid and grave deportment. I will not 
 assert, with the giddy girl in the play, that ' I could as 
 soon be immortal as be serious ;' but I am blessed with
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 75 
 
 constitutional high spirits; and you will please to 
 recollect that I have to enact all the cheerfulness 
 that is to be performed in the dolorous castle of Hael- 
 beck." 
 
 " Which certainly requires an abundant supply of 
 that moral sunshine to dissipate its gloom," observed 
 Jocelyn. 
 
 " I am vain enough to believe," resumed Julia, 
 " that my silly gaiety sometimes fortifies my mother's 
 courage, and cheers the deep despondency of my 
 father; and as to the dismalness of this swampy prison, 
 it affects not me. There is a Spanish proverb which 
 says, ' Heaven sends the cold according to the clothes ;' 
 and the same benignant Providence, providing for the 
 comfort of the mind as well as of the body, seems to 
 dispense cheerfulness according to the urgency of the 
 need. The bird sings loudest in a cage, the negro 
 dances with unbounded glee in the midst of his servi- 
 tude, the galley-slave serenades the oar to which he 
 is chained, and the giddy-pated Julia Strickland plays 
 the part of Democritus in petticoats, in the very 
 abode which would have been chosen for its melan- 
 choly by the weeping philosopher of Ephesus. Oh, 
 how I would cry if a tear could get me out ! but, since 
 it cannot, I am determined to defeat the malice of 
 Fortune, by returning her a smile for every frown she 
 flings at me." 
 
 " Your's is, indeed, the pleasantest and truest phi- 
 losophy," said Jocelyn ; " but it is not on that account 
 the less difficult to practise." 
 
 "Difficult!" cried Julia " in what respect? Hap- 
 piness comes not from without, but from within : it is 
 but to borrow a little from imagination, and we may 
 metamorphose ill-omened owls, frogs, and bats, into
 
 76 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 pleasant ladies and gentlemen, with as much ease as 
 Ovid reversed the process ; and thus provide ourselves 
 with pleasant associations instead of those that are 
 revolting. A touch of Fancy's wand converts ' the 
 green mantle of the standing pool' into a verdant lawn 
 embroidered with lilies instead of daisies ; osiers and 
 alders supply me with arbutus and myrtle ; every 
 floundering carp is a sporting lamb or crooked dolphin, 
 according to the taste of the moment ; the floating 
 mists are the white sails of the gallant pleasure-boats 
 that skim the surface of yonder lake. I have a fine 
 old castle ready made to my hands ; the stork is my 
 warder, perched in the western watch-tower ; and as 
 to a Knight-errant, there is Sir Will-o'-the-wisp, known 
 afar off by the gleaming of his armour, who seizes 
 a bull-rush for a lance, a water-flag for his pennon, 
 and hies to the bower every evening to serenade me 
 with a concert of frogs and owls. See how soon 
 I have transformed Haelbeck into the gardens of 
 Hesperus, and converted myself into a heroine of 
 romance." 
 
 " I thought none but the bee could gather honey 
 from bitter flowers, and turn the poisonous to the 
 palatable," said Jocelyn, " but I find I was mistaken. 
 Your power of enchantment is doubly valuable, since 
 it not only secures your own happiness, but that of 
 every one who comes within your sphere. While you 
 can take such pleasant excursions with the imagination, 
 you need the less regret that they are denied you 
 from the water-bound walls of Haelbeck." 
 
 " I pray you, sir, disparage not thus our pleasant 
 bower !" exclaimed Julia. " Is there not the narrow 
 causeway, where you may diversify your walk by turn- 
 ing back when you are tired of going out ; sure of a
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 77 
 
 pleasant promenade, so long as you fall not over the 
 rubbish with which it is encumbered, and slip not into 
 the slime that hems it in on either side ? Is there not 
 moreover an old boat belonging to the castle, that is 
 hardly crazy and leaky enough to be in character ; 
 and an ancient Netherlander, who will ferry you from 
 one bed of weeds to another, till, in very wearisome- 
 ness of stagnant water, you will wish the wave were 
 Lethe, or your boatman Charon : unless you are too 
 fastidious to be pleased with anything, what would 
 you more?" 
 
 Our hero was about to reply to this sally, when the 
 entrance of Mrs. Strickland, and the preparations for 
 breakfast, gave a different turn to the conversation. 
 The latter politely regretted their inability to afford 
 him any amusement at Haelbeck (a declaration of 
 which he did not acknowledge the truth, so long as 
 he could enjoy the society of-Julia), but added that 
 such books as the castle afforded, of which only a few 
 were French, the rest being in Spanish, had been 
 ordered to be conveyed to his apartment. Mr. Strick- 
 land did not appear; indeed he very seldom afterwards 
 presented himself, even at meals ; and when he did, 
 his melancholy, silence, and reserve sufficiently con- 
 firmed his declaration that his visitor would have little 
 of his society, and none of his confidence. When 
 breakfast was concluded, the ladies withdrew, and 
 Jocelyn proceeded to examine his books, more and 
 more smitten by the vivacious Julia, and instituting 
 comparisons between her and Constantia, as com- 
 panions for enlivening the path of life, that placed the 
 former in the most captivating point of view, and threw 
 the latter to an immeasurable distance in the back- 
 ground.
 
 78 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Under the circumstances in which our hero was now 
 placed, it will hardly be expected that many incidents 
 could occur to vary that monotony of life which was 
 common to all the inhabitants of Haelbeck. It was 
 enough for him that it contained Julia, and he daily 
 congratulated himself upon that caprice of Fate which, 
 threatening him in the first instance with an exile of 
 the gloomiest and most revolting nature, had unex- 
 pectedly opened a paradise in the wild, and turned his 
 banishment into a blessing, by surrounding him with 
 all the fascinations of unrivalled beauty and vivacity. 
 
 One night, after the rest of the family had retired to 
 repose at their usual early hour, he took up Madame 
 de Scuderi's romance of Clelie, which had been given 
 Julia by her friend Constantia. Remembering the 
 enthusiastic terms in which the latter had spoken of 
 this production, and anxious to know something of a 
 work which was then eagerly devoured by the most 
 civilized nations of Europe, he continued turning over 
 its multitudinous pages and skimming their contents, 
 little interested in such extravagant exaggerations of 
 an embellished humanity, and yet desirous of knowing 
 to what fantastical conclusion they would lead, until 
 the hour of midnight was at hand. There was no 
 clock at Haelbeck, however grateful it might have 
 been to some of its inmates to be told, from time to 
 time, that they were an hour nearer to their final 
 emancipation. The crane was at rest in his western 
 tower ; the owls had given over their melancholy hoot- 
 ing ; the frogs had croaked themselves to sleep ; and 
 even the watch-dogs, whose deep-mouthed baying 
 was generally the last to cease, had yielded up the 
 castle to the custody of fogs and silence. Surprised 
 at the lateness of the hour, when he inspected his
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 79 
 
 watch, he closed the ponderous tome, and ascended 
 the stairs for the purpose of retiring to bed. 
 
 Just as he had reached the entrance of his apartment, 
 he was startled by the sound of footsteps at the fur- 
 ther extremity of the corridor ; and it is difficult to 
 express his feelings of amazement, not unmixed with 
 alarm, when he saw his unfortunate host stealing along 
 the passage with a drawn sword in one hand, and a 
 lighted lamp in the other ; while Mrs. Strickland, who 
 followed close behind him with agitated looks, and 
 who had already recognized Jocelyn, motioned to him 
 to withdraw, and immediately after laid her finger upon 
 her lips to enjoin silence. Partly complying with this 
 intimation, he retired withinside the door ; but an 
 irresistible impulse of curiosity induced him to leave 
 it ajar, that he might behold the fearful spectacle that 
 was approaching him. 
 
 The wretched, mind-shattered exile was walking in 
 his sleep, apparently labouring under some horrible 
 and agonizing delusion. The ghastly glare thrown by 
 the lamp upon his cadaverous features and grisly 
 beard ; the glittering of his drawn sword and of the 
 pistols in his belt (for he was without his cloak) ; his 
 teeth clenched, and his hair standing on end wi^i hor- 
 ror ; the wild desperation of his fixed unwinking eye ; 
 his stealthy pace, and the menacing shake of the 
 weapon as he clutched it with convulsive twitches; 
 combined to render the figure as hideous and appal- 
 ling an apparition as ever was presented to the human 
 eye. He passed in silence ; and as Mrs. Strickland 
 reached the door, she exclaimed in a hasty whisper to 
 Jocelyn, " The fit is on him : my poor husband ima- 
 gines himself to be pursuing the phantom that haunts 
 his dreams : he is asleep ; but if you encounter him
 
 80 BRAMBI.ETYE HOUSE. 
 
 in these moods, for the love of Heaven! notice him not ; 
 or his desperation, if suddenly awakened, might be 
 fatal to you. He will perform the round of the castle 
 and return to his bed. Mention not what you have 
 seen to any soul that breathes, and least of all to Julia." 
 
 With these words she passed on ; and Jocelyn, eager- 
 ly gazing after her, saw the spectre-haunted sleep-wal- 
 ker turn out of the passage at its further extremity, 
 followed by his affectionate wife, who was accustomed 
 to his infirmities, and both by day and night seem- 
 ed to watch over him like his guardian angel. The 
 corridor was now again involved in silence and dark- 
 ness, and Jocelyn at length retired to bed, although 
 the frightful spectacle he had just witnessed, and a 
 thousand conjectures as to the cause of such a lamen- 
 table state of mind in the unfortunate exile, not only 
 prevented his sleeping for some time, but subsequently 
 disturbed his slumbers by the most terrific dreams and 
 all the revolting phantasmagoria of the night-mare. 
 
 At breakfast the next morning Mrs. Strickland exhi- 
 bited her usual firmness and self-possession, taking no 
 notice whatever of the last night's occurrence, and con- 
 ducting herself in every respect as if nothing had hap- 
 pened. Upon this, as upon several other occasions, 
 Jocelyn was led to admire the calm fortitude of her 
 character, which rose in his estimation when he con- 
 sidered the privations to which she was exposed, and that 
 the husband, who might have cheered her solitude, 
 only saddened the gloom of the day by his hypochon- 
 driacal melancholy, and gave horror to the night by 
 labouring under delusions that almost amounted to 
 insanity. Nothing but a lofty principle could have 
 enabled this high-minded being to wage such an un- 
 daunted battle with Fate. As a woman, indeed, she
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 81 
 
 deeply felt the severity of her trial ; but she flinched 
 not from her duty, however painful it might be, as a 
 wife ; and above all, she was resigned to her lot, what- 
 ever it might prove, as a Christian. 
 
 Julia's constitutional gaiety, exalted into something 
 of a pious sentiment by her firm conviction that " cheer- 
 fulness is the best hymn to the Divinity," was exposed 
 to less severity of trial ; for both her parents, fearful 
 of lowering the delighful buoyancy of spirit that form- 
 ed their dearest solace, carefully concealed from her, as 
 far as they could, whatever might give her pain. She 
 knew indeed, their sad and fearful history; that her father 
 was oppressed by habitual melancholy ; that in some 
 of his sleepless nights he occasionally wandered about 
 the house : but of the darker visitations to which he 
 was subject, and of the imminent plots and perils that 
 environed him, she remained ignorant. Whenever these 
 distressing moods threatened to unhinge his mind, her 
 mother immediately removed him to his own apart- 
 ment ; and this was the reason why Jocelyn saw so 
 little of his ill-fated host at the period of which we 
 are writing. 
 
 Of Julia, however, he necessarily saw more, as the 
 time of Mrs. Strickland became more completely usur- 
 ped by her unfailing attentions to her husband. He 
 had now frequent opportunities of accompanying her 
 as she played upon the virginals, a recreation to which 
 they both became passionately attached at the same 
 moment, attributing to their love of music that pleasure 
 which was probably derived from their love of one 
 another, quite as much as from any combinations of 
 harmonious sound. Sometimes the old Netherland 
 boatman, whose likeness to Charon was so striking 
 that Julia declared it made her involuntarily put her 
 
 VOL. II. G
 
 8Q BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 hand in her pocket for an obolus, rowed them to some 
 little distance, where they either tried the effect of 
 their voices on the water, or Julia sketched the castle, 
 with some grotesque accompaniment, or satirical touch 
 at herself and Jccelyn, or Winky Boss and the old 
 crane, not forgetting the owls and frogs ; and thus 
 converted the whole scene into a ludicrous caricature. 
 Exhilarated by the break in her solitude which Jocelyn's 
 visit occasioned, her vivacity became more brilliant and 
 mercurial than ever. Her head and heart sympathised 
 faithfully together, the wit sparkling as the bosom be- 
 came lighted up with joy. Our hero was delighted, 
 fascinated, entranced ; Julia was not less struck by 
 the many qualifications of her companion : in short, 
 they were falling in love with one another as fast as 
 they possibly could, without either of them having con- 
 sidered the expediency of that measure, or the proba- 
 bility that it could lead to any satisfactory conclusion, 
 under the circumstances in which they were mutually 
 placed. 
 
 Thus affairs continued for sometime, when our hero, 
 being one day led by curiosity to explore the recesses 
 of the castle, was struck by the appearance of an an- 
 cient figure wrought in the tapestry at the termination 
 of a narrow passage. It represented some Spanish 
 warrior, probably the Cid ; for there were numerous 
 crosses on his arms, and he was trampling upon the 
 Moorish insignia. One of the upper corners having 
 fallen away from the frame that supported it, Jocelyn 
 endeavoured to replace it, and was pressing for that 
 purpose upon the brass nail or button to which it ap- 
 peared to have been originally fixed, when it acted as 
 a spring, and the whole frame started back six or eight 
 inches. Pushing it further open, he found that the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 8,3 
 
 passage continued on the other side; the piece of tapes- 
 try being in fact a secret door, contrived for some pur- 
 pose of concealment, or of communication with other 
 parts of the building. No one, perhaps, ever hesitated 
 about prosecuting an unexpected discovery of this sort, 
 unless deterred by fear; and, as Jocelyn was a stran- 
 ger to that feeling, he set about the completion of his 
 snterprize with all the ardour of curiosity. By leaving 
 Dpen the tapestry-door, sufficient light was admitted 
 into the passage to guide him for some way ; and at 
 a considerable distance he beheld another thin stream 
 of light, appearing to proceed from some narrow aper- 
 ture. 
 
 Immediately directing his steps to this point, he 
 found that the ray was admitted through a hole in the 
 tapestry, behind which he was standing ; the opening 
 being sufficiently large to give him a complete view 
 of the apartment within, and yet not capacious enough 
 to expose him to discovery from any persons who 
 might be in it. At this moment it was untenanted., 
 although it bore marks of recent occupancy. Its ap- 
 pearance was not very dissimilar from that forlorn 
 chamber into which he had first been ushered upon 
 his arrival, save that there was a painting in good pre- 
 servation affixed to the wall over the fire-place. It 
 represented the murder of some unfortunate personage, 
 whose rich dress attested his elevated station, and who 
 was seen in the act of falling from his horse ; while 
 his assassin was walking calmly away, holding up his 
 bloody dagger in order that an angel descending from 
 lie sky might drop a wreath upon its point, and at 
 he same time deposit another upon the bearer's head. 
 focelyn was endeavouring to discover the subject of 
 his painting, when the door of the apartment opened, 
 
 G 2
 
 84 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE 
 
 and the exile slowly entered, holding, as usual, his 
 sword in his hand. His involuntary observer would 
 have instantly withdrawn, but, remembering the caution 
 he had received from Mrs. Strickland, and aware that 
 he could not retire without making a noise, which 
 might irritate the terrors of his host, and perhaps goad 
 his morbidly sensitive mind to some act of madness, 
 he thought it better to remain perfectly motionless and 
 silent. 
 
 Thus compelled to act the spy, he observed that the 
 unfortunate man was not now under the influence of 
 disturbed sleep, nor apparently so much agitated as 
 usual. His appearance, however, was still wild and 
 haggard ; and, though the motions of his body were 
 calm and slow, the compression of his lips, and the 
 peculiar expression of his eye, showed that there was 
 desperation in his mind. His right hand was muffled 
 up in a handkerchief, as if it had been recently wounded. 
 After having deposited his sword upon the table, and 
 his pistols by its side, he took from a drawer a case of 
 surgical instruments, opened it, drew out a knife and 
 a saw, which he placed by the side of the weapons, 
 and for some seconds contemplated the whole appara- 
 tus of death with such a look of grim and yet trium- 
 phant despair, that Jocelyn concluded he had resolved 
 upon committing suicide, and that he felt a horrible 
 satisfaction in having provided such a choice of means. 
 All minor apprehensions being merged in this imminent 
 and paramount danger, he was about to burst through 
 the tapestry, and rush to arrest his fatal purpose, when 
 he was again rivetted to the spot on which he stood 
 by the sudden appearance of Mrs. Strickland. 
 
 " You are come in good time," exclaimed the exile 
 in a calm voice, as he seated himself in a chair " I
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 85 
 
 was waiting for you : I am ready : the deed must be 
 done now. It visited me again last night." 
 
 " What visited you ?" inquired his wife. 
 
 " He !" cried the exile in a fierce tone, " he ! the 
 spectre the phantom the man that is dead and 
 buried the apparition that haunts me in the dark- 
 ness ! He whom I have chased night after night with 
 my sword, but who still returns to madden me with 
 bis hideous ghastliness." 
 
 " Strange that this fearful dream should thus often 
 be repeated !" exclaimed his wife with a deep sigh. 
 
 " Dream !" cried the exile, smiling in bitterness of 
 spirit "it was no dream; and if it were, may not 
 such night visions be prophetic, and from the Lord ? 
 was it not thus that he revealed his will to Abimelech, 
 and Jacob, and Laban, and Joseph ; although he 
 refused thus to answer Saul before the battle of 
 Gilboa ? Did not Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar " 
 Here he suddenly broke off and started up, rivetted 
 his eyes to the wall, and, moving them slowly as if 
 following some object to the door, exclaimed in an 
 agitated whisper " There it was again ! there ! there ! 
 did you not see it ?" 
 
 "See what? my dear husband!" inquired Mrs. 
 Strickland; "there is nothing." 
 
 " It has again glided out of the door and escaped 
 me," replied the exile, replacing upon the table the 
 sword which he had suddenly grasped. Passing his 
 hand slowly over his eyes, which he repeatedly shut 
 and opened, as if to collect his faculties, he proceeded 
 in a more composed tone " I believe I am somewhat 
 overworn with sleeplessness I felt a little dizzy, but it 
 is gone. We will proceed to our dreadful task. There 
 is no one, I hor>e, in this quarter of the castle."
 
 86 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 " Not a soul," repliea his wife " it is never visited." 
 
 "Hist! hist! did I not hear a noise? surely the 
 arras moved." 
 
 " These tattered hangings are often agitated by the 
 wind that gets behind them," replied his wife. " Com- 
 pose yourself, my dear husband ! no breathing being 
 can be near us." 
 
 " Perhaps so, for the phantom cannot breathe," 
 exclaimed the exile " we will make all sure." He 
 locked the door, and, returning to his wife, continued 
 in an earnest and eager whisper " Last night, as I 
 told you, I was awakened from deep sleep by the noise 
 of undrawing my bed-curtains, and, starting up, I he- 
 held the grisly apparition that for ever haunts me. The 
 livid ghascliness of death was upon his features ; Ins 
 eyes were sunk down in their sockets ; his beard was 
 clotted with gore ; and as I stretched out my arm to 
 grasp my sword, a sepulchral voice exclaimed 'By 
 that right hand was I consigned to death !' At these 
 words the spectre pointed to his wound, where the 
 mark of the weapon was still red and angry, and there 
 issued from the gash a thin stream of blood, which, 
 spouting towards me, fell upon my right hand ; in- 
 stantly after which the figure became invisible. On 
 arising this morning I observed that the accursed 
 stain was still branded on my flesh, stamped in to so 
 indelible a depth that the stubborn crimson has re- 
 sisted all my exertions to wash or tear it way. You 
 have doubted of this nightly visitant, you have termed 
 it a dream, a delusion, now then behold the visible, 
 the unanswerable, the red, the damning proof of what 
 I have asserted !" 
 
 So saying, he untied the handkerchief in which his 
 hand was wrapped, unbuttoned the sleeve of his
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 87 
 
 doublet, turned back the shirt of mail which he always 
 wore next his skin, and, pointing to the back of his 
 hand, exclaimed, " Behold ! there is the sanguine 
 stigma, running up the wrist even to my arm." Under 
 the influence of his delusion, he had been violently 
 rubbing this particular part, until he had produced a 
 redness of the skin, which confirmed him in his hallu- 
 cination. " Now," he continued, with a desperate 
 calmness, " prove yourself to be still the devoted wife 
 I have ever found you. Where it not my right-hand, 
 myself would do it ! Here are surgical instruments, a 
 knife for the flesh, and a saw for the bone ; cut then 
 boldly, and fear not. Away with this blood-spilth ! 
 Off with this spotted flesh ! Hack out the root of this 
 filthy gore ; and if the bone itself be stained, break it, 
 saw through it, amputate the whole arm. Be not 
 afraid, I will not flinch, nor utter a single groan. I 
 can bear pain, torture, agony; but I will not be branded 
 with the badge of Cain !" 
 
 Distressed as she evidently was, his unfortunate wife 
 did not lose her presence of mind in this embarrassing 
 dilemma. Seeing that he was too fully possessed with 
 his delusion to listen to any arguments of reason, and 
 knowing, by experience, that it did but irritate him in 
 these moods to doubt the reality of his impressions, 
 she attempted not to disabuse him of his phantasma, 
 but lent herself for the moment to the alienation of his 
 mind. Minutely examining the supposed stain upon 
 the hand, she expressed her fears that she should be 
 obliged to cut deep, though there could be no doubt 
 of its ultimate eradication, felt his. pulse, declared that 
 he ought to be refreshed by sleep before the operation 
 could be safely performed, and, reminding him that she 
 had come unprepared with bandages, finally proposed
 
 88 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 that every thing should be adjourned till the mor- 
 row. 
 
 "To-morrow be it!" cried her husband, again 
 covering up his hand, " a few hours' deeper misery 
 can make little difference in one so habituated to 
 wretchedness as I am. It is at least a consolation to 
 have ascertained the unflinching affection of my wife ; 
 and a still greater to have proved to her the reality of 
 that night-phantom whose visitations she has so per- 
 severingly doubted." 
 
 Soothed with this notion, and gratified by the new 
 proof his wife had afforded of her devotedness, he con- 
 versed for some time, in a mood so calm, collected; 
 and almost cheerful, that the affectionate woman ex- 
 claimed, " Oh ! Valentine Walton ! Valentine Walton ! 
 would that I could see your once-noble mind as it now 
 is, if it cannot be altogether restored to its former 
 courage." 
 
 " Who says I am Valentine Walton ?" cried the 
 exile, looking around with returning terror " there is 
 death arid doom in that excommunicated name. Hah ! 
 was it you, my faithful wife? forgive me forgive 
 me !" He held out his hand to her with an affectionate 
 look, and, seeming to recover his self-possession as he 
 pressed the hand of his wife, he continued in a calmer 
 tone ; " Why do you recal to me what I was ; how 
 wide the sway I once possessed ; how uniformly, how 
 ardently I exercised my extensive power for the hap- 
 piness of my fellow-creatures ; how basely, how foully 
 the villain, man, has requited me ! Never cr.ention to 
 me my name, now hated by myself as much as it is by 
 others. Never remind me that he who was once a philan- 
 thropist has now too much reason to be a misanthrope.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 89 
 
 Never tell me how high I once stood, unless you can 
 conceal from me how low I am now fallen !" 
 
 " And am not I too fallen ?" exclaimed his wife with a 
 calm dignity. " I, the sister of the greatest sovereign 
 that ever sat upon a throne ! I, that might once have 
 claimed influence over a mighty kingdom ! I, that am 
 now the proscribed refugee, who must hide her head in 
 the watery dungeons of Haelbeck ? Yet you have never 
 heard me repine, for I share the misfortunes of my 
 husband. You have never seen me yield to despon- 
 dency ; for I still possess undiminished sway over the 
 kingdom of my mind ! The good that we have both 
 done in our days of power cannot be taken from us. 
 If unrequited upon earth, it remains registered in 
 heaven. So fickle a breath as public opinion cannot 
 constitute the virtue or vice of our actions." 
 
 " But it may make the happiness or misery of the 
 actor," replied her husband with a groan ; " especially 
 if, like me, it has been the passion of his soul to pur- 
 chase fair fame, and golden opinions from all men ; 
 especially if, like me, he can find no respite even in 
 misanthropy, and is rendered unceasingly wretched by 
 having forfeited the good opinion even of the beings 
 that he hates. Look at yonder picture," he continued, 
 pointing to the representation over the fire-place. "Oh 
 blind, fickle, brainless, brutal race of man ! See how 
 that base assassin was honoured, rewarded, canonised; 
 
 while I for what am I reserved ? an ignominious 
 
 scaffold will close my life ; curses and contempt will 
 be my posthumous honours !" 
 
 " Nay, yield not to these gloomy reveries," cried his 
 wife ; " here we are safe and forgotten ; here will we 
 tender consolation to one another ; here will we close 
 our weary pilgrimage together."
 
 90 BRAMBLETYE IIOUSS. 
 
 " It may not be," sorrowfully resumed the exile. 
 
 " The last letters from our excellent friend Beveming 1 
 have filled me with new apprehensions. The great 
 ones of the earth are conspiring together against me ; 
 there are frequent meetings of the ambassadors ; the 
 Spaniard is about to league with England. I must 
 again fly from my lonely lair, or encounter the new 
 stratagems and plots, the new snares and pit-falls, that 
 will be remorselessly laid for my life." 
 
 " We may defeat them again, as we have done 
 before ; " replied his wife. " When necessary, we 
 have the means of flight ; till then let us discard the 
 world and its hostilities from our thoughts. Resume 
 your wonted courage, my dear husband, and remem- 
 ber that it is not danger that is terrible, but the per- 
 petual fear of it. Come, shall we join our clear 
 Julia ?" 
 
 " Willingly," exclaimed the exile with a languid 
 smile. " God knows I have need of something to 
 cheer me. Where is she ? Where is she ?" A transient 
 animation passed over his wild and haggard features, 
 as the wretched man put his arm within his wife's, 
 and was led out of the room to seek his daughter. 
 
 As Jocelyn retired from the scene of which he had 
 so unintentionally been rendered a spectator, he was 
 not only perplexed with a thousand vain conjectures 
 as to who and what these mysterious exiles could be, 
 but he was a prey to contending feelings of the most 
 painful nature. Sympathy with the sufferers, and this 
 he felt in no common degree, could not blind him to 
 the horrible nature of the crime which appeared to have 
 reduced the wretched exile to his present deplorable 
 state. Here was a man concealing himself, under a 
 feigned name, and in an uninhabited morass, who had
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 91 
 
 virtually confessed himself to be a murderer and a 
 murderer too under such aggravations of atrocity that 
 he was not only placed under ban and interdict, and 
 driven out from all society with man, but haunted by 
 the horrible creations of his own guilty conscience. He 
 had himself alluded to the probability of his finishing 
 his miserable career upon a public scaffold. His wife 
 might be a pattern of exalted virtue, she might have 
 truly boasted her relationship to a sovereign ; but no 
 merit, no high connection, could wash away the deep and 
 deadly guilt of her husband, or remove the infamy that 
 attached to it. However illustrious might have been their 
 former rank, it was evident that the world considered 
 it no diminution of the exile's offence ; or they would 
 not both be pursued through various countries with an 
 unrelenting rancour, that was only visited upon cri- 
 minals of the blackest die. 
 
 Then came the most distressing question of all. 
 Could he marry the daughter of people so circum- 
 stanced ? Hitherto he had been content to admire, to 
 gratify his taste, to fall in love, without ever thinking 
 of marriage. It was only when that consummation 
 presented itself to him as impossible, that he began to 
 discover how fervently he desired it ; how necessary it 
 was to his happiness. Julia was doubtless as innocent 
 as she was fascinating, and he could not place her 
 purity in a more exalted point of view ; but she was 
 the daughter of a murderer, who might be consigned 
 to public execration and infamy on the gibbet ; she 
 was a wanderer upon the face of the earth ; she was 
 living under a feigned name ; she might have other 
 relations who were as objectionable as her father. 
 
 Day after day did he revolve these considerations in 
 his own mind, and they invariably conducted him to
 
 92 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the same result the necessity of renouncing his 
 thoughtless attachment. Vigorous and sage were his 
 resolutions to this effect, for his judgment was fully 
 convinced, but his heart, unfortunately, was no party 
 to the prudential dictates of his head. When he again 
 saw the bewitching Julia and listened to her vivacious 
 sallies ; when he considered her forlorn and joyless lot, 
 and weighed the injustice and cruelty of visiting the 
 crime of the guilty upon the innocent ; when, above all, 
 he found reason to believe that he had awakened a 
 tender interest in her heart ; all the impediments to 
 their union vanished from his view, and he could hardly 
 avoid declaring his passion at once, and offering to 
 share her fate, whatever it might prove. 
 
 While love was thus struggling with prudence, he 
 received, after a long interval of silence, a letter from 
 Tracy, the contents of which were highly gratifying. 
 Bagot, to the surprise of his own surgeons, had recover- 
 ed, and his health was so completely re-established 
 tha lie was upon the point of setting out as a secretary 
 to the Swedish embassy. The Duke of Buckingham, 
 having laid a wager that he would die, had quarrelled 
 with him for getting well ; and had even been heard to 
 express a hope that young Compton would perform his 
 work more effectually the next time they encountered ; 
 so that there was no longer any apprehension of animo- 
 sity in that quarter. Lord Rochester had been released 
 from the Tower, had married Mistress Mallett, in whose 
 abduction Jocelyn had been an unwitting assistant, was 
 in greater favour than ever with the King, and was 
 exerting his influence with Lady Castlemaine to procure 
 a pardon for Jocelyn. These friendly offices were 
 cordially seconded by the young Duke of Monmouth, 
 whose influence was almost omnipotent, and by the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. Uo 
 
 Queen, as far as her more circumscribed means of pro- 
 moting his interest allowed her to interfere : so that 
 his correspondent expressed a firm conviction that his 
 pardon would shortly be pronounced in form, and con- 
 cluded with recommending his immediate return to 
 England, if he still entertained the idea of pushing his 
 fortunes at Court. 
 
 This concluding recommendation our hero determined 
 instantly to adopt, for the fortunes of his father were 
 involved in his own; and, if he were disposed to neg- 
 lect the one for the indulgence of an ill-starred passion , 
 he felt that he had no right to compromise the other. 
 And yet he shrank from the idea of renouncing Julia, 
 unless he could prove beyond a doubt that her father's 
 predicament rendered the prosecution of his passion 
 utterly impracticable. At times he was disposed to 
 flatter himself that the morbid exile, in the distempera- 
 ture of his brain, might have exaggerated his own 
 delinquency ; a surmise that could be only refuted or 
 confirmed by a knowledge of his real history, so far as 
 it was connected with his present banishment. To 
 obtain this information, he determined upon sounding 
 Julia, giving her reason to apprehend that his decision, 
 as to his remaining or not at Haelbeck, might be in- 
 fluenced by the statement he should receive. 
 
 While he was again looking over his letter, after 
 having settled this little plan in his own mind, Julia 
 hastened up to him, exclaiming, with her usual 
 vivacity 
 
 " I give you joy, Mr. Compton, I give you joy !" 
 
 " Of what ? " inquired our hero. 
 
 " Of a letter," resumed Julia, " of something that 
 liberates your mind from the dolorous prison of Hael- 
 beck, that carries your thoughts over these dreary
 
 94 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 battlements far away into the gay world, and among 
 the haunts of men, of something that proves you are 
 not cut off from your species, but still possess frienas 
 however distant, who can stretch out their minds to 
 you, and embrace you by their hand-writing." 
 
 " So far it is doubtless pleasant," replied Jocelyn, 
 " but I have friends who are nearer and dearer to me 
 than those at a distance, and from whom this letter 
 may summon me suddenly away." 
 
 " Indeed!" exclaimed Julia, starting, while her face 
 and neck were suffused with a deep blush " are you 
 going to quit us ? then may I truly give you joy of 
 your emancipation." 
 
 " I fear there may be a liberty without joy," answered 
 Jocelyn ; " and my residence here has proved that 
 there may be an imprisonment without regret, so long, 
 
 at least, as it is shared with one whom 1 wish not 
 
 to receive congratulations, and especially from you, 
 upon an event that may separate us for ever." 
 
 " I felicitated you, not myself," said Julia, casting 
 her eyes upon the ground; "your departure will, in- 
 deed, deepen the gloom of Haelbeck, and render doubly 
 necessary that determined elasticity of mind which in 
 men would be termed philosophy, but which in us poor 
 women must be content to bear the name of animal 
 spirits, giddiness, levity, want of feeling, any thing, 
 in short, but good sense." 
 
 " Will you acquit me of idle curiosity," continued 
 Jocelyn, '' and do me the justice to believe that I have 
 important reasons for the question, if I ask when your 
 own captivity is likely to be terminated ? " 
 
 " Idle curiosity is, of course, limited to our sex, 
 with all other frivolous propensities," replied Julia, 
 " or I should ask you why you put the question."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 95 
 
 " Believe me, Miss Strickland, that I am actuated 
 by motives in which our mutual happiness may be 
 deeply implicated." 
 
 " Why then, believe me, Mr. Compton, that I know 
 no more of the matter than the gentleman to whom I 
 must refer you for an answer videlicet the Man in 
 the Moon." 
 
 " Excuse the remark," resumed Jocelyn, " and at- 
 tribute it to the same weighty considerations, if I im- 
 plore you to be serious, and take the liberty of observ- 
 ing that you must, at least, know the circumstances 
 that have driven Mr. Strickland to this place of 
 banishment." 
 
 " I do, sir," replied Julia, with a reserved air, " and 
 my lips will for ever remain closed upon a subject that 
 is too awful, too harrowing, to be even adverted to 
 without feelings of anguish and humiliation. In pity, 
 sir, forbear. The tendency of your questions places 
 before me the full extent of my unhappy fate ; shows 
 me what I might have hoped, and what I must re- 
 nounce. Leave me, Mr. Compton, and pursue your 
 more fortunate lot ; dark as mine may be, I will share 
 it to the last with my wretched father ! Farewell ! re- 
 turn to the world forget that it contains such a place 
 as Haelbeck, such a being as myself; and I too, will 
 
 endeavour to for " For a moment her feelings 
 
 overcame her, and she was unable to articulate the 
 remainder of the word, but, instantly recovering her- 
 self, and rapidly exclaiming " Farewell ! farewell ! " 
 she hurried out of the apartment.
 
 96 BKAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 What would you have, you curs ! 
 
 He that depends 
 
 Upon your favours swims with fins of lead, 
 
 And hews down oaks with rushes. Hang ye trust ye ! 
 
 With every minute you do change a mind ; 
 
 And call him noble that was once your hate, 
 
 Him vile that was your garland. 
 
 SHAKSPEAUE. 
 
 DURING the whole period of our hero's residence at 
 Haelbeck, which had now extended to a considerable 
 length of time, none of its inmates had received any 
 tidings whatever from Rotterdam ; a silence which, 
 under any other circumstances, would have excited 
 considerable uneasiness ; but as Jocelyn had mentioned 
 the suspicions, and even accusations, to which Bever- 
 ning had been exposed from his frequent communica- 
 tions with the Spanish Netherlands, and the secret 
 manner in which they were conducted, they took it 
 for granted that he had found it prudent, for the pre- 
 sent, to abstain from all notice of his expatriated friends-; 
 and could not blame a caution which had become as 
 necessary for their safety as his own. To the exile, 
 indeed, nothing could be more gratifying than the be- 
 lief that he was totally forgotten by all the world ; every 
 arrival was to him a subject of fresh apprehension ; 
 the very sight of a letter agitated his nerves, and shook 
 his soul to its foundations ; and the death-like quietude 
 and monotony of Haelbeck would have, perhaps, 
 soothed him into a more patient endurance of his 
 miseries, could he have chaced away the phantoms
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 9? 
 
 that gave horror to the night, anc) rendered unavailing 
 all the tranquillity of the day. 
 
 There were reasons, however, for the silence of the 
 worthy Burgomaster, of a much more serious descrip- 
 tion than entered into their conjectures. It has been 
 mentioned that, at the period of Jocelyn's sudden 
 departure from his house, he had been summoned to 
 Amsterdam, to answer certain charges of a political 
 nature ; charges which he had treated with indignant, 
 contempt, declaring that he would not be satisfied with 
 mere acquittal, but must have an ample revenge upon 
 his perjured accusers. In the confidence of his power, 
 and the consciousness of his innocence, he had antici- 
 pated a triumph which the result of his examination 
 did not, by any means, justify ; for he had neither 
 made sufficient allowance for the virulence of party 
 feeling, which then embittered the different political 
 factions, nor for the rancour of that jealousy which 
 was entertained towards himself personally. In all 
 countries the worshippers of Plutus regard with an evil 
 eye the brother who enjoys the smiles of the deity in a 
 superior degree to themselves, thinking, perhaps, that 
 their own portion would be larger were it not for the 
 accumulations of this favoured individual : on the 
 present occasion this feeling was aggravated by differ- 
 ence of political opinion. Beverning was of the Re- 
 publican party, at the head of which was the celebrated 
 Pensionary De Witt; many of those, before whom he 
 was summoned, were of the Orange faction, and almost 
 all regarded him with envy. His invariable success in 
 his adventures to the Indies and elsewhere, his superior 
 opulence, his magnificent establishment, even his ex- 
 tensive charities, were subjects of sore jealousy to the 
 merchant-magistrates of Amsterdam, who, now that 
 
 VOL. II. H
 
 98 ERAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 they had got this successful rival in their clutches, 
 seemed determined to exert their superior power, by 
 humiliating and insulting, even it' they could not legally 
 condemn, him. 
 
 In the exercise of this vindictive jealousy, they ques- 
 tioned and cross-questioned him with an arrogance 
 which the proud and bold-spirited Burgomaster was 
 the last man to bear with patience. He did, however, 
 command himself so far as to explain and utterly refute 
 everything that was laid to his charge ; but when he 
 was told that his conniving at Jocelyn's escape, how- 
 ever innocent he might be, was an act of contumacy 
 towards their High Mightinesses that merited condign 
 punishment ; when he was twitted with the undue 
 sumptuousness of his establishment, and jeeringly in- 
 formed that the rich cargo of the Vrouw Roosje had 
 turned his head ; when he was desired to answer the 
 frivolous and vexatious questions put to him, with the 
 respect due to his superiors, the wrath, which had for 
 a long time been gathering heat, at length boiled over 
 in a loud slap of his hand upon the table, and a furious 
 exclamation of: " Bonder ende Blixem ! Superiors!" 
 This startling exordium was instantly followed by a 
 torrent of vituperative eloquence, wherein their High 
 Mightinesses were told they were pettifogging huck- 
 sters, and paltry pedlars, and cozening costermongers, 
 fitter for the shop-board than the Council-board, and 
 much better qualified to cure red herrings than the 
 diseases of the state : at the conclusion of which ha- 
 rangue, he snapped his fingers at them in scorn, and 
 state down fuming with indignation. 
 
 The philistines were not more astounded when Sam- 
 son shook their own temple about their ears than were 
 these Caesars of the Counting-house at the storm they
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 99 
 
 had brought down upon their heads. To beard them 
 thus in their own hall was to deny Diana at Ephesus ; 
 the sacrilegious offender was ordered instantly to quit 
 their presence, which he obeyed with an angry dignity, 
 lifting up his ample figure, puffing out his cheeks, sur- 
 veying them with that sort of look which a lion may 
 be supposed to cast at the barking curs whom he has 
 just felled with a blow of his paw ; and ejaculating, as 
 he got to the door: " Hey, Slapperloot ! Superiors!" 
 No sooner had he disappeared than a furious debate 
 ensued as to the punishment to be inflicted for so 
 daring an outrage on the constituted authorities. Not 
 contemplating that their High Mightinesses could ever 
 be pelted with such opprobrious epithets, the law had 
 provided no penalty for the offence. Under these cir- 
 cumstances they undertook to supply the omissions of 
 the Statute Book, by condemning him to a smart fine 
 and a month's imprisonment, claiming to themselves 
 the praise of egregious magnanimity for not visiting 
 him with a much heavier judgment. 
 
 To the month's imprisonment, although he knew it 
 to be perfectly illegal, and it prevented his superintend- 
 ing the unlading of his darling Vrouw Roosje, he might 
 have submitted with that sort of patience which arises 
 from consoling oneself with projects of future revenge ; 
 but they touched the apple of his eye when they fin- 
 gered his cash. Lavish as he was in expenditure, he 
 could not bear to witness the waste of a single stiver ; 
 to be robbed of it was ten times worse ; and this was 
 a wholesale instance of both, combined with insult, 
 illegality, and oppression. He paid the money, how- 
 ever, still considering them his debtors, and looking 
 forward with something of a Shylock satisfaction to the 
 moment when they should give him blood for his gold, 
 
 H 2
 
 100 BHAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 At the time of his examination, his illustrious friend, 
 De Witt, who was no less distinguished as a com- 
 mander than as a statesman and patriot, had been ab- 
 sent at sea, successfully fighting the battles of his 
 country. He was now returned, and the worthy Bur- 
 gomaster immediately confided to him the wrongs he 
 had suffered, and the plans he meditated for humbling 
 the pride of his oppressors. Both were staunch Re- 
 publicans ; conceiving the war with England unneces- 
 sary, as well as impolitic, they had strenuously opposed 
 it from the beginning ; and they were now, more than 
 ever, anxious to terminate it, as they saw that it was 
 throwing all the influence into the hands of the Orange 
 faction, whose designs were well known to be inimical 
 to the liberties of Holland. For the accomplishment 
 of their first object, a peace between the two countries, 
 they employed as their agent a Frenchman named 
 Buat, who had originally been appointed, by the Prince 
 of Orange, a captain of the Horse Guards ; and hav- 
 ing subsequently married a Dutch woman of fortune, 
 and appearing to be well affected to the States, was by 
 them confirmed in his command. In vivacity, quick- 
 ness of parts, and a remarkable aptitude for intrigue, 
 this man was admirably adapted to their purpose ; but 
 he had one besetting sin, which at times utterly dis- 
 qualified him for an enterprize that required vigilant 
 secrecy and self-possession. Such was his addiction 
 to wine, that he occasionally suffered its treacherous 
 influence to obtain complete mastery of his reason ; 
 and indeed he was often heard to praise the cold and 
 foggy climate of Holland as the best in the world, since 
 it was constantly necessary to repel its chilling assaults 
 by the generous warmth of the grape-juice; adding 
 that no one could now accuse him of living to drink,
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 101 
 
 as they had done in France, when, in fact, he was 
 only taking medicine, and drinking to live. 
 
 This acute, but slippery and dangerous, man entered 
 into a correspondence with Lord Arlington, the British 
 Secretary of State, sounding him as to the conditions 
 on which peace might be expected, carrying on the 
 correspondence in cypher, and showing the letters as 
 he received them to De Witt. During the progress of 
 this secret negociation, the Burgomaster of Rotterdam 
 incautiously communicated with Buat by letter, darkly 
 alluding to what was going on, but indulging in open 
 and not very measured abuse of the parties in power 
 at Amsterdam. 
 
 Either from his natural predilection for intrigue, or 
 from an apprehension that De Witt and the Republican 
 party would be dispossessed of all power, the French- 
 man despatched his friend Silvius to London, with a 
 second private cypher for carrying on a correspondence 
 with the Orange party in Holland, thus intending to 
 supplant De Witt, by whom he had been originally 
 employed. But this plot upon plot could not be con- 
 ducted with impunity, by one who suffered wine to 
 get into his head when it should have been kept clear 
 for these ticklish and complicated machinations. Re- 
 turning home one night in a state of intoxication, 
 singing with much more glee than distinctness of ar- 
 ticulation his favourite song 
 
 Quelle coleur est plus vermeille 
 Que le Nectar de ma bouteille ? 
 C'est crime d'y mettre de 1'eau, 
 Rien n'est si beau. 
 Quand on en boit, sa douce flamme 
 Chatouille jusqu'au fond de 1'ame, 
 Faites m'en raison, 
 Rien n'est si bon.
 
 102 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Just as he concluded his chanson a boire, he was en- 
 countered by De Witt, who asked him whether he had 
 received any fresh letters from England. " Yes," re- 
 plied Buat, " I have one in my pocket, and you shall 
 see it immediately if you will lend me your arm, for 
 my eyes are so bad at night that the houses seem to 
 be turning round, and I may tumble into one of the 
 canals ere I reach my own door, which is the last 
 death I should wish to die, having a most pious ah* 
 horrence of water." 
 
 At these words he took a letter from his pocket, 
 looked at the superscription, and handed it to De Witt, 
 who opening it, and seeing at a glance that it was in 
 a different cypher, requested him to walk on a few 
 paces, as he had some orders to give at the guard-house, 
 but would overtake him presently. This promise he 
 performed, but he came accompanied by a file of sol- 
 diers, who placed the Frenchman under arrest, and 
 then proceeded to his house, and seized his cabinet, 
 where all his letters and the new cypher were disco- 
 vered. A court of justice was hastily erected for his 
 trial, and in three days the unfortunate Buat was 
 beheaded. 
 
 By a most unlucky chance for the Burgomaster, his 
 letters remained in the cabinet at the time of its 
 seizure. The dark allusions to the secret negociations 
 with England, the abuse of the Dutch Government, 
 the former charge of his harbouring an English spy in 
 his house, the recent punishment he had suffered for 
 his audacious contumely, aH seemed to conspire in 
 proving him to be a traitor and an enemy to his coun- 
 try. A thousand exaggerations were instantly circu- 
 lated through the city, and the popular fury being 
 artfully inflamed by his political and commercial ad-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 103 
 
 versaries, a tumultuous and ungovernable rabble hur- 
 ried towards his residence, swearing that they would 
 be satisfied with nothing but his immediate destruction. 
 De Witt, however, found means to apprise his friend 
 of his danger, urging him to instant flight, and coun- 
 selling him to conceal himself till the storm had blown 
 over and the populace could be disabused of their 
 error. The Burgomaster knew the blind and brutal 
 character of a Dutch mob, and saw that not a moment 
 was to be lost. Hurrying with Constantia into his 
 cutter, he was soon sailing down the river with a fa- 
 vourable breeze. As he intended passing over to 
 England, where Winky Boss might prove useful from 
 his knowledge of the language, while his fidelity, under 
 any circumstances, entitled him to a preference in 
 selecting- a servant to accompany him in his flight, he 
 communicated to him in a few words the imminency 
 of his present peril, directing him to put up in a valise 
 some papers of importance which he instructed him 
 where to find, and follow him without delay to Maas- 
 landsleys, at which place he should await his arrival. 
 To avoid suspicion he was ordered to leave the city in 
 an opposite direction, and make a considerable detour 
 before he reached the appointed place of meeting. 
 
 All this did Winky Boss perform with his usual deli- 
 berate and accurate observance of orders. The papers 
 were carefully secured, the valise was strapped to his 
 back, he was equipped in his travelling garb, mounted 
 upon the back of Punchinello, smoking his pipe, and 
 proceeding cut of the city at an easy trot, when upon 
 turning the corner of a street he found himself in the 
 very midst of the infuriated mob, who were hurrying 
 towards the Boompies, for the purpose of arresting the 
 Burgomaster. Being recognized by some of these
 
 104 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 worthies, he was seized, pulled from his horse, and his 
 valise torn from his back before he had time to prepare 
 for defence, even could it have availed him against 
 such a formidable host of assailants. The contents of 
 the valise, which was hastily ransacked, not only con- 
 firmed the rumours of the Burgomaster's escape, which 
 now began to reach them from other quarters, but suf- 
 ficiently betrayed that the bearer was proceeding to 
 join his master, wherever he had concealed himself. 
 
 " Whither has the traitorous Burgomaster betaken 
 himself?" cried a fierce-looking fellow, who seemed to 
 be the leader of the rabble. 
 
 " I don't know any such person," calmly replied 
 Boss, 
 
 ' : I mean your villanous master," resumed the same 
 party. 
 
 " I have no villanous master," answered Boss. " I 
 am no servant of yours !" 
 
 " Saucy scoundrel ! you will not deny that you 
 serve Adrian Beverning?" 
 
 " No ; I am too proud of such a master to deny 
 him." 
 
 " And you know where he is at this moment." 
 
 " Ja, Ja," replied Boss, with a familiar nod of his 
 head. 
 
 " Then why did you not tell us so in the first 
 instance 1" 
 
 " Because I have no intention to do so, either first 
 or last." 
 
 " Villain !" resumed the fellow, holding a long pointed 
 knife to his throat, " have you now a mind to dis- 
 cover ?" 
 
 " Not the least in the world," replied Boss, with the 
 utmost seemintr indifference.
 
 SRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 105 
 
 " Cut out his stubborn tongue !" exclaimed another 
 of the mob. 
 
 "Do!" said Boss; "I shall be more likely to tell 
 you then :" and as he said this, he slowly puffed a 
 mouthful of smoke into the face of this new assailant. 
 
 " Curse the fellow !" continued the same party, " he 
 seems to mind his pipe more than our threats." 
 
 " A good deal more," replied Boss, favouring him 
 with another whiff, which so provoked the recipient 
 that he violently dashed the pipe out of his mouth. 
 
 Boss had endured, with patience, the scurrilous 
 terms applied to his master and himself; but an insult 
 to his pipe was beyond the limitations assigned to his 
 phlegm. His eyes began to wink and sparkle with 
 rapid coruscations, and though the rest of his face was 
 as imperturbable as if he had been cut out of wood, his 
 limbs appeared to sympathize with his optics ; for he 
 suddenly raised his muscular arm, and, with one blow, 
 laid the destroyer of his pipe sprawling upon the ground, 
 amidst its fragments. 
 
 This was the signal for a general tumult and assault : 
 knives were drawn and flourished, fists began to rain 
 blows upon the broad shoulders of Boss, and it would 
 probably have gone hard with him, had not the leader 
 of the rabble, in a loud and authoritative voice, ordered 
 them to desist ; reminding them that the prisoner was 
 perhaps, the only person who could guide them to the 
 traitorous Burgomaster's retreat, and that the torture 
 would presently wring the secret from him. 
 
 "I will state nothing," cried Winky Boss, "to an 
 angry mob, which may pervert every thing I utter into 
 a crime ; but if you will take me before the Justiciary 
 Vanderhoof, I will make a deposition of all that I 
 know."
 
 106 BUAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 "To the Justiciary! Away with him to the Justi- 
 ciary !" cried the many-headed monster; and they 
 forthwith began hauling him to the opposite extremity 
 of the town, where that functionary dwelt ; and which 
 was the sole reason why his name had been mentioned 
 by the prisoner. Considerable time was gained for his 
 fugitive master, by his thus diverting the attention of 
 the mob ; nor was he a whit more disposed to give 
 them the information they sought, when they at length 
 reached the magistrate's residence. No sooner did 
 that personage understand the object of this unexpected 
 visit, than he seated himself with all due ceremony in 
 his hall of justice, bidding his clerk prepare to take 
 down the deposition of the prisoner ; but Winky Boss 
 declared he would save him that trouble, as he had 
 changed his mind for the present ; adding, however, 
 that if his worthy friends, the mob, would do him the 
 favour to call at the same hour, on the following day, 
 he should have no objection to tell them all he knew, 
 as he calculated that by that time the object of their 
 search would be completely beyond their reach. 
 
 The previous wrath of the populace was a halcyon 
 serenity compared to the fury with which they were 
 seized, at being thus defied and cajoled. Again were 
 their long knives brandished in the air, as they de- 
 manded the prisoner with loud cries : in vain did the 
 magistrate implore them not to sully the hall of justice 
 with murder. They rushed impetuously towards their 
 intended victim ; when the justiciary, who feared that 
 he might be rendered, in some way, responsible for an 
 assassination committed in his presence, opened a pri- 
 vate door, that communicated with his dwelling-house ; 
 pushed the prisoner in, closed it again, and, placing 
 himself before it, declared that he would allow no one
 
 BllAMBLETYE HOUSE. 107 
 
 to pass, but that he would hold himself accountable 
 for the production of the supposed delinquent, whenever 
 his examination could be safely resumed. 
 
 At this moment, two or three voices cried out, "To 
 the Boompies ! to the Boompies ! Let us attack the 
 Burgomaster's house !" and the versatile mob, at- 
 tracted by the hope of plunder, instantly echoed the 
 cry, and sallied forth to wreak that vengeance upon 
 the property of the master which they had been pre- 
 vented fiom inflicting upon the person of the servant. 
 Miss Vanspaacken, who had, at her own request, been 
 lei't in charge of the mansion, having received some 
 obscure intimations of the meditated attack, had 
 already ordered all the doors to be closed ; and no 
 popular assault would have easily forced a massy struc- 
 ture, originally built for defence, had due preparations 
 been made for repelling it. Nothing of this sort was 
 meditated, Miss Vanspaacken relying sufficiently upon 
 the effects of her oratory, to .believe that she could 
 tame the savageness of the mob, and induce them to 
 spare the house which she inhabited, as religiously as 
 the Spartans respected the abode of Pindar, when they 
 sacked the city of Thebes. 
 
 To give this experiment a fair trial, she betook her- 
 self to a lower gallery, whence she harangued them 
 in a speech, as neat as her own formal habiliments. 
 Every syllable was distinctly articulated ; the double 
 a's were expanded to their full breadth, and she had 
 never been more happy in the strict grammatical use 
 of the subjunctive mood. But the mob, unfortunately, 
 were in the imperative mood ; they commanded her to 
 open the doors, and their mandates not being obeyed, 
 they proceeded to pelt her with objectionable missiles, 
 and to batter the principal entrance with the beam of a
 
 108 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 crane, which they tore down for that purpose. Soon 
 obtaining admittance, by this rough expedient, they 
 rushed into the house with loud cries of triumph, exhi- 
 biting the same blind and brutal rage in the work of 
 pillage and demolition, that led them, at a subsequent 
 period, to assault and massacre their best friend, and 
 the last remaining champion of their liberties, the 
 illustrious De Witt. 
 
 Such of the costly furniture as could not be conve- 
 niently carried off was broken and destroyed ; the 
 rare exotics and rich roots were thrown from the bal- 
 conies and windows, the museum, with all its curiosities 
 and quaint devices of clock-work and mechanism, was 
 scattered and trampled under foot ; the matchless mar- 
 bles, and exquisite statues of the gallery, were barba- 
 rously cast down and mutilated. In the progress of 
 this work of devastation, a party of the rioters ap- 
 proached a door, before which Miss Vanspaacken was 
 keeping guard. During her long domiciliation with 
 the Burgomaster, his generosity had enabled this lady 
 to amass a considerable sum, which he had repeatedly 
 urged her to lay out in some secure investment ; but 
 she knew so much better than any body else the best 
 disposition to make of her property, and, moreover, 
 was so perfectly well acquainted with the insecurity of 
 all the methods recommended to her for its profitable 
 employment, that she preferred hoarding, and suffer- 
 ing it to lie unproductive, to incurring the smallest 
 risk. This over-caution, as is not uncustomary in such 
 cases, defeated its own object ; in vain did she assure 
 the marauders that the apartment she was guarding 
 was exclusively her own, and contained not a single 
 article belonging to Mr. Beverning ; in vain did she 
 endeavour to propitiate their favour by declaring that
 
 RRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 109 
 
 she had always detested his politics, that she believed 
 him to be guilty, and hoped he would be apprehended 
 and punished. This sordid and ungrateful artifice only 
 exciting their suspicions that there must be some im- 
 portant treasure to conceal, they burst open the door 
 in spite of all her obtestations, and entered the apart- 
 ment. 
 
 For some time they discovered nothing to justify 
 their presentiments. A closet, however, still remained 
 unsearched. This also was broken open, and found 
 to contain some female apparel, and an old deal box, 
 of which she voluntarily tendered the key, most 
 solemnly declaring that it contained nothing but some 
 children's books, which had remained in her possession 
 ever since she kept school. It did indeed exhibit a 
 copious store of well-thumbed Dutch accidences and 
 bescribbled grammars, to the bottom of which the 
 searchers rummaged with some difficulty, but without 
 meeting any thing to reward their pains. They were 
 about to quit the closet, when one of the men attempt- 
 ed to move the box from the wall : its great weight 
 excited his attention ; he lifted up one end ; a betray- 
 ing chink from within gave them a clue to the conceal- 
 ed treasure ; the books were tumbled out ; the false 
 bottom was discovered ; and the double ducats, which 
 Miss Vanspaacken had for so many years been drop- 
 ping in, one by one, congratulating herself all the 
 time on her superior prudence and sagacity, were, in 
 a few minutes, the objects of a general scramble among 
 the very refuse of the population. 
 
 At the time that the Justiciary Vanderhoof had ex- 
 tricated Winky Boss from the fury of the mob in the 
 manner we have related, it was his intention to have 
 detained him in safe custody, until he could be exam-
 
 110 UKAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 ined by the competent authorities ; but, forgetting in 
 the agitation of the moment to give immediate orders 
 for his detention, his prisoner marched through the 
 private dwelling-house, passed out of the front door 
 into another street, and, seizing time by the forelock, 
 made the best of his way out of the town, intending 
 to proceed a-foot, and join his master at Maaslandsleys. 
 For the execution of this purpose, however, he arrived 
 too late. De Witt, who was entrusted with the plans 
 of his friend, had instantly despatched a messenger to 
 apprize him of Boss's arrest, and the sacking of his 
 house ; and the Burgomaster, who had taken with him 
 a plentiful supply of gold, lost no time in chartering a 
 small neutral vessel, and sailing for the river Thames. 
 The voyage proved short and prosperous, and in due 
 time he and his daughter were landed at Greenwich 
 Wharf, immediately opposite to the new house, then 
 building for the King. 
 
 In order that Constantia might enjoy the advantages 
 of female society, Beverning wished to take up his 
 residence in a private family, rather than in a lodging- 
 house ; and, with this view, it was his first intention to 
 betake himself to his correspondent, Alderman Staun- 
 ton, in Aldersgate-street ; but, recollecting that he was 
 in close connection with the Government, and that his 
 own delicate situation, as a refugee Dutchman, render- 
 ed it imperatively necessary to avoid all such society 
 as might lead to a suspicion of -his being engaged in 
 political intrigue, and thus obstruct his return and the 
 vindication of his character, he resolved to take up 
 his abode in the vicinity of London, and live in as 
 sequestered a manner as possible. For these objects 
 no place appeared so eligible as the residence of his 
 friend, Eliass Ashmole, at South Lambeth. With that
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. Ill 
 
 curious collector he had long been in habits of intimate 
 correspondence ; and, by constantly transmitting to 
 him, for the enlargement of his celebrated museum, a 
 portion of the rarities which were brought by his cap- 
 tains from the remotest part of the earth, he had laid 
 him under obligations which he felt with a peculiar 
 satisfaction, and for which he was most eager to testify 
 his gratitude. 
 
 He accordingly proceeded with Constantia to Turret 
 House,* which was the name of Mr. Ashmole's residence, 
 surprising that gentleman not a little by his unexpected 
 appearance, but receiving from him a most cordial and 
 hospitable welcome. At the moment of his arrival he 
 found him in close confabulation with his intimate 
 associates, Sir Jonas Moore, the mathematician, and 
 the celebrated astrologers, William Lilly and John 
 Booker, the object of their conference being to fix a 
 day for the annual astrologers' feast, of which Ashmole 
 was steward, at Painters' Hall. Lilly was decorated 
 with the gold chain and medal he had received from 
 the King of Sweden,! and talked with pride of the 
 
 * This mansion would hardly be recognized in our days, from 
 the following passage in Evelyn's Diary : " The prospect from a 
 turret is very fine, it being so neere London, and yet not discover- 
 ing any house about the country." Vol. 2, p. 427. The turret, 
 whence it took its name, has been pulled down, but the house 
 itself, materially enlarged and embellished, and with all its original 
 grounds re-annexed, is still in existence, and in the occupation of 
 the author's friend, William Heseltine, Esq., to whom he takes 
 this opportunity of offering his acknowledgments, not only for the 
 use, at all times, of his extensive and curious library, but for 
 several suggestions which, he trusts, have improved the interest 
 of the present work. 
 
 f Estimated to be worth above 50 and presented to him in 
 the year 1659, on account of his having mentioned that monarch 
 With great respect in his almanacks of 1657 and 1658.
 
 112 
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 deference that had been shown him or: various occa- 
 sions by the great ones of the earth, as well as of the 
 general confidence in his own knowledge of the celestial 
 sciences, his use of the mosaical rods, and his super- 
 natural gifts of vaticination. The Burgomaster, who 
 had always understood that his friend's house was the 
 resort of philosophers and men of enlightened intellect, 
 was surprised to hear this Archimago talk of the magi- 
 cal circle, recite Cornelius Agrippa's form of prayer for 
 invoking the angel Salmonseus, and boast of his inti- 
 macy with the guardian angels of England, to whom 
 he assigned the names of Salmael and Malchidael. 
 
 " If I had the honour of an acquaintance with those 
 spirits," said the Burgomaster, " I would use my influ- 
 ence with them to procure a peace for the country over 
 which they preside : for it has gained little by the war. 
 Favour me with an introduction to your celestial friends, 
 and I will try the effect of my own eloquence." 
 
 " It is only by deep study and painful ordeals," re- 
 plied Lilly, " that a man can arrive at that exalted 
 privilege ; but if you desire it, I will teach you in six 
 weeks to set up a figure, project a horoscope, and cast 
 a nativity." 
 
 ' What, hey ?" cried the Burgomaster, who had a 
 violent antipathy to quacks and pretenders to superiority 
 of any sort : " And so make me a witch out of petti- 
 coats, the best name with which I can dignify you 
 gentlemen astrologers, who ought to be liable to the 
 same fate as your broomstick-riding sisters. No, mijn- 
 heer Lilly, I am no pupil of your's, and no believer in 
 your art. The future is a sealed book, only to be 
 perused by reading the past, for the same causes in all 
 ages will produce the same effects. Horace gave^good 
 advice, ' quid sit futurum eras, fuge quaerere.' If we
 
 BRAMBLETTE HOUSE. 113 
 
 cannot avoid your pretended prophecies, we are better 
 without knowing them : if we can, they are no predic- 
 tions. As to the stars, they may help us to shape our 
 course at sea, but not ashore, for nothing but egregious 
 vanity can have ever led us to believe that we are married 
 from the day of our birth to one of those heavenly 
 bodies. And yet we laugh at the Chinese lord of the ce- 
 lestial empire, for dubbing himself brother to the sun and 
 moon. Hey, Slapperloot ! we are truly a strange race !" 
 
 " In all ages people have been believers in our noble 
 art," exclaimed Lilly, tartly. 
 
 " And in all ages they have been equally deluded," 
 replied Beverning. "Soothsayers and aruspices have 
 seen as far into the millstone with the aid of beasts' en- 
 trails, and the flight of birds, as you have by serving a 
 subpoena upon the stars, but no further. These errors 
 were excusable in the infancy of the world, for abuse 
 precedes use. Superstition, alchemy, and astrology, 
 have been the parents of religion, chymistry, and astro- 
 nomy. The old folks have now become superannuated, 
 and ought to be formally deposed. Away with the 
 dotards !" 
 
 " For superstition we have nothing to say," resumed 
 Lilly ; " but the learned books that have been written 
 upon alchemy and astrology sufficiently attest the 
 reality of thosp sciences." 
 
 " Ay, as this Phosnix feather, which our worthy 
 host has just shown me, proves the existence of the 
 bird," said Beverning. " Bender ende Blixem ! I 
 want patience when I behold a man in rags pretend to 
 the possession of the philosopher's stone ; a blind buz- 
 zard, who cannot see his way out of his present diffi- 
 culties, affect an insight into futurity ; and a hen- 
 pecked zany, who is governed by his wife, claiming 
 
 VOL. II. I
 
 ] 14 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 mastery over the stars and angels." No personal allu- 
 sion was intended by this last speech, but as it happen- 
 ed that the almanack-making empiric, with all his 
 prescience, had married a termagant, whose star proved 
 ascendant in his family horoscope, he took the observa- 
 tion in high dudgeon, seized the first opportunity of 
 withdrawing with his friends, and in his next year's 
 almanack fell foul of the whole Dutch nation, in re- 
 venge for this supposed insult from an individual of 
 their community. 
 
 If his previous estimate of his friend's discernment 
 was rather lowered by this specimen of his visitants, the 
 Burgomaster observed many things in his museum and 
 library which were still less calculated to exalt it. In 
 the former, among much that was valuable, there was 
 trash which none but a whimsical and credulous man 
 would have admitted ; in the latter there was an undue 
 preponderance of those abstruse treatises which are 
 considered elaborate foolery by men of sense, and re- 
 verenced as oracles of human wisdom by all true be- 
 lievers in the occult and supernatural. They served, 
 however, to beguile the tedium of his unaccustomed 
 idleness : there were, besides, abundance of other books, 
 and more appropriate society, to cheer his hours ; and 
 the kindness of his host was precisely of that nature 
 which he liked, frank and hospitable, without being 
 obtrusive and importunate. 
 
 From the moment of Jocelyn's departure from Rot- 
 terdam, Constantia's habitual seriousness had deepened 
 into a depression of spirits, for which, at first, she in 
 vain endeavoured to account. A frank heart and acute 
 intellect like her's were not, however, long to be de- 
 ceived, and a rigorous scrutiny into her own feelings 
 soon convinced her that the secret source of her un-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 115 
 
 easiness was the loss of his society. Every other now 
 became doubly distasteful to her. Imagination exalted 
 that which she could no longer enjoy ; contrast threw 
 a deeper shade of degradation over that which still 
 remained to her ; she sequestered herself from all com- 
 munion with her own sphere, devoting herself, however, 
 with an increased zeal to her pious exercises, and her 
 extensive offices of charity. By a beautiful provision 
 of Nature, virtue and charity bless the actor as well 
 as the object, and she never more effectually assuaged 
 her own sorrows than when she was relieving those 
 of others. 
 
 From many of these consolatory pursuits she was, 
 of course, cut off by her sudden removal, and her so- 
 journ among strangers. Her mind, no longer absorbed 
 in those occupations, which had abstracted it from 
 painful contemplations, again began to prey upon it- 
 self; and she was soon destined to encounter a pri- 
 vation that overwhelmed her with fresh sorrows, and 
 finally plunged her into the very depths of des- 
 pondency. 
 
 After returning one afternoon from the play, whither 
 he had accompanied his host, her father complained 
 of a slight indisposition, which he treated with the 
 habitual indifference engendered by a long course of 
 uninterrupted health. His altered looks on the ensuing 
 morning alarmed his daughter, who in vain urged him 
 to defer his intended visit to London. He went, and 
 although he returned still worse, he obstinately refused 
 all medical advice, having unfortunately imbibed a 
 prejudice against all practitioners of physic, as im- 
 postors, who assumed a power of changing the fixed 
 intentions of Heaven, and altering the destiny of man. 
 His friends and his daughter, not participating in his 
 
 i2
 
 1J6 
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 prejudice, and marking with dismay the progress of his 
 malady, at length sent for a physician, who had no 
 sooner examined his patient, than he pronounced his 
 complaint to be the spotted fever, and expressed great 
 doubts as to his recovery. This declaration instantly 
 spread grief and alarm through the house. Constantia 
 tended her sick parent both by day and night, with 
 the devotedness of filial piety : the rest of the family 
 watched over him with all the ardour of friendship : 
 fresh advice was called in, and every resource of art 
 was lavished upon the patient : but all was vain ; and 
 one of the physicians, having caused his daughter to 
 be removed from the room, told the Burgomaster that 
 it was his painful duty to desire him to prepare for 
 death. 
 
 An unfeigned astonishment, unmixed however with 
 the smallest consternation, spread itself over Bevern- 
 ing's features at this declaration. A stranger, who had 
 considered his moderate age, his fine constitution, his 
 healthy appearance, his large and athletic form, might 
 have almost imagined that death would have been 
 afraid to look him in the face ; and Beverning himself, 
 who had never experienced an hour's illness, and there- 
 fore never calculated upon being cut short in the very 
 middle of his career, was more under the influence of 
 amazement than of any other feeling, at the tidings 
 he had just received. " Hey Slapperloot ! death !" he 
 exclaimed : " surely you must be mistaken. I have 
 no time to die yet : I have a thousand things to do, 
 and above all I should be sorry to leave the world till 
 I have punished the rogues at Amsterdam." 
 
 " You must forget the affairs of this world," replied 
 the physician "your disease is not less inexorable in 
 its nature than rapid in its progress ; and as to pun-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 117 
 
 ishing those who have offended you, it is your duly at 
 this trying moment to forgive all you enemies." 
 
 " What ! the Jacks in office, who imprisoned me 
 for nothing, and robbed me of a heavy fine ? the per- 
 jured villains who lodged false accusations against 
 
 me 
 
 " It is incumbent upon you, as a good Christian, to 
 forgive them all." 
 
 " Well, if I must, I must : I forgive them, then ; and 
 now, I suppose, I may hate them with a clear con- 
 science ; and I hope they will be so visited by the stings 
 of guilt as to be unable to forgive themselves. How 
 long have I to live ?" 
 
 " Not many hours," replied the physician. 
 
 " Let me, then, see no more of you or your medi- 
 cines," cried the dying Burgomaster, whose prejudice 
 against the profession was confirmed by his present 
 experience of its inefficacy to save him. " My will 
 is made ; I have left every thing to my darling child. 
 My affairs in this world are settled : send me a clergy- 
 man, that I may consider the rem prorsus substantia- 
 lem." 
 
 From this moment ne never lost his calmness and self- 
 possession, nor uttered a word of repining at being so 
 unexpectedly summoned from the world. After receiv- 
 ing the consolations of religion, he took an affecting 
 leave of his friend and his family ; reminded the 
 almost heart-broken Constantia that he was only going 
 to visit her dear mother, where they should await her 
 joining them ; and shortly after died, as he had lived, 
 with the confidence and fortitude of a virtuous and 
 honest man.
 
 118 BRAMBLETYE HOUS3. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 -Thou sure and firm-set earth ! 
 
 Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 
 
 The very stones prate of my where-about, 
 
 And take the present horror from the time, 
 
 Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives 
 
 I go, and it is done j the bell invites me. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 ON the morning after the agitating conversation be- 
 tween Julia Strickland and our hero, at Haelbeck, he 
 made preparations for quitting that melancholy abode, 
 and bidding adieu to its mysterious and world-severed 
 inmates. For this purpose he obtained an interview 
 with the exile, whom he had not seen for several days, 
 and whom he now found in a state of the deepest alarm 
 and despondency, from an apprehension that his de- 
 parture, following so immediately upon the receipt of 
 a letter, was connected with some plot for giving him 
 up to his enemies. " What, sir !" he exclaimed, as 
 Jocelyn approached, at the same time bringing his 
 shaggy beard, and gaunt features close to him, " you 
 are come to take another view of your victim, that you 
 may swear to me with safety. Gaze your full, sir ; 
 gaze on these wild eyes, this wan and haggard face, 
 this wasted form, these feeble outward evidences of a 
 wretchedness within that defies a full expression of its 
 intensity ; then go, and give up this poor scared and 
 heart-broken being to the blood-hounds that are seek- 
 ing his life ; to the hootings of an infuriated world ; to 
 a public gibbet ; to posthumous infamy. You are
 
 BRA'MBLETYE HOUSE. 119 
 
 capable of all this because you are a man ; likely to 
 perpetrate it, because you have taken shelter beneath 
 my roof, and shared my bread ; almost certain to be 
 guilty of it, because you have sworn secrecy, and have 
 called yourself my friend. Go, sir, and act like your- 
 self ; for you are a human being. You are of that 
 mongrel race, which possesses the form of a god, with 
 the mind and attributes of the blackest devil. Look 
 at your victim once more, and then, begone, you ce- 
 lestial daemon !" 
 
 Jocelyn, who had never accosted him in such an 
 angry mood, never witnessed such a paroxysm of 
 misanthropy, was at a considerable loss what course to 
 pursue, or what arguments to adduce, for allaying his 
 apprehensions. He showed him the letter, containing 
 the summons from his friend Tracy ; even offering to 
 defer his departure, if his longer continuance at Hael- 
 beck could contribute to the removal of his doubts : 
 but the miserable man clung to his suspicions with all 
 the tenacity of a morbid mind, until his wife appeared, 
 and joined with Jocelyn in endeavouring to disabuse 
 him of. his error. Her tender and affectionate tones, 
 her calmness and self-possession, seldom failed to soothe 
 or shame him out of his delusion : he received confi- 
 dence as suddenly as he had lost it ; and, stretching 
 out his hand to Jocelyn, exclaimed, " Forgive me, sir; 
 I insulted you by calling you a man, when you are, 
 like myself, one of his victims ; a sufferer from his 
 baseness and injustice. You will not wonder that I 
 loathe and spurn at the mischievous biped, when you 
 reflect that disappointed hope turns to disgust, and 
 unrequited affection to hatred. Farewell, sir ; I can- 
 not wish you better than I wish myself; that you may 
 be speedily released from a world that makes life a
 
 120 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 daily death, by laying your head in the tranquil 
 grave, that makes death an eternal life." 
 
 Such was his parting with the misanthropical Exile. 
 His wife preserved her usual sedate dignity, blended 
 with a cordiality of manners, and such fervent prayers 
 for his happiness, as she bade him farewell, that he 
 knew not which most to admire, the fortitude and even 
 heroism with which she endured her own sorrows, or 
 the ardour with which she strove to alleviate those of 
 others. Julia, she informed him, was too much indis- 
 posed to appear and bid him adieu; but she had charged 
 her mother with the expression of her regard, and all 
 cordial good wishes for his prosperity and welfare. 
 
 Cheerless and repulsive as had appeared to Jocelyn 
 the desolation of Haelbeck, and the mode of his re- 
 ception upon his first arrival, his feelings upon quitting 
 it partook much more of regret than of exhilaration. 
 It was only when he thus tore himself away from her, 
 that he felt how his heart lingered behind him, and 
 longed to remain with Julia ; while there appeared an 
 unmanly sort of cruelty in leaving so young, beautiful, 
 and vivacious a creature, to be buried alive, and suf- 
 fered to wither away in that pestilent and watery se- 
 pulchre. Often did he accuse himself of cowardice 
 and injustice in sacrificing the happiness, perhaps of 
 Julia, as well as his own, to undefined apprehensions 
 and vague prejudice. His better reason, however, 
 convinced him that he who means to live in the world 
 must consult the feelings of society ; that an alliance 
 with an infamous family would never be recognized by 
 his own ; and that happiness seldom attends a union 
 unsanctioned by public opinion, or the consent of rela- 
 tives. Laying this unction to his soul, he hastened 
 forward, lost in a thousand fruitless conjectures, as to
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 121 
 
 the mystery that hung over the dark fate of Strickland, 
 and occasionally diverting his thoughts to his own 
 situation and prospects, and the most eligible mode 
 of finding his way to England. 
 
 The disturbed state of Holland, and the peril to 
 which he would be exposed, should he be recognized 
 as the suspected English spy who had fled from the 
 Burgomaster's house at Rotterdam, determining him to 
 avoid that country altogether, he made a considerable 
 detour, intending to embark at some port of the Spanish 
 Netherlands. On reaching his destined point, he 
 could not find any vessel that would undertake to land 
 him in England, the Dutch fleet being at that moment 
 masters of the sea, and capturing every ship bound to 
 the ports of their enemy. Disappointed in his first 
 expectations, he betook himself to another harbour, 
 where there was greater commerce, and, as he hoped, 
 an additional chance of succeeding in his object ; but 
 here the same difficulties presented themselves, and a 
 considerable interval elapsed, during which his finances 
 became so much reduced that he began to apprehend 
 he should soon want the means of purchasing a pas- 
 sage, a contingency which he contemplated with the 
 greater mortification as it was now known that the 
 English fleet had sailed from Harwich, and were in 
 search of the Dutch squadron. A Flemish fisherman 
 at length, who had a sister married to a tradesman at 
 Stepney, undertook to carry him up the Thames, and 
 land him at that place, a proposition which was joy- 
 fully accepted, although the passage was to be made 
 in an open boat ; and they set sail the next day with 
 a favourable breeze, which continued for some hours. 
 
 Upon the clearing up of the mist, early on the fol- 
 lowing morning, Jocelyn was not a little alarmed at
 
 122 BttAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 finding himself in the midst of a numerous fleet of men- 
 of-war, apprehensive that it might be the Dutch squa- 
 dron, and not at all solicitous of being thrown into a 
 prison in Holland. The fisherman, however, stoutly 
 maintained that it was the English fleet. A shot from 
 one of the ships, that flashed through the water a little 
 a-head of them, quickly induced him to bring to, and 
 run alongside the vessel whence it proceeded, when 
 they were ordered on board, and Jocelyn had the satis- 
 faction of finding himself in the Royal Oak, com- 
 manded by Sir John Lawson. Instead of the friendly 
 greeting, however, which he expected, he met a rough 
 and discourteous welcome, being told that the circum- 
 stances under which he was encountered, coming from 
 the opposite coast with a foreign fisherman, and con- 
 cealing himself amidst them in a fog, gave him very 
 much the appearance of being one of those refugee 
 English, some of whom had already been detected 
 acting as spies to the Dutch. Jocelyn, who thought 
 it rather hard that he should be thus suspected by both 
 parties of enacting a character which he held in parti- 
 cular abhorrence, indignantly recited his birth, parent- 
 age, and education, and made angry professions of his 
 loyalty. 
 
 " You may be a spy for all that," bluntly replied 
 Sir John ; " they are all apt to be plaguy loyal when 
 detected : I should be sorry to run so well-timbered a 
 fellow up at the yard-arm, but I cannot let you proceed 
 without informing his Highness ; so you may e'en go 
 on board the Royal Charles, and make out your own 
 story the best way you can." One of the ship's boats 
 was accordingly lowered and manned, orders being 
 given to the men to carry Jocelyn and the Fleming on 
 board the Flag ship, commanded by his Royal High-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 123 
 
 ness the Duke of York. At the time of Jocelyn's 
 mounting the ladder of the Royal Charles, its illustrious 
 commander was standing on the deck, attended by 
 the Earl of Falmouth, Mr. Boyle, and Lord Muskerry,* 
 the latter of whom fortunately knew our hero person- 
 ally, and gladly vouched for his identity. The Duke 
 smiled at the over-vigilance of Sir John Lawson ; and 
 apologising very courteously for this interruption given 
 to his voyage, informed Jocelyn he was at liberty to 
 resume it whenever he thought fit. At the request of 
 Lord Muskerry he remained on board while his lord- 
 ship wrote a letter to his wife, which our hero under- 
 took to deliver ; and immediately upon receiving it re- 
 embarked on board the fishing-boat, and continued his 
 voyage for England. 
 
 It was well that the weather proved moderate arid 
 favourable, for the bark to which Jocelyn had entrusted 
 himself was not calculated to inspire much confidence, 
 although her owner availed himself of the unanswerable 
 argument that she had never sunk with him yet, and 
 it was not likely she would begin such pranks in her 
 old age, and after so long an acquaintance. Had any 
 fair plea been afforded her, it is not at all improbable she 
 might have proved somewhat skittish in this respect ; 
 but, with the aid of a summer sky and propitious gales, 
 they entered the mouth of the Thames in safety. After 
 they had passed Gravesend, the voyagers began to 
 wonder at the unusual accumulation of shipping in the 
 river, and the great number of people in each vessel, 
 appearances that kept continually increasing as they 
 reached London. Although the Fleming was not very 
 loquacious, he did hail one or two of the craft they 
 
 * All three of whom were killed by one shot in the engagement 
 that followed with the Dutch, on the third of June, 1665.
 
 124 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 passed, but their crews cared not to answer them, and 
 they passed on without parley to the neighbourhood of 
 Stepney, where they both landed. 
 
 Here the mystery was presently solved, for Jocelyn 
 learned, to his no small consternation, that the plague 
 had been raging for some time in London, and that 
 the many families they had seen afloat in their progress 
 from Gravesend were citizens who had fled from the 
 town, in the hope of avoiding the devastating infection, 
 which, upon an average of the last nine weeks, had 
 carried of a thousand every day. Uncertain how to 
 act, and without other friends in London, he determin- 
 ed to proceed to Alderman Staunton's, in Aldersgate 
 Street, in the hope of either gaining some tidings of 
 Tracy, or learning how far he might venture to appear 
 in public, without peril from the former order for his 
 arrest. But he was so appalled and horror-stricken at 
 the dismal aspect of the death-devoted city, as he ad- 
 vanced, that his courage failed him ; he was sick at 
 heart ; and was once or twice upon the point of turning 
 round and fleeing from a place which the Lord seemed 
 to have doomed to become an Aceldama, and to be 
 utterly delivered over to the destroying Angel. Even 
 in those streets which were usually the most thronged, 
 there was a dead and awful silence ; the grass grew 
 rankly between the stones of Cornhill and Cheapside ; 
 there were no carriages stirring, although it was mid- 
 day ; and the few people that were seen moving about, 
 here and there, walked in the middle of the road, for 
 fear of infection from the houses ; smelling to phials, 
 chewing an antidote, or trusting to some philter, charm, 
 or exorcism ; while, by the dumb terror of their looks 
 and the quickness of their progress, they might rather 
 be taken for gliding phantoms than human creatures.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 125 
 
 Whole rows and streets of houses were shut up, the 
 greater part of them having a red cross, of a foot long, 
 in the middle of the door ; over which was written : 
 " Lord have mercy upon us !" signifying that it had 
 been visited by the examiners, and declared to be 
 infected. To every such door, a large outside padlock 
 was affixed, to prevent the escape of the diseased 
 wretches within, as well as all access to them from 
 without ; a watchman being appointed to keep guard 
 at the door, and minister to the wants of the sufferers. 
 Even the animal creation seemed to have partaken of 
 the general doom ; not a dog or a cat was to be seen ; 
 they had all been destroyed by order of the magistrates, 
 for fear of their conveying the infection. 
 
 In his ignorance of the city, Jocelyn experienced 
 considerable difficulty in finding the street he required. 
 Several, to whom he had applied, had taken no other 
 notice of his inquiry than to quicken their pace, with 
 a look of dismay ; smelling at the same time to their 
 preventives with an additional eagerness. At length 
 he saw two persons approaching, holding red rods 
 in their hands, whose more respectable appearance 
 promised a more courteous attention to his request : 
 but he was doomed to be again disappointed. "See 
 you not the red wand?" said one of them, in answer 
 to his inquiry ; " and know you not that we are a sur- 
 geon and an examiner ? Are you weary of life, that 
 you incur the risk of contagion, by stopping us on the 
 highway ? Pass on ! pass on !" In this perplexity, since 
 he could gain no information from the people iu the 
 streets, he looked about for some of the few houses that 
 still remained open, intending to enter one of them and 
 askhisway. Of these he had but little choice. They were 
 mostly quack-doctors' shops, plastered over with notices
 
 126 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 of " Infallible Preventives against Plague ; the only 
 true Plague-water ; the Incomparable Drink ; the Royal 
 Antidote," and similar flourishes : or shabby abodes, 
 with the sign of Merlin, Mother Shipton, or Friar Ba- 
 con's Brazen Head ; and inscriptions beneath " Here 
 lives a fortune-teller;" "Here lives an astrologer;" 
 " Here you may have your nativity calculated." 
 
 While Jocelyn was gazing at a cognizance of the 
 latter description, a cadaverous-looking fellow, in a 
 velvet jacket, a band, and a black cloak, came to the 
 door, and invited him to walk in ; offering to tell him, 
 for a shilling, whether he was to die or not of the plague. 
 
 " If I may judge from your own appearance, my 
 good friend," said Jocelyn, " you can hardly answer 
 favourably for yourself. Here is your shilling, but I 
 want no higher specimen of your skill than that you 
 will tell me the way to Aldersgate Street." This in- 
 formation was correctly furnished, and he left the egre- 
 gious wizard wondering more at the avarice which 
 could lead him to expose his life for a shilling, than at 
 the delusion of the diseased wretches who caught at 
 straws as they were sinking into the grave, and could 
 not, perhaps, better expend that trifling sum than in 
 the purchase of a few hours' hope. Following the 
 directions he had received, he turned out of Cheapside, 
 which he had scarcely quitted, when he encountered 
 an apparently delirious creature, naked from the waist 
 upwards, walking with a swift pace, his eyes fixed, a 
 countenance full of horror, and repeatedly exclaiming 
 in a voice of agony "O the great and dreadful God !" 
 From the information of a watchman, who proved more 
 communicative than the rest of his brethren, Jocelyn 
 learned that this poor wretch continued this dismal cry 
 night and day, and that he was never seen to stop, or
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 12? 
 
 rest, or take any sustenance. Oppressed in spirits, 
 and not insensible to the risk he was running by thus 
 walking in the midst of the pestilence, he at length saw 
 with satisfaction the name of Aldersgate Street written 
 upon the corner of a house ; but his feelings were doomed 
 to a severer shock in this quarter than any he had hi- 
 therto experienced. While he was yet gazing upon the 
 house, the casement was suddenly opened by a female 
 of elegant appearance, who uttered three frightful 
 screeches, and then cried "Oh! death! death! 
 death !" in a tone that thrilled every drop of blood in 
 his veins : after which, she struck her hands distractedly 
 together, and reeled backwards into the room ! Her 
 shrieks echoed hollowly through the wide street, in 
 which there was not at that moment a soul moving 
 except Jocelyn. No other casement was opened no 
 notice was taken of her appalling shrieks : people were 
 too much accustomed to such sounds of agony to pay 
 them more than a momentary attention. 
 
 Aghast and horror-stricken, he passed on, in vain 
 looking for some one who might inform him which was 
 Alderman Staunton's house, until a watchman, return- 
 ing to a door which he had momentarily quitted, pointed 
 to a large mansion on the opposite side of the way ; 
 adding that the inquirer must be a stranger indeed in 
 that part of London, not to know where Master Staun- 
 ton lived. After having knocked twice at the door of 
 the house indicated, a servant appeared at the balcony 
 over the entrance, and informed him, in answer to his 
 inquiries, that the alderman, after having supplied 
 himself with provisions, had locked up the doors several 
 weeks ago, since which he held communication with 
 no one, and suffered neither ingress nor egress. This 
 precaution, as Jocelyn subsequently found, had been
 
 128 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 practised by several other families, and in most cases 
 proved effectual. He desired that his name might be 
 conveyed to the alderman ; but being assured it would 
 be utterly unavailable in inducing him to grant him an 
 interview, he inquired which was the nearest place 
 where he could find a lodging, at least for a night or 
 two. " There is the Moses and Aaron public-house, 
 at the corner of Jewin Street," replied the man, " and 
 there is a lodging-house only two doors off; but, 
 whether they will take you in at present, I cannot say." 
 
 To the latter our hero betook himself in preference ; 
 and, ringing at the bell, was answered by a woman 
 from the window, who asked him what he wanted. 
 He answered that he had just arrived from abroad, in 
 total ignorance of the contagion ; and, being disap- 
 pointed of a residence in the house of his friend, Alder- 
 man Staunton, was in want of a lodging. " Have you 
 a pass from Sir John Lawrence, the lord mayor, or a 
 certificate of health?" inquired the woman. " I have 
 nothing," he replied, " but a receipt for my luggage 
 and effects, which were only landed this morning at 
 Stepney, as you may see by the date of the paper;" 
 and he held it up in confirmation of his statement. 
 " Your ruddy face is the best certificate of health," 
 said the woman ; " and I were base and ungrateful 
 indeed to shut my door against any friend of the worthy 
 alderman, to whose bounty I am indebted even for the 
 house in which I live. Come in." The door was pre- 
 sently opened; and, as he entered, the woman ejacu- 
 lated, " May God spare this house, and all that are in 
 it!" to which Jocelyn replied, "Amen!" and with 
 this solemn welcome he was ushered into the parlour. 
 
 At that period of general mortality and depopulation, 
 persons were not easily found to perform the menial
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 129 
 
 offices of life, and even where they could be had, many 
 preferred executing the most servile duties themselves 
 to the risk consequent upon the employment of a 
 stranger. Participating in this feeling, Jocelyn set off 
 the next morning for Stepney, in order to make ar- 
 rangements for getting his effects conveyed to his pre- 
 sent lodgings, as he intended to quit London, without 
 delay, as soon as he could learn tidings of Tracy, or 
 ascertain where the Court were fixed. The Court had, 
 in the first instance, removed to Hampton, for the pur- 
 pose of avoiding the infection ; but deeming its vicini- 
 ty to the metropolis objectionable, they had subsequently 
 withdrawn to Salisbury ; and it was now rumoured that 
 they were about to fly from that city, and establish 
 themselves at Oxford. At Brambletye he was loth to 
 present himself, until he could appease the irritated Sir 
 John with some prospect of his restoration to favour ; 
 and he had, moreover, a vehement objection against 
 again encountering the welcome of such a step-mother 
 as the Juffrouw. Warned by the woman of the house 
 where he lodged against entering any of the hackney- 
 coaches, many of which had been employed in convey- 
 ing infected persons, he set out for Stepney on foot, 
 meeting the same desolating sights as had appalled 
 him on the day before. Some were weeping, sobbing, 
 and wringing their hands ; some shrieked aloud in an 
 uncontrollable agony : others were walking forwards 
 with uplifted hands, praying and calling upon God for 
 mercy ; and in Leadenhall Street he met the enthusiast 
 Solomon Eagle, naked from the waist upwards, like 
 the poor wretch of the day before, bearing a pan of 
 burning charcoal on his head, and crying aloud, as 
 Jonah did to Nineveh, " Yet a few days, and London 
 shall be destroyed I" 
 
 VOL. II. K
 
 130 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 All those who heard him seemed to be astounded by 
 his awful manner and terrible denunciations. When- 
 ever he stopped, he pointed to the sky ; and the poor 
 panic-stricken creatures, that followed him, fell into 
 ectasies of terror as they looked upwards, crying out 
 that they saw hearses and coffins in the air, and heaps 
 of dead bodies lying unburied, and a naked sword 
 with the point downwards ready to fall upon their 
 heads, and the bare arm of the Lord stretched forth 
 from the heavens, and pouring out the phial of his 
 wrath over the devoted city. Indeed it appeared to 
 Jocelyn that the plague had extended itself to the 
 faculties of the people, the contagion having often 
 completely disordered the minds of those who had 
 hitherto preserved their bodies from infection. 
 
 In the melancholy frame of mind, which such scenes 
 might be naturally supposed to inspire, he found his 
 way to Stepney, where he was obliged to wait for 
 several hours ; the woman to whom he had entrusted 
 his effects having gone to Deptford with her brother 
 the fisherman. Upon her return a fresh difficulty pre- 
 sented itself. The neighbourhood of Aldersgate Street 
 was represented to him as being more dreadfully visited 
 by the pestilence than any other quarter, and few even 
 of the common people cared to expose themselves to 
 the jeopardy of approaching it. A handsome reward, 
 which completely exhausted his attenuated purse, at 
 last induced a sailor to procure a barrow, and offer to 
 wheel home his effects ; but so much time had been 
 lost in this negociation that the evening was already 
 closing in when they started. 
 
 The public fires which had been ordered to be lighted" 
 in different quarters of the city, under the notion of 
 their purifying the atmosphere, now cast a ghastly glare
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 131 
 
 upon the sickly wretches that occasionally gathered 
 about them. The rakers were going their rounds, 
 blowing a horn to give notice to the inhabitants that 
 they should bring out the sweepings and filth of their 
 houses, which these mien were appointed to collect 
 every evening, lest new infection should be generated : 
 and, as the darkness increased, he began to encounter a 
 still more revolting spectacle, the carts that went the 
 nightly round of every parish, the driver sounding a large 
 bell, and his comrades, in the intervals of its noise, ut- 
 tering the doleful cry of " Bring out your dead ! bring 
 out your dead !" The continual stoppages of the vehicle, 
 the sickening sight of the corpses brought down in 
 the habiliments in which the parties had died, and tos- 
 sed, promiscuously, in, one upon another, by wretches 
 whom custom had rendered callous, the general wail- 
 ings, lamentations, and shrieks of the surviving rela- 
 tives, as the bell again sounded and the cart drove off, 
 would have been sufficiently harrowing to his feelings, 
 without the examples of individual agony from which 
 he was unable at times to withdraw his eyes, although 
 they were almost withered at the sight. 
 
 In one place a mother, wildly following the cart that 
 contained her only son, disregarded all the solicitations 
 and even menaces of the drivers, and, with distracted 
 cries, ordered them to give her back her child ; in 
 another, a man had rushed from his bed half naked, 
 and run into the streets in a state of delirium, dancing 
 and singing, and making a thousand antic gestures, 
 followed by his distressed family weeping and calling 
 upon him for the Lord's sake to come back, and be- 
 seeching the assistance of others to compel him ; but 
 all in vain, nobody daring to approach, still less to lay 
 hands upon him, for fear of infection. In passing 
 
 K2
 
 132 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Aldgate church-yard he was attracted by the sight of 
 numerous links ; and an impulse of momentary curiosity 
 inducing him to gaze through the iron railings, he 
 beheld several buriers surrounding a huge pit, into 
 which two of the dead-carts were at that moment emp- 
 tying their contents. In following one of these vehi- 
 cles he had observed a man walking behind it, wrapped 
 up in a cloak, and apparently a prey to intense though 
 silent grief : and from the conversation of the drivers 
 he had gathered that this unfortunate being, having 
 already buried his wife, was now following three chil- 
 dren, being the whole of his family, to the grave. As 
 the cart entered the church-yard, he had for a moment 
 disappeared ; but, as the bodies of his children were 
 shot into the pit, he suddenly rushed forward, and, 
 with a dreadful cry, threw himself into the midst of 
 the yawning and pestiferous abyss. 
 
 Jocelyn could gaze no more ; his senses were bewil- 
 dered ; and, when he was at last enabled to continue 
 his progress, he determined to cast his eyes as little 
 as possible either to the right or the left, lest they 
 should be scared by some new object of horror. In 
 great consternation and sickness of soul, he at last 
 reached his lodging-house in Aldersgate Street, dis- 
 charged his porter, carried his effects into his own room, 
 and betook himself immediately to bed, not less fa- 
 tigued in body than saddened and subdued in spirit. 
 
 The shock that his feelings had received, and a deep 
 sense of his individual danger, induced him to form 
 two immediate resolutions to confine himself to the 
 house while he remained in London and to quit it 
 with all speed for Oxford, where he had now ascertain- 
 ed that the Court were stationed. The latter object 
 could not be accomplished without money, of which
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 133 
 
 he had not a shilling 1 left ; and he was therefore re- 
 duced to the necessity, though not without some feel- 
 ing of humiliation, of stating his situation to his land- 
 lady, and requesting her to advance him what he 
 wanted upon the security of his diamond-hilted sword. 
 This proposition the generous woman instantly rejected ; 
 it was enough that he was the friend of Alderman Staun- 
 ton, her benefactor ; his receipt was all that she required : 
 and this being given, she delivered to him in gold a sum 
 much more than adequate to the expenses of his con- 
 templated journey. With a friendly solicitude for his 
 safety, she most earnestly dissuaded him from trusting 
 himself to any mode of conveyance that might expose 
 him to the company of other people ; adding, that she 
 daily, almost hourly, expected the arrival of her son, 
 who was traveller to a mercantile house in Little Bri- 
 tain, and whose horse should be at Jocelyn's service, 
 as soon as it had had a day's rest after its journey. To 
 this proposition he thought it most prudent to assent ; 
 and, as he was resolved not to stir from the house, he 
 requested she would lend him what books she might 
 possess, to assist him in beguiling the time. These 
 were accordingly sent into his apartment, but they 
 were little calculated to exhilarate his spirits, consist- 
 ing mostly of the superstitious effusions and pamphlets 
 which the plague had drawn forth such as " Britain's 
 Remembrancer" "Fair Warning" "Come out of 
 her, my people, lest ye be partaker of her plagues," 
 and similar productions. To those were added Lilly's 
 and Poor Robin's almanacks, " Gadbury's Predictions," 
 and numerous infallible directions for avoiding plague 
 and infection, most of them written by empirics, who 
 had been swept away themselves while they were pre- 
 tending to save others.
 
 !34 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Not deriving any very great consolation or amuse- 
 ment from these specimens of her library, Jocelyn 
 awaited with great impatience the arrival of her son. 
 At that period of general panic, the smallest indis- 
 position was contemplated with misgiving and alarm ; 
 and his landlady could hardly speak for agitation when 
 she informed him, next morning, that one of the maid- 
 servants had complained of head-ache and nausea, 
 adding a devout prayer to Heaven that it might not 
 prove the pestilence. Jocelyn conversed with the girl 
 on the subject of her complaint, which appeared to 
 him of a trifling nature, and which she herself treated 
 as a momentary indisposition ; but her mistress, whose 
 apprehensions remained unabated, determined on 
 calling in medical advice. 
 
 Early on the following morning the son returned, 
 to whom his mother explained the promise she had 
 made Jocelyn of lending his horse for a journey to 
 Oxford, which he willingly confirmed, only stipulating 
 that the animal should rest till the morrow. On the 
 evening of that day, our hero learned with infinite 
 perturbation of mind, both on his landlady's account 
 and his own, that the maid's complaint had been de- 
 cidedly pronounced to be the plague ; and, as it was 
 now evident that not a moment was to be lost, he 
 put the most precious of his effects, together with 
 the money he had borrowed, into a small travelling 
 portmanteau, intending to rise with the morrow's 
 sun, buckle the portmanteau to his horse's crupper, 
 and turn his back upon the death - doomed city of 
 London. 
 
 Long before the sun had appeared above the horizon, 
 he was up and accoutred ; and having slung his valise 
 over his shoulders, and descended the stairs just as
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 135 
 
 the dawn was breaking, and ere any other inmate of 
 the house had arisen, he proceeded to the street- 
 door, drew back the bolts, unlocked it, and attempted 
 to let himself out. The door, however, refused to 
 open ; and, while he was wondering what this might 
 mean, a voice from the other side called out to in- 
 quire what was wanting " I want to pass out," cried 
 Jocelyn. 
 
 " Out !" replied the voice " Know you not that 
 the examiner has put the red cross, and the ' Lord have 
 mercy upon us !' on the door ? It is padlocked up, 
 and not a soul passes out except the nurse, while I 
 am watchman !" 
 
 It is utterly impossible to describe the dismay that 
 struck upon the heart of Jocelyn, courageous as it 
 generally was, when he heard these doleful tidings. He 
 had been previously exhilarated at the prospect of im- 
 mediate escape to the pure and renovating air of the 
 country : and now to be shut up and imprisoned with 
 infected people ; to be uselessly exposed to all the 
 horrors of this hideous pestilence, without being allow- 
 ed to make a struggle for his life ; to be condemned 
 by this absurd regulation, and in the flower of his 
 youth, to a miserable and inglorious death it was a 
 fate very, very, very dreadful to endure ; and its un- 
 necessary infliction was not less cruel and tyrannical. 
 The latter feeling soon predominated over the former ; 
 indignation superseded alarm ; and resolving, in the 
 vehemence of his resentment, to refuse obedience to 
 this worst of all incarcerations, he determined to wait 
 till the dusk of the evening, let himself down from one 
 of the windows, and run the risk of losing his life in a 
 scuffle with the watchmen, rather than tamely sacrifice 
 it within the doors to the assaults of the pestilence.
 
 136 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Consoled by this decision, he returned to his own 
 room, where he had not long remained, when he heard 
 a cry of distress from one of the upper apartments ; 
 and, upon calling to enquire the cause, was answered 
 by one of the maids, that her fellow - servant was 
 dead, and their mistress complained of being exceed- 
 ingly ill. 
 
 " Where is her son?" inquired Jocelyn. 
 
 " He was absent from home when the house was 
 padlocked up, "replied the maid, " and we have not 
 heard of him since." 
 
 " Is there no one else in the house?" again inquired 
 Jocelyn. 
 
 " Not a soul, but yourself," answered the maid, " but 
 we have sent for a nurse, and expect one this morn- 
 ing :" at which words she closed the door, and the 
 conversation ceased. 
 
 However distressing it might be to leave the land- 
 lady and the maid in this piteous plight, he knew that 
 any attendance or assistance that he might proffer 
 would only endanger himself, without availing the 
 sufferers ; such offices, besides, would come with much 
 more propriety from the expected nurse ; and this rapid 
 increase of the danger only confirmed him in his 
 resolution of flying from it. Towards noon, he heard 
 the physician arrive, and go up stairs, followed, not 
 long after, by the nurse, who took her station in the 
 landlady's room ; but Jocelyn forebore from all enqui- 
 ries, not expecting to receive any consolatory tidings, 
 and anxious to avoid all communication with parties 
 coming from an infected chamber. He had examined 
 one of the windows, from which he calculated upon 
 being able to let himself down without difficulty ; but, 
 to guard against every possibility of mischance or
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 137 
 
 disappointment, he provided himself with a stout rope, 
 long enough to serve his purpose, even should he be 
 compelled to try one of the back windows, which 
 were considerably higher. 
 
 Evening seemed to be unusually long in arriving, 
 but it at length approached ; and, as he sate in his 
 chair, he watched the gathering gloom with the satis- 
 faction of one who is about to escape from a hateful 
 imprisonment, that was to be quickly terminated by a 
 death at which the soul recoils. At last it appeared 
 dark enough to ensure his escape without detection ; and 
 he was about to spring from his seat, and hasten to the 
 window, when he was seized with a sudden vertigo, 
 accompanied with an inexpressible nausea and sickness, 
 and fell backwards in his chair. After a few moments 
 it seemed in some degree, to pass away, and he again 
 attempted to rise, but he felt such a sudden prostra- 
 tion of strength, that he found himself unable to stand 
 without support, and utterly inadequate to the task of 
 even walking across the room ; so that he again sunk 
 down in his chair, the agony 'of his disappointment 
 being aggravated by the dreadful conviction that he 
 was smitten with the plague. 
 
 His voice still remained to him, and, hearing some 
 one passing down the stairs, he called for help. It 
 proved to be the nurse, a forbidding - looking hag, 
 who shook her head when she saw him, told him 
 the only thing he could do was to betake himself 
 to his bed, which she assisted him in reaching, com- 
 plained that she should have enough to attend to, 
 since the second maid was ill as well as the mistress, 
 and she was now likely to have the lodger upon her 
 hands ; and, adding that she would send the doctor to 
 him when he called next morning, she bade him keep
 
 138 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 himself quiet in his bed, and not ring the bell , and 
 immediately quitted the apartment. 
 
 Nothing but absolute helplessness could have com- 
 pelled him to obey this last injunction, for such was 
 his combined horror of the disease, and of the vil- 
 lainous physiognomy of the beldame who was to have 
 the nursing of him, that he would have thrown himself 
 from the topmost window of the house, rather than 
 remain in it, had his will been seconded by his ability. 
 But he continued powerless as a child, his body suf- 
 fering from fever, giddiness and intense head-ache, 
 while his mind was a prey to forebodings that soon 
 sunk his spirits into the deepest despondency. Lying 
 upon his bed in this forlorn plight, he heard, as night 
 approached, the rumbling of the revolting cart, the 
 tolling of the bell, and the doleful cry of " Bring out 
 your dead !" It stopped at the door of the house ; one 
 of the buriers helped the nurse to carry down the dead 
 body of the maid ; he heard it thrown in ; the bell 
 again began ringing, and the vehicle was driven on, 
 though the horrid sounds seemed to be still vibrating 
 in his ears, long after the cart had quitted the street, 
 and was beyond his hearing 
 
 After broken and uneasy slumbers, he awoke the 
 next morning feverish and unrefreshed, mortified at 
 the continued debility that rendered flight impossible, 
 and most anxious to see the physician, that he might 
 know the exact nature of his complaint, and what 
 fate he was to expect. Long and eagerly did he listen 
 for the sound of his footsteps, and his heart beat ra- 
 pidly as he heard him at length ascending the stairs. 
 After having first visited the landlady, he entered 
 Jocelyn's apartment, and, standing at some distance 
 from the bed, with a smelling bottle at his nose, he
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 139 
 
 inquired the symptoms of the complaint, and desired 
 to see the patient's breast. This he had no sooner 
 beheld, than, recoiling several steps, he exclaimed, 
 " There are the blue plague-spots ! Lord have mercy 
 upon us ! you are a dead man ! I will send the 
 nurse to you :" at which words he hurried out of the 
 chamber. 
 
 Our hero, as we have before taken occasion to re- 
 mark, was constitutionally courageous ; his decided 
 and impetuous character rendered him, indeed, impa- 
 tient of suspense, and sensitive to any impending and 
 undefined danger ; but it no sooner assumed a distinct 
 form, than he eyed it undismayed, and prepared him- 
 self to encounter it with a manly fortitude. While the 
 attack of the distemper was uncertain, while there 
 was a chance of escaping from the house, his apprehen- 
 sions were keen, his eagerness for flight incessant ; 
 but now that there was no hope of avoiding the 
 one, or effecting the other, the painful excitement of 
 his mind subsided into resignation, and he gave over 
 all thoughts of struggling with his inevitable fate. To 
 the nurse, indeed, his antipathy remained uncon- 
 querable; and, as some hours elapsed without her 
 appearance, he began to hope that he should be 
 suffered to perish without being revolted by her hateful 
 presence. 
 
 During this interval his thoughts reverted often and 
 painfully to the beautiful, the vivacious, the fasci- 
 nating, Julia Strickland, whose joyous soul, diffusing 
 sunshine all around it, contrasted fearfully with the 
 gloom of his present situation, and the character of the 
 sepulchral hag, whose ministerings he was fated to 
 endure. It was as if he looked back upon the bright 
 visions of Paradise, from the very depths of doom and
 
 140 BRAMBLETVE HOUSE. 
 
 despair. That he should think of her at all, at such a 
 moment, proved to him how deeply she was rooted in 
 his heart; while it embittered his regret to reflect 
 that if he had followed the dictates of a more generous, 
 and world-defying feeling, by making her his wife, he 
 would, in all probability, have ensured his permanent 
 happiness, and would certainly have avoided the loath- 
 some and premature death with which he was now 
 threatened. 
 
 While he was lost in these reveries of a felicity which 
 he reproached himself with having so wantonly thrown 
 away, he was disturbed by the entrance of the nurse, 
 who came to inform him that the landlady had just 
 breathed her last, and that, from the appearance of 
 the remaining maid, it was doubtful whether she would 
 hold out through the night ; adding, that if his disorder 
 did not exhibit some favourable turn, of which she saw 
 no symptoms at present, there was likely to be a clear 
 house by the morrow, or the next day at farthest. At 
 the conclusion of this unfeeling speech, she placed a 
 potion by his bed-side, which, she said, had been 
 ordered by the physician, and, at his earnest solicita- 
 tion that she would attend to her patient up-stairs, 
 and leave him to his fate, she suddenly quitted his 
 apartment. 
 
 Again was the unfortunate Jocelyn doomed to listen 
 to the same sickening sounds, as on the night before, 
 while the body of the landlady was carried down to 
 the plague-cart, and wheeled away to the undistin- 
 guishing receptacles of the dead ; and again were his 
 early slumbers broken by the nauseous and revolting 
 creations of a diseased body and a distempered fancy. 
 Towards the morning, however, he obtained some more 
 refreshing sleep ; and, although his debility remained
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 141 
 
 unabated, he could not help imagining, when he awoke, 
 that there was some little subsiding in his disorder. A 
 faint ray of hope sprung up in his heart, and he eagerly 
 awaited the arrival of the physician, trusting to receive 
 from him some confirmation of a favourable change 
 having occurred. While he was nourishing these plea- 
 sant auguries, the ill-featured and ill-omened nurse 
 came to disperse them, by croaking in his ear that the 
 second maid had just departed ; and that, a little 
 before her death, she had experienced exactly similar 
 sensations of imaginary convalescence. " The physi- 
 cian, who will shortly be here," said Jocelyn, " will 
 be enabhd to pronounce better than I can myself, and, 
 till his arrival, I will dispense with your attendance." 
 
 " Marry, come up ! " cried the woman, with a 
 scowling look, " there be many would rather have the 
 room than the company of a fellow in the plague ; I 
 have no one else to attend now, and so I shall suit my 
 own convenience." She disappeared, slamming the 
 door after her, and, while Jocelyn was waiting the ar- 
 rival of the physician, with an impatience generated 
 by returning hope, he thought he heard her, at times, 
 opening the closets, and pulling out the drawers in the 
 room above him. Hour after hour dragged heavily 
 on ; and yet the physician came not, a circumstance 
 at which he expressed his surprise to the nurse, when 
 she next made her appearance. "There is nothing 
 surprising in the matter," she replied ; " many of the 
 doctors ran away in the first instance ; many who had 
 determined to remain, are daily taking flight, and 
 following them : some are carried off by the plague, 
 and the few that remain have so many patients to at- 
 tend that you are never sure of them. It is quite too 
 late to expect him to-day. Perhaps he may look in
 
 142 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 to-morrow, but I doubt whether you will hold out so 
 long." 
 
 During the utterance of this consolatory opinion, 
 she made arrangements in the grate, as if for the pur- 
 pose of lighting a fire. " Good heavens !" exclaimed 
 Jocelyn, " you are not, surely, going to increase the heat 
 of the room, when I am already suffering from fever." 
 
 " Your sufferings will soon be over," said the hag, 
 " and it is better to think of the living than the dead. 
 Fire keeps off infection ; and, besides, I may as well 
 dress my supper here, as be running up and down 
 stairs." Jocelyn declared that he would much rather 
 be without her attendance, and implored her to desist ; 
 but argument and expostulation were alike thrown 
 away, and she proceeded in her work, without even 
 deigning to notice his objections. Had her patient 
 been in good health, this was precisely an occasion 
 when he would have been seized with one of those fits 
 of choler, to which he was occasionally liable : he was, 
 indeed, somewhat irate in spirit, but, reflecting that 
 submission was his only alternative, in his present help- 
 less state, he suffered her to proceed without farthe, 
 parley. Spite of her sinister predictions, his sensations 
 fortified him in the belief of some change in his malady, 
 and, availing himself of her next absence from the 
 chamber, he yielded to a drowsy sensation that op- 
 pressed him, and fell fast asleep. 
 
 After some hours he was awakened by a noise, which 
 he found to be the snoring of his nurse. It was now night. 
 On the blazing fire was a saucepan containing some con- 
 coction for her supper ; two candles, with long unsnuf- 
 fed wicks, were flaring on a table, upon which were 
 also placed the preparations for her meal, a large knife 
 and fork, and a flask of spirits. The gaunt and bony
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 143 
 
 hag was stretched in an arm-chair, her head supported 
 by a pillow, and her feet resting on the fender. While 
 he was gazing at the scene before him she awoke, and 
 having ascertained the hour by a watch which she took 
 from her pocket, and which he recollected to have be- 
 longed to the landlady, she cast a scrutinizing glance 
 towards the bed. An impulse of mingled suspicion 
 and curiosity induced Jocelyn still to counterfeit sleep ; 
 she brought one of the candles close to his face, as if to 
 assure herself of the fact, and again retired towards the 
 fire-place, apparently convinced that she was unobserved. 
 
 Peering through his nearly-closed eyes he now saw 
 her take a key from the mantel-piece, unlock his port- 
 manteau, and rummage amid its contents, whence she 
 drew forth the purse of gold he had borrowed from the 
 landlady, the miniature of the queen, and his diamond- 
 hilted sword, the two former of which_ she deposited 
 upon the table, and held the latter to the light, as if 
 to ascertain whether they were real brilliants. A glare 
 of horrid satisfaction passed over her features as she 
 recognized the value of the prize, and Jocelyn, who 
 began to think she meditated something more atrocious 
 than robbery, was not at all dissatisfied at seeing her 
 wrap up the weapon in a cloak, and hide it in the 
 closet. He had not long, however, to congratulate 
 himself, for she had no sooner gently shut the closet- 
 door than she took up the pillow on which she had 
 been sleeping, and advancing two or three steps on 
 tiptoe, she at length sprang, like a tigress, upon her 
 prey, leaping upon the bed, and covering over Jocelyn's 
 face with the pillow, upon which she then leant the 
 whole weight of her body, with the intention of smother- 
 ing him 
 
 So sudden and unexpected was the assault, that he
 
 144 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 had not time to elude it, but, weakened as he was, he 
 struggled violently for his life, and by a prodigious 
 effort, in which nature summoned all her remaining 
 energies, he succeeded in extricating himself from the 
 pillow, crying out at the same time, as loudly as his 
 strength permitted " Help ! murder ! murder !" 
 
 " Noisy fool !" said the fury, renewing her attack 
 " there is no one to hear you ; and if there were, they 
 have long ceased to notice such cries. Murder, indeed ; 
 when you are a dead man already ! Here's a coil about 
 two or three hours of life !" Again she forced him 
 down with the pillow his struggles became fainter 
 and fainter his groans and cries were no longer audi- 
 ble she pressed with increased violence upon his 
 mouth respiration was stopped and the beldame 
 thought her fell purpose was accomplished, when the 
 door opened, and a stately female figure, attired in 
 black, and holding a lamp in her right hand, glided 
 suddenly into the chamber. 
 
 At sight of this apparition, the hag, uttering a shout 
 of terror, threw down the pillow, rushed through an 
 opposite door, flew down the stairs, and burst out of 
 the house. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 This is a creature 
 
 Would she begin a sect might quench the zeal. 
 Of all professors else, make proselytes 
 Of whom she bid but follow. SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 ON recovering his senses, and again opening his eyes, 
 Jocelyn beheld a beautiful vision standing by his bed- 
 side, and holding a cordial to his lips, which, with a 
 dulcet voice, she entreated him to drink. Still bewil-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 145 
 
 dered in his faculties, he knew not at first whether he 
 was under the influence of some delightful dream, or 
 whether he had indeed passed through the gate of 
 death, and was invited to quaff from the chalice of 
 immortality by one of the angels of Heaven. His lips 
 moved in faint endeavours to speak, but, finding himself 
 too much exhausted to articulate a word, he obeyed 
 in silence the behest of the ministering spirit. Invi- 
 gorated by the cordial, he gathered strength enough 
 to exclaim, as he again lent back upon the pillow 
 " Gracious Heaven ! am I in a dream, or is it, indeed, 
 Constantia Beverning ?" 
 
 " Compose yourself," replied Constantia, " and do 
 not attempt to speak. You have been wonderfully 
 preserved. The hand of the Lord has been stretched 
 forth to save you : let us call upon him to complete 
 the work of mercy, for no arm of flesh can turn aside 
 the dart of death that is still hovering over you." 
 Kneeling down by his bed-side, she drew forth a book 
 of prayer, and, with a countenance irradiated by holy 
 fervour, and a voice whose inimitable sweetness render- 
 ed the solemn earnestness of its expression still more 
 emphatic, she proceeded to read extracts from the - 
 ninety-first Psalm : 
 
 " I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope and 
 my strong hold, my God, in whom will I trust. For 
 He shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter, and 
 from the noisome pestilence. He shall defend thee 
 under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his fea- 
 thers ; his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shieJd 
 and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid tor any terror 
 by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day. For 
 the pestilence that walkeih in darkness nor for the 
 sickness that destroyeth in noon day.- A thousand 
 
 VOL. II. L
 
 146 BllAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right 
 hand. He shall call upon me, and I will hear him : 
 yea, I am with him in trouble ; I will deliver him, and 
 bring him to honour. With long life will I satisfy 
 him, and show him my salvation." 
 
 She closed the book, and, casting up her large and 
 glorious eyes to heaven, commenced an extempore 
 prayer, which fell from her lips with a fine spontaneous 
 eloquence that nothing but deep feeling and fervent 
 piety could inspire. Jocelyn's right hand was extended, 
 powerless, upon the bed. She took it up in the midst 
 of her supplications, pressed it between both of hers, 
 and, lifting it upwards, implored heaven, with an in- 
 creased enthusiasm, to allay the disease that throbbed 
 in its veins, and restore it to its strength. He thought 
 that a tear glistened in her eye, as she felt the fever 
 burning within him. At any other time, and in any 
 other female, there might have appeared some impro- 
 priety in the action ; but the pure and sanctified 
 thoughts of Constantia at that moment were unmixed 
 with any earthly feeling ; and Jocelyn knew that she 
 was defying death, rather than courting any of the 
 considerations of life, when in ihe sublime heroism of 
 her devotion she pressed his infected hand. Not 
 having, however, the power to withdraw it, he yielded 
 it passively to her control, looking on, and listening to 
 her accents, with a mingled impression of amazement 
 at her presence, and of pious confidence in the efficacy 
 of her intercessions. 
 
 At the conclusion of her prayer she arose, and seeing 
 Jocelyn about to speak, she laid her finger upon her 
 lips to enjoin silence. She then placed a silver flask 
 by his bed-side, of which she desired him to drink 
 whenever he should awake in the night ; and calling
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 147 
 
 upon Heaven once more to bless and deliver him from 
 the pestilence, she vanished from the room, promising, 
 however, to revisit him in the morning. 
 
 Jocelyn remained for a long time lost in the most 
 perplexing and contradictory speculations. That she 
 should be in England at all, when the two countries 
 were involved in war that she should have discovered 
 his abode, for he could not suppose her appearance to 
 have been accidental that she should have been able to 
 gain admittance to the house, barricadoed as it was 
 and that she should have presented herself at the very 
 moment when he was at the last gasp of life, to chace 
 away his intended murderess by her presence pre- 
 sented a combinaton of mysteries, which he was still 
 vainly endeavouring to unravel when he yielded to 
 the influence of the powerful opiate he had swallowed 
 and sunk into a deep, refreshing sleep, from which he 
 did not awake until the following morning. Even his 
 returning recollection, and a sensation of renovated 
 strength, could hardly persuade him that the scene of 
 the preceding night was other than a frightful dream, 
 until his eyes fell upon the silver flask, with the grate- 
 ful contents of which he again refreshed himself, 
 and awaited in patience the return of his fair visitant. 
 The conviction that some favourable change had oc- 
 curred in his complaint, combined with a night of 
 unbroken sleep, had so exhilarated his mind, that, al- 
 though he had lately contemplated death with the 
 resignation of despair, he now clung to the thought of 
 protracted existence, with all the eagerness of rekin- 
 dled hope. 
 
 While he was indulging these delicious reveries, 
 Constantia made her appearance, and inquired after 
 the health of her patient, who stated his confident be- 
 lt 2
 
 148 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 lief that the crisis of his disease was over, and that he 
 might venture to pronounce himself a convalescent. 
 
 " It is well," she replied : " these are, indeed, joyful 
 tidings, that call upon us to repeat the medicine, to 
 which, alone, under God, so merciful a relief can be 
 ascribed ;" and she fell upon her knees, pouring forth 
 thanksgivings for the favour that had been vouchsafed, 
 and imploring the perfect re-establishment of his health, 
 with a fervour and beauty of holiness, not less con- 
 spicuous than in the devotions of the preceding night. 
 
 This duty being discharged, she sate down by the 
 bed-side, and, casting her eyes upon the ground, thus 
 addressed him, in a calm and solemn voice. " It is 
 soothing to me, to believe that Heaven, by thus hav- 
 ing listened to my prayers, is not displeased with the 
 part I have been acting ; it is an inexpressible conso- 
 lation to my heart to know that I have been the in- 
 strument of saving your life, and of calling you, as I 
 trust the event will prove, to a redeeming sense of the 
 mercy you have experienced. But I feel that some ex- 
 planation is necessary ; I fear that, however you may 
 have been benefited by my interference, it may strike 
 you as a deviation from that strict observance of deco- 
 rum which is so inexorably Described to our sex. 
 This dreadful pestilence, with which we have been 
 visited, instead of chastening the minds of the people, 
 has only loosened the bonds of morality, and too many 
 have been found to say, ' Let us eat and drink, for to- 
 morrow we die.' Irresponsibility has engendered crime ; 
 precariousness of existence has been rendered an excuse 
 for increased voluptuousness and sensuality. And thus 
 it has ever been. Boccacio could imagine no more 
 fitting occupation for the most intellectual natives of 
 Florence, during the great plague, than to luxuriate
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 149 
 
 
 
 in delicious gardens, and dedicate the few hours that 
 might be left them to dalliance, revelry, and licentious 
 story-telling. You will not confound me with these. 
 I would not deviate from the established forms of society 
 into folly or profligacy ; but I would depart from them 
 at all times, and more especially at a moment like the 
 present, when I can in any way contribute by their 
 violation to the welfare of my fellow creatures ; not to 
 lose myself but to save another, do I now disregard the 
 fastidious ordinances of mankind. This is the clue to 
 my conduct. What I have done for you, I should 
 have felt it my duty to perform for a stranger, though 
 I frankly confess that it enhances my pleasure to have 
 contributed to the preservation of Mr. Compton." 
 
 Jocelyn declared that his previous knowledge of her 
 character would have precluded his assigning any 
 other than the purest and noblest motives to her con- 
 duct, and implored her to give him credit, for a deep 
 and indelible sense of gratitude, both to Heaven and 
 to herself; though he was still at a loss to account 
 for the circumstances of her most providential appear- 
 ance, in the very crisis of his fate. 
 
 "That," said Constantia, "is easily explained: at 
 the breaking out of the plague, I was visiting at Alder- 
 man Staunton's, and, knowing the efficacy of the 
 measure, by our own previous experience, when visited 
 with this calamity at Rotterdam, I recommended him 
 to shut up the doors of his residence, and cut off all 
 communication from without. Some years ago, he had 
 nearly lost his life from a fire, and as this and the 
 intervening house are his own property, as well as the 
 one he inhabits, he constructed a railed communication 
 upon the roof, to facilitate escape, should he be exposed 
 to a similar peril ; and along this gallery, being de-
 
 150 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 barred all other opportunities of air and exercise, his 
 family have been accustomed to walk. Invited by the 
 warmth of the weather, I took my lamp, and was pac- 
 ing along it last night, when, just as I reached its 
 extremity, methought I heard a faint cry of distress. 
 This house, like many others, has a small circular room 
 upon the top of it, for the purpose of smoking tobacco. 
 I lifted up one of the sashes the cries were continued 
 I stepped into the room, and, hurrying to the apart- 
 ment whence the sounds proceeded, was fortunate 
 enough to rescue you from the grasp of the harpy by 
 whom you were assailed." 
 
 " Any other female than Constantia Beverning," said 
 Jocelyn, " would have been deterred by the fear of 
 danger, even if she had not been appalled by the para- 
 mount dread of infection ; and I shudder when I think 
 to what risk your generous courage may have exposed 
 you." 
 
 " Yielding to the impulse of the moment," replied 
 Constantia, " no apprehensions entered my mind, nor 
 do they disturb me now, for I am provided with an 
 antidote which effectually preserved me in Holland, 
 although I braved the fury of the distemper by visiting- 
 many of my poorer pensioners, when they were suffer- 
 ing from its attack. I am no inexperienced doctress 
 in this complaint, and I undertake to pronounce that 
 you cannot communicate it, for it has already left you. 
 You will recover, but you will still need a nurse, and 
 I am bound to supply that character, since it was I 
 who chased away your former attendant. Indeed you 
 have a double claim upon my services, for it was by 
 rny advice that the Alderman closed up his doors ; I 
 thus became the unintentional author of your expulsion 
 from his house."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 151 
 
 " Were you, then, aware that I had made applica- 
 tion for admittance ?" inquired Jocelyn. 
 
 " The servant to whom you applied," answered Con- 
 stantia, blushing, " mentioned your name, adding that 
 he had seen you enter our neighbour's lodging-house." 
 
 " Then your astonishment at our meeting was not 
 of course so lively as my own." observed Jocelyn. 
 
 " Our servant had seen you again quit the house," 
 said Constantia, fixing her eyes upon the ground, 
 " and had not marked your return, so that I had reason 
 to hope you were no longer its inmate. But I must 
 not thus neglect my patient : I have brought you 
 another cordial, the influence of which, I trust, will be 
 not less salutary than the last ; and two books calcu- 
 lated to afford you consolation and recreation. Body 
 and mind will be thus jointly restored, and at my return 
 this afternoon I hope to find that my patient has done 
 justice to both my prescriptions. Farewell !" The 
 volume intended for his consolation was the Bible ; the 
 other, which was also in folio, was Pharamond, one 
 of those chivalrous romances of Walter de Calprenede, 
 which found peculiar favour in Constantia's eyes, be- 
 cause it sublimised the passion of love into a quintes- 
 sence of refinement, much better adapted to angelic 
 natures than to those of flesh and blood. 
 
 In the statement she had made to Jocelyn there was 
 nothing disingenuous, a noble and proud candour was 
 her distinguishing characteristic ; but there was an 
 omission, of which she was perhaps herself unconscious, 
 although it would have, helped to explain her opportune 
 appearance in the extremity of his danger. Her aver- 
 ment might be true that she would have rushed to the 
 assistance of a stranger with equal alacrity, had she 
 heard his cries : but for a stranger she would not have
 
 152 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 been hovering about the house in which she imagined 
 him to dwell ; she would not have haunted the gallery 
 arly and late that conducted to it ; she would not 
 have been in a perpetual agitation and alarm, from the 
 first moment that she had observed his abode to be 
 marked by a red cross, although she had no actual 
 certainty that the object of her solicitude was a prisoner 
 within it. Such had been the life of Constantia : the 
 restlessness and anxiety of her heart had continually 
 suggested some new pretext for visiting the gallery : 
 fifty times a day had she listened for some sound, or 
 peered through the windows of the circular room to 
 discover some object ; and her presence, at the identical 
 moment when it was required, was solely attributable 
 to this vigilance of affection. Her life she might have 
 risked to succour any other person, if suddenly called 
 upon to expose it ; but her hopes and fears, her head, 
 her heart, and her time, could not have been thus 
 exclusively engrossed by any one but Jocelyn. 
 
 To him it was evident, from what he had heard, that 
 she was aware of his being her neighbour ; and when 
 he combined her generous defiance of danger and of 
 calumny, the devoted ness with which she had pressed 
 his infected hand, and her enthusiastic prayers for his 
 recovery, with the provident and unremitting attention 
 that anticipated every want, as she anxiously watched 
 over him in his convalescence, he felt himself driven to 
 the painful conclusion that she could never have thus 
 dedicated herself to his preservation, unless she had 
 been actuated by a passion which he felt it impossible 
 to return. His gratitude was unbounded ; he would 
 gladly have sacrificed in her service the life that she 
 had saved ; but his affections it was no longer in his 
 power to bestow, for he felt, when returning to life, as
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 153 
 
 he had done when he imagined himself to be dying, 
 that, however hopeless might be the attachment, his 
 whole undivided heart was with Julia Strickland, in the 
 melancholy castle of Haelbeck. 
 
 Deeply impressed with this conviction, and anxious 
 to undeceive Constantia as soon as possible, if she 
 imagined his affections to be disengaged, he determined 
 to impart to her the state of his feelings with reference 
 to her friend Julia, and inquire whether she could en- 
 able him to follow up the dictates of his heart, by 
 throwing any light upon the dark cloud that hung over 
 the fate of Mr. Strickland. Love and curiosity, both 
 of which were sufficiently ardent in his bosom, might 
 thus be gratified at once ; and if his communication 
 produced no other result, it would at least show to 
 Constantia that he had nothing but the most fervent 
 gratitude to offer her in return for her inappreciable 
 services. 
 
 In their next interview, he accordingly declared to 
 her, though not without considerable embarrassment, 
 that, as she might perhaps take an interest in the hap- 
 piness of the man whose life she had preserved, he 
 trusted she would not refuse to give him any informa- 
 tion it might be in her power to bestow, relative to the 
 history of Julia Strickland, or to the causes which had 
 occasioned her father to be thus excommunicated by 
 all mankind. He proceeded to state the indelible im- 
 pression which Julia's numerous attractions had made 
 upon his heart ; concluding with the avowal that he 
 should have implored her to unite her fate with his, had 
 he not been deterred by the universal anathema that 
 seemed to have been pronounced against her unfortu- 
 nate parent. 
 
 During the delivery of his speech, Constantia had
 
 I54 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 been sittmg with her hands loosely held together in her 
 lap, and her eyes fixed upon them, while a burning 
 blush diffused itself over her face and neck. After its 
 conclusion, she remained in the same attitude for a few 
 seconds, until, apparently roused from her reverie by 
 the silence, she lifted up her head, shook aside the 
 curls that had fallen over her large and lustrous eyes, 
 and exclaimed, while her countenance was lighted up 
 with an unusual animation, " I knew it I foresaw 
 it I predicted it. Beauty, and innocence, and talent, 
 such as Julia's, were not to be encountered with im- 
 punity, especially when united with that vivacity which 
 men love more than all the rest. And have you, un- 
 fortunate that you are, have you thrown away this 
 pearl above all price, from a vague and cowardly 
 apprehension of that vacillating scarce - crow the 
 world ?" 
 
 " If I could have felt confident that my friends, "- 
 said Jocelyn. 
 
 "Friends!" interrupted Constantia "where are 
 the friends to be pul. in competition with a wife, and, 
 above all, such a wife as Julia? Envy, selfishness, 
 inconstancy, are perpetually laying siege to every 
 other attachment : in a wife alone there is a security 
 for unalterable friendship, because in her alone is there 
 an absolute identity of interest. In her alone will it 
 remain unalloyed by prosperity, and undiminished by 
 reverses. Friends ! Mr. Strickland was for a long 
 time the idol of his countrymen ; he had youth, beauty, 
 health, fortune, power, popularity : all, all have vanish- 
 ed ; the whole world has turned against him : of all 
 his numerous blessings, one only has remained to him 
 the affection of his wife : an affection not only un- 
 subdued but exalted, refined, sublimised, by the fire
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 155 
 
 of persecution, through which her husband has been 
 compelled to pass. Is it possible that you can have 
 remained so long in the castle of Haelbeck, and have 
 not appreciated the value of a virtuous woman's love ?" 
 
 " I have reason to believe," said Jocelyn, " that 
 Miss Strickland could not have been induced to quit 
 that dreary abode." 
 
 " But you might have remained to share it with her," 
 replied Constantia : " and by what she has endured 
 for her father you might have judged what she would 
 dare and do for a husband." 
 
 " If I could ever have been sure that she would listen 
 to my love " 
 
 " Love !" interposed Constantia. " Beware, sir, of 
 desecration. Bestow not that sacred name upon a 
 pusillanimous and transient admiration, which crouches 
 clown and shrinks into nothing, if a finger or voice be 
 lifted up against it. We are compounded of heavenly 
 and of earthly elements, from whose mysterious union 
 spring the two master-passions that ennoble our na- 
 ture religion and love. Devotion to one object above, 
 devotedness to one object below : these are all-sufficient 
 for the soul and for the heart ; they lift us out of ourselves ; 
 they exalt us above this fleshly scene ; they form for us 
 
 world within ourselves, shutting out the external 
 world, and rendering us, for the time, independent of 
 ate and fortune. They establish in our bosom an 
 empire of our own, where the heart sits enthroned in 
 ,he calm majesty of its own virtuous happiness. Oh, 
 f you had truly loved Julia, the innocent Julia, who is 
 ,hus sacrificing her youth to a sense of filial piety, with 
 what an indignant scorn would you have spurned at 
 society with all its conventional injustice ! With what 
 a proud fervour would you have proclaimed yourself
 
 J56 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 her champion, and deemed the desolate Haelbeck, so 
 long as you could share it with her, a very paradise 
 upon earth ! Love must indeed sublimise the soul, 
 almost to an antepast of the celestial beatitudes, when 
 the heart can find it sweet to make sacrifices and en- 
 counter perils for the object of its secret attachment, 
 even where it feels the passion to be unrequited, nay, 
 even where it knows the affections of that object to be 
 devoted to another." 
 
 Constantia had spoken with enthusiasm, for she had 
 been giving utterance to her own deep feelings ; she 
 had pressed her hand upon her heart, for she had been 
 converting its aspirations into language ; she had been 
 gazing intently upon Jocelyn, for she had been speak- 
 ing of unrequited love ; and all this she had done un- 
 consciously : but a sudden recollection of her own pre- 
 dicament, and a fear that he might suspect her of 
 having made allusions to herself, covered her with a 
 momentary confusion, which bhe endeavoured to con- 
 ceal by an air of coldness and reserve, as she rose up 
 and exclaimed : " But I forget that I am only an idle 
 theorist in these matters ; and you, who are, or imagine 
 yourself to be, acquainted with the passion, will doubt- 
 less smile at my visionary speculations. You have, 
 perhaps, chosen the wiser path. If you seek favour 
 from public opinion if you think it will reward you 
 for the happiness you have thrown away at Haelbeck 
 if you hope that it will embellish the life which you 
 owe solely to a contempt of its censure go, fall down 
 before your deity, worship it, lay your head and your 
 heart at its feet, and enjoy the glory of offering yourself 
 up as a martyr to a blind and capricious idol. For 
 me, it is time to make atonement for my rebellion 
 against its authority ; the life, for whose preservation I
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 157 
 
 spurned it, is now secured ; and I return to my alle- 
 giance. I shall see you no more, but I will not leave 
 you without providing a regular physician to complete 
 your cure." 
 
 " If I may not owe that additional favour to the 
 continued kindness of Constantia Beverning," said 
 Jocelyn, " let me at least be exempted from other 
 visitation, which will be as unacceptable as I feel it 
 to be unnecessary." 
 
 " It is indispensable," said Constantia; " you must 
 be reported convalescent before the interdict can be 
 removed from the house. May you never hereafter 
 need the ministering either of an unlicensed practi- 
 tioner like myself, or of any more professional adviser. 
 Fare you well, sir ! I have taken one more parting 
 liberty, unauthorized by usage, in leaving a purse upon 
 the table, whose contents may, perhaps, be required, 
 until the world, your master, remunerates you for your 
 services. Nay, sir, no denials, no protestations ; you 
 have given proof of your disdain of obligation ; I have 
 no doubt you will return it, when you think fit, as 
 punctually as you did mv scarf." As she made this 
 remark, her face exhibited a slight expression of regret, 
 almost of reproach ; but it passed away, and her coun- 
 tenance quickly resumed its look of serious, though 
 benignant, beauty. 
 
 " Leave me wot, I beseech you," exclaimed Jocelyn, 
 " until you have enabled me, if you have the power, to 
 decide between myself and Julia, by clearing up the 
 mystery in which the fate of her father is involved." 
 
 " I have the power," replied Constantia, with an 
 expression of solemnity ; " but I thought you had seen 
 enough of our sex at Haelbeck to believe that, in spit 
 of the sneers of fools and ribalds, a secret may be best
 
 158 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 entrusted to the inviolable custody of a woman. When 
 T know that a single syllable might occasion the hor- 
 rible doom that hangs over his head, to fall and crush 
 him, these lips will remain as sacredly closed as if 
 they had been sealed up by the finger of death. It is 
 enough for you that I pronounce Julia to be innocent. 
 Innocent ! my heart upbraids me for insulting her 
 with a praise so cold and negative. She is every thing 
 that is pure, noble, and exemplary ! She is one whom 
 a woman may indeed be proud to call her friend ; one 
 whom that man will eternally regret who has forfeited 
 the opportunity of calling her his wife. Once more, 
 sir, farewell ! I ask you not to forget me ; the name of 
 Constantia will be spontaneously, and I hope rapidly, 
 obliterated from your memory ; but I do implore you 
 not to forget Him, by whose manifest interposition you 
 have been saved ; and though your deference to the world 
 may induce you to throw away your happiness upon 
 earth, never, oh, never, let it lead you to surrender 
 your hopes of Heaven !" 
 
 Jocelyn was beginning to pour forth the most fervent 
 vows of gratitude, when she waved her hand; and, 
 pointing upwards to the sky, as if to indicate that his 
 thanksgivings should be addressed to Heaven, shr 
 walked slowly and silently out of the apartment.
 
 BRAMBLETYB HOUSE. 159 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 When we in our viciousness grow hard, 
 
 (O misery on't!) the wise gods seal our eyes 
 
 In our own filth ; drop our clear judgments ; make us 
 
 Adore our errors ; laugh at us, while we strut 
 
 To our confusion. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 FROM the deep interest she had taken in the fate of 
 her friend at Haelbeck, and the reproaches she had 
 cast upon Jocelyn, more, indeed, in sorrow than in 
 anger, for not braving the world, and making Julia his 
 wife, he began to think that he had been misled in im- 
 puting to Constantia any thing more tender than friend- 
 ship in her feelings towards himself; although, by this 
 supposition, he was quite at a loss to account for her 
 conduct. Even upon her friendship he had little or 
 no claim ; upon a heroism so devoted as that which 
 she had evinced, he had none whatever. He had 
 noticed no self-betrayal, no indications of jealousy in 
 her deportment ; yet there was a certain indecorum 
 in her disregard of female observances, which could 
 only be explained by the supposition of her acting 
 under the influence of love. Why should she expose 
 herself to censure, nay to death, for one, in whose fate 
 her heart remained uninterested ? He was utterly per- 
 plexed ; he had no clue to her actions, because he 
 compared her with other women, and could not com- 
 prehend the full sublimity of her character. Notwith- 
 standing her declarations to the contrary, he even 
 believed that she would repeat her visit on the follow-
 
 lb'0 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 ing day : but he was mistaken : she came no more. In 
 her stead appeared a physician, who had no sooner 
 seen Jocelyn than he pronounced him to be perfectly 
 cured, and congratulated him on his recovery from a 
 disease so inexorable, as hardly to have spared one in 
 a thousand of those whom it had attacked. Upon the 
 report of this visitant, who was one of the examiners, 
 the fearful red cross was effaced from the door, the 
 padlock was removed, the watchman was withdrawn, 
 and Jocelyn, with no other remains of his complaint 
 than a trifling languor and debility, stepped, as it were, 
 out of the grave, into the free, refreshing air of heaven, 
 and bent his way towards the residence of the Lord 
 Mayor, from whom it was necessary to have a certifi- 
 cate of health, to enable him to pass through any of 
 the towns that surrounded London. This was easily 
 obtained ; nor did he now experience any difficulty in 
 procuring an exclusive conveyance to Oxford ; for the 
 purse which Constantia had left with him was heavy 
 with gold, and he moreover retained the money which 
 he had borrowed from the deceased landlady. The 
 latter he would have returned, could he have found 
 her son, or any other claimant for the property ; and 
 the former he resolved to replace as soon as fortune 
 enabled him, though he would not run the risk of 
 offending his generous preserver, by refusing- to avai! 
 himself of it in his present need. 
 
 Turning his back upon the ill-fated cityof London, 
 along whose silent streets Death, the destroyer, was still 
 walking in all the terror of his undiminished wrath, 
 he plunged into the wholesome country, like a bird 
 escaped from his cage, and inhaled the pure atmos- 
 phere, as if he had migrated into a ; happier world, and 
 were enjoying a new existence. ^Delight was in every
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 161 
 
 object, every sound, every odour ; his senses seemed to 
 be gifted with a second youth, that steeped them m 
 pleasure ; a fresh vitality was wafted from every field ; 
 mere existence became a species of ecstasy : his spirits 
 were exhilarated ; his body was refreshed ; and, instead 
 of arriving at Oxford, as he had expected, in a state 
 of increased debility, the change of air and succession 
 of pleasant objects had so effectually counteracted the 
 fatigues of travel, that he felt himself infinitely better 
 at the conclusion, than at the commencement, of his 
 journey. 
 
 His friend Tracy, to whom he immediately betook 
 himself, greeted him with the liveliest cordiality, de- 
 claring that nothing could be more opportune than his 
 arrival, as every thing was now prepared for his complete 
 restoration to favour. All his former opponents were, 
 at last, propitiated. The King, with his usual pliability, 
 was willing to grant whatever was asked him by any 
 of his favourites, either male or female ; the Duke of 
 Buckingham, as Tracy had anticipated, declared that 
 he had hated him long enough ; and, as he sadly 
 wanted a change of sensations, he was willing to re- 
 ceive him into his especial favour and protection. Lady 
 Castlemaine had been the last to hold out, resisting all 
 the solicitations of the Duke of Monmouth, who had 
 been indefatigable in his behalf; nor would her wrath 
 have been ultimately appeased, but for a little manoeuvre 
 of his hiend Lord Rochester. That nobleman pre- 
 sented to her one morning a most bitter and scurrilous 
 lampoon upon her two mortal enemies, Lady Gerrard 
 and the Duchess of Richmond, with which she was so 
 immeasurably delighted that she desired him to name 
 his own reward, umding herself by an oath to grant it. 
 According to the scandalous chronicle of the courtiers, 
 
 VOL. II M
 
 162 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 who had for some time observed a growing penchant 
 between the parties, she expected that he would gladly 
 seize this opportunity for indulging his love of gal- 
 lantry, and of affording her the excuse of her vow to 
 permit it ; but his Lordship, whose capricious humour 
 sometimes found more pleasure in vexing and disap- 
 pointing others, than even in advancing his own in- 
 trigues, stipulated for her forgiveness of Jocelyn, and 
 her consent to his recal. These points she was bound 
 in honour to concede ; but she had never spoken since 
 to Lord Rochester, and Jocelyn was warned that this 
 extorted reconciliation, with a woman of her haughty 
 character, was likely to prove hollow and insincere. 
 
 Not many hours had elapsed after his arrival at 
 Oxford, when he was presented to the Queen, who 
 received him with extraordinary condescension and 
 kindness, inquiring into all the circumstances of his 
 exile, as well as his recovery from the plague, and ex- 
 pressing her regret that he should have been exposed 
 to so much peril and suffering upon her account. She 
 cautioned him, however, against any future indulgence 
 in such intemperate language as that which had led to 
 his disgrace, particularly desiring him never to let his 
 zeal for the Queen lead him to forget his duty to the 
 King. Although his situation of vice-chamberlain had 
 been bestowed upon another, she declared that sne held 
 herself accountable to him for the salary up to the 
 period of his return, which she should desire her trea- 
 surer to pay over to him : and added that if he con- 
 sidered the post of her private secretary a desirable sub- 
 stitution for his former office, he might kiss her hand 
 upon receiving the appointment. With a smile of 
 affability she held it out to him for that purpose ; and 
 Jocelyn, falling upon one knee, acknowledged in suit-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 163 
 
 able terms his grateful sense of the honour conferred 
 upon him. Her Majesty informed him that his duties 
 would be very trifling, as she was so mere a cypher 
 in the state as to have little or no correspondence ; 
 adding that she should hardly have filled up the 
 appointment, unless for the pleasure of obliging one 
 who had suffered from his imprudence in her behalf; 
 and finally declared that if he desired to absent him- 
 self from the court, until his health was more fully 
 re-established, he was at perfect liberty to do so 
 
 Of this permission he could have hardly found lei- 
 sure to avail himself, even had he desired it, for it 
 was no sooner buzzed abroad that he had returned to 
 court, had been nominated to a better appointment 
 than the one he had lost, and was likely to be in 
 greater favour than ever, than his apartment was 
 thronged with the minions and parasites, who came to 
 congratulate him on his good fortune, and express their 
 unfeigned regard for a man, whose name, but the week 
 before, they would not have mentioned without some 
 disparaging adjunct. Among others who thus pre- 
 sented themselves, was Mark Walton, his second in 
 the duel with Bagot, who was so delighted at learning 
 the Queen's liberality in paying him his arrears, that 
 he condescended to borrow nearly the whole of the 
 money, to advance some project which he had at that 
 moment in hand, and in which, if successful, he de- 
 clared that his fortune would be made for life. " You 
 are happy," he exclaimed, " in serving the Queen in- 
 stead of the King, for I have not vet received one far- 
 thing of my salary since the Restoration, and this is 
 almost universally the case ; though for any of the 
 King's mistresses, or other pleasurable purpose, there 
 is a lavish expenditure of money, even to waste and 
 
 M 2
 
 164 BHAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 wantonness. However," continued the cautious young 
 courtier, " we must not rashly blame his Majesty, in 
 whose defence much may be said. The tragical death 
 of his father, his wandering and necessitous life in early 
 youth, the perils to which he was exposed, and the 
 treason and ingratitude that he so often encountered, 
 have probably combined to disgust him with public 
 business, to render him distrustful of mankind, and to 
 persuade him that the summum bonum consists in ease, 
 indolence, and sensual indulgence, an error from which 
 his own good sense would have long ago redeemed 
 him, had he not been confirmed in it by satellites and 
 flatterers." 
 
 " I differ with you, toto ceelo," cried Jocelyn ; *' b. ; s 
 father's fate should have warned him against the causes 
 that produced it ; his wandering life, by giving him 
 experience, might have taught him wisdom ; the good 
 sense that is not proof against the grossest flattery 
 cannot be rated very high ; and surely Charles the 
 Second is the lat man that can be allowed to talk of 
 treachery and ingratitude, when we recollect, that for 
 many years, the support of his cause deluged the 
 country in blood ; that even in his most desperate cir- 
 cumstances, there were never wanting gallant noble- 
 men and Cavaliers to sacrifice their lives and fortunes 
 in his behalf; and that, finally, the whole nation threw 
 itself into his arms without reserve or stipulation. But 
 I forget myself, I have already been cautioned against 
 
 falling into this error ! It becomes not me " 
 
 Here he was interrupted by the appearance of the Duke 
 of Monmouth, who embraced him with the utmost 
 cordiality, and expressed his hopes that their former 
 friendship would be not only renewed, but cemented, 
 by the temporary interruption it had sustained ; "I
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 165 
 
 should rather say separation," added the duke, " for 
 my good wishes and good offices suffered no diminution 
 in your absence. I have a thousand things to tell you, 
 but I will defer the relation till you sup with me to- 
 morrow night. It is the fast-day, and as there will be 
 no public entertainment I shall have company in my 
 own rooms. Fail not, for I have tidings for you which 
 I care not to utter in the presence of others." He cast 
 a look at Walton as he spoke, which presently sent 
 that accommodating personage out of the room, and 
 then continued : "Beware of that fellow; he is ever 
 seeking to advance himself, by entrapping others ; and 
 though he has hitherto gained nothing but a pretty 
 general contempt, there are circumstances in the pre- 
 sent situation of the court, which may render him 
 dangerous. And here comes another, who, without 
 any of the sordid motives of Bagot, is equally to be 
 dreaded from his mere love of mischief; so I will leave 
 you to encounter him alone, and adjourn our colloquy 
 until we can season it with sack. I have some, flavour- 
 ed with apricot, which you will pronounce inimitable." 
 As he left the room, Lord Rochester entered it, sing- 
 ing a part of Matthew Lock's glee, " Never trouble 
 thyself about times or their turnings," after which he 
 ejaculated, "Ha! my Faunus, my Sylvan, my Man 
 of the Woods, my quondam brother in disgrace and 
 exile, let us embrace, for, bold as may be the word, I 
 flatter myself we are as arrant a couple of scapegraces 
 as any in the court. You have been in banishment, I 
 have been in the Tower : and here we are both in high 
 favour, until another freak of fortune orders us to the 
 right-about. Brother culprit, you are welcome to the 
 learned and religious (and therefore to King Charles the 
 most appropriate) city of Oxford "
 
 166 BltAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 " A favour for which I understand that I am mainly 
 indebted to your Lordship," said Jocelyn, " and I can 
 assure you that I entertain a most grateful sense " 
 
 " Nay, nay, prythee be not so commonplace," cried 
 Rochester; "have any other sense that you like no 
 sense, if you will ; but prythee, while you live, ever 
 eschew a grateful sense. Foh ! it savours of the Puri- 
 tan. Indebted to me, my Faunus ? no such thing. 
 Not to serve you, but to plague Lady Castlemaine, did 
 I condition for your pardon ; and if I have conferred a 
 benefit, depend upon it I shall exact more than its 
 value in return. I told you so in the outset of our 
 acquaintance. Do ut des, is my motto. Where god- 
 liness can be made a great gain, and charity be put 
 out to usurious interest, who so pious, who so charita- 
 ble, as the profligate Jack Wilmot ?" 
 
 " It is peculiar to your Lordship to be more ashamed 
 of your good actions than others are of their bad ones," 
 said Jocelyn. 
 
 " Because I had rather wear a worthless camlet that 
 is the fashion, than a gold-laced velvet that is out of 
 vogue. When virtue becomes the mode at court, you 
 shall see my Lord Rochester the very pink of fashion ; 
 but Gramercy ! there is little chance of so ominous a 
 transformation while Charles the Second is King ; his 
 pleasures his ministers ; idleness his occupation ; the 
 dinner-table his council-board ; and his mistresses his 
 masters. A merry world and a mad, is the motto 
 of to-day ; to which, if you add, a fig for yesterday ! 
 and hang to-morrow ! you have a clue to all the mys- 
 teries of the court, past, present, and to come. What 
 shall be our next freak, my Man of the Woods? As 
 you helped me to run away with Mistress Mallett, wilt 
 help me now, that she is my wife, to run away from her?
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 167 
 
 'Twere the better service of the two. Oh, that inimit- 
 able drunken mountebank ! how many times have I 
 attempted to enact the character, and how unworthy 
 was the copy of the great original ! Hyperion to a 
 Satyr. Here come more friends ; they have heard of 
 your appointment : Oh, the summer rogues ! They 
 come like the flies with the sunshine, to disappear when 
 you are under a cloud. Let me avoid their buzzing. 
 1 know their value, for I have written a poem upon 
 Nothing." 
 
 His Lordship fled, leaving Jocelyn to a levee of 
 subordinates and minor courtiers, whose interested pro- 
 fessions and congratulations he received with apparent 
 complacency, though he fully appreciated the worth of 
 such lip-deep friendship. Among others came Tracv, 
 with a message from the Queen, inviting him, if he felt 
 sufficiently recovered, to attend a splendid entertain- 
 ment which was to be given that evening in Christ- 
 church Hall, and at which he might be presented to 
 the King upon his appointment. Little as he felt dis- 
 posed to encounter such festivities after the lamentable 
 scenes of suffering and sickness he had so lately visited, 
 lie con idered her Majesty's invitation as a command 
 which he was bound to obey, and accordingly dressed 
 himself in the gayest attire that he could procure at so 
 short a notice, girt his diamond-hilted sword to his side, 
 and betook himself to the venerable Hall of Christ- 
 church, which had never before resounded with such 
 notes of revelry and music, nor encircled so joyous and 
 magnificent an assemblage. 
 
 The whole enclosure was nearly filled with company 
 when he entered, the gothic and gloomy architecture 
 of the building, and the recollection of the purposes to 
 which it was usually applied, contrasting strongly with
 
 168 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the blaze of lights, the sparkling beauties, the splendid 
 court, the smiling faces, the tables covered with cards 
 and dice, and the waving plumes of the dancers, as 
 they moved to the melody of wind-instruments, whose 
 cadences were mingled with the buzz of conversation, 
 or the louder echoes of merriment and laughter. Mis- 
 givings as to the kind of reception he was likely to 
 experience from the King rendered him anxious for the 
 completion of that ceremony ; and he was always so 
 impatient of suspense that he was not sorry when 
 Lord Rochester took him by the hand, and, leading 
 him directly up to the Monarch, exclaimed as he pre- 
 sented him ; " Here is another of your Majesty's 
 naughty boys, who is a petitioner for forgiveness, and 
 is ready to perform whatever penance may be enjoined 
 him, only barring birch and ferula, imprisonment and 
 starvation." 
 
 " He cannot be condemned to wear the fool's cap 
 without robbing your Lordship," said the Monarch, 
 smiling, " and we therefore sentence him to learn fifty 
 lines by heart, and yourself to write them." 
 
 " Your Majesty was ever merciful," cried Rochester 
 " an easy penalty, indeed !" 
 
 " Not so simple as you may imagine" said the 
 King " for you are prohibited from being either in- 
 decent or profane in your verses." 
 
 " I am absolved by the very conditions," replied 
 Rochester, " for no one is bound to perform impos- 
 sibilities." 
 
 Jocelyn was expressing his regret that he should 
 ever have fallen under his Majesty's displeasure, when 
 the good-humoured Monarch interrupted him with an 
 exclamation of " Tilly vally, man ! name it not. If 
 tvery man who abuses me behind my back were to
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 169 
 
 run away from Court, I might nold my grand levee in 
 a sentry-box ; and, besides, I have forgotten so many 
 services that I am bound in justice to overlook a few 
 offences. Your father, stout Sir John, was ever a 
 trusty knight and true ; and I remember too well our 
 supper at Bruges, to punish the quondam Queen of 
 the Gate-house for forgetting her own station, and ar- 
 raigning royalty." He held out his hand, which Jocelyn 
 kissed, and, as others were pressing forward to be pre- 
 sented, he retired from the throng, not less delighted 
 with his reception, than surprised that his Majesty 
 should recollect their supper party at Bruges, and the 
 particulars of his escape from prison. 
 
 Fnding himself unpleasantly affected by the heat, 
 lie retired to the deep embrasure of one of the windows, 
 from which retreat he saw Lady Castlemaine flaunt 
 athwart the hall, blazing like a meteor, her whole dress 
 being illuminated with jewels : she was succeeded 
 shortly afterwards by Mistress Wells, Mistress Stewart, 
 and others of the King's real or reputed mistresses, all 
 decorated with a magnificence that eclipsed other com- 
 petitors, although it did not equal that of Lady Castle- 
 maine. Lord Mordaunt and an elderly lady were 
 seated at a little distance, noticing this procession of 
 emblazoned wantons, and coupling it with the King's 
 lavish expenditure upon Nell Gwynn and Moll Davies, 
 for whom he had lately been fitting up houses in Pall 
 Mall and Suffolk Street, when the Lady exclaimed 
 " Ought not such shameless and wasteful hussies 
 to be impeached ?" 
 
 " No, indeed," replied Lord Mordaunt, "we should 
 rather erect statues to the patriotic courtezans who 
 make their lover dependent upon Parliament for his 
 subsistence. The people would soon be slaves, if the
 
 170 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 King were not always a beggar." Conceiving from the 
 tenor of their conversation that it was not meant to be 
 overhead, Jocelyn left his retreat, and again mixed 
 himself with the company, anxious to get near the 
 fantastical Duchess of Newcastle, whom he saw at a little 
 distance, attracting all eyes by the preposterous sin- 
 gularity of her dress and discourse. This lady, who 
 Lad written thirteen volumes upon speculative subjects, 
 was inquiring of Dr. Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of 
 Chester, who had attempted to show the possibility 
 of a voyage to the moon, where she was to stop and 
 bait, supposing she were to undertake the journey. 
 " Madam." said the Doctor, " of all people in the 
 world I should least have expected that question from 
 you, who have built so many castles in the air that 
 you might sleep every night in one of them." Not- 
 withstanding this rebuff, her Grace was preparing to 
 renew her attack, and Jocelyn was anticipating some 
 amusement from the keen encounter of two such ori- 
 ginal wranglers, when, as his evil destiny ordained he 
 was pounced upon and seized, beyond all possibility of 
 escape, by his old assailant Lady Babington, who thus 
 began to pour out upon him the inexhaustible poverty 
 of her ideas, nodding at intervals, and bestowing a 
 word or two upon her passing friends. 
 
 " Vastly well, thank ye ; how do you do ? La ! how 
 pale you look, and thin ! So, you 've got your fine 
 sword still. Isn't it a dreadful thing, this plague? They 
 say it has killed a hundred thousand people already. 
 I declare it makes one quite low. He, he ! did you 
 hear of the poor tipsy piper, that laid himself down 
 upon a bulk to sleep How do, Lady Sanderson ? 
 that's the mother of the maids and so being taken 
 for a corpse, was tossed into the dead-cart, where he
 
 BRAMBLETYL HuUSE. 171 
 
 presently came to his senses, and tuning up a jig 
 upon his pipes, frightened the driver and the burier out 
 of their wits. Monstrous droll, was'nt it ? There goes 
 Oliver's Fiddler, as they call him Sir Roger L'Es- 
 trange. Only think of poor Tom Chiffinch's death, 
 the King's closet-keeper ! playing tables last night as 
 well as ever, and dead this morning before seven 
 o'clock. How do, Clifford? Ah, my Lord Ashley ! I 
 heard of your quarrel t'other day with Lord Ossory. 
 La ! my dear Mrs. Price, a thousand thanks for the 
 Service Marmalade, and the Rob of Cornelian Cherry : 
 quite delicious ! Where did you get your still room 
 maid ? What a beautiful Demi-Sultane, and all trim- 
 med with Pointe d'Espagne ! no, the Engageans* are 
 only Colbertine or Campanie, I believe. Allow me, 
 my dear ; there's one of your star-patches coming off 
 your cheek, and there's your Palisade^ mixed with the 
 Berger.J What bungler dressed your hair ? Where do 
 you get your Spanish paper ? what a beautiful colour 
 it gives you ! Good bye ! She's one of the maids of 
 honour, and the Duke's favourite. Did you hear of 
 her mad pranks t'other day with Mrs. Jennings, dres- 
 sing themselves up as orange-girls, and how Tom Killi- 
 grew took liberties with them ? very improper ! Ah, 
 my dear Mrs. Jennings, how do? just talking of you. 
 How well you 're looking. I saw you yesterday, bob- 
 bing along in your gay sedan. La ! what a pretty gold 
 knob for holding your pomander ball; and fastened, 
 I see, with a French pennache. Can you spare me 
 any more of your nice Pastilles di Bocca? They are 
 
 * Deep double ruffles, down to the wrists. 
 
 f Part of the head-dress. 
 
 J A plain small lock, turned up with a puff.
 
 172 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 much better than Dr. Goddard's Drops. So the Doc- 
 tor ran away from London when the plague began. 
 What a rich Pointe de Venise round your Echelles !* 
 How do, Duke of Buckingham ? I heard of your 
 scuffle, and pulling off the Marquis of Dorchester's 
 periwig t' other day, when you were all sitting in coun- 
 cil. Mighty fine doings ! By the bye, who will pur- 
 chase periwigs hereafter ? they will all be made of hair 
 from the heads of the nasty people that die in the 
 plague. Isn't it dangerous ? How do, Arlington ? 
 I have now seen the whole of the Cabal, hav'nt I ? 
 Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington no, there's 
 an L wanting, and here he comes, I do declare. How 
 do, Lauderdale, how do, Lauderdale ? there that 
 makes up the C, A, B, A, L." 
 
 Jocelyn availed himself of a momentary cessation to 
 attempt an escape, by declaring th at he saw his friend 
 the Duke of Monmouth beckoning to him, but she only 
 held him faster when she detected his design, and 
 having recovered her breath immediately recommenced. 
 " Oh, he only wants to show you his new George ; very 
 handsome, a cardonyx set round with rose-diamonds ; 
 a George engraved on one side of the onyx, and the 
 other enamelled. La ! I do declare there's the King 
 openly kissing Mrs. Stewart in the window, and the 
 Queen in the room. 'Pon my life, it's too bad ! What 
 a horrid noise the music makes ; I can't hear a word 
 that's said. You haven't seen my new rooms, one 
 hung with Moreclack tapestry, and ftie other with 
 pintado ; all Indian figures you know, vastly pretty ; 
 and an arras carpet of gold, silver, and rich flowers, 
 with the arms in the centre. There goes that simple 
 
 * A stomacher laced with ribbon.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 173 
 
 Damaetas,* Lord Chandois ; you'll see him presently 
 accompanying the dancers by humming a psalm to 
 himself. I remember when I last saw you, I had just 
 lost my poor sister Fanny. Ah ! I shall never forget 
 her. Heigho ! He, he ! do, for Heaven's sake, look 
 at the old Countess Culpepper, she has just laughed 
 out one of her plumpers f and see how she turns away 
 her hollow cheek from every one that speaks to her. 
 Monstrous droll, isn't it ? How do, Mrs. Middleton ? 
 How is the darling little spaniel with the crimson gar- 
 land and silver bells ? I saw you yesterday, in your 
 yellow bird's eye hood, your loo-mask, and your scarf 
 with the broad Flanders lace. La ! what mighty pretty 
 scarf-buckles ! So we are to have a fast-day for the 
 plague to-morrow. And what charming pearl-pears 
 in your ears ! Is this Calembuc J fan perfumed with 
 jessamine or narcissus ? She is one of the King's beau- 
 ties. How do, St. Evremond ? How do, De Gram- 
 mont ? Always together, Pyramus and Thisbe. I have 
 seen the fine coach you presented to the King. La, 
 Mr. Compton, what a hurry you are in ! Have you 
 heard that the Duchess of York is in love with Harry 
 Sidney, her master of the horse ? Did you ever hear 
 the echo at Somerset House ? Have you read the new 
 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses ? Which do you 
 like best as a preacher, old Dr. Fell how do, Kili- 
 grew ? how do, Sir George Etherege ? or young Dr. 
 Stillingfleet ? Do you like these bright yellow locks for 
 dark people ? No more do I. That's Monsieur Com- 
 minges, the French Ambassador. How do, Sir Charles 
 
 * A weak character in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. 
 
 f- The light balls used to fill up the cavities of the cheeks. 
 
 J A scented wood from the Indies.
 
 174 BHAMBLBTYE HOUSE. 
 
 Sedley ? Here comes Sir Harry Herbert, the Master 
 of the Revels, accompanied by Mr. Waller. Only 
 think of their making him so tipsy, notwithstanding his 
 being called the water-drinking poet : and his getting 
 such a dreadful fall down the river-stairs at Somerset 
 House. You see he is quite lame still." 
 
 Most fortunately for Jocelyn, who was upon the 
 point of summoning the Duke of Monmouth to the 
 rescue, the master of the revels and the poet came up 
 for the express purpose of effecting his deliverance ; 
 not indeed out of any kindness to him, with whom 
 they were personally unacquainted, but in virtue of a 
 commission, which specially charged them to transfer 
 the cherry-clapper, as Lady Babington was sometimes 
 disrespectfully termed, to another victim. Lady Cas- 
 tlemaine, vexed at the King's continued and undis- 
 guised dalliance with Mrs. (or rather, as we should now 
 designate a maid of honour, with Mias) Stewart, a dal- 
 liance which was even exceeding the customary licence 
 of that latitudinarian court, had despatched these 
 emissaries to inform the sempiternal chatterer that 
 Miss Stewart was particularly anxious to see her, as 
 she had procured for her some real Hungary water, 
 with the Queen's head labelled upon the bottles. She 
 well knew that her ladyship, who was no respecter of 
 persons or places, would soon invade the sanctity of 
 the bower, which all the rest of the Court had so kindly 
 abandoned to the amorous Monarch and the maid of 
 honour ; and she was equally confident that the King 
 would fly in dismay at the very first appearance of the 
 approaching calamity. Every thing answered to her 
 wishes ; Lady Babington had no sooner received the 
 message than she exclaimed, " Oh, the dear creature ! 
 then I will beg her to accept in return my pretty little
 
 BR.AMBLETYE HOUSE. 175 
 
 dear patch-box of mazarine fillagree, and a glue-pot 
 to match. Good bye, Mr. Compton, I must really 
 
 that's the Cardinal Howard, of Norfolk, the 
 
 Queen's almoner ; and here comes the Duchess of 
 Newcastle, with her hair about her ears, and fifty 
 black patches on her face. La ! what a pretty scarlet 
 sword-knot ! good bye, good bye ! I really cannot 
 listen to you a moment longer. La ! there is old Sir 
 Henry de Vic, with his ragged beard. I dare say he 
 is going to play cribbage with Lord Chandois. I'm 
 glad he has got rid of his shabby camelott suit. Isn't 
 he smart ? black velvet, gold buttons looped with 
 lace, trimmed all over with scarlet ribbons, and a gold- 
 lace shoulder-belt ! Well, I declare !" With these 
 words, she hurried away, darted unceremoniously into 
 the royal recess, out of which the King as instanta- 
 neously sprung as if he had seen a viper ; and a loud 
 laugh from Lady Castlemaine and her coterie, of whom 
 the Queen formed one, attested the success of their 
 manreuvre, the discomfiture of Miss Stewart, and the 
 triumph of her rivals. 
 
 In nothing did Jocelyn mark a more decided change, 
 since his absence from the Court, than in the demea- 
 nour of the Queen, who was now chatting familiarly 
 with her husband's mistress, with the identical woman 
 whose presentation she had resented with such a pas- 
 sion of wrath. Her Majesty had indeed struggled for 
 a length of time to uphold her own dignity, and pre- 
 serve some little appearance of decorum in the Court ; 
 but finding the King, however pliable in other matters, 
 inflexible in his gallantry and licentious pleasures, ana 
 becoming sensible that opposition would only lead to 
 an open breach between them, without its affording a 
 chance of reforming him, she gradually yielded to cir-
 
 170 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 cumstances, until she brought herself not only to wink 
 at his intrigues, but even to associate with his courte- 
 zans. Nay, so completely had she accommodated 
 herself to the manners of the Court, that she relaxed 
 in many instances from the rigour of her religious ob- 
 servances, and, at the period of Jocelyn's return, had 
 already begun to play cards upon the Sabbath. 
 
 While he was indulging these reflections, he observ- 
 ed that the dancing had every where ceased, and that 
 the band were removed to a small temporary orchestra, 
 at one extremity of the room, beyond which he now 
 noticed for the first time a large green curtain, and 
 upon inquiring of Sir Henry Herbert the meaning of 
 these demonstrations, he learned that a little masque 
 was about to be performed, for the amusement of the 
 Court. It had been prepared by Sir Roger L'Estrange, 
 and, being intended to be complimentary to their Ma- 
 jesties, contained much of that gross and fulsome adu- 
 lation which it would be an insult to offer to any but 
 crowned heads. The characters were all allegorical ; 
 and the performers such as could be hastily culled 
 from a strolling company, consisting of some half-dozen 
 men, dressed up in female attire to represent the 
 virtues, and other abstract personages. Matthew Lock 
 had adapted music to the different scenes, and Capt. 
 Cook had altered one of his anthems for the finale. 
 In short, nothing was omitted, which the hurried nature 
 of the preparation would allow, to give success and 
 ecldt to this little entertainment, from which the two 
 composers, and the ingenious author of the blank 
 verse, anticipated no small share of admiration and 
 applause. 
 
 But alas ! what are the hopes of mortals ? Rochester, 
 who had been admitted, as a great favour, and under
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 177 
 
 a promise of secrecy, to one of the rehearsals, observ- 
 ing the clownish nature of the rustic performers, con- 
 ceived the project of one of those mischievous pranks 
 in which he delighted ; and, communicating his plan 
 to Sir Thomas Killigrew, the two conspirators proceeded 
 immediately to put it into execution. While the mu- 
 sical composers were out of the way, and Sir Roger 
 L'Estrange engaged with the company in the hall, 
 they introduced a little collation behind the curtain, 
 pretending that it had been sent by the King for the 
 refreshment of the performers. Into the burned 
 sack and other potent compounds, they infused an 
 intoxicating mixture. The actors, unaccustomed 
 to such insidious draughts, and willing to do all ho- 
 nour to his Majesty, as well as to their distinguished 
 companions, drank the King's health, and pledged 
 their entertainers, and hobanobbed with one another 
 until they were sufficiently besotted to be quite ripe 
 for a quarrel. With such vulgar natures, a scuffle and 
 a brawl are generally the immediate consequences of 
 ebriety. Rochester and his friend pretended to quar- 
 rel and fight ; the actors espoused different sides, 
 and a general engagement ensued, in the midst of 
 which the original combatants slipped away. One of 
 them rang the bell which was to procure silence and 
 draw the attention of the company ; the other pulled 
 up the curtain ; and the eyes of their Majesties and 
 the assembled Court were directed to a scene of scuf- 
 fling, uproar, and wild confusion, such as has been 
 seldom exhibited to royal or even to plebeian observa- 
 tion. 
 
 Had the whole been intended as a burlesque, and 
 the performers received instructions to travestie their 
 various parts, they could not have more successfully 
 VOL. u. N
 
 178 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 reversed their respective attributes and characters. 
 Peace, who appeared to be the foremost and most 
 desperate of the combatants, after laying about him, 
 right and left, with a huge olive branch, which had 
 already felled two of the party, had pursued Victory 
 into a corner, and, having utterly defeated him, was 
 endeavouring to strangle him with his own wreath. 
 Religion was cursing and swearing like a trooper at 
 Mercy, who, having got him down to the ground, was 
 pummelling him with a most truculent and blood- 
 thirsty rage. Hope was seen utterly reduced to des- 
 pair by Justice, who was belabouring him in a blind 
 fury with his wooden sword. Charity, holding a bottle 
 of sack to his mouth, was refusing a single drop of it to 
 Faith, in spite of the most earnest supplications. Tem- 
 perance, with a black eye, was lying sprawling in one 
 corner of the stage, in a most pitiable plight of drun- 
 kenness ; and Fortitude was sitting in another, crying 
 and snivelling because Peace had given him a bloody 
 nose. 
 
 At first, the spectators were lost in an utter amaze- 
 ment, staring in bewilderment at the scene before them, 
 and waiting impatiently till the hidden meaning should 
 develope itself. Accustomed to masqueradings, pranks, 
 gambols, and every species of farcical buffoonery, they 
 took it for granted that the representation was part of 
 the regular entertainment, allegorical, perhaps, of chaos 
 and war, out of which were ultimately to spring peace 
 and order, and all the golden virtues of Saturn and 
 Astraea. Of such a desirable consummation, however, 
 there was not the least appearance. War raged with 
 redoubled fury ; the actions, language, and attitudes 
 of the belligerents sufficiently testified that they were 
 not only angry in earnest, but most indisputably tipsy.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 179 
 
 The trick that had been played them was quickly 
 buzzed about : they who were not in the secret began 
 to guess at the truth ; the real state of the case seemed 
 to flash upon the whole assembly at once ; and a si- 
 multaneous, universal roar of boisterous laughter made 
 the vaulted and venerable roof of Christchurch-hall 
 re-echo to its peal. 
 
 To the polished court of Charles the Second, as it 
 has been sometimes, though most erroneously, deno- 
 minated, there was nothing revolting in the grossness 
 and irregularity of the scene before them. By no 
 means squeamish themselves, and still less fastidious 
 about others, they found food for an egregious and un- 
 governable mirth in the profane oaths, ribald language, 
 disfigured features, drunken looks, and indecorous 
 gestures of the actors, all of whom seemed to forget 
 that they represented females, and were attired in 
 petticoats. Their first fury of intoxication and anger 
 was now subsiding ; and as they gradually became 
 sensible, in their returning soberness, that they had 
 been guilty of a most enormous disrespect to Ma- 
 jesty, they gazed at the august company, whom they 
 had thus outraged, with vacant, sheepish, and lack-a- 
 daisical looks, that seemed equally compounded of 
 drunkenness and dismay ; but which only aggravated 
 into a shriek the laughter of the spectators. 
 
 Rochester, who never wished a jest to drop, and 
 never felt the least compunction towards its victims, 
 heightened their terrors to the utmost by again mingling 
 among the actors ; informing them that the King was 
 in wrathful dudgeon, and playing upon their still-be- 
 wildered faculties until he persuaded them that they 
 had been guilty of petty treason and Leze-Majestc. 
 Finding them in a fit mood for his purpose, he led 
 N 2
 
 180 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 them all up in penitent plight to the royal chair, and 
 asked the King whether it was his Majesty's pleasure 
 to pronounce sentence of death upon the culprits ? 
 
 " My Lord of Rochester, well knowing your fitness 
 for the office, we constitute you our Judge and Re- 
 presentative," replied Charles, who enjoyed the scene, 
 though he did not wish to be at the trouble of support- 
 ing a character in it. 
 
 "Aha!" exclaimed Rochester pompously, at the 
 same time puffing out his cheeks, pulling out the curls 
 of his periwig in order to look as judicial as possible, 
 and sinking slowly and magisterially into a chair ; while 
 Killigrew seated himself upon the ground before him, 
 and, taking a pencil and paper from his pocket, as- 
 sumed the sober look of a magistrate's clerk. 
 
 Speaking in a loud, solemn, and dictatorial tone, the 
 mock Judge then exclaimed : " Come into Court, ye 
 rascally Virtues, foul-mouthed Purities, and worthless 
 Excellencies ! how will ye be tried, humanly or alle- 
 gorically, in your persons or personifications ; as ye 
 ought to be, and are not ; or as ye are, and ought not 
 to be ?" 
 
 The puzzled and penitent looks of the delinquents 
 declared, without speaking, that the question was be- 
 yond their comprehension ; and a dead silence ensued, 
 until Temperance, hiccoughing, tottering on his knees, 
 and fixing his drunken eyes upon Rochester with a 
 stolid stare, mumbled out , " I'll take my oath, my 
 lord, I'm at this moment as sober as a Judge." 
 
 " As your present Judge you may be," cried Charles. 
 " 'Ods-fish ! subpoena the King, and he shall swear 
 to it, my friend." 
 
 " It 's the first time I ever knew your Majesty to be 
 a friend to Temperance," said Rochester : then, turning
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 181 
 
 to the delinquents, he continued " Pay attention, ye 
 emblematical moralities and real raggamuffins, and 
 listen to your sentence. You, Peace ! were the first 
 to break yourself, and shall therefore be bound over 
 under a heavy penalty to keep yourself. You, Mercy ! 
 showed none of yourself, and shall therefore receive 
 none of yourself. Justice ! you may depend upon 
 having yourself. You, Hope ! on the contrary, must 
 give yourself up; and you, Fortitude! may prepare 
 to act with yourself. And now, ye self-antitheses, 
 hearken to your verdict, as the Court shall record it. 
 As his Majesty would be sorry to put the cardinal Vir- 
 tues in the stocks, or order Faith, Hope, and Charity 
 to be whipped at the cart's tail, in order to avoid such 
 grievous scandal, and save ye all the shame of such an 
 exposure, he is most graciously pleased to order that 
 ye be jointly and severally hanged by the neck till ye 
 be dead." 
 
 "O Lord! Lord!" cried Fortitude, who was less 
 recovered from his intoxication than the others, and 
 wore a face of most tipsy terror, " what will become 
 of us ? what will become of us ? Do, my Lord Judge, 
 show us mercy !" 
 
 " There he is," said Rochester, pointing to the man 
 who had enacted that character, " and a more re- 
 morseless-looking rogue I never saw. There is no 
 chance for you in his face ; it is suffused all over with 
 the gallows. You must swing, sir; you must swing !" 
 
 " 'Ods-fish !" cried Charles, interposing, " you will 
 frighten the fellow out of his wits. The joke has gone 
 far enough. Begone, ye varlets! the King pardons 
 ye all, on condition that ye get not drunk again to- 
 morrow, for it is the fast- day. Rochester, let them be 
 well paid, for we prefer their travestie to the intended
 
 182 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 original. The rogues would doubtless rather receive 
 money than applause ; and thus shall we be all satis- 
 fied." 
 
 In expressing this opinion, his Majesty did not 
 reckon upon the irritability and touchiness of Matthew 
 Lock, the composer, who no sooner found that his 
 pains were likely to be thrown away, than he bustled 
 through the throng chafing with ire, and approaching 
 the royal seat, pettishly exclaimed : " With all due 
 submission to your Majesty, I cannot submit to it. I 
 cannot sit up all night to compose a curtain-tune, and 
 a quintette, besides recitatives, to have them all lost 
 in this way for a joke !" 
 
 " Tilly vally ! man, they shall not be lost ! cried the 
 Monarch ; " we will have them another time, for it 
 were no joke to lose a single note of your composing ; 
 and to-night you shall play to us your music of 
 the witches in Macbeth, than which I know nothing 
 finer." 
 
 " Your Majesty is certainly the best judge in Eng- 
 land," said the appeased musician, bowing compla- 
 cently as he spoke. 
 
 " And a good composer too," added Rochester, " for 
 he has soothed your wrath in a minute." 
 
 " Now then !" cried the King, clapping his hands 
 together to draw attention, " let every gallant single 
 out his beauty, for the supper awaits us. Music ! play 
 up the new French galliard, La belle Fontunges. There 
 is good Rhenish and rare Canary in the cellars of 
 Christchurch, and we will all pledge our fair partners 
 of the dance in each liquor, until beauty and the glass 
 shall o-ive a zest to one another. 'Ods-fish ! the sight 
 
 o o 
 
 of those tipsy masquers has made me thirsty : so hey 
 for the Banquet-room ; without further parley."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 183 
 
 At these words he walked out of the hall, followed 
 by the courtiers, each leading his partner or his mis- 
 tress, and all smiling, talking, and laughing, till their 
 glittering dresses and waving plumes gradually disap- 
 peared, the buzz of their voices was no longer heard, 
 and only one person remained in the silent and desert- 
 ed hall : that one was Jocelyn. Disgusted by what he 
 had already seen, he was too sad and sick at heart to 
 endure any farther festivities. Far from participating 
 in the past entertainment, his thoughts had reverted to 
 the appalling scenes from which he had so recently 
 escaped ; and when he contrasted the ghastliness and 
 desolation of the depopulated, plague-stricken city, its 
 yawning sepulchres, and the tolling bells of its dead- 
 carts, with the wild festivities and unbridled foolery, 
 the mirth, music, and madness that had just been ex- 
 hibiting before his eyes, he almost expected that a voice 
 would come up out of the great pit to rebuke these 
 revellers for thus defying the King of Terrors, and 
 flaunting in the very face of an offended God. Impres- 
 sed with these feelings he withdrew from the Hall to 
 his own apartments, wrote an excuse to the Duke of 
 Monmouth, with whom he had engaged to sup on the 
 following night, and determined to remain at home and 
 devote the whole of the fast-day to that serious frame 
 of mind, and those devotional exercises which were 
 appropriate to the solemn occasion.
 
 184 ERAMBLETYE HtK'SE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 While he, young, wanton, and effeminate boy, 
 
 Takes on the point of honour to support 
 
 So dissolute a crew. SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 AFTER having remained for some weeks longer at Ox- 
 ford, beguiling the time with such festivities and amuse- 
 ments as could be obtained in that grave and reverend 
 city, the joyful news was at length circulated that the 
 Court was about to return to London ; the plague hav- 
 ing gradually exhausted its fury, until all danger of con- 
 tagion had disappeared. Congratulations flew from 
 mouth to mouth, not so much upon the cessation of 
 the pestilence, as upon the prospect of again plunging 
 into the delights and dissipation of the metropolis. 
 Never was a more cheerful alacrity displayed in packing 
 up and preparing for flight. The seat of the Muses 
 had little attractions for a set of gay triflers whose 
 literature was limited to licentious poems and obscene 
 plays, and who, consequently, thought colleges and 
 gowns a sorry substitute for theatres and petticoats. 
 Oxford had long been voted triste & toute outrance, 
 a phrase which was in every mouth, when, in the rage 
 for French fashions, the Ian gage de beau was affected 
 by all pretenders to modishness and gentility ; and 
 the whole assemblage, that accompanied or followed 
 the King and Queen, turned their backs upon the 
 city to which they had been indebted for their preser- 
 vation from infection, not only without gratitude or 
 regret, but with all the vituperation and ridicule that 
 their anger or their wit could suggest.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 185 
 
 By the greater part of them, London was re-entered 
 with little or no emotion, for they found it nearly as 
 they had left it. To Jocelyn, however, it offered a 
 contrast with its last appearance, which he could have 
 hardly believed credible in so short a space of time. 
 The numerous fugitives, encouraged by the announced 
 return of the Court, had all hastened back to their 
 abodes ; the shops were re-opened ; the streets were 
 again thronged with people ; equipages and carriages 
 of every description were rattling along the pavement ; 
 quick-lime had been spread over the church-yards, and 
 the other huge excavations in which the dead had been 
 deposited ; and it appeared as if some moral caustic 
 had been also spread over the memories of the survi- 
 vors ; for, after the expression of a transient wonder, 
 and the inquiries of Who has perished ? Who has been 
 saved ? the business and pleasures of the capital re- 
 commenced, and the great social wheel, as it again 
 rolled forward, seemed to obliterate in its progress every 
 trace of the past, every print that had been left by 
 the foot of Death ! 
 
 Jocelyn made it his first care, after his arrival in 
 London, to call upon Alderman Staunton, for the pur- 
 pose of renewing a more formal expression of his grati- 
 tude to Constantia, as well as of repaying the money she 
 had lent him ; for his proud spirit was impatient of pe- 
 cuniary obligation, and the Queen's continued bounty 
 now enabled him to cancel his debt without inconveni- 
 ence. That which he still owed to Constantia for his reco- 
 very was of course beyond all power of acquittance; though 
 had his heart been at his own disposal, he would gladly 
 have dedicated to her service the life she had preserv- 
 ed. Being informed that she had left the city some 
 days before, on a visit to Mr. Ashmole, at South Lam-
 
 186 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 beth, he proceeded to Turret House, where he was 
 courteously received by that gentleman, to whom he 
 explained the purport of his visit. Instead, however, 
 of being enabled to gain an interview with Constantia, 
 he received from her a cold message, intimating that 
 she had never doubted his being the most punctual of 
 all debtors, and that, as there were now no further ac- 
 counts to settle between them, she would dispense with 
 his future visits. Having satisfied his conscience, as 
 far as he was enabled to do so, and feeling somewhat 
 piqued at this repulsive communication, which he con- 
 ceived to be calculated to lower him with Mr. Ashmole, 
 he abruptly quitted the house, and returned to his own 
 apartments at Whitehall, fully determined to obey the 
 unceremonious notice he had received, and to drop an 
 acquaintance, the continuance of which, by again 
 bringing him in communication with Julia, might only 
 serve to foster a passion which every prudential con- 
 sideration most imperatively called upon him to forget. 
 The serious impressions, which his escape from the 
 plague had awakened, were not of any long continu- 
 ance. If the Queen, with her deeper-rooted religious 
 principles, and more habitual rigour of morality, had 
 been obliged to adapt herself to the licentiousness with 
 which she was surrounded, it was not likely that a 
 youth of ardent passions would be enabled to resist 
 the whirl of Court dissipation, that brought everything 
 within its vortex. It was as difficult to avoid the con- 
 tagion of the moral as of the physical plague ; and 
 Jocelyn, who had been assailed by the one, was now as 
 deeply tainted by the other infection, of which he was 
 indeed peculiarly susceptible from the state of his feel- 
 ings. Spite of all his worldly wisdom and cold pru- 
 dence, his bosom retained enough of its attachment to
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 187 
 
 Julia to render him not only indifferent to every other 
 beauty, but dissatisfied with himself and out of humour 
 with the world ; a predicament in which he flew to the 
 common but vain expedient of endeavouring to derive 
 from the senses that pleasure which was denied to the 
 heart, by making libertinism a substitute for love. So 
 far as licentious companions could advance this hopeful 
 project, he had every assistance that could be desired ; 
 for he was now on intimate terms with the Duke of 
 Buckingham ; his former friendship with Rochester and 
 the Duke of Monmouth was cemented by community 
 of dissipation ; and Sedley, Etherege, and Killigrew 
 were received into the number of his intimates. 
 
 Under such auspices he plunged into all the dissolute 
 courses of the time, with the ignorance as well as with 
 the zeal, of a novice. He gave suppers, and lived upon 
 a scale of expenditure that speedily involved him in 
 embarrassment ; he lounged about Covent Garden ; he 
 haunted the taverns and the play-houses ; he took one 
 of the actresses of the Duke's theatre under his special 
 protection, and furnished apartments for her, opposite 
 to those of Moll Davies, the King's mistress, in Suf- 
 folk Street. But this liaison was speedily dissolved. 
 His friend, Lord Rochester, introduced himself into the 
 house, under the disguise of the lady's cousin, a country 
 bumpkin from Yorkshire, which he performed so ad- 
 mirably, that although he dined with Jocelyn and sang 
 several clownish songs, he remained undiscovered, and 
 was allowed to accompany his pretended relation to 
 the Mulberry Garden, whence, instead of restoring her 
 to Suffolk Street, he carried her off in triumph to his 
 own house at Westminster. Not that he had any at- 
 tachment to the woman, whom he presently spurned 
 away from him again ; but that he enjoyed the joke,
 
 188 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 was proud of his powers of mimicry, and delighted in 
 an opportunity of outwitting and laughing at a friend. 
 In further proof that he was a greenhorn in the prac- 
 tices of a modish life, Jocelyn was weak enough to take 
 his friend's behaviour in dudgeon, and actually to call 
 upon him for satisfaction, an instance of simplicity at 
 \vhich his lordship laughed most heartily. " My dear 
 Faunus," he exclaimed, " surely it were better to sing 
 Pepy's song of ' Beauty, retire !' and give the Fair 
 Inconstant to the winds, than to be tragical and heroical 
 about a trull. Because you have lost your wench, you 
 need not lose your temper, still less your friend, least 
 of all your own life. Fight for a petticoat ! Fie, fie ! 
 you should know better. If the King cannot keep 
 his mistresses to himself, why should the Queen's private 
 secretary expect to do so ? As for me, I am no fighter. 
 I am a coward upon principle, as I told you when I 
 ran away with my wife. There is nothing so absurdly 
 overrated as personal courage, than which I positively 
 know not a more common-place and vulgar quality. 
 Fools and barbarians invariably possess it, in exact 
 proportion to their ignorance and ferocity, and, after 
 all, they are eclipsed by the brutes, because they are 
 still more irrational. Psha ! away with grim looks, 
 my Man of the Woods, and let us be merry. How 
 say you ? shall we scour the quarters, and call upon 
 Peg Hughes, Nell Gwynn, and Mrs. Knight, visit 
 the Italian Puppet, or Polichinello in Moorfields, hie 
 to St. James's Park to see the pelican toss up the flat- 
 fish and catch them, take wine at the Rhenish, tipple 
 sack at the Heaven Tavern, or burnt brandy at the 
 Devil, punch at the St. John's Head, or buttered ale 
 at Wood's in the Pell-mell, look in at either of the 
 theatres, play a game at tennis, cards, or dice, find
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 189 
 
 our way to Clerkenwell, and talk philosophy with the 
 crazy Duchess of Newcastle, or walk to Barn-elms 
 and discuss poetry and botany with Abraham Cow- 
 ley ?" 
 
 Here was a copious choice of recreations ; but Joce- 
 lyn, not being in a mood to partake of any, simply 
 declared that he should spend the morning at home, 
 and that he was so far convinced, by his lordship's 
 railery, as to say that he forgave him, if he could 
 forgive himself. 
 
 " Then never was any reconciliation more complete," 
 cried Rochester : "for I not only forgive myself, but 
 applaud myself to the very skies. Fare thee well, my 
 Faunus ! Since thou wilt not join my rambles, I will 
 return to end them here ; and so I may sing to thee 
 as the Syren did to Ulysses,* 
 
 Well, well, Ulysses, then I see 
 
 I shall not have thee here ; 
 And therefore I will come to thee, 
 
 And take my fortune there. 
 
 Jocelyn consoled himself for his inconstant Perdita, 
 by installing another in the lodgings in Suffolk-street, 
 but he was doomed to be unfortunate in his connec- 
 tions of this nature. His second inamorata, a dancer 
 at the King's Theatre, happened to hit the fancy of the 
 Duke of Monmouth ; and, as a rich peer is always pre- 
 ferable to a poor commoner, she only remained with 
 her present protector till she had extorted from him a 
 valuable diamond necklace, when she decamped, and 
 was admitted into his Grace's establishment. Both 
 the friends who had thus eased him of his Dulcineas, 
 
 In Hymen's Triumph, " a pastoral Tragi-comedie," by Daniel. 
 4to 1623.
 
 190 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 had wives of their own, to whom they were under the 
 greatest obligations, for both had married large heir- 
 esses, who were, at the same time, virtuous and ac- 
 complished women. Jocelyn was so shocked that he 
 became misanthropical, and, with the usual perverse 
 logic that makes the world at large responsible for the 
 mistakes of the individual, he pronounced all women 
 to be false, and all friends to be treacherous, because 
 he had chosen his specimens of each among wantons 
 and profligates. By an equal distortion of reason, he 
 persuaded himself that he had a right to retaliate upon 
 others the wrongs he had received from his associates, 
 and he accordingly became a convert to the principle 
 that in love, as 'in war, all stratagems are fair. Walton 
 had disappeared from the time he had lent him the 
 money ; the salary of his office was quite inadequate 
 to his expenditure ; he was exposed to the assaults of 
 duns, and even to the pursuit of bailiffs, and thus 
 nothing was wanting to constitute him a fine gentle- 
 man, and a man of fashion, as those characters were 
 understood and practised at the licentious Court of 
 Charles II. 
 
 In the midst of all this dissipation he had in vain 
 endeavoured to banish Julia's image from his heart. 
 His experiment had utterly failed. The satiety and 
 disgust which, in ingenuous minds, so quickly follow 
 a course of sensual indulgence, began to annoy him 
 with their compunctious visiting ; he discovered that he 
 had been foolish as well as criminal ; and perhaps felt 
 more vexed at the error of his judgment than at all 
 his deviations from morality. In the yearnings of his 
 unsatisfied heart, he betook himself, one morning, to 
 Alderman Staunton's in the City, without any definite 
 object, but in the vague hope that he might gather
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 191 
 
 some tidings, he knew not what, relative to Julia. In 
 this expectation he was disappointed. The merchant 
 appeared to be frightened at the very idea of his hav- 
 ing any correspondence with the inmates of Haelbeck, 
 or knowledge of their proceedings ; most earnestly re- 
 questing that his name might never be coupled with 
 that of the unfortunate exile. He turned the subject 
 as quickly as possible, as if there were danger even in 
 alluding to it ; and, after informing him that Miss 
 Beverning was on a visit to him at his country-house, 
 near Hampton Court, he pleaded an appointment with 
 Sir Josiah Child, respecting some of the new East 
 India Stock, and wished him good morning. 
 
 As he was returning from Aldersgate-street, he ob- 
 served himself to be dogged by two men, whom he pre- 
 sently recognized to be bailiffs, and who, by their mo- 
 tions, were evidently holding him in pursuit. Unac- 
 quainted as he was with the City, he had little hope 
 of eluding them by availing himself of the intricacy of 
 the streets ; but he had such good confidence in the 
 activity of his legs, as not to be afraid of any competi- 
 tor in a fair contest of speed. He turned down the 
 first street that offered , and again out of that into 
 another, walking as fast as he could, for he would not 
 condescend to run until the danger became more press- 
 ing. This period was not long deferred ; his pursuers, 
 who had no such delicacy as to their pace, not only 
 kept sight of him as he threaded the street, but gained 
 upon him so rapidly that he was soon put to his speed. 
 Unfortunately for the beaux of those days, they were 
 much more conspicuous in their attire, and consequently 
 had much less chance of escape, than their modern 
 successors. Jocelyn wore a richly-embroidered doublet 
 of deer-coloured velvet with silver buttons and loops,
 
 192 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the collar standing on end with plaiting of the same 
 metal; his philamott, or gold -coloured cloak, was 
 edged with a deep lace ; a Buckingham or Montero 
 hat covered his dark flowing and scented perriwig ; his 
 band was trimmed with pointe d'Espagne, and a pro- 
 fusion of well-gummed satin ribbons, of orange-colour, 
 red, and tawney, decorated his hat, his sword, the knees 
 of his black cannon hose, his russet shoes, his perriwig, 
 and, in short, every part of his person to which they 
 could be attached ; such silken trappings being at that 
 moment an indispensable appendage to every man of 
 fashion. 
 
 Such a gaudy apparition, rustling and fluttering 
 through the air like a huge painted butterfly, was not 
 likely to be lost to the inquiries of his pursuers, even if 
 he escaped for a few moments from their sight : and, 
 as he was obliged every now and then to stop and take 
 breath, the bailiffs, tracking him with the patient per- 
 severance of hounds, were sure to appear just as he 
 had flattered himself that they were fairly distanced 
 and at fault. After keeping up this sort of flight through 
 a variety of streets, with the names of which he was 
 unacquainted, he at length found himself in the Artillery- 
 walk, adjoining Bunhill-Fields, and, being nearly ex- 
 hausted with his efforts, he turned suddenly up a pas- 
 sage, resolved to seek shelter in the first house that 
 should offer, and thus take the chance of eluding his 
 pursuers. A side-door presenting itself at the entrance 
 of the passage, he pulled the latch ; it opened ; he en- 
 tered as quietly as possible ; again closed the door ; 
 and found himself in a small ante-room, hung round 
 with shelves of dark old-fashioned looking books, most 
 of them in folio or quarto. In one corner was a small 
 recess in which stood an open organ, the appearance of
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 193 
 
 which indicated that it was an old possession of its pro- 
 prietor, and was in habitual use. On a circular tablf 
 in the middle of the chamber were two folio Bibles, one 
 in Hebrew and one in English : and on the mantel- 
 shelf were several pipes, with a tea-cup containing to- 
 bacco ; the smell of the room, as well as its dusky hue, 
 sufficiently attesting that it was often fumigated by the 
 use of that fragrant herb. From these appearances, it 
 might be conjectured that the house belonged to a 
 man of mean condition and studious habits ; and while 
 Jocelyn was speculating upon the probable profession 
 of its owner, a deep, solemn, and sonorous voice from 
 an adjoining chamber exclaimed aloud : 
 
 The floating vessel swam 
 Uplifted, and, secure with beaked prow, 
 Rode tilting o'er the waves ; all dwellings else 
 Flood overwhelm'd, and them, with all their pomp, 
 Deep under water roll'd ; sea covered sea, 
 Sea without shore ; and in their palaces, 
 Where luxury late reign' d, sea monsters whelp'd 
 And stabled. 
 
 Under any other circumstances he would have contin- 
 ued a delighted listener to this sublime strain ; but just 
 at this moment he saw his pursuers making inquiries at 
 the opposite side of the street ; and, observing that, 
 from the lowness of the window, they might look into 
 the room and discover him, he determined to wave all 
 ceremony ; and, accordingly, opening the door of com- 
 munication, he stepped into the adjoining apartment. 
 It was larger and lighter than the one he had quitted, 
 and the books it contained were scattered about with 
 greater confusion. Fronting him, in an arm-chair, 
 there sat a venerable-looking blind old man, his curl- 
 ing grey hair falling down upon either shoulder, and 
 VOL. n. o
 
 194 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 his sightless orbs, upturned to heaven, as, in the en- 
 thusiasm of the moment, he continued his recitation, 
 apparently unconscious of the intrusion. By his side 
 was a young female seated at a desk and writing, 
 behind whom was another, with her back towards 
 Jocelyn, as she stood upon a chair to reach down a 
 book. 
 
 These figures were Milton, dictating the Paradise- 
 Lost to his daughters. Although several years had 
 elapsed since Jocelyn had seen him in the library of 
 Hampton Court, the peculiar and striking physiognomy 
 of the bard were not to be mistaken, and he recognized 
 him immediately. He who had been the inmate of a 
 palace, the friend and counsellor of a sovereign, and 
 presented to foreign ambassadors as the ornament of 
 his court, was now in this obscure retreat, living in 
 comparative poverty and neglect, and only indebted 
 to the oblivion into which he had fallen for his escape 
 from persecution and danger. Yet the moral grandeur 
 of his present humble station atoned to him for all the 
 wordly distinctions he had lost, for he felt assured that 
 he was laying the foundations of an immortality upon 
 earth. The Genius of Puritanism, surviving in his 
 bosom, was preparing to assert its powers, to avenge 
 its fame; and this lofty conviction not only upheld 
 him in his reverses, but imparted to them a character 
 of superiority and triumph. 
 
 The daughter, who had been writing, gazed upon 
 Jocelyn as he entered with a mute astonishment ; the 
 other, who had been taking down the book, no sooner 
 beheld him as she turned round, than she uttered a 
 faint cry of alarm. " What ails thee, Mary, my child ?" 
 inquired the bard. " Speak, Deborah," he continued, 
 after a short pause, " and tell me, since I am disobeyed
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 195 
 
 by your sister, what means this brawling interruption 
 of my meditations ?" 
 
 With many apologies for his intrusion, Jocelyn now 
 briefly explained the circumstances that had led to it, 
 imploring protection for a short time, but offering to 
 retire immediately should his longer presence be deemed 
 inadmissible. The bard declared that, as his humble 
 residence had been a Zoar and a place of refuge to 
 himself, so should it prove to the pilgrim and the way- 
 farer that sought the protection of its roof, beneath 
 which he invited Jocelyn to remain until the danger 
 had passed away, but concluded by ordering both his 
 daughters to retire instantly to their own apartment. 
 This injunction they appeared to obey with some hesita- 
 tion, casting sundry glances at their uninvited visitant, 
 whose striking figure, not less than the inordinate 
 finery of his dress, were calculated to excite no small 
 admiration in young ladies who had for a long time 
 been habituated only to such homely and mechanical 
 figures as were to be encountered in the sequestered 
 and religious precincts of Bunhill Row. 
 
 Somewhat ashamed of the occasion which had thus 
 introduced him to Milton, conscious that he must ap- 
 pear in a contemptible light to so stern a moralist, and 
 too much awed by his superior talent, as well as virtue, 
 to attempt beguiling the time by conversation, Jocelyn 
 staid not a moment longer than he considered necessary 
 for his safety, when he most earnestly returned thanks 
 for the shelter he had found, and took his departure. 
 Soon after quitting the door, he saw an empty coach, 
 whose driver, for the bribe of half-a-crown, agreed to 
 carry him to London Bridge, where he took water, and 
 reached his apartments at Whitehall without any 
 further let or impediment. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 He had regularly communicated to Sir John his 
 appointment under the Queen, and his favourable pros- 
 pects at the court, although, for obvious reasons, he 
 had never made any allusion to his pecuniary diffi- 
 culties. Having now occasion to communicate to his 
 father the result of an interview with the Lord Chan- 
 cellor respecting the Brambletye suit, his urgent em- 
 barrassments led him to solicit a loan of money, which 
 he promised to return when he should receive his next 
 payment from the Queen. Although no very punctual 
 correspondent in general, Sir John lost no time in 
 sending the following answer to the application : 
 
 " Gad^poks, Jocelyn, I knew of old that you were 
 passionate as gunpowder, peppery as a devilled drum- 
 stick, and if you are your father's son you have a right 
 to be so ; but I never thought you were a wag and a 
 joker. Borrow money of me ! 'Ods-heart ! if it were 
 not for the gout, I should laugh till I frightened all 
 the fishes in the moat. You know well enough how I 
 have been treated ; you know that Rowley's famous 
 act of oblivion and indemnity proves to be oblivion to 
 his friends and indemnity to his enemies. Money, you 
 comical dog ! We Cavaliers may well quote London's 
 Farewell to the Parliament, and sing, 
 
 Farewell plate and money, with hey, with hey, 
 Farewell, plate and money, with hoe ; 
 
 "Tis going down the water, 
 
 Or something near the matter, 
 
 And public faith's going after, 
 With hey, trolly, lolly, loe ! 
 
 " What little comes in falls into the clutches of the 
 damned Dutch Vrouw, from whose grasp you may 
 extract it when you can pick powder out of pitch with 
 a feather ; or wool out of bird-lime with a stalk of thistle-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 197 
 
 down. A bots upon the plague ! that carried off so 
 many jolly wenches, and left her ladyship behind. Per- 
 haps she was spared as one of the family, for I'm sure 
 she has been plague enough to me. Once more, thou 
 bantering blade, I am bare as a beggar's wallet, poor 
 as the aim's- box at the church door, so talk not to 
 me of money, unless you come as a lender, not a bor- 
 rower. 
 
 " 'Sblood, sir, what means the Chancellor by saying 
 he cannot hear my cause out of its course, but that I 
 may depend upon having justice ? He lies, for delay is 
 ruin, and therefore the worst of injustice. Since Nan 
 Hyde married the Duke, I suppose we are to stand in 
 awe of his lordship's big wig ; but egad ! if I were not 
 tied by the leg, I would beard him on the woolsack, 
 and tell him plump that it would be better for both of 
 us if he would attend more to Brambletye House, and 
 less to Dunkirk House.* It 's a burning shame of Row- 
 ley to allow such delays, especially towards an old 
 servant and soldier, who had foot in stirrup and sword 
 in hand for so many years, and ought not to be for- 
 gotten now that he has a gouty shoe upon one, and a 
 flesh-brush in the other. 
 
 " The black ghost comes out as usual with the owls 
 and bats, and flits round Brambletye, and spits her 
 spite, and curses and swears, and talks to the moon 
 worse than ever. The cowardly knaves are all afraid 
 of her, for they now say she is a witch, or else they 
 might have caught her before this, and have executed 
 my order to trail her nine times round the moat. Jack 
 
 * A nick-name bestowed by his enemies upon the magnificent 
 mansion he was then building in St. James's Street, the expense of 
 which it was intended to insinuate was defrayed out of the bribe- 
 money received for the sale of Dunkirk.
 
 198 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Whittaker, however, had a chase after her last week, 
 and though the Jezabel got away, as usual, we have 
 reason to hope that he wounded her with a large stone 
 that he sent hissing at her head. By the bye, honest 
 Jack talks of leaving me, unless ale be substituted for 
 swipes, which the Vrouw won't hear of, and therefore 
 you may suppose I don't often get a bottle of claret 
 
 Money, quotha ! you are a wag, Jocelyn ; and 
 
 a saucy jackanapes, my boy ; and a flouting malapert, 
 my darling ; so no more at present from your poor, 
 gouty, disappointed, pillaged, forgotten, but still affec- 
 tionate and stout-hearted father, 
 
 JOHN COMPTOX. 
 
 "P. S. Harkye, sir! what business have you to 
 want money with such a liberal salary from the Queen ? 
 I forgot to ask that question. Zounds ! sir ; don't 
 expect a farthing from me. If you fall into the wild 
 extravagance of the Court, I shall cast you off, and 
 not care a whiff of tobacco about you. Indeed Iain 
 not sure that I do now ; so once more, God bless you, 
 my own dear boy ! 
 
 J. C." 
 
 On the following morning, upon returning to his 
 apartment, after having been in attendance upon the 
 Queen, he found a parcel carefully wrapped up in 
 baize, and sealed at either end, upon opening which 
 he discovered a small oaken box, and the following 
 letter : 
 
 " You have been wandering long enough in the ways 
 of unrighteousness. Are they the paths of peace ? 
 Let your own bosom resolve this question. For shame I 
 for shame ! Leave vice to fools and knaves. Your
 
 BfeAMBLETYE HOUSE. 199 
 
 intellect is too clear, your heart too good, to allow you 
 even a momentary gratification in its indulgence. Crime 
 will only aggravate your unhappiness. It is therefore 
 without an aim, and without an excuse. This money 
 is not sent to minister to new errors but to enable 
 you to withdraw with honour from your old ones. 
 
 " A FRIEND." 
 
 On breaking open the box, it proved to be filled 
 with gold, to a considerable amount, very neatly pack- 
 ed, but Without any further paper or clue, that might 
 lead to a discovery of the mysterious and generous 
 donor. It had been left by a man dressed in a grey 
 Campain suit, with black and red points, and wearing 
 a brown periwig, who said that no answer was required, 
 and disappeared immediately after delivering the par- 
 cel. The porter had never seen him before, though he 
 thought he might recognize him were he again to 
 meet him. 
 
 This communication, so different in its matter and 
 manner from Sir John's, excited various emotions in 
 Jocelyn's breast. Curiosity for some time predominated 
 over every other feeling ; he scrutinized the hand-writ- 
 ing, he examined the box, he inspected the seal, but 
 still he remained as much in the dark as ever. There 
 was no evidence to guide him, conjecture was useless ; 
 and he was therefore compelled to leave the solution 
 of the enigma to time and chance. A second perusal 
 of the letter awakened a different train of thought. 
 He was softened by the discovery that he possessed a 
 generous, though unknown, friend, in that world which 
 he had been lately beginning to contemplate with a 
 splenetic disgust : while his heart, upbraiding him with
 
 200 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the truth of the sentiments he had been reading, whis- 
 pered to him that, although he had merited reproach 
 for the past, he might best testify his gratitude to his 
 munificent monitor, by avoiding it for the future. At 
 once gratified and humiliated, he made vows of amend- 
 ment, which, at least, evinced a sincere repentance 
 for the moment, although they might not always 
 exercise a governing influence upon his subsequent 
 conduct. 
 
 Since his accidental encounter with the bailiffs in the 
 city, he had rarely ventured from his apartments, ex- 
 cept in the performance of his official duties, in which 
 he was protected from arrest by the privilege and pre- 
 cincts of the court ; but, as he now intended to appro- 
 priate the gift to the purposes indicated by its donor, 
 he sallied cheerfully forth, that he might himself con- 
 vey the agreeable tidings to the parties interested. On 
 passing Whitehall, he observed a considerable crowd 
 around the doors of the banqueting-house, and having 
 learned, upon inquiry, that the King was at that mo- 
 ment touching for the evil, a ceremony which he had 
 never seen, he walked into the palace, and was borne 
 along by the throng until he found himself in the royal 
 presence. So great had been the multitude of people 
 with their sick children, besieging the door of the 
 King's surgeon on the morning before, to obtain the 
 certificates that were to entitle them to be touched, 
 that several had been crushed to death ; notwithstand- 
 ing which calamity, a prodigious crowd was again 
 assembled to witness the process, and all were eagerly 
 pressing into the banqueting-room. 
 
 In this magnificent hall, beneath a canopy of state, 
 his Majesty was seated in his robes ; the surgeons in 
 attendance caused the sick to be carried up to the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 201 
 
 throne, where they placed themselves upon their knees, 
 when the King stroked their faces or cheeks with 
 both his hands at once ; at which instant, a chaplain, 
 in his formalities, said, " He put his hands upon 
 them, and he healed them," which words were re- 
 peated to every patient. When they had been all 
 touched they came up again in the same order, and 
 and the other chaplain kneeling, and having gold 
 pieces stamped with the figure of an angel, strung on 
 a white ribbon that hung upon his arm, delivered them 
 one by one to his Majesty, who put them about the 
 necks of the sufferers as they passed, whilst the first 
 chaplain repeated, " That is the true light who came 
 into the world." A Gospel had been previously read ; 
 an Epistle now followed, with the Liturgy : prayers 
 were put up for the sick, upon whom a blessing was 
 pronounced ; and lastly the Lord Chamberlain and 
 Comptroller of the Household brought a basin, ewer, 
 and towel, for his Majesty to wash. The spacious and 
 painted hall in which the ceremony took place ; the 
 splendour that invested the king, as he sate in state ; 
 the religious forms that gave solemnity to the proceed- 
 ings ; the cadaverous faces of the patients, lighted up 
 as some of them were by a ghastly hope ; the counte- 
 nances of their parents and relations agitated by va- 
 rious emotions ; the eager eyes of the multitude all 
 fixed upon the King with an expression of devout won- 
 der ; and the dead silence of the assemblage ; consti- 
 tuted a scene that was deeply affecting, even to a 
 disbeliever in its efficacy. That the ignorant multitude 
 should lend themselves to such a delusion, that the 
 diseased wretches should catch at any phantom that 
 flattered them with a cure, was neither strange nor 
 inconsistent ; but that one who was notoriously with-
 
 202 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 out religion or morals, who was equally exceptionable 
 as a monarch and as a man, should lend himself to 
 this fraud, should assume a miraculous gift from Hea- 
 ven, should presume to rival his Saviour, and, like the 
 magicians of Pharaoh, attempt to compete with those 
 whom God himself had endowed with supernatural 
 power, did appear to Jocelyn a most impious and 
 daring mockery of Heaven. 
 
 One circumstance in the proceeding had interested 
 him more than all the mummery with which it was 
 invested. His attention had been particularly directed 
 to the agonized countenance of a poor woman, who 
 was watching the progress of her diseased boy towards 
 the throne. On a previous occasion he had been dis- 
 appointed of obtaining the royal touch, and her fear 
 lest he should again prove unsuccessful kept every 
 feature of her face upon the rack of suspense ; but no 
 sooner had she seen the King's hand passed across 
 his cheeks, than her maternal feelings drove from her 
 mind every consideration of place and circumstance, 
 and, uttering a shriek of joy that made the silent hall 
 echo, she clapped her hands together, crying out, 
 "He is cured ! he is cured ! he is cured !" and fell 
 into an hysterical passion of loud laughter. Jocelyn 
 subsequently saw her sitting in one corner of the hall 
 with her boy upon her knees, kissing him, and fondling 
 him, and weeping into his bosom with a gush of un- 
 controllable tenderness. 
 
 Just as the assemblage were pouring out of the ban- 
 queting-room into the street, it chanced that the Duke 
 of York, who had been hunting upon Hounslow Heath, 
 was passing along the front of Whitehall, accompanied 
 by a guard of horse, a circumstance which occasioned 
 a considerable pressure and some confusion among the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 203 
 
 throng of people. In the midst of the disturbance, 
 however, the keen eye of Jocelyn recognized a female 
 figure on the opposite side of the street that electrified 
 him with sudden surprize; it was Julia Strickland, 
 leaning on the arm of a gentleman, whose back was 
 towards him, and who, from the transient glance that 
 he could obtain of his figure, appeared to be a stranger. 
 Following the first impulse of his heart, he attempted 
 to rush forward, and renew his acquaintance with her, 
 but the dense crowd, pressing backwards to avoid the 
 horses, for some time baffled all his efforts, vehement 
 as they were, to extricate himself from the mass. No 
 sooner was he enabled to accomplish that object, than 
 he hurried to the Tiltyard, in which direction they had 
 been walking ; but the objects of his search were now 
 no longer to be seen : they had become mingled with 
 the crowd, and had disappeared. For a considerable 
 time he paced up and down with the greatest eager- 
 ness, gazing in all directions, and peering into the face 
 of every female that he encountered ; but, convinced 
 at last that his pursuit was hopeless, he gave over the 
 chace, and returned to his own apartments, fatigued 
 in body and not a little agitated in mind. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I '11 read you matter deep and dangerous, 
 As full of peril and advent'rous spirit 
 As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud, 
 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 THE passion which had been so long smouldering in 
 Jocelyn's bosom, and which at one period he had 
 imagined to be extinguished, was quickly rekindled by
 
 204 BBAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the unexpected appearance of Julia, although he had 
 seen her only for a moment ; while an incipient feeling 
 of jealousy, as to the companion upon whose arm she 
 had been leaning, convinced him that he could never 
 bear to see her in possession of another. All his pru- 
 dential dissuasives retained their full force in theory, but 
 he began to falter in his resolution of reducing them 
 to practice ; and as he felt his love revive, he looked 
 with additional distaste upon that course of dissipa- 
 tion to which, in the disappointment of his hopes, he 
 had fled as a substitute, and of which he already began 
 to feel heartily ashamed. He determined to devote 
 himself to the discovery of Julia ; to penetrate, if pos- 
 sible, the mystery of her father's fate, and ascertain 
 whether any favourable change of circumstances 
 might have occurred to warrant an explicit declaration 
 of his attachment. Her being in England wore an 
 auspicious appearance ; she had most solemnly de- 
 clared at Haelbeck that she would never quit her fa- 
 ther ; he was doubtless, therefore, with her ; there was 
 an end of the banishment ; his troubles and misfor- 
 tunes, whatever was their nature, had passed away ; 
 the cloud of ignominy that hung over him was dis- 
 persed : he was restored to society ; and an alliance 
 with his family would entail neither censure nor dis- 
 honour upon the party seeking it. Such was the 
 flattering vision conjured up in a moment by his san- 
 guine hopes ; such was the bright prospect which he 
 trusted to be able to realize, as soon as he should have 
 learned Julia's retreat ; and this discovery he had no 
 doubt of speedily effecting through the instrumentality 
 of Constantia, whose residence he could always ascer- 
 tain by means of Alderman Staunton. 
 
 Knowing, however, Constantia's strict principles,
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 205 
 
 standing in some little awe of her as a monitress, and 
 feeling by the compunctious twinges of his conscience 
 that he had too much neglected the solemn advice she 
 gave him upon his recovery from the plague, he de- 
 termined not to appear in her presence until he had 
 cleared himself from his debts, and was free to com- 
 mence the amended life which he projected, without 
 being humiliated by the assaults of duns. Impetuous 
 in every thing, his hand was seldom slow to execute 
 what his head had planned. He hired a coach, took 
 the money with him, went round to all his creditors, 
 and returned to his apartments with the proud and 
 pleasant sensation of not owing a guinea in the world. 
 Since the encounter with the bailiffs he had been cau- 
 tious of visiting any of the public places, but in the 
 triumph of his new-born independence he determined 
 to parade the Mall and the Parks, as if to prove to all 
 
 the world his freedom from embarrassment : resolvino- 
 
 & 
 
 on the following morning to commence measures for 
 the discovery of Mr. Strickland's present retreat, and, 
 if possible, of his past history. 
 
 In pursuance of this arrangement, he dressed him- 
 self and sallied forth to the Mall, which the keeper was 
 at that moment sprinkling with a cement of powdered 
 cockle-shells, to give the better rebound to the balls, 
 as a match was to be played next day by the King and 
 the Duke of York, against some of the courtiers. Here 
 he met Lady Castlemaine superbly dressed in a flow- 
 ered silk spagnolet, a coif of right point lace, a yellow 
 bird's-eye ho'bd, an embroidered boddice, and a long 
 fringed train to her petticoat, which was held up by a 
 little black page, while another servant followed in a 
 rich chocolate livery, lined with amber mohair, and 
 silver buttons, leading a liver-coloured tumbler-dog by
 
 206 SRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 a crimson ribbon. Her ladyship was leaning on the 
 arm of a female companion, and chatting to a gay 
 band of the court fops and flatterers, who were dangling 
 and flaunting around her. To one she had entrusted 
 her silver flask of sal-ammoniac, a second carried her 
 perfumed fan, a third had the custody of her loo mask, 
 and a fourth of her vizor, for she was provided with 
 both, to be used according to the state of the wind 
 and sun. Giving a graceful swing to the pomander- 
 ball which was attached to her side by a gold chain, 
 she occasionally launched it in mock anger against 
 such of the gallants as were too forward in their dalli- 
 ance, none of whom, however, seemed to stand in 
 much awe of this perfumed punishment. As she pas- 
 sed Jocelyn, she eyed him with a scornful toss of the 
 head, which convinced him that she had not forgotten 
 the trick by which her consent to his return had been 
 extorted ; and that, although he had obtained her 
 pardon, he was by no means absolved from her hatred. 
 Unsolicitous of her friendship, and determined to 
 afford her no excuse for the exercise of her malice, he 
 pursued his course until he found himself by the en- 
 trance of Spring Gardens, along the palings of which 
 he remembered to have skulked at the time of his 
 escape from the Gate-house. On passing into the 
 enclosure, he was surprised to find himself in a sylvan 
 retreat agreeable for the solemness of the grove, the 
 warbling of the birds, and the occasional views it af- 
 forded of the spacious walks of St. James's. It con- 
 tained thickets, arbours and alcoves, well adapted to 
 the purposes of gallantry; while the Paradise Tavern, 
 in the centre of the gardens, endeavoured to justify 
 its name by beatifying the guests with various salacious 
 condiments and beakers of Rhenish wine. From this
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 207 
 
 spot he wandered into St. James's Park, and, seating 
 himself beneath the statue of the gladiator, gazed list- 
 lessly at the elks, antelopes, roebucks, stags and deer, 
 that were grazing before him ; marked the numerous 
 flocks of wild-fowl that were hovering about the aviary 
 and the decoy ; or listened to the singing of the birds 
 suspended in cages from the trees, in that quarter of 
 the park which still retains the name of the Bird 
 Cage Walk. 
 
 From the hurried pace and eager conversation of 
 two or three parties that passed him, and were pointing 
 to the sky, he now first gathered that a devastating 
 fire had broken out in the city, which was consuming 
 all before it ; and upon looking at the heavens, he 
 marked the red and baleful glare that indicates an 
 extensive conflagration. So completely had love re- 
 gained possession of his mind, that his first thought 
 was the possibility of danger to Julia. She might be 
 an inmate of Alderman Staunton's house ; the fire 
 might have broken out in that quarter ; she might at 
 that moment be exposed to peril. This was a combi- 
 nation that would hardly have appeared probable ex- 
 cept to the sensitive apprehensions of a lover ; but to 
 Jocelyn it seemed so feasible that he resolved to hurry 
 instantly into the city, and fly to the rescue of his mis- 
 tress, for such he deemed her from the moment that 
 he imagined her life to be in jeopardy. Returning to 
 Whitehall, for the purpose of making some previous 
 alterations in his dress, he had the mortification of 
 being told that the Queen desired his immediate at- 
 tendance, as she had occasion for his official services. 
 Such an order was now of rare occurrence, and, to 
 add to his annoyance, he was detained, on the pre- 
 sent occasion, until the night had set in.
 
 208 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 No sooner was he liberated than he hastened to the 
 water-side, and, stepping into a wherry, desired to be 
 rowed to the city. Being enabled to gaze down the 
 river, tke Fire, which was now not only exposed to ob- 
 servation without the intervention of houses, but ren- 
 dered infinitely more appalling and conspicuous by the 
 reflection of the water, burst iipon his view in all its 
 terrific grandeur. A light, or rather a hideous glare, 
 that belonged neither to night nor day, illuminated the 
 whole country for ten miles round ; the conflagration, 
 as an eye-witness has recorded, throwing itself up into 
 the air, " in a most horrid, malicious, bloody flame, 
 not like the fine flame of an ordinary tire." As he ap- 
 proached London Bridge, the houses, with which it was 
 at that time covered, were all in a blaze, describing 
 one entire arch of fire across the whole of the river ; 
 Fish-street Hill, and the street beyond, presented 
 another blazing bow of more than a mile in extent ; 
 above all, hung the angry and ensanguined hemisphere 
 of the sky, which being reflected in the river below, 
 gave to the whole scene the appearance of an immense 
 globe of fire, of which the city formed the centre. 
 Above ten thousand houses were all burning at once. 
 The horrid hissing of the flames, the crackling and 
 shaking of the earth, and the hot sulphureous panting 
 of the air, as it showered down fire-drops all around, 
 suggested the idea that the elements were breaking up 
 and contending together, preparatory to the final de- 
 molition of the world. From the universal horror and 
 distraction of the people, as they ran to and fro, utter- 
 ing the most appalling shrieks, cries, and lamentations ; 
 from the dismal noises and concussions, as the houses, 
 churches, and towers burst, and fell thundering to the 
 earth ; from the explosion of the buildings that were
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 209 
 
 blown up with gunpowder, as well as from the wrath- 
 ful look of the heavens and the shuddering terror of 
 the fire-smitten earth, it might indeed be well imagined 
 that the day of doom was at hand, and that the world 
 and its inhabitants were about to be swallowed up and 
 consumed by the devouring element. 
 
 Many who had been impressed with this harrowing 
 apprehension, felt consolation and assurance, as the 
 wind blew away the dense masses of smoke, at the sight 
 of the moon, now nearly at the full. She was pursuing 
 her unaltered course in a calm majesty of beauty, that 
 contrasted forcibly with the desolating scene beneath, 
 and, like a rainbow to Noah, seemed to be a sign from 
 God that he would not destroy the world that he had 
 made. 
 
 When Jocelyn was sufficiently recovered from his 
 first amazement and awe, to pay some minute attention 
 to the scene, he noticed the prodigious hurry and con- 
 fusion of the river, to whose bosom all were anxious to 
 commit their property, as the best place of security ; 
 although, in the dismay of the moment, much was thus 
 lost. Upon every barge and lighter, goods of all de- 
 scriptions were piled up to such a height that they fre- 
 quently rolled over into the water : and Jocelyn re- 
 peatedly saw virginals and other musical instruments, 
 cabinets and costly furniture, floating down the stream, 
 without any one attempting to stop them. As the 
 night deepened, he could plainly seethe flames spread- 
 ing and catching from corner to corner, and leaping 
 from street to street, the floating flakes whirled upwards 
 by the high wind, sometimes communicating to the 
 wooden steeples that arrested them, and so lighting up 
 a fearful pyramid in the air, which, quickly burning 
 down to the body of the church, became the nucleus 
 VOL. n. p
 
 210 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 of a new conflagration. In approaching the shore he 
 beheld the people, who had remained in their houses 
 till the fire actually touched them, clambering from 
 the windows, and letting themselves down into boats ; 
 while the poor pigeons, not less loth to leave their 
 dwellings, hovered about the windows and balconies 
 till they burnt their wings and fell down. 
 
 Being prevented by the intolerable heat, as well as 
 by the clouds of smoke, and shower of ignited par- 
 ticles, from landing where, he first intended, he was 
 obliged to be put ashore above Queen Hithe, where he 
 intended to find his way to Alderman Staunton's resi- 
 dence. Such was the confusion, however, that none 
 would answer his inquiries, and the devastation occa- 
 sioned by the flames rendered it difficult, even for one 
 well acquainted with the town, to find his way. The 
 inexorable element raging and hissing, and lapping one 
 building after another, with its myriad tongues, into its 
 devouring maw, drove the terrified population from 
 street to street, as if it were determined to expel the 
 inhabitants altogether from London, and reduce the 
 whole city to a waste of ruins. Enabled, by the ghastly 
 glare thrown upon every object, to read the names of 
 the streets, and having a general impression of the di- 
 rection in which Aldersgate Street was situated, he at 
 length reached it; happy to find that it had been 
 hitherto spared from the dreadful visitation of the flames. 
 A shudder crept through his veins, as he beheld the 
 house in which he had been attacked by the plague, 
 which was still shut up, and apparently uninhabited. 
 As he gazed upwards at the railed passage on the roof, 
 constructed as a security against the very calamity with 
 which the dwelling was now menaced, he saw male and 
 female figures moving along it; but, although they
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 211 
 
 stood out in bright relief, emblazoned by the fire in front, 
 and having a dark cloud of smoke behind them, he could 
 not recognize any of the party. Had either Constantia 
 or Julia been of the number, he thought he must have 
 identified them ; but his anxiety could not be appeased 
 with any thing less than a certainty that they were not 
 likely to be exposed to danger. Late as was the hour, 
 he thought the offer of his services, in such a critical 
 emergency, might justify a visit, even at midnight, and 
 he accordingly knocked at the door ; a summons which 
 he was obliged to repeat with increased energy, before 
 it was noticed. When it was at length opened, he 
 was informed that the Alderman and his family were 
 at his country house, the figures whom he had seen on 
 the roof being only the servants. Constantia, he was 
 given to understand, was still visiting the family : but 
 as to Miss Strickland, the servant declared that he 
 knew no such person, and had never even heard the 
 name. 
 
 Relieved from his immediate apprehensions by this 
 intelligence, although the statement relative to Julia 
 had thrown a considerable damp upon his hopes, he 
 prepared to return to Whitehall, hoping by making a 
 circuit to avoid the conflagration, and reach his home 
 without obstruction. His ignorance of the city, how- 
 ever, occasioned him to emerge opposite to St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, which at that moment resembled a stupend- 
 ous volcano or mountain of fire, the flames uniting- 
 above it in a blazing pyramid that threatened to extend 
 the conflagration to the sky itself, the stones flying 
 like grenadoes, the melted lead running down the 
 streets in a stream, and the very pavements glowing 
 with fiery redness, so as to scorch the feet of all who 
 approached. From this dangerous position he retreated 
 
 P2
 
 212 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 with all speed, and, making his way to Holborn, suc- 
 ceeded at last in reaching Whitehall, completely ex- 
 hausted with his wanderings, and both agitated and 
 saddened in mind by the appalling spectacles he had 
 been witnessing. 
 
 At an early hour on the following morning, Jocelyn, 
 who had been prevented from sleeping by the noise of 
 explosions, the rumbling of carts carrying away goods 
 to the country, and the general disturbance of the 
 neighbourhood, arose and hastily dressed himself to 
 accompany the King and the Duke of York, who were 
 going into the city with a detachment of the guards, 
 to give orders about blowing up houses in different 
 directions, so as to check the progress of the devouring 
 element. For this purpose, he provided himself with 
 a horse, and the cavalcade set forward at a brisk pace 
 towards the City. As they advanced, he observed 
 over the burning town a floating mass of dark smoke, 
 calculated to exceed fifty miles in length, which, passing 
 athwart the sun's disk, hung suspended in the air like 
 an ominous and dismal banner : nor were there want- 
 ing weak and credulous persons to declare, as it was 
 occasionally agitated by the wind, that they saw a 
 hand coming out from the sky, to shake and wave it 
 as a sign of heavenly wrath. The strong eastern wind 
 still continuing to drive the fiery torrent westward, 
 many of the inhabitants about Temple-Bar were already 
 beginning to remove their goods, one of whom had 
 deposited before his house a considerable quantity of 
 loose straw, to be used in packing his furniture. A 
 burning flake from the Cathedral of St. Paul's falling 
 among the heap, presently set it in a blaze, and the 
 noise and confusion of the accident occasioning the 
 servant at the next dwelling to open the street door,
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 213 
 
 a sudden blast of wind carried the whole ignited mass 
 into the hall, and the house was almost instantly en- 
 veloped in flames. The servant was probably suffocated 
 by the smoke in the first instance, for he appeared no 
 more ; but, in a few moments, an elegantly-dressed 
 female was seen in one of the upper balconies, whence, 
 after casting a terrified look at the flames bursting 
 from the window beneath, she again rushed back into 
 the house, as if to seek some other method of escape. 
 
 After a little delay, some of the neighbours procured 
 a ladder and placed it against the wall, when one of 
 them ventured up to the rescue of the unfortunate 
 lady, but the summit of a stack of chimneys falling 
 over at the time, dashed him to the ground, sorely 
 maimed and disabled ; and, as the remainder of the 
 pile was tottering, and threatening every moment to 
 come down, no second adventurer could be found to 
 trust himself to the ladder under such perilous circum- 
 stances. Just at this juncture, the royal cavalcade 
 reached the spot, and at the same instant the lady 
 rushed forwards into the balcony, uttered a cry of 
 dismay, and sank down, either overcome by her terrors, 
 or rendered helpless and dizzy by the smoke. Momen- 
 tary as was the glance that the King obtained of her 
 face, he saw that she was beautiful, a circumstance 
 which would at any time have interested him in her 
 fate, and which, in the present imminence of her danger, 
 excited his sympathy in the most intense degree. 
 " Save the lady in the blue and yellow balcony !" he 
 exclaimed with a loud voice. " Fifty guineas to any 
 one who saves her !" 
 
 Several of the bye-standers echoed the cry, but the 
 heaving and rocking of the impending brick -work 
 deterred them all from attempting to claim the prize.
 
 214 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 There was one, however, in his retinue who had con- 
 templated the female with a tenfold deeper thrill of in- 
 terest and agony than the King. Jocelyn had instantly 
 recognized her to be Julia Strickland, and the delay 
 of his appearing as her rescuer was no longer than the 
 time required for throwing himself from his horse, and 
 bursting through the intervening mob. This was no 
 sooner accomplished, than he rushed up the ladder with 
 a desperate energy, gained the balcony, snatched the 
 insensible Julia into his arms, and was preparing to 
 descend, when a gush of dense smoke from one of the 
 windows, concealed him for a moment from the spec- 
 tators, whose terrified cries testified their apprehension 
 that both were lost. The mass, however, rolled away, 
 and Jocelyn brought down his precious charge in safety; 
 but, utterly spent with his exertions, almost blinded 
 with the flame, and half suffocated with the smoke, he 
 had no sooner reached the ground, than he staggered 
 and fell into the arms of one of the spectators, com- 
 pletely deprived for the moment of all power and 
 consciousness. 
 
 On recovering his senses, he found himself in an 
 apothecary's shop on the outside of Temple- Bar, at- 
 tended by a shop-boy, who was holding sal-ammoniac 
 to his nose, and a strange gentleman, who no sooner 
 observed his returning animation than he tendered him 
 a cordial, which Jocelyn swallowed, and from its re- 
 storative properties derived an almost immediate benefit. 
 As soon as he could speak, he inquired in an incohe- 
 rent manner about the lady he had rescued, so anxious 
 to learn whether she had been restored to animation, 
 and what had become of her, that his feelings almost 
 overpowered his utterance. " You may be quite easy 
 respecting the lady," replied the stranger ; " she came
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 215 
 
 to herself almost immediately upon being fanned with 
 the cold air, and I warrant she is safe enough, for the 
 King would not move from the spot till a coach was 
 procured, when he whispered to one of his attendants, 
 who stepped into it with the lady, and off they drove. 
 His Majesty is ever kind and considerate when a pretty 
 wench is in trouble." There was a sneer upon the 
 speaker's face, as he gave this information, which 
 Jocelyn did not notice, and he was much more grati- 
 fied by his tidings at the moment than he found reason 
 to be afterwards. " And to whom am I indebted for 
 taking charge of me and conveying me hither ?" in- 
 quired Jocelyn. 
 
 " In good sooth, sir," replied the stranger, " if I 
 had not exercised authority after you fell into my arms, 
 the smoke you had been swallowing might have proved 
 your last meal upon earth ; for some of the rabble, 
 under the notion of bringing you to yourself, began to 
 throw water in your face with a liberality that was 
 rather likely to produce suffocation than resuscitation. 
 Conjecturing that quiet and a cordial were more likely 
 to restore you than uproar and cold water, I assisted 
 in conveying you into this shop, and I am most happy 
 that your recovery has done such speedy justice to my 
 medical skill." 
 
 JoceJyn expressed the deepest sense of obligation for 
 his interference, and gladly accepted the further offer 
 of his accompanying him to his lodgings, as he hardly 
 felt sufficiently recruited to return thither without as- 
 sistance. During their walk to Whitehall, the stranger 
 introduced himself to Jocelyn as Colonel Rathborn, 
 one of the disbanded officers of the old army ; and, 
 having sate with him some time, withdrew, promising 
 to call on the next day to inquire after his health. Of
 
 216 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 this he was not enabled to give a very favourable 
 account, when his new friend repeated his visit ; for the 
 water which had been so profusely poured over him when 
 he was in a violent heat from the effect of fire, as 
 well as of his own exertions, had brought on so severe 
 a cold and fever that he was for some days unable to 
 quit his apartment. The agitation of his mind rather 
 irritated his complaint ; for it was sufficiently vexatious 
 to have lost Julia in the very moment of regaining her, 
 without the aggravation of being thus imprisoned by 
 sickness, when his whole soul was bent upon following 
 up the discovery he had so accidentally made. 
 
 To these annoyances were now added apprehensions 
 of the most painful and jealous nature. Colonel Rath- 
 born, who had become a daily visitant to his sick 
 chamber, began to instil into his ear the darkest sus- 
 picions of the motives by which the King had been 
 actuated in interesting himself for Julia's preservation. 
 He recalled his libidinous character, his notorious pro- 
 fligacy with regard to women, his secret haunts about 
 the palace and elsewhere for the gratification of his 
 libertinism ; and, coupling these dispositions with the 
 fact of his even neglecting the urgent occasion that 
 called him into the city until a carriage could be pro- 
 cured, his whispering to one of his myrmidons, and de- 
 siring him to accompany the lady to a place of safety, 
 he submitted to his auditor whether a doubt could be 
 entertained, as to the real motives of his conduct. 
 These suggestions were indeed more than plausible ; 
 and when he saw they had wrought their effect upon 
 Jocelyn, by exciting him to a passion of jealousy, he 
 began to inveigh bitterly against the general depravity 
 of the Court, the degradation of the country, and the 
 ruinous tendency of all the King's measures ; obscurely
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 217 
 
 intimating that public affairs had now arrived at a crisis 
 that called upon every true-born Englishman to come 
 boldly forward, and lend his assistance towards averting 
 the impending calamities. 
 
 Jocelyn acknowledged the demoralised and humilia- 
 ting state of the country, and professed his readiness 
 to contribute towards its regeneration, could any hon- 
 ourable mode of effecting that object he pointed out 
 to him. By dark and mysterious hints, the colonel 
 gave him to understand that a plan was already in 
 agitation for remedying the evils of the state, that some 
 of the most distinguished characters were at that mo- 
 ment engaged in maturing it, and that its success, of 
 which there could be no doubt, would redound not less 
 to the interest and advancement, than to the glory, of 
 the parties embarked in it. When pressed to be more 
 explicit, he declared that the time was not yet ripe for a 
 full communication, quoted long passages from the 
 Revelations, the accomplishment of which he pronounced 
 to be at hand, and talked so wildly about astrological 
 predictions, and a ruling planet, portending the sub- 
 version of monarchy, that Jocelyn began to set him 
 down for one of those narrow-minded and desperate 
 enthusiasts whose society it would be much safer to 
 avoid than to cultivate. Rathborn's attentions, how- 
 ever, during his sickness, continued unremitted, and 
 the service he had conferred would not allow Jocelyn 
 to refuse his urgent solicitations to dine with him at 
 Battersea ; after which visit he determined to drop his 
 acquaintance altogether, and not listen any more to 
 dark and undefined propositions, of which he only 
 understood enough to see that' they were of a danger- 
 ous nature. 
 
 On the very first day, accordingly, of his quitting
 
 218 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 his chamber, he took boat with the colonel, who had 
 come to escort him to his residence, and proceeded to 
 Battersea. The house was a lone and sufficiently for- 
 lorn-looking tenement, standing in the fields at a little 
 distance from the water. "I have invited a few friends 
 to meet you," said the colonel, as they debarked, " with 
 whom I wish you to become better acquainted ; they 
 are men of right religion, of approved zeal and courage, 
 and, what is of more consequence, of lucky horoscopes; 
 they are associated with me as brethren in the great 
 work ; and if, after this day's meeting, they pronounce you 
 fitted for election, you may perhaps have the honour " 
 The clashing of swords and the uproar of angry 
 voices, sounding from the house as they approached, 
 cut short the remainder of his harangue, and occasion- 
 ed him to draw his sword and rush forward, exclaim- 
 ing " Ha ! are we betrayed? are we surprised ? let every 
 man defend himself to the last, and die the death of 
 the righteous !" Instinctively drawing his sword, and 
 following the colonel, Jocelyn hastened into the house 
 and entered a back room, where a scene presented itself 
 which for some time completely baffled all his attempts 
 towards elucidating its meaning. In the middle of 
 the room stood his old acquaintance, Winky Boss, 
 surrounded by six or eight gaunt figures, whose shab- 
 by-genteel dress, reckless looks, and ferocious gestures, 
 indicated broken fortunes and desperate character. 
 Several of them were collaring the Dutchman, cursing, 
 swearing, and threatening by turns ; all had their 
 swords pointed at his throat ; while Boss, whose eyes 
 were winking in double-quick time, repeatedly ejacula- 
 ted " Niet een woord ! niet een woord ! Ik kan 
 niet spreeken een woord van Engelsch :" intimating 
 that he could not speak a single word of English.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 219 
 
 To explain the perilous predicament in which he 
 had unwarily placed himself, it may be necessary to 
 state that Winky Boss, having found his way to En- 
 gland in search of his master, had learned the sad 
 tidings of his death from Mr. Ashmole, who not only 
 invited him to remain at South Lambeth, till an oppor- 
 tunity should occur for his returning to Holland, but 
 made him a handsome present in money. With the 
 latter he soon obtained consolation for all sorrows and 
 disappointments, by betaking himself to the Dolphin, 
 a public-house at Battersea, famous for its strong spirits 
 and good tobacco. Unfortunately for Winky Boss, 
 liquor only made him more thirsty, without ever pro- 
 ducing intoxication, although it might render his facul- 
 ties somewhat muddy and obtuse. In this drowsy 
 plight, after wandering about the fields of Battersea 
 for some time, he chanced to pass the back of Colonel 
 Rathborn's house, and, beholding through an open 
 window, a table spread out with glasses and bottles, 
 he very unceremoniously climbed into the room to 
 allay the thirst with which he was tormented, taking 
 it for granted that, as he had money in his pocket to 
 defray the reckoning, he could not be encountering 
 any very serious risk. 
 
 Contenting himself with the remainder of one bottle, an 
 instance of moderation rather attributable to drowsiness 
 than abstemiousness, he withdrew behind a large screen 
 in one corner of the room, intending to enjoy a com- 
 fortable nap ; but before he could compose himself to 
 sleep, a party of Colonel Rathborn's friends and ac- 
 complices entered the apartment, and, having closed 
 the window, began to discourse of subjects that invol- 
 ved life and death to themselves, and which in Boss's 
 apprehension would be very likely to extend the same
 
 220 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 consequences to himself, should he happen to be dis- 
 covered. In this ticklish predicament his only chance 
 consisted in observing a profound silence, a mode of 
 self-preservation in which he persevered with laudable 
 prudence, until he perceived on a small shelf above 
 his head, a green bottle with a label round its neck, 
 on which was inscribed that most attractive of all 
 words, " Schiedam" the name by which his favou- 
 rite liquor was then designated. With a most exem- 
 plary caution did he slowly steal up his hand to em- 
 brace the neck of the beloved bottle, which he would 
 have safely transferred to his own mouth, but that a 
 small wine-glass, which had escaped his observation, 
 was displaced in the process, and fell smashing to the 
 ground. Up started the company in an instant, 
 down went the screen, out flew the swords, and the 
 unintentional spy, dragged into the centre of the room, 
 presently saw half a dozen weapons pointed at his 
 throat, and became instantly aware that his only 
 chance of safety was to affect an utter ignorance of 
 English. 
 
 His appearance and his sputtering language were 
 proof positive that he was a Dutchman ; but it was not 
 so easy to establish the negative, and convince them 
 that he had not understood a word of what they had 
 been saying. Some were for putting him to death at 
 once, and throwing him at nightfall into the river ; 
 others, believing in his ignorance of the language, re- 
 commended that he should be dismissed, and that 
 their place of rendezvous should be changed to prevent 
 his giving any information.; during which discussion, 
 Winky Boss adjusted his pipe, and arranged his discom- 
 posed clothes with an appearance of perfect unconcern 
 and a vacant look of ignorance. One who assumed some
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 221 
 
 authority over his companions at length observed, that, 
 where six or eight lives might be secured by the sacri- 
 fice of one, there was no room for farther hesitation, 
 and therefore proposed that, in order to implicate each 
 equally in the responsibility of his murder, they should 
 all fall upon him and despatch him, when he gave the 
 signal for the assault. General assent being given to 
 this atrocious proposition, they raised their weapons 
 and looked at their comrade for the appointed notice 
 of attack ; a moment of fearful suspense, which their 
 intended victim employed in taking out a pocket 
 match-box, striking a light, and puffing at the tinder, 
 that he might coax up flame enough for his pipe ; 
 while he still preserved a phlegmatic indifference that 
 might have convinced the most incredulous of his 
 being utterly unacquainted with the subject of dis- 
 cussion. 
 
 " Curse the fellow !" cried the conspirator, who was 
 to have given the signal, " He could never listen to 
 us with so much composure if he understood a single 
 word of the language. Twere to throw away a mur- 
 der to cut his throat, so we may as well turn the 
 Dutch boor adrift, and take better heed in future to 
 examine our room, and look behind the screen before 
 we proceed to business." 
 
 It was precisely at this juncture that Jocelyn and 
 Colonel Rathborn entered the apartment. A peculiar 
 side glance, which Winky Boss cast at the former, inti- 
 mated to him that he did not wish to be recognized ; 
 and, as our hero was aware of the shrewdness con- 
 cealed under his clownish exterior, he took the hint, 
 and conducted himself towards him as if he had never 
 seen him before. All the swords were quickly returned 
 to their scabbards on the appearance of a stranger, and
 
 222 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the party contented themselves with stating to the 
 colonel that, from the manner in which the Dutchman 
 had been found concealed in the apartment, they con- 
 sidered him to be a spy, and were about to give him 
 the spy's reward. Jocelyn, who spoke Dutch, volun- 
 teered to act as interpreter, and, cross-questioning Boss 
 in that language with an appearance of great severity, 
 explained to the company that he had clambered in at 
 the window for liquor, having mistaken the place for 
 a public-house. To dispel every apprehension of fu- 
 ture danger or betrayal, he added that, as the Dutch- 
 man was anxious to return to his own country, he 
 would take him that evening on board a Danish vessel 
 in the river, which was to sail next day for Rotterdam, 
 and desire the captain who was his particular friend, 
 to see him safely transported to Holland. Many 
 thanks were given for this proposition, which seemed 
 to meet the wishes of all parties ; Winky Boss was 
 locked up in one of the rooms until it could be put in 
 practice ; and the remainder of the party immediately 
 proceeded to dinner. 
 
 During the repast, Jocelyn, who constantly saw 
 fresh reason to distrust the desperadoes into whose 
 society he had so unwarily thrown himself, observed 
 the utmost circumspection, discouraged every attempt 
 to give the conversation a political turn, was cautious 
 not to compromise himself by any unguarded expres- 
 sion, and withdrew as soon as possible, under the pre- 
 text of conveying the Dutchman to Greenwich, to put 
 him on board the Danish ship before night-fall. It is 
 unnecessary to state that he had no real intention of 
 this sort, having merely availed himself of the pretext 
 to extricate him from the predicament in which he had 
 found him. Instead of exporting that trusty, though
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 223 
 
 bibulous, personage to Holland, he took him into his 
 own service ; and though honest Boss, partly from 
 drowsiness, and partly from the effect of liquor, had 
 no very distinct recollection of the conversation he had 
 overheard when concealed behind the screen, he re- 
 tained enough of its general purport to determine 
 Jocelyn never to exchange another with the fanatical 
 and dangerous Colonel Rathborn. Just as he quitted 
 the house at Battersea, intending to walk to Lambeth 
 and take boat, he passed a stranger, who, as soon as 
 he approached, muffled himself up in his cloak and 
 struck into the fields, a circumstance which he by no 
 means regretted, as he was most anxious to avoid being 
 recognized as a frequenter of that suspicious residence, 
 or an associate with its plotting inmates. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Son of sixteen, 
 
 Pluck the lined crutch from thy old limping sire ; 
 With it beat out his brains ! Pity and fear, 
 Religion to the gods, peace, justice, truth, 
 Decline to your confounding contraries ; 
 And let confusion live ! 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 ENABLED now, by the complete restoration of his 
 health, to bestir himself with activity, Jocelyn lost no 
 time in instituting inquiries respecting Julia, but all 
 his diligence proved unavailing in effecting any disco- 
 very of her retreat. Colonel Rathborn 's conversation 
 had directed his suspicions to the purlieus of the palace, 
 in the first instance ; and his search in that direction
 
 224 BKAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 was proportionably keen. Baffled, however, in ob- 
 taining the smallest evidence that might justiiy his 
 apprehensions, he determined to revisit the spot where 
 he had rescued her, to inquire whether any of the 
 neighbours had heard the orders given to the coach- 
 man, or marked in what direction he had driven ; but 
 the whole of Fleet-street was an undistinguishable mass 
 of ruins ; the great fire having spread as far as the 
 Temple ; and none but a few houseless wretches, or 
 vagrants, prowling for plunder, were to be seen among 
 the still-smoking rubbish. A space, above two miles 
 in length, and one in breadth, presented a vast unbro- 
 ken scene of hideous desolation, where locality could 
 only be rudely traced by the disfigured fragments of 
 some public monument or tower ; while in the midst 
 of the destroyed city, the calcined and blackened ske- 
 leton of St. Paul's church reared itself up, attesting, 
 by its gigantic bones and fragments, the stupendous 
 dimensions that it had once exhibited. 
 
 Foiled in this project, he betook himself to Alderman 
 Staunton's country-house, where he obtained an inter- 
 view with that personage, who, with infinite perturba- 
 tion of manner, disclaimed all knowledge of Julia, or 
 of her family, and once more implored Jocelyn never 
 to renew such inquiries at his house. Respecting Con- 
 stantia, he could give him no information of a more 
 satisfactory nature, contenting himself with stating 
 that she had retired, for the present, into the country, 
 and had not hitherto furnished him with her address. 
 From the Alderman's he betook himself to South Lam- 
 beth, but Mr. Ashmole was either as ignorant or as 
 uncommunicative as his friend ; and Jocelyn returned 
 to Whitehall, more and more convinced, from the 
 result of his inquiries, as well as from the concurrent
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 225 
 
 circumstances of her disappearance, that the King had 
 either caused her to be secreted, or must be privy to 
 the place which, whatever might be her motives for 
 that measure, she had voluntarily selected for her 
 concealment. 
 
 To Jocelyn a state of suspense had always proved 
 intolerable. Irritated at once by love, jealousy and 
 disappointment, he determined, after many debates 
 with his own mind, to disregard all risks of offence, to 
 avow to the Monarch his passion for Julia, and to 
 implore him to give any information in his power, as 
 to the place to which she had been conducted. To 
 select an opportunity for this hazardous inquiry was 
 no easy task, for Lady Castlemaine had caused him 
 to be excluded from the private parties of the King, 
 although his official situation under her Majesty autho- 
 rised his presence at all the public entertainments of 
 the Court. Against individual audiences, formally 
 requested, Charles had long set his face, for fear of an 
 assault, as he termed every remonstrance touching his 
 present conduct, or any appeal to his former promises : 
 and Jocelyn had therefore no alternative but to address 
 him at some of the Court festivals. The first gala that 
 had been given since the Fire was already announced, 
 and as his Majesty had really exerted himself with an 
 unusual energy upon that occasion, by going in his 
 barge to the Tower to order the blowing up of the 
 houses about the Graff, and subsequently on horse- 
 back towards the city, as we have already shown, his 
 courtiers and the ministers of his pleasures determined 
 to show their sense of his merits by enlivening the an- 
 nounced entertainment with an extraordinary festivity. 
 True, it was a strange season to choose when the city 
 had just suffered so heavy a judgment ; when, in ad- 
 
 VOL. II. Q
 
 226 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 dition to the numbers of the middling classes who had 
 been suddenly reduced to beggary, it was calculated 
 that above two hundred thousand of the poorer sort 
 were scattered about the suburbs, sleeping under tents 
 or beneath the open sky, on the point of perishing from 
 hunger and utter destitution ; but the Court of Charles 
 the Second was never squeamish when an outrage could 
 be offered to every feeling of commiseration or decency, 
 and the preparations accordingly continued, as if there 
 was a signal triumph to celebrate, instead of so dread- 
 ful a calamity to deplore. 
 
 To do all honour to the occasion, his Majesty re- 
 solved to appear for the first time in the new dress 
 which he meant to introduce at court, and, accordingly, 
 having discarded the doublet and stiff collar, bands 
 and cloak, he invested himself solemnly with his Persian 
 attire, being a long richly embroidered cassock of black 
 cloth, pinked with white silk under it, brought close 
 to the body, with a girdle set with precious stones, and 
 a handsome tunick over the whole. The legs were 
 ruffled with black ribbon, and jewelled buckles at the 
 knee and foot were substituted for garters and shoe- 
 strings, the tout ensemble forming a very rich, manly, 
 and becoming garment, which several of the great 
 courtiers had already adopted in compliance with his 
 Majes y's wishes. 
 
 The place of entertainment was the Court theatre 
 where, after some exquisite Italian singing by two 
 eunuchs and a woman, there was a grand masque and 
 ball, in which the King and Queen, with all their dis- 
 tinguished visitants, performed various graceful dances 
 in slow movement ; the splendour of their dresses, the 
 sweetness of the music, which consisted entirely of 
 wind instruments, and the brilliant decorations of the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 227 
 
 saloon, constituting altogether a scene of rare elegance, 
 combined with unrivalled magnificence. The King 
 having resumed his seat after the dancing, and being 
 at that moment surrounded by only a few of his more 
 intimate associates, Jocelyn considered it a favourable 
 opportunity for his purpose ; and imploring his Ma- 
 jesty's pardon for the liberty, which he attributed to a 
 deep attachment for the lady in question, he humbly 
 stated the informatio he required. 
 
 " Gadzooks ! that is very true," cried the King, choos- 
 ing to misunderstand the object of his solicitation 
 " I remember you were to have fifty pieces for prevent- 
 ing a wench from singeing her petticoats ; my trea- 
 siuvr shall pay them to you." 
 
 " I beg to assure your Majesty," said Jocelyn, " that 
 I was not influenced by any hope of reward, nor do I 
 claim it : but, if your Majesty would condescend to 
 inform me where " 
 
 "Tush! sir," cried Charles, interrupting him 
 " must the King be answerable for every pretty Perdita 
 that chooses to jilt her lover ?" 
 
 " Your Majesty may perhaps have forgotten," con- 
 tinued Jocelyn, " that the person who accompanied the 
 lady in the carriage received instructions " 
 
 " Enough, sir, enough ! " interposed Charles, with 
 a stern look, and at the same f.ime slightly colouring 
 " I am not to be questioned as to what orders I may 
 give, nor do I recollect that the Queen's private Secre- 
 tary is of his Majesty's Privy Council." Turning his 
 back upon Jocelyn after this pointed rebuff, he ex- 
 claimed to the Duke of Buckingham " What say 
 you, George, to this white pinking of the vest ? me- 
 thinks 'twere better without it : and this black ruffling 
 of the leg, as if it were a pigeon's ? shall we discard it 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 BHAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 for a peach-coloured silk stocking? Pronounce, my 
 arbiter elegantiarum, my monarch of the mode, for in 
 foppery and frippery I acknowledge thee to be infal- 
 lible," 
 
 Buckingham gave his opinion with great gravity 
 upon these important points, discouraging- any altera- 
 tions, commending the dress as at once elegant and 
 manly, although he concluded with an offer of a heavy 
 wager, that his Majesty would be presently tired of 
 the innovation, and would resume his former garb. 
 This bet the King accepted with much confidence, pro- 
 testing his perfect approbation of the change ; but the 
 result proved that Buckingham, who soon claimed the 
 money, knew his capricious humour better than he did 
 himself. As there had been no reason for the adoption 
 of this new fashion, so was there none for its discontinu- 
 ance. It had been the whim of the moment. To a 
 monarch who needed perpetual excitement, its novelty 
 was sufficient recommendation ; when this ceased, its 
 attraction was lost, and the Persian garment followed 
 the fate of the ministers, mistresses, and favourites, of 
 whom he had successively grown tired it was thrown 
 aside and forgotten. 
 
 Jocelyn's indignation at his cavalier dismissal from 
 the royal presence was inflamed by the conviction that 
 his suspicions were well founded, and that the King 
 was the real author of Julia's abduction, and perfectly 
 well acquainted with her place of concealment. His 
 Majesty had begun with a wilful misconception, he had 
 proceeded with an evasion, he had concluded with a 
 rude and haughty sneer, but he had never denied the 
 fact. Indeed his manner and his equivocation amount- 
 ed to a full admission in the mind of Jocelyn, who sate 
 apart in a corner of the festive hall, indulging bitter
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 229 
 
 and jealous thoughts, and little participating in the 
 mirth and merriment that surrounded him. The mum- 
 mery usually enacted at these entertainments was now 
 beginning. Killigrew, having dressed himself up as a 
 Quaker, went about denouncing the vices of the Court, 
 and prognosticating the most dreadful calamities in 
 consequence, such as a stoppage to the supply of 
 canary, claret, and muscadel for the men ; of Flanders 
 lace, French gloves, Spanish rouge, and Dutch sprunk- 
 ing-glasses for the ladies ; together with a general 
 mortality among lap-dogs, monkeys, and parroqueets, 
 pimps, panders and parasites ; whereby the recreation 
 and occupation of all ranks and sexes at Whitehall 
 were likely to be annihilated. 
 
 "What news, friend, in the City?" inquired the 
 King, as he came up. 
 
 " Worse and worse, friend," replied Killigrew, as if 
 he were addressing a stranger. " All going to rack 
 and ruin ; commerce declining, confidence destroyed, 
 incapable ministers, a pleasure-loving King, a discon- 
 tented nation. And yet there is one good, honest, 
 able man in the country, who, if he could be prevailed 
 upon to undertake the management of affairs and 
 look to every thing himself, would speedily redeem 
 all." 
 
 " 'Ods-fish !" cried the King, " he must be a spruce 
 and stirring blade, and it would like me well to know 
 the name of such a phrenix." 
 
 " His name," continued Killigrew, very seriously, 
 " is Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in kissing 
 and courting, in toying and tippling; but who has 
 talents to perform all that I have said, if he would only 
 devote himself to the undertaking." 
 
 " Tush, friend !" replied the King, " what can you
 
 230 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 expect from one who associates with such a deboshed, 
 idle, and rakehelly fellow as Tom Killigrew ?" 
 
 "That he should laugh at him when he plays the 
 fool, and endeavour to profit by him when he acts the 
 Mentor," said Killigrew, and immediately moved off' to 
 another part of the apartment. Attracted by the bustle 
 and laughter that sounded from a distant part of the 
 saloon, Charles, ever on the alert for amusement, has- 
 tened in that direction, and no sooner reached the spot, 
 ,han several voices at once cried out, " Here is his 
 Majesty ! here is his Majesty !" and opening to the 
 right and left, disclosed to the King's observation the 
 strange figure whom they had been previously encirc- 
 ling. It was a squat and corpulent Dutchwoman, with 
 grey eyes, sandy mustachios, a coif with laced stream- 
 ers surmounting her hair, which was pomatumed back 
 from the forehead ; two ponderous gold ear-rings, lay- 
 ing themselves down upon the fat of either shoulder ; 
 
 and her costume But we need not describe it a 
 
 second time, for he figure was Lady Cornpton, and 
 her attire the identical suit she had worn upon her first 
 presentation to Jocelyn, and which, having considerably 
 suffered by the lapse of time, had been selected for her 
 travelling-dress. She had come up to London herself, 
 finding Jocelyn's exertions ineffectual, to use her own 
 personal influence with his Majesty in procuring a 
 settlement of the Brambletye cause. Lord Rochester 
 happened to hear her inquiring for Jocelyn's apart- 
 ments at Whitehall, and rightly conceiving that so 
 grotesque a figure might afford amusement to the 
 Court, had introduced her into the saloon, informing 
 her that she would be sure to find Mr. Compton among 
 the company, or the King himself, if she desired to 
 speak with him. The latter, indeed, was much more
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 2^ 
 
 the object of her search than the former, and she no 
 sooner gained sight of him in the manner we have des- 
 cribed, than she waddled up to him, curtsying, and 
 exclaiming. " Hoe is het met zyne majesteit de 
 Koning ? Vive le Roi ; God bless de King !" 
 
 " Who is it ? who is it?" was eagerly buzzed about, 
 while the exclamations of " Capital character ! inimi- 
 tably supported ! charmingly dressed !" proceeded 
 from the mouths of others, who took for granted that 
 the whole had been got up for the amusement of the 
 King. As Charles himself looked somewhat puzzled 
 from not exactly comprehending the meaning of the 
 mummery, her ladyship proceeded to inform him, in 
 the same mixture of Dutch, French, and English, that 
 she had had the honour of being acquainted with him 
 at Bruges and elsewhere, before the Restoration. 
 
 " Prettily acted, i' faith ! and a droll piece of mum- 
 mery," cried the King, who did not in the least recog- 
 nize his old acquaintance, " but somewhat enigmati- 
 cal as to the plot, and no less questionable as to the 
 player, unless it be Tom Wollop, the Falstaff of the 
 Red Bull Theatre." Not a little indignant at this 
 supposition, her ladyship inquired whether he had so 
 entirely forgotten his friend the quondam widow 
 Weegschaal, whom he had once kissed at Bruges. 
 " 'Ods-fish !" exclaimed the King, laughing heartily, and 
 looking at her more attentively in the face, " sure as 
 fate, it is the very same. Gadzooks ! Madam, thou 'rt 
 right welcome to our Court ; and as I kissed thee in 
 one frolic at Bruges, so will I kiss thee in another 
 at Whitehall." In pleasant and playful mood his 
 Majesty suited the action to the word, whereat her 
 ladyship simpered and curtsied with an egregious 
 satisfaction, and the spectators indulged their laughter
 
 232 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 without restraint, complimenting the King upon the 
 acquisition of a new mistress, and even bringing up the 
 Queen to be introduced to her Dutch rival ; while 
 banter and raillery flew from mouth to mouth, as the 
 assemblage addressed themselves to her with a mock 
 homage, all parties seeming to enjoy the scene with 
 the highest possible glee. Her ladyship, however, 
 who had not been at the expense of coming up to 
 London for pastime, proceeded immediately to busi- 
 ness, by beseeching the King to interfere with the 
 Lord Chancellor and procure a decision of the long 
 pending Brambletye cause, a favour which his Ma- 
 jesty promised with as much readiness as he forgot 
 to perform it. 
 
 Jocelyn was about to retire from this boisterous and 
 uncongenial mirth, of which he knew not the cause, when 
 he was unfortunately recognized by his step-mother, 
 who waddled up to him, almost before he was aware 
 of her purpose, and exclaimed, " Hey, Jocelyn, myn 
 zoon, hoe is het?" at the same time putting her arm 
 round his neck, and giving him a smack that echoed 
 through the hall. A new peal of laughter followed this 
 hearty though unwelcome embrace, and Jocelyn, who 
 was in no fitting mood to be made the butt of the com- 
 pany, was annoyed almost beyond endurance by the 
 banter of the courtiers, as well as the irony of the 
 King. " Gramercy ! man," cried Charles, " I give thee 
 joy with all my heart, for this is doubtless the Orinda, 
 the Roxalana, the Dulcinea who was rescued from the 
 fire, and about whom thou wert so unhappy. A deli- 
 cate creature, i' faith ! and too well calculated to raise 
 a flame, to be allowed to perish in one. Who would 
 not mount a ladder for such a kiss at that ?" 
 
 With great difficulty did he command himself suf-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 233 
 
 ticiently to preserve silence and take no notice of the 
 jeerers, as he partly led and partly pulled her ladyship 
 out of the festive hall, and conducted her to his own 
 apartments, where she stated the object of her visit to 
 London, and congratulated herself on her immediate 
 success in having obtained the King's promise of inter- 
 ference. Jocelyn well knew the value of such a pledge; 
 but, willing to impress upon her mind that every pur- 
 pose was now accomplished, he affected to consider 
 it quite conclusive of success, and urged the propriety 
 of her returning as soon as possible, both on account 
 of Sir John's health, and of the great expenses of the 
 metropolis. The latter argument was irresistible, and 
 she professed her readiness to quit London on the 
 following day, if Jocelyn would undertake to procure 
 her a conveyance, which he cheerfully engaged to do. 
 Next morning he accordingly bestirred himself by 
 sunrise, hired a vehicle, the driver of which made 
 himself responsible for her safe arrival at Brambletye, 
 and had the satisfaction of bidding adieu to her lady- 
 ship, who departed in high spirits at her imagined 
 success. Most fortunate was it that he had exerted 
 himself with such promptitude, for Rochester, elated at 
 the amusement she had already afforded, had laid a 
 scheme with Killigrew, Etherege, and some others, for 
 letting her loose upon the Chancellor while he was 
 sitting in his own court ; and the whole party were not 
 a little mortified at her escape, as they calculated, 
 from the animosity she had expressed against him, 
 that she could hardly content herself with any thing 
 less than the demolition of his lordship's wig. 
 
 Restless and uneasy, and anxious to avoid the rail- 
 lery, with which he knew he should be still persecuted, 
 he determined to avoid the Court -idlers who were
 
 234 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 generally lounging about the stone gallery, the matted 
 gallery, or the painted chamber of Whitehall ; and he was 
 accordingly going round by the garden of the Palace, 
 when the gate opened, and three figures passed out into 
 the Park, whose apparition almost transfixed him to the 
 spot on which he stood, with utter amazement. It was 
 Julia, gaily and superbly dressed, leaning upon the arm of 
 Lady Castlemaine on one side, and upon that of Mark 
 Walton on the other. She had evidently recognized 
 him, for she blushed deeply, turned aside her head, 
 and walked forward with increased rapidity, leaving 
 Jocelyn in a state of mind that baffles description. 
 Her splendid attire, the character of the woman upon 
 whose arm she was leaning, the power of passing 
 through the privileged gate, was understood to be re- 
 served for the King and his mistresses ; every thing 
 seemed to attest that she had been secreted about the 
 Palace, as he had always suspeqted ; that she had been 
 unable to resist the attractions of a Court, and the 
 solicitations of a royal lover ; that she had followed the 
 infamous example set by so many other women of supe- 
 rior station to herself, and that she was in consequence 
 utterly unworthy of his love. 
 
 Irritated at once by indignation and disappointment, 
 he hurried back to his own apartments, locked himself 
 up, and devoted the remainder of the day to solitude 
 and the indulgence of his own melancholy thoughts. 
 Even the intervention of a night's rest, which generally 
 sufficed to allay the irritation of his mind, had not at 
 all dissipated the splenetic feelings of the day before : 
 he no sooner arose than he wandered to the water-side, 
 stepped into a boat, and desired to be rowed to the 
 city, intending once more to survey the ruins, a scene 
 which seemed congenial to the desolate state of his 
 own mind. Instead of executing this purpose, he made
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 235 
 
 his way, after landing, to Moorfields, which were then 
 covered with a motley encampment of poor houseless 
 sufferers, huddled together under tents, awnings, and 
 rags of every possible description, and surrounded by 
 such goods and chatties as they had been enabled to 
 snatch from the flames. Amidst the misery and squa- 
 lor of this gipsy scene, stood the gaily-decorated booth 
 of Polichinello the Italian puppet, whose exhibition, 
 under the magic influence of fashion, drew crowds of 
 visitants from the Court end of the town, to startle the 
 surrounding wretchedness with the echoes of their 
 obstreperous mirth. 
 
 Little solicitous of mingling with these heartless tri- 
 flers, he wandered away from the scene, so wrapt in 
 his own sad thoughts that he scarcely knew what di- 
 rection he was taking until he found himself in the vi- 
 cinity of the Tower, when he observed, upon a project- 
 ing sign, a head of Merlin, over which was written, 
 " Here lives an astrologer admittance from twelve 
 till four :" and under the painting was a quaint and 
 humourous copy of verses. Pleased with the style and 
 talent of this inscription, he resolved, in the hope of 
 dissipating his uneasy reflections, to desire a sample of 
 the wizard's skill ; although he had not the smallest 
 confidence in the power of these necromancers. On 
 mounting the stairs, he was ushered into an ante-room 
 rilled with company, waiting their turn for an audience, 
 as the wise man only received one at a time. In due 
 course, Jocelyn was admitted into the sanctum sanc- 
 torum, where the astrologer sate installed, surrounded 
 with globes, astrolabes, mosaical rods, tables for cal- 
 culating nativities, and all the customary apparatus 
 and tr mpery of his calling. 
 
 " What is your purpose ?" said the astrologer, as he
 
 236 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 entered " do you wish to learn the art of framing 
 sigils and lamens, of erecting a scheme, casting nati- 
 vities, forming horoscopes, or producing vivification by 
 the divining rod ?" 
 
 " If you know not the purpose with which I came, 
 how can you know aught else concerning me ?" said 
 Jocelyn, willing to puzzle the conjuror. 
 
 " I can know nothing but by my art," replied the 
 astrologer " let me consult the stars, and make invo- 
 cation, and you shall be satisfied of my skill." At 
 these words he performed various fantastical contortions, 
 consulted his books and his instruments, and after ex- 
 claiming " Per virtutem illorum qui invocant nomen 
 tuum, Hermeli, mitte nobis tres angelos," he pietended 
 to hold conversation with the three angels, whom the 
 spirit Hermelus had sent him. At the conclusion of 
 his conjuration, he said to Jocelyn, "Your place of 
 nativity is against you : Heaven send, you leave not 
 your fleece in the one like a sheep, nor wear the other 
 about your neck like a felon, for both a Bramble and a 
 tye are concerned in your birth. What's here ? Vul- 
 can in opposition to you ? You are a player upon the 
 guitar, I see." 
 
 " I am," said Jocelyn. " Ay," continued the astro- 
 loger "and this is not the sole point in which you 
 resemble Orpheus, for like him you have snatched your 
 Eurydice from the region of fire, only to lose her again. 
 Ha ! do you start ? have I touched you ? You love her 
 then ; and yet you were kissed by another last night ; 
 ay, and in the presence of the King and the whole 
 Court Proh pudor !" 
 
 " I confess that you amaze me," said Jocelyn, " and 
 if your art, or rather your information, which appears 
 to be most quick and accurate, can resolve me where I 
 may find "
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 237 
 
 " Dixi abi!" exclaimed the astrologer "I 
 
 have said : you may depart !" with which words he 
 pulled down a wooden partition, that rendered him no 
 longer visible ; a new applicant was admitted ; and 
 Jocelyn had no alternative but to walk down stairs, 
 and quit the house, which he did in profound astonish- 
 ment, not only at his being thus recognized by a stran- 
 ger, but at the inexplicable celerity with which the 
 last night's occurrences at Whitehall had been con- 
 veyed to an obscure astrologer, in the neighbourhood 
 of the Tower. The only wonderful feature of the whole 
 transaction was the Protean power of metamorphosis, 
 that enabled Lord Rochester (for such was the astro- 
 loger), to assume whatever disguise and character he 
 pleased, and deceive his most intimate friends with the 
 same facility as he had now deluded Jocelyn. For 
 some weeks past, his Lordship had been in the habit 
 of posting from Whitehall to the Merlin's Head in the 
 City, where he had succeeded in establishing a prodigi- 
 ous reputation as a cunning man ; sometimes availing 
 himself of his celebrity for his own mere amusement ; and 
 sometimes abusing the confidence he had inspired by 
 rendering it subservient to the most licentious purposes. 
 His male applicants were generally dismissed with some 
 such swaggering mandate as that which Jocelyn had 
 received ; but by telling the credulous females who 
 consulted him that if they betook themselves to a cer- 
 tain spot, they would encounter a man in a particular 
 dress, who was destined to be their husband, and whose 
 advances they ought not to reject, he was often enabled, 
 by personating the character he had described, to gra- 
 tify his propensity for intrigue and low amour, not 
 less at the expense of his own honour than that of 
 others.
 
 238 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Making various attempts to solve, by all sorts of 
 conjecture, the apparent mystery that involved this 
 astrologer, and still reflecting most painfully upon 
 Julia's degradation, Jocelyn walked to the Tower- 
 wharf, where he took boat again, and was re-conveyed 
 to Westminster. As he passed one of the courts of 
 law in this quarter, he observed a crowd around the 
 door, and various detached parties whispering together 
 at a little distance ; and, upon inquiring the cause of 
 the assemblage, was informed that one of the regicides 
 was at that moment upon his trial. Though in general 
 averse from all scenes of such solemn and painful in- 
 terest, a feeling of mingled curiosity and commiseration 
 induced him to join the throng of those who were 
 pressing through the door-way, and to enter the hall. 
 It was completely full ; and, though the greater part 
 of the crowd consisted of the lower orders, they stood 
 uncovered, observing a profound silence, or only con- 
 versing together in anxious whispers, all eyes being 
 directed towards the upper end of the hall, and every 
 countenance wearing an expression of deep awe. 
 Gradually making his way up to the bar, Jocelyn was 
 at length enabled to look over the circular enclosure ; 
 and, directing his eyes to the spot set apart for the 
 criminal, a thrill of horror shot to his very heart at 
 beholding his friend, the unfortunate Mr. Strickland. 
 
 Recoiling instinctively back from the dread of being 
 recognized by a criminal on trial for his life, and 
 overcome at the same time by a gush of sympathising 
 anguish, he would have shrunk away ; but as the pro- 
 ceedings were now about to commence, the crowd 
 behind pressed up to the bar with a vehemence which 
 he had not the power to resist, and he thus remained 
 fixed to the spot he occupied, a compulsory witness
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 239 
 
 of the trial. Finding, however, that although he could 
 observe every thing that passed, he was so placed as 
 not to be distinguishable from within the bar, he 
 became more reconciled to his imprisonment, and ven- 
 tured to cast another glance at the wretched man, who 
 now stood arraigned, by his real name of Valentine 
 Walton, as a murderer, traitor, and regicide. His 
 appearance was little altered since Jocelyn had parted 
 from him at Haelbeck. There was the same wild 
 neglected beard, the same wan and haggard counte- 
 nance ; but the distrust and terror, that had formerly 
 kept his eyes glancing from one objeet to another, in 
 perpetual suspicion, were now succeeded by a fixed 
 look of firm desperation. Like some wild animal which, 
 after having used every effort to escape, stands fiercely 
 at bay when it is finally chased into the toils, did 
 Valentine Walton gather courage from despair, and 
 look round at the court that was to try him, and at the 
 myriad eyes that were rivetted upon him, with an ex- 
 pression of resolute and even fierce defiance. Beneath 
 him sate his wife, who had insisted upon acting as his 
 counsel and defender, and who, upon this awful occa- 
 sion, preserved all that dignified calmness and majes- 
 tic self - possession which Jocelyn had so often ad- 
 mired in her demeanour at Haelbeck. 
 
 After enlarging upon the peculiar heinousness and 
 enormous atrocity of the offence, and indulging in a 
 proportionate strain of invective and vituperation 
 against the prisoner, the counsel for the Crown drew a 
 frightful picture of the evils entailed upon the country 
 by the late detestable Usurper, which he contrasted 
 with its present happy and glorious state under his 
 most sacred Majesty King Charles the Second, upon 
 whom he pronounced a flaming panegyric ; and con-
 
 240 BllAMBLETYE HOUSR. 
 
 eluded his long speech by stating that, as the prisoner 
 at the bar had been so many years absent from Eng- 
 land, during which time he had changed his name, 
 had artfully suffered his beard to grow, and had en- 
 couraged other alterations of personal appearance for 
 the purpose of disguising himself as much as possible, 
 there might have been considerable difficulty in proving 
 his identity, had they not been fortunately provided 
 with a witness who had known him under every change 
 of circumstances, and who could not only swear to his 
 person, but to his guilt, although that was already suf- 
 ficiently notorious. This witness, he declared, was the 
 only one he should call, and it was a satisfaction to be 
 able to state that he was not only a gentleman of un- 
 impeachable veracity, but one who, in this instance, 
 had evinced a more than Roman virtue, by sacrificing 
 every feeling of regard and kindred upon the double 
 altar of patriotism to his country and loyalty to his 
 King. 
 
 During the delivery of this speech, the prisoner had 
 preserved a look of unaltered firmness, which only 
 varied towards its conclusion, into an expression of 
 slight wonder. But no sooner had the crier pronounced 
 aloud the name of Mark Walton, as the man whose 
 evidence was to condemn him ; no sooner had he seen 
 his nephew actually standing up in the witness-box, 
 than he leaped suddenly backwards, as if recoiling 
 from a demon, and clasping his hands together above 
 his head, while his whole face was distorted by ungo- 
 vernable passion, he shouted out in a terrible voice, 
 " Villain ! monster ! parricide ! man ! ! may the blood 
 and the curse of a murdered uncle, of one who adopted, 
 fed, and nurtured thee in his bosom, fall upon thy 
 head, and wither up thy heart! May thy hopes be
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 241 
 
 blasted in this world ! and in the next, may fires un- 
 quenchable " 
 
 Overcome by the paroxysm of his wrath, he could 
 not complete the malediction. His usually wan 
 complexion was suffused and sanguine, the veins swelled, 
 perspiration trickled from his forehead, his blood-shot 
 eyes seemed starting from their sockets, the horrible 
 grinding of his teeth became audible as he gnashed 
 them together, his body writhed as if the mighty con- 
 vulsion within would rend it asunder, and then every 
 limb becoming suddenly rigid, he fell backwards in a 
 fit. By order of the Judge, he was removed from the 
 court, his wife accompanying him and promptly per- 
 forming such melancholy offices as the occasion re- 
 quired, by loosening his bands, applying volatile salts 
 to his nose, and giving proper directions to the bewil- 
 dered officers of the court. 
 
 Apparently unaffected by the catastrophe he had 
 occasioned, Mark Walton gave the most conclusive 
 testimony of his uncle's guilt and identity, winding up 
 his testimony by something like an apology, in which 
 he attempted to disguise his hideous ingratitude and 
 treacherous violation of every claim of consanguinity, 
 under the flimsy veil of fealty to the King and duty to 
 the public. 
 
 At the conclusion of his deposition, Mrs. Walton 
 returned into the court, her countenance a little sad- 
 dened, but still collected and undismayed. 
 
 " Who is of counsel for the prisoner?" inquired the 
 Judge. 
 
 " I am, my Lord," replied Mrs. Walton. " I was 
 his counsellor and adviser in the offence ; I will be his 
 defender in his trial ; I would willingly be his sharer 
 in his punishment. I have but a few words to say, 
 
 VOL. II. R
 
 242 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 and I hope therefore to stand excused if I enter into a 
 short detail of our private history. I am the sister of 
 the late sovereign of these realms, his Highness the 
 Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 and the dominions and territories thereunto belon-- 
 
 O 
 
 ing." 
 
 "Woman! woman!" cried the Judge, angrily, 
 " we know of no such person here. If you speak of 
 the late execrable usurper, Oliver Cromwell, call him 
 by his name." 
 
 " My Lord, my Lord," calmly resumed Mrs. Walton 
 " names are of little import. You may, with a worse 
 than cannibal rage, dig up and insult the remains of 
 that man before whom, when alive, you cowered in 
 the very dust. You may nail up that head upon West- 
 minster Hall, whose bold and bright intellect exalted 
 England to the very pinnacle of renown, and controlled 
 the destinies of Europe. But you cannot tear him down 
 from the illustrious niche he occupies in the temple of 
 history ; you cannot untomb him from the imperishable 
 monument he has built for himself by his own great and 
 valorous exploits. My husband was entrusted by him 
 with an almost unlimited power and authority ; how 
 he exercised it let those attest who were subject to his 
 sway. But though we were connected with the Pro- 
 tector by every tie of blood and interest, we were no 
 parties to his usurpation ; we had not assisted him to 
 depose an hereditary tyrant, in order to set up a despot 
 whose title was his sword. Deeming that this noble 
 nation was never meant to be the patrimony of a family, 
 but was fully capable of governing itself, we were the 
 staunch advocates of a republic ; and no sooner had 
 we ascertained the real views of the Protector than we 
 severed ourselves from his communion, gave up all our
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 243 
 
 appointments, abandoned power and sway, and retired 
 into the obscurity of private life." 
 
 " You should have done that before the murder of 
 the King," observed the Judge ; " you would then 
 have had public opinion with you." 
 
 " Public opinion!" exclaimed Mrs. Walton, with a 
 slight expression of contempt. " The wind is not more 
 uncertain. In our last place of concealment, my un- 
 fortunate husband gazed every day upon a picture 
 representing the murder of William the First of Hol- 
 land, who was slain in the most cowardly manner by a 
 sordid and bigotted assassin. This man did the Spa- 
 nish nation, which had instigated him to the deed, 
 celebrate and canonize as a martyr, while his family 
 was ennobled and enriched. Charles the First was 
 tried by a public, legal, solemn tribunal, and the 
 seventy or eighty judges, who condemned him, are 
 execrated, hunted down, and exterminated like wild 
 beasts. Such is public opinion.* This fleeting breath 
 may perhaps be in favour of the restored Government, 
 yet what has it effected ? This great and godly nation, 
 so lately the terror of its enemies, rendered contempti- 
 ble and effeminate by profane debaucheries, and given 
 over to the dominion of harlots, profligates, and drunk- 
 ards, is become the scorn of Europe, is invaded and 
 insulted by the weakest of its foes, its ships burnt in 
 their harbours, its people put to flight and shame, its 
 very capital threatened ; while an outraged Deity, in 
 manifestation of his wrath, has devastated the land 
 with pestilence, and destroyed its metropolis by fire." 
 
 * All the parties implicated in the King's trial chose to over- 
 look the defective constitution of the court, which rendered their 
 sentence as illegal and arbitrary, as any of the violent acts with 
 which the King was charged. 
 
 R 2
 
 244 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 "Hold thy audacious tongue;" cried the judge 
 " and rail not thus against the government of his most 
 sacred Majesty. All that you have said is quite irre- 
 levant. Do you deny the prisoner's guilt ?" 
 
 ' Yes, my Lord; we acknowledge no guilt; but I 
 admit the act of which he stands arraigned, for Valen- 
 tine Walton never meant to quit the earth with a lie 
 in his mouth." 
 
 " Woman ! how dare you trifle with the court ?" 
 cried the judge. " As you admit the act, I will pro- 
 ceed to charge the jury, and you may bring forward 
 the prisoner that he may hear his sentence." 
 
 " My lord," said Mrs. Walton in a more solemn 
 tone of voice " it is out of my power to produce him ; 
 he has escaped !" 
 
 "How! what mean you? Escaped!" exclaimed 
 his lordship, starting up in great agitation. " Mr. 
 Sheriff and officers of the court, look to it at your 
 cost ! Lieges ! I charge you all in the king's name, to 
 be aiding and abetting ! Send to the Horse Guards 
 for assistance ! Raise a hue and cry." 
 
 " Compose yourself, my lord," resumed Mrs. Wal- 
 ton " he is beyond your jurisdiction. He has re- 
 moved his cause into a higher court, whence not all 
 the kings of the earth, nor all their guards, nor all 
 the armies in the world, can summon him to appear 
 before you. He is dead !" 
 
 " Dead !" exclaimed the judge, with a look of in- 
 credulity " this is some plot or device to defraud the 
 scaffold of its due. Look to him, officers, instantly, 
 and let me hear the truth." Two or three officials of 
 the court having now confirmed that the prisoner was 
 dead, his lordship exclaimed in a loud and angry 
 voice " Insolent and unfeeling woman ! how have you
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE, 245 
 
 dared to waste the time of the court, how have you 
 had the heart to plend his cause, when you knew your 
 husband to be a corpse ?" 
 
 " Because I wished to vindicate his memory be- 
 cause I rejoiced that he had escaped from his miseries 
 that his mind was severed from the tenement of clay 
 by which it was broken and shattered that he had 
 avoided a public, ignominious death. That is no decease 
 which promises to give me back the husband of my 
 youth; which, renewing the bold, clear intellect, the 
 pure, benevolent heart, that first won my love, will 
 transfer them to the sky to await our second bridal." 
 
 " Away with her!" cried the judge " she raves. 
 She is spotted all over with treason away with her !" 
 With these words he broke up the court, apparently 
 in great dudgeon at having been disappointed of his 
 victim ; and Jocelyn, as well as the other spectators, 
 slowly retired out of the hall, many of the latter recal- 
 ling to one another such passages as they recollected 
 of Walton's early history.* 
 
 * Valentine Walton, " the Bashaw of the Isle of Ely," as Heath 
 calls him in his Chronicle, was made governor of King's Lynn 
 and Croyland, with all the level of Ely. Walker, in his History 
 of the Independents, says, that Boston, King's Lynn, &c., were 
 able to support forty thousand men, besides the island's native in~ 
 habitants, and that it might be laid under water at pleasure. He 
 adds " there are but three paths to enter it, over three bridges, 
 upon which they have or may build forts for their defence, and 
 may from thence invade the adjacent country at pleasure, being 
 themselves free from incursions ; or they may, if they list, break 
 down the said bridges. These places, already strong by nature, 
 they daily fortify by art ; for which purpose great sums of money 
 have been sent to him, (Walton) and much arms, powder, ammu- 
 nition, and ordnance from Windsor Castle. Here, when all other 
 helps fail, the godly mean to take sanctuary: this shall be their 
 retreat from whence they draw the whole kingdom to parley upon 
 articles of treaty, and enforce their peace from them at last. 
 These are the stratagems of the godly."
 
 246 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Cases and deprecations are in vain : 
 
 The sun will shine and all things have their course, 
 
 When we, the curse and burden of the earth, 
 
 Shall be absorb'd, and mingled with its dust ! 
 
 Our guilt and desolation must be told 
 
 From age to age, to teach desponding mortals 
 
 How far beyond the reach of human thought 
 
 Heav'n, when incens'd, can punish. 
 
 LILLO'S "Fatal Curiosity." 
 
 OUR hero's feelings at the scene we have just been 
 describing would have been of a still more painful and 
 harrowing nature had be been aware that he was in 
 some degree instrumental, however unintentionally, 
 in procuring the arrest and trial of the unfortunate 
 prisoner. It will be recollected that, at the time Mark 
 Walton had borrowed money from him, he had de- 
 clared his intention of appropriating it to a purpose in 
 which, if successful, his fortune would be made for 
 life. This nefarious project was no other than the 
 discovery and capture of his uncle, by whom, as had 
 truly been stated at the trial, he had been originally 
 adopted, fed, and nurtured ; although the uncle's com- 
 pulsory flight from England, at the period of the Res- 
 toration, had of course broken off the intimacy, and 
 severed all communication between them. By his ac- 
 quaintance with the friends and agents whom his uncle 
 still retained, and who were in the habit of occasional 
 intercourse with him through the medium of the Bur- 
 gomaster of Rotterdam, Mark had contrived to possess 
 himself of his place of concealment, a secret of which
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 247 
 
 the heartless ingrate immediately saw the value, and 
 as instantly resolved to turn it to account. Dissolute 
 in his habits and involved in debt, he saw within his 
 grasp the means of present relief and future gratifica- 
 tion ; others, by a similar exercise of treachery to- 
 wards the late King's Judges had made their fortunes, 
 and were well received at Court ; and he could gloss 
 over the atrocity, as they had done, by giving it the 
 name of loyalty and public duty. 
 
 Reconciled to his projected enormity by these argu- 
 ments, nothing remained but to provide the means of 
 its execution. His pecuniary distresses offered an in- 
 surmountable obstacle, until the loan from Jocelyn 
 removed this difficulty, when nothing remained but to 
 make the best bargain in his power with Government, 
 as to the remuneration he was to receive by way of 
 blood-money ; and to get instructions from some com- 
 petent person, as to the most eligible method of pro- 
 ceeding. For this purpose he applied to Sir George 
 Downing, who from his long residence as Envoy at the 
 States, was not only well qualified to afford the requi- 
 site information, but had actually advanced and en- 
 riched himself by procuring the seizure of three of the 
 King's Judges abroad, under circumstances of trea- 
 chery scarcely less atrocious than those which he was 
 himself meditating. From this most worthy coadjutor 
 he not only received full instructions how to act, but 
 was introduced by him to one of the King's ministers, 
 from whom he obtained a promise that if he succeeded 
 in his project, a portion of his uncle's confiscated estates 
 should be restored to him. 
 
 Thus provided with the means of executing his per- 
 fidious design, and excited by the expectation of the 
 reward, he set out for a port of the Spanish Nether-
 
 248 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 lands, in a small government cutter, the captain of 
 which was instructed to hover upon the coast, for the 
 purpose of seconding his enterprize. Two or three 
 anonymous letters, and some suspicious demonstrations 
 about the castle of Haelbeck, operated so effectually 
 upon the watchful terrors of its inmate, that he was 
 induced once more to change his quarters, and return 
 into Holland, which country, being then at war with 
 England, seemed to offer a more secure asylum. This 
 was precisely what his unprincipled nephew intended. 
 The road, along which his victim must necessarily pass, 
 approached to within a small distance of the sea ; the 
 hour of his departure was ascertained ; a party of 
 sailors were placed in ambush, and the unfortunate 
 exile and his family, falling into the trap laid for them, 
 were surprised, seized, and conveyed on board the 
 cutter, which carried them up the Thames, when 
 Walton was committed close prisoner to the Tower, 
 and the females were set at liberty. 
 
 The nephew, who had taken good care not to appear 
 in this transaction, found his way back to England by 
 a different conveyance, intending, by a refinement in 
 treachery, to insinuate himself into his uncle's confi- 
 dence, and learn his plan of defence, in order that he 
 might defeat it. Set ashore in London under circum- 
 stances that rendered them objects of real or affected de- 
 testation, Mrs. Walton and her daughter, being denied 
 all immediate access to the prisoner, betook themselves 
 in the first instance to Alderman Staunton, whose con- 
 nection with the Government rendered him peculiarly 
 sensitive as to any intercourse with the family of a 
 regicide. In great trepidation of spirit, he requested 
 his friend Mr. Ashmole to receive the fugitives at Turret 
 House, a proposition which that gentleman felt himself
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 249 
 
 obliged to decline from the same motives ; and hence 
 the agitation and the eagerness to disclaim all know- 
 ledge of the parties, which Jocelyn had remarked 
 whenever he made inquiries at these respective resi- 
 dences. It seemed as if the wanderers, pursued by the 
 terror that attached to Walton's name, were to find no 
 resting-place for their feet, no hand to welcome, no 
 house to shelter them. But Constantia had no sooner 
 learnt their arrival than, disdaining all these cowardly 
 and selfish apprehensions, she flew with open arms to 
 her friends, pressed them to her affectionate heart, 
 desired them to share her fate and fortune, and pro- 
 posed that, to avoid being indebted to any one, they 
 should all three live together, an arrangement which, 
 since the death of her father, would be peculiarly gra- 
 tifying to herself. 
 
 This generous offer being accepted with gratitude, 
 she immediately engaged for their reception the house 
 withinside Temple-bar, from which she was fortunately 
 absent in company with Mrs. Walton, at the moment 
 when Julia had been rescued byl Jocelyn, in the man- 
 ner already described. 
 
 Mark Walton had no sooner arrived in London than 
 he hastened to call upon his relatives, affecting to take 
 the deepest interest in the fate of his uncle, reprobating 
 the treachery by which he had been entrapped, and 
 offering his services towards assisting in the defence, 
 or in whatever other way they could be rendered avail- 
 able. At a moment when they seemed to be shunned 
 and deserted by all the world except Constantia, such 
 conduct, especially in one who held a situation about 
 the Court, bore an appearance of generosity and dis- 
 interestedness, which Julia failed not to recognize with 
 the fervour that belonged to her character, and which
 
 250 ERAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the object of it was willing to attribute to motives of a 
 tenderer and more personal nature. He had never seen 
 her since they had played together as children, and 
 was no less astonished at the improvement a few years 
 had effected, than smitten by the charms which he 
 now contemplated in the full perfection of her woman- 
 hood. The visits, which had been begun by policy 
 were now continued from an attachment to his fair 
 cousin, that gathered strength every day; and he 
 looked forward to the possibility of reconciling all par- 
 ties to their marriage, by making it appear that he was 
 a compulsory witness in the prosecution of his uncle, 
 and by offering to settle upon Julia the family estate 
 which was to be restored to him by the Government. 
 Such an expectation was not less absurd than sordid ; 
 but knaves are peculiarly liable to make the most 
 foolish miscalculations, because they judge of others 
 by themselres, and thus lay the foundation of their 
 plans upon a wrong estimate of human nature 
 
 For some time, however, he succeeded in ingratiating 
 himself with Julia. Being allowed to communicate 
 with the prisoner by letter, Walton's family learnt his 
 determination to plead guilty, a resolution which they 
 combated most strenuously, and which his nephew also 
 condemned as pusillanimous self-abandonment. He 
 even accompanied Julia to a celebrated Counsellor at 
 Westminster, to solicit him to undertake the defence ; 
 and it was upon this occasion that Jocelyn had seen 
 them arm-in-arm together as he came out of the Ban- 
 quetting Room, where the King had been touching foi 
 the evil, although his transient glance of the man's 
 figure did not allow him to recognize Mark Walton. 
 
 In one instance, the growing attachment of the lat- 
 ter enabled him to afford Julia an essential service.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 251 
 
 On the day that she had been rescued from the fire, 
 and sent away in a carriage by the King's orders, he 
 happened to recognize her as the vehicle drove up to 
 the back-door of Baptist May's apartments. The lat- 
 ter was the keeper of the Privy Purse, and the chosen 
 minister of his Majesty's private amours ; a circum- 
 stance which immediately suggested to Mark Walton 
 the motives with which his cousin was conveyed to 
 this disreputable haunt. Too abject a courtier to in- 
 terfere openly with any proceeding in which the royal 
 pleasures were concerned, he contented himself for the 
 present with noticing the person who had accompa- 
 nied her, who proved to be one of the King's minions, 
 with whom he had a slight acquaintance. By throwing 
 himself in this man's way, and alluding to the affair 
 in which he had been engaged in a tone of raillery and 
 badinage, he extracted from him all the particulars ; 
 and no sooner learnt that Julia was in a state of in- 
 sensibility at the time of the rescue, than his crafty 
 and scheming brain suggested to him the possibility 
 of his passing himself off as her deliverer. If, in addi- 
 tion to this claim upon her gratitude, he could release 
 her from her present dangerous predicament, he flat- 
 tered himself that such important services would go 
 far to counteract any prejudice she might imbibe 
 against him for his conduct towards his uncle, even 
 should he fail to make it appear that he was driven 
 to act in that affair by an inevitable necessity. 
 
 The great difficulty was to extricate her from Bab 
 May's clutches, without compromising himself or ap- 
 pearing in the transaction ; for he was sensible that, if 
 he made the King his enemy, the confiscated estate 
 would, in all probability, never reach his hands, and 
 he should have then incurred the odium of his uncle's
 
 252 BHAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 sacrifice without reaping a single advantage. After 
 some day's plotting and planning, he presented himself 
 to Lady Castlemaine, declared his passion for Julia, 
 stated the circumstances under which the King had 
 ordered her to be secreted in Bab May's apartments, 
 enlarged upon her dazzling charms and great powers 
 of fascination, in order to provoke her ladyship's jea- 
 lousy, and concluded by imploring her assistance in 
 effecting the liberation of his mistress. This her lady- 
 ship, always afraid of new rivals, readily undertook to 
 do ; adding that there was no time to be lost, as the 
 King, who had been confined to his room from a se- 
 vere cold occasioned by his exertions at the time of 
 the Fire, meant to go out that day for the first time, 
 and she had heard him, not two hours before, give 
 orders that May should be in attendance in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 Between the Keeper of the King's privy purse and 
 her ladyship, there had long existed a league offensive 
 and defensive cemented by a sense of mutual advan- 
 tage from its continuance, and a fear of the conse- 
 quences they might respectively entail upon each other 
 by a rupture. 
 
 There was therefore little difficulty in the present 
 negociation. Her ladyship undertook to bear him 
 harmless ; and May, who knew that it was much safer 
 to offend the King than the King's mistress, willingly 
 introduced her to his prisoner, and suffered Mark Wal- 
 ton to accompany her into the apartment. The clothes 
 that Julia wore at the time of the fire, had been so 
 soiled by dirt and smoke, as to be utterly unfit for use, 
 and she had therefore no alternative but to put on those 
 which were supplied to her by a tire-woman sent for 
 that purpose, although from their style of fashion and
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 253 
 
 splendour they were suited neither to her taste nor her 
 situation. Lady Castlemaine stated the object of her 
 visit, attributed her interference to the solicitations of 
 Mark Walton, eulogised his courage in thus exposing 
 himself to the King's wrath, and perhaps to utter ruin, 
 to effect her liberation, and concluded by urging her 
 to put on her hood and make her escape immediately, 
 as the King would be likely to visit that apartment in 
 the course of the afternoon. Julia needed no second 
 solicitation ; she speedily prepared for flight in com- 
 pany with her deliverers ; her ladyship's key let them 
 out of the private door of Whitehall Garden into 
 the Park; and these were the circumstances under 
 which their appearance together had excited such 
 an utter and agonizing astonishment in the mind of 
 Jocelyn. 
 
 Julia took leave of Lady Castlemaine with the most 
 fervent thanks for her timely interference, and, escort- 
 ed by her cousin, proceeded to Turret House, where 
 she hoped to meet her friend Constantia, or at least 
 to gather tidings of her and of her mother ; an expec- 
 tation in which she was not disappointed. Although 
 Mr. Ashmole, who held several places under Govern- 
 ment, was still apprehensive of harbouring Mrs. Walton 
 beneath his own roof, he had procured lodgings for 
 her and for Constantia, who was determined to share 
 her fate, in the immediate vicinity. Both were now 
 summoned to Turret House, and the joy of this meet- 
 ing, after the intense anxiety they had all been suffering; 
 since Julia's mysterious disappearance, must be left to 
 the imagination of the reader. Julia presented her 
 cousin to the assemblage as her double deliverer ; first, 
 from the balcony, in which she must have inevitably 
 perished, but for his prompt and courageous aid ; and
 
 254 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 secondly, with not inferior peril to himself, from the 
 power and the sinister designs of the King. It will 
 be recollected that this was the day before the trial, 
 when nothing was yet known of his treason to his uncle, 
 and when there was consequently no reason to check 
 those overflowings of gratitude and admiration, with 
 which the whole assemblage, and particularly Julia, 
 acknowledged his inestimable services. 
 
 As it was deemed probable that the King might 
 institute some inquiry as to her escape, and even en- 
 deavour to recover possession of her, it was suggested 
 that she ought to be immediately removed to a consi- 
 derable distance from London ; a proposition which 
 Mr. Ashmole not only warmly seconded, but mention- 
 ed a sequestered residence belonging to a friend of his 
 own, and situated in a beautiful part of Ashdown 
 Forest, in Sussex, which was at that moment to be let, 
 and which would be admirably adapted to their present 
 object of privacy and seclusion. This retreat Constan- 
 tia instantly undertook to engage ; it was agreed that 
 they should remove to it immediately after the trial ; 
 and Mark Walton, having inquired the exact situation 
 of the house, withdrew to prosecute his own nefarious 
 plans. 
 
 From the unfortunate state of his mind, as well as 
 from the dreadful fate that would have awaited him 
 had he survived, the friends of Mr. Walton were rather 
 disposed to consider his death as a happy deliverance 
 than an event to be deeply deplored. All the suffering 
 and ignominy of a public execution had been avoided, 
 and his widow even viewed the occurrence as a special 
 interference of Providence. Accompanied by Julia 
 and Constantia, she retired in a few days to the sylvan 
 asylum that had been provided for them, where, in the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 255 
 
 tranquillity of the spot, the beauty of the scenery, and 
 in the undisturbed enjoyment of all the solaoes to be 
 derived from friendship and religion, they endeavoured 
 to forget the privations they had suffered, and the 
 agitating events in which they had all been participa- 
 tors. This soothing and peaceful calm was not, how- 
 ever, destined to be of long continuance. Mark Wal- 
 ton had no sooner got a portion of his uncle's estate 
 restored to him, a circumstance on which he mainly 
 relied for success in his overtures to Julia, whom he 
 looked upon as impoverished and even pennyless, than 
 he hastened down to Pippingford Lodge (for such 
 was the name of their retreat), and demanded an in- 
 terview. Mrs. Walton sternly refused to see him, a 
 resolution in which she ever remained inexorable : but 
 Julia, who still imagined herself to be under incalcu- 
 lable obligations to him, did not feel herself warranted 
 in dismissing him unheard. With all the crafty sub- 
 tlety that cunning could suggest, or falsehood invent, 
 did he endeavour to gloss over his infamy, protesting 
 that he was a most unwilling witness against his uncle, 
 and could not without perjury have acted otherwise 
 than as he did. He then vaunted the high favour 
 in which he stood with the King and Government ; in 
 proof of which he exhibited the royal grant, to him 
 and his heirs, of his uncle's estate ; and concluded 
 with a formal avowal of his passion, and demand of 
 her hand, urging her to observe that he came once 
 more as her deliverer, to rescue her from poverty, ob- 
 scurity and reproach, and restore her, as well as his 
 aunt, to wealth, society, respect, and a residence upon 
 the lost estate of their ancestors 
 
 Equally unconvinced by his arguments and un- 
 tempted by his offers, Julia assured him that she could
 
 256 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 only repeat the expression of the deep gratitude which, 
 for herself personally, she should ever feel bound to 
 entertain towards him ; declaring at the same time, in 
 the most explicit and unequivocal terms, that he need 
 never look for the smallest success in his suit, as her 
 affections were not in her own power to bestow ; and 
 she therefore urged him to abandon a pursuit, which 
 was equally hopeless to him and painful to herself and 
 her mother, who had declared her unalterable reso- 
 lution of never seeing him. With this formal rejection 
 she curtsied and left the room, in spite of all his efforts 
 to detain her, hoping that by the decided manner of his 
 dismissal, he would be discouraged from persecuting 
 her any further. This, however, was far from being 
 the case ; in spite of all interdicts, he again repeatedly 
 made his way into the house, renewing his solicitations 
 with increased vehemence ; and, after the doors had 
 been shut against him, he not only accosted Julia and 
 Constantia in an angry and alarming manner, when- 
 ever they walked beyond their own premises, but 
 beleaguring the garden, which was only separated from 
 the forest by a hedge, he listened to their conversation, 
 and again urged his overtures with violence of beha- 
 viour that almost amounted to menace. Week after 
 week, and month after month, passed away with little 
 variation in this succession of annoyance, except that 
 their tormentor aggravated it by insolently declaring he 
 would never abandon his pursuit ; until at length the 
 inmates of Pippingford Lodge, feeling the unprotected 
 nature of their situation, knowing the character of their 
 assailant, and dreading the desperate expedients to 
 which he might ultimately have recourse, began to 
 consider the propriety of abandoning their abode, and 
 seeking a new place of refuge.
 
 BRAJIBLETYE HOUSE. '2,57 
 
 On the discovery of Valentine Walton's real history, 
 Jocelyn had congratulated himself that he had resisted 
 the first impulse of his passion, and had not com- 
 promised himself with the daughter of a regicide, a con- 
 nection which would have been considered little less 
 than treasonable in any one holding a situation about 
 the Court. The disparaging conclusions he had drawn 
 from having seen Julia arm-in-arm with Lady Castle- 
 inaine and her cousin, confirmed this feeling. He 
 held himself happy in having escaped from a fascinating 
 but artful woman, whose family was disreputable, and 
 whose character was licentious. He considered that 
 his passion was completely eradicated from his heart, 
 and complimented himself upon the prudence and reso- 
 lution with which he had effected that difficult mea- 
 sure. But these were transient impressions ; there 
 was a void in his bosom which no other object could 
 supply ; his thoughts reverted to the first mistress of 
 his affections, sometimes with anger, sometimes with 
 pity, but always with regret; and, notwithstanding his 
 experience of its past inefficacy, he again plunged into 
 dissipation, in the vain hope of abstracting his thoughts 
 from the painful subject upon which they were per- 
 petually brooding. 
 
 Such had been his course of life for some time, when 
 upon returning home one morning, he was told that 
 there was a lady in his apartment, who had been wait- 
 ing for him two or three hours. Surprised at this in- 
 telligence, he entered the chamber, when a female figure 
 arose from the chair in which she had been sitting, 
 threw back her hood, and discovered to Jocelyn the 
 large black eyes which he had never forgotten since 
 they first arrested his attention in the grand tourna- 
 VOL. ii. s
 
 258 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 merit at Paris. "Good heavens!" he ejaculated 
 " Constantia Beverning here !" 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied Constantia " I am once more 
 a despiser of conventional forms and observances, for 
 which I have no other excuse than that I slight them, 
 as I did before, in order to render services to my fel- 
 low-creatures. I have made a discovery which, I 
 trust, will secure the happiness of the two people I 
 most esteem upon earth, if it be made known to them, 
 but of which, if the established punctilios of social inter- 
 course are to be observed, they may for ever remain 
 ignorant. Before I divulge it, I have one question to 
 ask. You formerly confessed to me that your whole 
 heart was devoted to Julia. Does that attachment 
 continue ?" 
 
 "Alas" replied Jocelyn, " I wish I could answer in 
 the negative. I wish I could tear from my bosom the 
 memory of a woman whom I still love, though she 
 has proved herself unworthy of my affections." 
 
 " Unworthy!" exclaimed Constantia, with an indig- 
 nant surprise : " are you mad ? she is every thing 
 that is pure, noble, and unsullied." Jocelyn related 
 the circumstance from which he drew his inference 
 against her honour. " For shame, sir ! for shame !" 
 resumed Constantia ; " your suspicion of such a woman 
 is an insult which I could resent, but that I pity the 
 feelings with which you must learn the injustice you 
 have done her." In a few words she explained the 
 mode of Julia's escape, and accounted most satisfac- 
 torily for her appearing in the company of Lady Castle- 
 maine. 
 
 " Fool ! idiot ! that I have been !" ejaculated Jocelyn, 
 groaning with distress of mind. " Oh, that every other 
 obstacle were removed with equal ease ! Oh, that she
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 259 
 
 were purified from family taint and opprobrium, as 
 effectually as she is from all personal reproach ! Oh, 
 that she were the daughter of any one but Valentine 
 Walton, the Regicide !" 
 
 ''She is not the daughter of Valentine Walton!" 
 said Constantia solemnly : "and this is the discovery 
 which I am come to communicate to you." 
 
 " Gracious Heaven !" exclaimed Jocelyn " who 
 then is her father ?" 
 
 " That remains to be yet learned," replied Constantia. 
 " I have performed my mission. Mrs. Walton's own 
 mouth must furnish what further particulars you desire 
 to know. Hasten therefore to Pippingford Lodge, if 
 you wish to secure Julia and your own happiness ; 
 hasten thither, if you wish to protect her from the 
 insults of your rival." 
 
 " Insults ! rival !" cried Jocelyn fiercely : " who is 
 
 the man that dares " He stopped, for Constantia 
 
 had quitted the apartment, only repeating the word, 
 " hasten !" as she closed the door ; an injunction which 
 was quickly obeyed, for Jocelyn, having rapidly 
 equipped himself for travelling, threw himself upon his 
 horse, and was galloping out of London in a short 
 time after she had disappeared. 
 
 Upon his arrival at the Lodge, a spot with which he 
 was well acquainted, from its being in the immediate 
 vicinity of Brambletye house, he stated to Mrs. Walton, 
 whom he found alone, the particulars of his interview 
 with Constantia, and the object of his visit ; imploring 
 her to confirm, if true, the information he had received 
 respecting Julia's birth. 
 
 " It is a secret," she replied, " which I had intended 
 to carry with me to the grave, for I would not un- 
 necessarily have disturbed Julia's peace of mind by 
 s 2
 
 260 BRAMBLETVE HOUSE. 
 
 divulging it, unless by so doing I could have restored 
 her to her real parents, whoever they may be. From 
 the information of our dear Constantia, however, I have 
 learnt that her happiness may be promoted by its being 
 made known to the world that she is not the daughter 
 of Valentine Walton, and I therefore reveal the truth 
 from the same motives that have hitherto led me to 
 suppress it. At the commencement of the civil wars 
 we resided at East Grinstead, not many miles from this 
 spot, happy in every thing but the want of offspring, 
 a blessing for which we often addressed our prayers 
 to Heaven, but without effect. We were about to em- 
 bark for the Barbadoes, where my husband possessed 
 an estate, when, on the eve of our departure we were 
 alarmed by a cry from one of the chambers, on enter- 
 ing which, we found a female infant, richly dressed, 
 lying on the bed. Considering that, from the disturbed 
 state of the country, some child of distinction, sudden- 
 ly left m orphan destitution, might have been com- 
 mitted to our adoption, or rather, that a benignant 
 Providence had guided it to our threshold in answer 
 to our supplications, we thankfully received the pre- 
 cious gift, christened her Julia from the name of the 
 month in which she was found, and embarked on the 
 following morning for the West Indies. At our return 
 we went to reside in Cambridgeshire, where a convic- 
 tion of the inutility of all inquiry, and a fear of losing 
 the chief solace of our life, prevented our giving any 
 publicity to the affair. My dear Julia will ever be the 
 daughter of my heart ; and she herself, I trust, has 
 never had reason to complain of the mother who 
 adopted her, although the misfortunes of our latter 
 days have, as you well know, condemned her to a 
 life of melancholy and uncongenial seclusion."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 261 
 
 Being informed, in answer to his inquiries, that 
 Julia was in an arbour at the bottom of the garden, 
 Jocelyn hastened to declare the deep and indelible 
 attachment that he had ever felt for her, since the first 
 moment of their acquaintance, although various mys- 
 teries and misconceptions had hitherto prevented the 
 offer of the hand and heart which he now implored 
 her to accept. " The mystery that involves my birth," 
 replied Julia, " still remains to be solved, though I am 
 afraid there is but little chance of discovering my 
 real parents. If, however, you will accept a poor 
 foundling, who has nothing but her heart to offer you, 
 she will endeavour to atone for the want of other re- 
 commendations by the constancy and fervour of her 
 affection." 
 
 An hour, a lover's hour, spent in mutual vows and 
 sweet anticipations of the future, passed away with the 
 rapidity of lightning, and Jocelyn was expressing his 
 hopes that the great suit pending, by which his father's 
 estates had been so long withheld from him would 
 now quickly be decided, and that they would soon be 
 enabled to restore the splendours of Brambletye Housa, 
 the seat of their ancestors, when a sepulchral voice, 
 sounding from behind the arbour, ejaculated " Ani- 
 thema, maranatha ! a curse be upon its sacrilegious 
 walls, and never again may they be covered with a 
 roof! Amen !" 
 
 Julia uttered an exclamation of terror, and even 
 Jocelyn was startled : but almost immediately vaulting 
 over the hedge, he beheld a dark object moving rapidly 
 away towards the forest. He pursued it, but, fleet as 
 he was of foot, the gathering gloom of evening, and 
 the deep shades of the forest, enabled it to escape ; 
 and as he did not wish to leave Julia, he gave over
 
 262 BKAMBEETYE HOUSE. 
 
 his search, and returned to her, exclaiming "There 
 is a mystery attaches to our family, as well as to your's ; 
 for this strange being, whom Sir John has christened 
 the Black Ghost, has for several years continued to 
 haunt Brambletye and its neighbourhood, uttering ma- 
 lisons against the house and whole race of the Comp- 
 tons ; a circumstance which we can no otherwise ex- 
 plain than by supposing her to be some wandering 
 lunatic, although even this supposition will not account 
 for her inexplicable power of eluding apprehension." 
 
 The tender conversation, so suddenly interrupted 
 by this incident, was resumed, and in the course of 
 the explanations that ensued, relative to her escape 
 from the fire, Julia saw fresh reason to despise her 
 cousin for his contemptible falsehoods, and was not at 
 all sorry at being enabled to transfer to her lover the 
 gratitude that was due to him for her rescue. So in- 
 dignant was Jocelyn, at the recital of the insolent per- 
 secutions they had all suffered from Mark Walton, 
 that even the presence and the entreaties of Julia 
 could hardly restrain his wrath, or prevent the expres- 
 sion of his resolution to inflict personal chastisement 
 upon the caitiff, whenever he should encounter him. 
 
 That wary and watchful personage, rendered suspi- 
 cious by a knowledge of his own artifices, and now in 
 intimate connection with the government spies, had 
 planted myrmidons about Pippingford Lodge, by whom 
 he was presently apprized of Jocelyn's arrival ; and well 
 knowing that his own exposure would ensue, even if 
 he escaped a personal skirmish with his rival, of which 
 he was by no means desirous, he took immediate 
 measures for placing him in a situation that should 
 effectually, debar him from prosecuting either his love 
 or his revenge, and which might ultimately, as he
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 263 
 
 hoped, entail destruction upon his head. During the 
 time that he had been tormenting Julia and her friends 
 by his hateful solicitations, he was in the habit of re- 
 siding, or at least of sleeping, in a wood-cutter's cot- 
 tage, in the recesses of the forest, not far from Pipping- 
 ford Lodge. Thither did he now betake himself, to 
 superintend the machinations he had been devising for 
 Jocelyn's ruin ; stealing to his obscure hiding-place in 
 the dusk of the evening, as he was, at this juncture, 
 not less apprehensive of his rival's eye than of his arm. 
 He was passing the last of the thickets in which the 
 cottage was embowered, when a deep solemn voice ex- 
 claimed, " Stop, Mark Walton ! stop !" and at the 
 same moment a black figure, in a female garb, started 
 from the brake. "Stand aloof! keep back!" cried 
 Walton, jumping on one side, and presenting a pistol ; 
 " I am armed, and if you move a step further you are 
 dead !" 
 
 " Put up your weapon," cried the figure, " I am 
 your friend ; I bring you tidings that may give you 
 fortune, distinction, and Julia." 
 
 " Julia !" cried Walton in amazement, " what can 
 you know of her ?" 
 
 " I know that without my aid she is lost to you for 
 ever : I know that your rival, Jocelyn Compton, is at 
 this moment at Pippingford Lodge ; I know that she 
 has received him as her lover ; I know that I have a 
 secret to divulge which will render you the master of 
 her fate, and thereby, in all probability, of her person, 
 and the fortune to which she is entitled ; and this se- 
 cret I am now ready to reveal, if you agree to certain 
 conditions." 
 
 " Name them," said Walton. 
 
 " Not here : there is an oath to swear, and a deed
 
 264 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 to do ; but not here. If you are prepared to listen 
 to the secret, and to execute its conditions, follow 
 me !'* 
 
 "Lead on," said Walton "I am ready." She 
 walked forward, threading the thickest mazes and 
 most unfrequented recesses of the pathless forest, mut- 
 tering malisons and scriptural quotations to herself, 
 while Walton followed with his pistol in his hand, until 
 they emerged at the back of Brambletye House, when 
 she clambered over the dismantled wall, and, having 
 made her way into the midst of the vaults and ruins of 
 the buildings, she turned to her companion, ejaculat- 
 ing, "This is the spot; here must the secret be di- 
 vulged, if you agree to the conditions. Listen ! if I 
 perform what I have said with respect to Julia, will 
 you swear, even should she become your wife, and 
 prove to be a descendant of the family by whom this 
 house was built, even should she wish to appropriate 
 her own fortune to the purpose will you swear that 
 the walls and the roof of this accursed mansion shall 
 never be restored, nor any other founded upon its 
 site ?" 
 
 " I swear it,", said Walton : : " what more ?" 
 " Will you confirm the sincerity of your vow, and 
 assist me in the destruction of what yet remains of this 
 heaven-abandoned pile, by setting fire with your own 
 hand, to yonder heap that I have prepared for the 
 purpose of consuming it. When the Earl of Derby 
 was executed at Bolton Cross, after escaping from 
 the Castle of Chester, it was considered a judgment 
 upon him that his scaffold should be built with the 
 timber of his own house at Latham. How much more 
 righteous is the judgment which condemns Brambletye 
 to be burnt, even with the wood which I have gathered
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 265 
 
 from its own sacrilegious chambers ! " She pointed to 
 a collection of fagots and timber, piled up as if for a 
 great bonfire ; and Walton, who considered that little 
 damage could ensue to the bare dismantled walls, 
 beyond that of discolouring them with smoke, readily 
 consented to the proposition. " Sit down," said his 
 companion, " and attend to me without interruption ; 
 for my own short history is so interwoven with that of 
 Julia, and the doom of Brambletye House, that you 
 must listen to its recital. If you have ever been at 
 Ashurst, in this neighbourhood, or have perused its 
 records, you must doubtless have heard of the blessed 
 and holy Rood, or image of the Mother of God, which 
 it possessed in the days of the true religion, and which 
 was endowed with such miraculous powers that the 
 nails of its hands, and the hair of its head, grew every 
 year, as many thousand pilgrims, who then annually 
 came to visit it, could attest. When that misbelieving 
 arch-apostate, King Henry the Eighth, issued an order 
 for destroying all these sacred images, my ancestors, 
 to prevent the sacrilege with which it was threatened, 
 removed the Rood from its shrine in the dead of night, 
 and set it up in a secret subterranean crypt of the 
 ancient mansion of the Lawrences at Ashurst. There 
 it remained for many years, deprived indeed of its 
 supernatural powers, but still hallowed in the eyes of 
 our pious family, who steadily maintained the true 
 Roman faith through all the fire of persecution. In 
 honour of the blessed Queen of Heaven, I was chris- 
 tened by the name of Mary, and solemnly dedicated 
 to the service and preservation of her holy image, before 
 which that ceremony was performed. It was my duly 
 to renew the lights that were kept perpetually burning 
 at her shrine, to supply flowers and decorations on the
 
 266 BRAMBLJfTYE HOUSE. 
 
 festivals, to superintend the robes with which she was 
 invested, and to keep the key of the vaulted passage 
 that led to the secret crypt, which I was bound by a 
 solemn oath never to discover. These duties did I 
 unremittingly perform for a long succession of years, 
 until, one by one, relations and kindred died away, 
 and I was left alone in our time-worn mansion, the 
 last and sole survivor of the ancient Catholic family 
 of the Lawrences. Alone did I say ? No I was 
 dwelling with the Mother of God, whose image was 
 my solace, my companion, my comforter. Whole 
 days have I passed with it under-ground, exchanging 
 the glorious sunshine for the light of tapers, and all 
 the bustle and society of the world for subterranean 
 silence and my beloved image and these days have 
 been the happiest of my life. 
 
 " At length the Civil War broke out, and there went 
 forth a fresh fire of persecution against the unhappy 
 Papists, as we were called. All the emblems and 
 symbols of our faith were ordered to be destroyed ; 
 and, as we ourselves were vexed with sore oppressions, 
 I shut up my house, and dwelt almost entirely in the 
 crypt. A female servant, who was employed to bring 
 me victuals, accidentally discovered my secret, which 
 the traitress immediately divulged. The story flew 
 from mouth to mouth, and in a few hours an infuriate 
 mob, with Sir John Compton at their head, hallooing 
 them on to the work of sacrilege, were heard approach- 
 ing my dwelling. By their loud cries I quickly learnt 
 their object, and, prostrating myself before the figure 
 of the Virgin, I solemnly swore to avenge any indignity 
 that might be offered to her, if she would testify, by 
 some sign, that she accepted me as her minister of 
 retribution. No sooner had I pronounced the oath,
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 267 
 
 than the nosegay, which I had placed in her hand, fell 
 from her grasp, and rolled to my feet, in acceptation 
 of my pledge ! My very soul thrilled within me at the 
 miracle 1 trembled all over with reverence 'and awe 
 and yet I felt proud at being deemed worthy of such 
 a gracious manifestation. 
 
 " With the yells and clamour of demons did the 
 mob of men, women, and children, break open the 
 doors, and discover the secret crypt, and tear the sacred 
 image from its shrine, fastening a rope around it, and 
 dragging it sacrilegiously through the mire to Bram- 
 bletye House, while Sir John Compton marched at 
 their head, shouting profane songs, and the whole 
 assembly filled the air with blasphemous cries of 
 triumph. In the court-yard of Brambletye House, 
 upon the very spot where yonder pile of fagots is pre- 
 pared to avenge the deed, was the holy Rood of Ashurst 
 hewn asunder, to be converted into kitchen billets. 
 From a distance I beheld the deed ; and had every 
 blow of their hatchets been struck upon my heart, it. 
 could not have been smitten with a keener pang of 
 agony. Scarcely knowing what I did, I prowled about 
 the house till midnight, when I scaled the wall, entered 
 the court-yard, collected the several fragments of the 
 sacred Rood, returned to the subterranean crypt, and 
 employed the whole night in endeavouring to make 
 those fragments resume the form they had once worn, 
 the likeness of the Mother of God. 
 
 " Maddened with grief, and thirsting for revenge, I 
 again betook myself, on the next day, to Brambletye. 
 The house was at that moment beleaguered by the 
 Club - men, who were summoning every mansion to 
 supply them with arms and money. I mixed with the mul- 
 titude ; and, observing a richly dressed infant seated on
 
 268 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 the grass, near the principal entrance, while its nurse 
 had turned round to converse with a brother, whom 
 she had unexpectedly recognized among- the Club-men, 
 I snatched it up, rushed into the thickest of the crowd, 
 and hurried towards my house, exulting in the thought 
 that I had one of the accursed tribe of the Comptons 
 in my possession. That infant was Julia." 
 
 "Julia, and a Compton ! " cried Walton "surely 
 she is not a daughter of Sir John's; not a sister of 
 Jocelyn Compton ?" 
 
 " Listen, and you shall hear all," continued his 
 companion. " Such was my wrath, such the irritation 
 of my soul, that I hastened to the secret crypt with 
 my victim, intending to sacrifice it at the foot of the 
 desecrated figure of the Virgin, whose command I had 
 received to avenge her, even as Abraham prepared to 
 offer up Isaac at the injunction of God. Leaving the 
 infant at the foot of the shrine, I went to procure a 
 knife for the execution of my dreadful purpose ; when, 
 upon my return, the child smiled upon me, and 
 stretched out its little arms towards me, and lo ! my 
 bowels yearned within me, and a sudden gush of ten- 
 derness melted my heart, and I became filled with 
 ruth and compassion. I know not why this should 
 have been. I was a lone woman in the world, and 
 had ever been so. I had never known the feelings 
 of a mother ; but they rushed into my bosom now 
 with an uncontrollable vehemence of affection. I 
 threw away the knife, clasped the infant to my heart, 
 kissed and wept over it, and the daughter of Pha- 
 raoh did not more rejoice over the child Moses, whom 
 she had saved, than I did over my intended victim, 
 now that I had spared it. 
 
 " But I had neither the means nor the skill now to
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 269 
 
 nourish it, and it became necessary to dispose of it 
 immediately. I knew Valentine Walton and his wife ; 
 knew their kindly and noble natures, their ample for- 
 tune, their keen regret at the want of offspring; and, 
 deeming that my charge could be no where better be- 
 stowed than with such a family, I hurried with it to 
 East Grinstead. In the confusion of preparations for 
 their contemplated departure from England, I gained 
 admittance into the house, deposited my little burthen 
 upon a bed, and retired unobserved. On the next day 
 the family quitted this part of the country, and imme- 
 diately afterwards embarked for the Barbadoes. 
 
 " I soon learnt that the infant I had taken was the 
 only child of Sir William Compton, a kinsman of Sir 
 John's, who was a visitor at Brambletye at the time of 
 the occurrence ; and that a deadly feud had sprung 
 up between them on the subject of the loss ; a feud 
 which has ever since set the two branches of the family 
 in array against each other. So far I was gratified : 
 I had quickly brought misery and disunion upon the 
 sacrilegious race : I had done something towards the 
 acquittance of my vow. From the moment that the 
 profane act was committed, I had clad myself in deep 
 mourning, and, coming out with the owl and the bat, 
 I hovered at night -fall around the purlieus of the 
 accursed house, banning its walls, and its inmates 
 wherever I encountered them, until at length I was 
 enabled to discover that arms, if not ammunition, were 
 secretly conveyed into its walls for the support of the 
 plot in which Sir John was engaged. Of this I gave 
 information to the Protector, and thus it was I who 
 procured the expulsion of its owner, and the pillage, 
 spoliation, and dismantling of Brambletye by the 
 troops : 'twas I who ferreted Sir John from his place of
 
 270 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 concealment, and made him fly the country ; 'twas I 
 who compelled Colonel Lilburne to carry the boy 
 Jocelyn to London as a prisoner ; 'twas I who coun- 
 selled the purchaser to dilapidate the mansion and 
 carry off the materials. What a woman's arm could 
 achieve in rending, tearing down, and pulling asunder, 
 I have come in the dead of night to perform ; and 
 when my strength failed me, I spat upon the walls, 
 and made them echo with my imprecations. I have 
 sitten in the deep darkness, when the night storm was 
 raging, and listening to the rattling of the tiles, slates, 
 and fragments that were blown down from the roof, 
 have felt the sound fall like the sweetest music on my 
 soul, and anticipated the happy day when not one 
 stone of the pile should be left standing upon ano- 
 ther ?" 
 
 "And how have you escaped detection?" inquired 
 Walton. 
 
 " I never ventured out till it was dusk, when my 
 black garments, and the gloom of the forest quickly 
 enabled me to elude observation ; nor was there a dell 
 or bushy dingle, pit or quarry, cave or hollow tree, 
 hovel or hiding-place, in the whole neighbourhood, 
 with which I was unacquainted, and in which I have 
 not concealed myself, when close pressed by my pur- 
 suers. I have been hunted like a beast of prey, as- 
 sailed with stones, shot at with cross-bow, arrow and 
 bullet; but the blessed Virgin, whose cause I was 
 avenging, has miraculously preserved me from harm !" 
 
 " Enough of yourself," said Walton, who began to 
 be weary of her history, " and tell me how you can 
 establish the identity of Julia Compton." 
 
 " The rich ornaments she wore at the time of her 
 being snatched away, and the gold chain and miniature
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 271 
 
 with which she was playing, I have preserved ever 
 since. They are in pious hands of safe custody, and 
 shall be delivered to you. If we couid only remove 
 Jocelyn " 
 
 " For him I have already made provision," said 
 Walton; " he will not long thwart our plans ; he will 
 be presently disposed of, and I hope for life." 
 
 " Good !" ejaculated his companion, " then our 
 course is easy, our success certain, the splendours 
 of Brambletye will never be restored. Julia's father, 
 the late Sir William, left a large fortune, to which she 
 is entitled ; your rival will be removed ; you will be 
 enabled to offer her a knowledge of her parents, a 
 restoration to her family, and a noble estate, on con- 
 dition that she accepts your hand, which, when her 
 present circumstances of obscurity, poverty, and dis- 
 countenance by the world, shall be aggravated by the 
 loss of Jocelyn, she will hardly think of refusing." 
 
 " I see it all!" cried Walton, " it is feasible : I am 
 ready to perform the conditions. Give me the flambeau, 
 which I see you have provided, and let us commence 
 the conflagration." 
 
 She complied with his request, setting fire to the 
 pile with her own hand on one side, while Walton 
 lighted it on the other ; and, as the ascending flames 
 flashed upon the bare wall and lofty towers of Bram- 
 bletye, while they threw a ghastly glare upon her 
 withered features, she lifted up her arms, and her eyes, 
 that sparkled with triumph, towards heaven, ejaculating 
 in atone of solemn animation, " Sancta Maria, Regina 
 Cceli ! thou art avenged ; even upon the very spot 
 where thou wert sacrilegiously outraged. What ! shall 
 Nebuchadnezzar, while he is vaunting of his great 
 Babylon, be bereft of his wits? Shall Herod, while he
 
 272 3RAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 is priding himself in the applause of his people, be 
 eaten with worms ? Shall Haman, while practising to 
 destroy the people, be hanged on the gallows fifty feet 
 high, which he had prepared for Mordecai ? Shall the 
 house, where the Philistines met together to sport with 
 Samson, fall upon their heads ? and shall not these 
 accursed walls, where " 
 
 At this moment the high wind conveyed some sparks 
 of the fire into the secret vault where Sir John Comp- 
 ton had deposited the gunpowder, which, it will be 
 remembered, Colonel Lilburne had failed to discover 
 when he carried off the arms ; of which even Mrs. 
 Lawrence was ignorant ; and which had ever since 
 remained undetected. A tremendous explosion ensued, 
 which blew off the remainder of the roof, and levelled 
 two of the towers of Brambletye. The dead body of 
 Mark Walton was found in a field beyond the postern- 
 gate, and the unfortunate Mary Lawrence, discovered 
 near one of the lodges, only survived long enough to 
 relate the cause of the dreadful accident by which she 
 perished. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 All things that we ordained festival 
 
 Turn from their office 
 
 Our instruments to melancholy bells, 
 
 Our solemn hymns to sullen digres change, 
 
 And all things turn them to the contrary. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 " You are most welcome, sir, to Pippingford Lodge," 
 said Constantia to Jocelyn, as she re-entered it upon
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 273 
 
 her return from London. "These happy looks, these 
 mutual smiles, which have lately been but rare visitants 
 to our abode, sufficiently attest to me that all my wishes 
 are gratified that my mission has not been a fruitless 
 one. I congratulate myself once more upon having 
 disregarded the forms of etiquette. Had I not made 
 known that you loved Julia, but dreaded an union with 
 the daughter of Valentine Walton, the secret of her 
 birth would never have been revealed ; had I not im- 
 parted it to you, the discovery would have been una- 
 vailing ; and two people, formed to confer happiness 
 upon one another, would have remained apart, the 
 victims to ceremony and observance." 
 
 Jocelyn expressed the most fervent gratitude to his 
 high-minded benefactress ; declaring that the life she 
 had preserved for him would have possessed little value 
 in his eyes, had she not consummated her kindness by 
 thus accomplishing his wishes with respect to Julia. 
 " I congratulate you as well as myself," resumed Con- 
 stantia, " at being no longer intimidated by the scare- 
 crow of a sneer, or the bugbear of a laugh, when so 
 small an exertion of courage has secured your happi- 
 ness for ever. Would you desire rank ? Julia's is the 
 true nobility, for her patent is signed by the hand of 
 God, and stamped upon her soul. Wealth? whoso 
 rich in charms and virtues, the best of all opulence, 
 as Julia ? Family connexions ? She may still 
 possess them ; and, if she have them not, she deserves 
 them, which is surely better than possessing with- 
 out meriting them." Our hero professed his full 
 acquiescence in these sentiments, and renewed his 
 acknowledgments for the inappreciable services Con- 
 stantia had rendered him. Julia embraced her friend 
 with silent but fervent demonstrations of grateful affec- 
 
 VOL. II. T
 
 274 BUAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 tion ; and Mrs. Walton contemplated the scene before 
 her with an expression of benignant complacency. 
 Perhaps it would have been difficult, at that moment, 
 to find a little circle of more happy faces and grateful 
 hearts, than those assembled beneath the roof of 
 Pippingibrd Lodge. 
 
 The loud explosion of the preceding night had been 
 taken for a clap of thunder ; and they were therefore 
 quite unprepared for the tidings of the catastrophe, that 
 were now made known to them by three or four ter- 
 rified messengers at once, each bearing a more alarm- 
 ing version than his predecessor. All, however, agreed 
 that a strange gentleman had been found dead, and 
 that dame Lawrence, or the black ghost, as she was 
 designated by others, had only survived for a few mi- 
 nutes after being discovered. Deeply interested in the 
 fate of the unfortunate sufferers, and anxious also to 
 learn .,the cause of the accident, as well as the real 
 damage sustained by the building, Jocelyn declared his 
 intention of setting off immediately for Brambletye, for 
 which purpose Constantia offered the use of the car- 
 riage in which she had arrived from London. It was 
 ordered to the door ; and he was upon the point o 
 stepping into it, when four men suddenly started from 
 beneath the garden-hedge, two of whom seized the 
 horses' heads to prevent their moving, and the two 
 others, interposing themselves between Jocelyn and 
 the house, called upon him to surrender, as they had 
 a warrant for his apprehension. 
 
 "My apprehension !" exclaimed Jocelyn in utter 
 astonishment " on what charge?" 
 
 " On a charge of high treason," replied one of the 
 officers. 
 
 " This must be some mistake !" cried Jocelyn, re-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 275 
 
 covering a little from his first amazement "you 
 are arresting the wrong person my name is Jocelyn 
 Compton." 
 
 " We are perfectly aware of it," replied the man : 
 " here is our warrant : if you will examine it, you will 
 find that we are under no error." 
 
 " So I perceive, indeed," replied Jocelyn, after hav- 
 ing inspected the parchment ; " but your employers 
 are, they must have been imposed upon by false intel- 
 ligence." 
 
 " We hope it may prove so," said the man respect- 
 fully ; " but our orders are positive to convey you 
 instantly to the Tower. We have comrades within 
 call, and resistance would be useless." 
 
 " I am not mad enough to attempt it, when my in- 
 nocence must so quickly ensure my discharge. I am 
 ready to attend you." 
 
 " We will borrow this carriage to convey you to the 
 place of rendezvous," said the man : and he accordingly 
 motioned to Jocelyn to enter it ; which he did, followed 
 by three of the party, when the fourth mounted the 
 box, and they drove off at a brisk rate with their pri- 
 soner. Upon the first appearance of the strangers, and 
 the discovery of their purpose, Julia, uttering a shriek 
 of dismay, clung to her lover as if to prevent his depar- 
 ture ; and, though Constantia and Mrs. Walton, who 
 possessed more presence of mind, and had besides a 
 perfect confidence that the seizure originated in error, 
 used every effort to inspire her with their own fortitude, 
 she remained plunged in the deepest grief and con- 
 sternation. Never was there a more sudden reverse 
 of feeling, indeed, than was experienced by the whole 
 party, which but a few minutes before was exchanging 
 happy congratulations ; for, though Constantia and 
 
 T 2
 
 276 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 Mrs. Walton had a full conviction of Jocelyn's inno- 
 cence, they were by no means equally satisfied that 
 his freedom from guilt would ensure his immediate 
 restoration to liberty. There had been of late so much 
 plotting and caballing in public affairs ; so many trea- 
 sonable designs, real or pretended ; and the measures 
 of Government had become so capricious and arbitrary ; 
 that hardly any individual was safe, if prejudice and sus- 
 picion had once attached to him, although upon no bet- 
 ter grounds than the 'evidence of spies and suborners. So 
 far, however, from communicating these sinister misgiv- 
 ings to Julia, they affected to entertain a full persuasion 
 of his immediate discharge, and succeeded at length 
 in pacifying the first vehemence of her agitation. 
 
 Jocelyn, in the meantime, whose impetuous tem- 
 perament was ill adapted to brook disappointment 
 of any sort, and particularly a separation from Julia 
 at a moment so interesting to his heart, pursued his 
 journey in a most indignant and splenetic mood, 
 tormented with the belief that his rival, of whose death 
 he was ignorant, would renew his odious and insolent 
 solicitations in his absence ; and worrying himself with 
 vain conjectures as to the cause of his apprehension, 
 and the consequences it was likely to produce. His 
 conductors professed an entire ignorance of the former, 
 though they seemed to infer, from the nature of the 
 orders they had received, that the charge against him 
 was considered to be well substantiated ; and, as to 
 the latter, they really could not undertake to pro- 
 nounce an opinion, though they kindly reminded him 
 that an accusation of high treason was no very light or 
 trifling affair. In this state of suspense, of all others 
 the most irritating and insupportable to our hero, he 
 was doomed to remain until their arrival at the Tower,
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 277 
 
 when he was conveyed across the draw-bridge, and 
 passed beneath the low, dark, and frowning arch that 
 leads into the penetralia of that gloomy fortress ; not 
 without painfully reverting to the fate of many who, 
 in traversing its ponderous portal, had bidden adieu to 
 the world, and had only repassed it to be conducted to 
 the scaffold. It appeared as if perpetual disappoint- 
 ment was to be his fate through life ; as if the cup of 
 promised joy was raised to his lips only to be rudely 
 dashed to the earth ; and, to add to his vexations, he 
 already began to anticipate the probability of losing his 
 appointment under the Queen, to which he had looked 
 forward as the principal means of support for himself 
 and Julia. 
 
 He welcomed the intelligence as a relief from un- 
 certainty, when Sir John Robinson the Lieutenant of 
 the Tower, on accompanying him to his apartment, 
 informed him that he was charged, on the oath of 
 Mark Walton, as an accomplice with Colonel Rathborn 
 and others, in a plot^ for procuring the King's death, 
 and the overthrow of the Government. That he should 
 be implicated with that conspirator, after having dined 
 with him and his associates at Battersea, did not much 
 surprise him ; nor did he apprehend there would be 
 much difficulty in exculpating himself from any parti- 
 cipation in their nefarious project ; but that Mark Wal- 
 ton should be the informant against him was a circum- 
 stance for which he was utterly at a loss to account. 
 That despicable personage, ever prowling about the 
 purlieus of Whitehall to pry into whatever might be 
 turned to account, had observed Colonel Rathborn's 
 daily visits to Jocelyn when the latter was confined 
 from the effects of the fire, and, knowing him to be a 
 discontented and suspicious character, determined to
 
 278 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 watch their proceedings with the utmost narrowness. 
 With this view, he had followed and traced them to 
 the house at Battersea, and, lurking about it in order 
 to watch his departure, had been encountered by Joce- 
 lyn and Winky Boss, muffled up in a great coat, but 
 had escaped recognition by striking suddenly into the 
 fields. What he had observed upon this occasion, 
 Walton kept to himself; and it was not until some time 
 after, when he wanted to get rid of his rival, that he 
 thought of implicating him with Colonel Rathborn, 
 whose design having by this time transpired, himself 
 and all his accomplices had been seized and committed 
 to the Tower. 
 
 No sooner had Jocelyn learnt the real nature of the 
 charge against him, than he wrote to the Duke of 
 Monmouth and Lord Rochester, explaining the cir- 
 cumstances of his connection with Colonel Rathborn, 
 and soliciting their good offices in exculpating his 
 character, and effecting his discharge. At the same 
 time he communicated all particulars to his friends at 
 Pippingford Lodge, considering the whole affair as so 
 unimportant, and speaking so confidently of his early 
 liberation, that Julia felt considerably re-assured as to 
 his fate ; though it was an additional pang to her to 
 reflect that his efforts for her preservation had entailed 
 upon him his acquaintance with this dangerous Colonel, 
 and all the vexations of which it might be the eventual 
 cause. The powerful noblemen, for whose favourable 
 influence Jocelyn had solicited, were neither indifferent 
 to the injustice he was suffering, nor remiss in their 
 efforts for his extrication ; but he had one enemy 
 at court, much more powerful than all his friends. 
 This was the vindictive Lady Castlemaine, who eagerly 
 seized this opportunity of crushing a man whom she
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 279 
 
 had never forgiven, by poisoning the King's ear with 
 the darkest insinuations against him. The tragical 
 and inexplicable death of Mark Walton at Brambletye 
 House, the seat of the Comptons, just as he was pre- 
 paring to substantiate his charges against Jocelyn, 
 quite satisfied her mind, she said, not only as to the 
 cause of his destruction, but as to its author. Walton 
 had been an approved friend of the King's ; Compton 
 had already been once in disgrace for his insolence 
 and disaffection. The intimacy of such a man with 
 Colonel Rathborn, and his dining with the assembled 
 conspirators against his Majesty's life, facts which he 
 himself had not the hardihood to deny, admitted but 
 of one interpretation : and she had even the baseness 
 to insinuate that he would have wronged his Majesty 
 in the tenderest point, by insulting her with licentious 
 propositions, merely because she had once conde- 
 scended to dance with him, a circumstance to which 
 she attributed the dislike she had ever since felt against 
 him. By such arts the King's prejudices were so 
 strongly excited that he was persuaded, without fur- 
 ther inquiry, to give orders for his dismissal from the 
 post he held as the Queen's Private Secretary. 
 
 This announcement excited the greatest consterna- 
 tion among his friends at Pippingford Lodge. Day 
 after day had they been feeding their hopes by anti- 
 cipating his emancipation ; but this unexpected proof 
 of royal displeasure was a startling evidence that the 
 proceedings against him were of a darker and more 
 alarming character than they had contemplated ; and 
 they began to give way to the most sinister forebodings 
 as to his ultimate fate. Buoyant and vivacious as it 
 usually was, the mind of Julia began to sink under the 
 sickness of hope deferred ; but the fortitude of Con-
 
 280 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 stantia seemed to gather strength with the necessity 
 for its exertion, and the mixture of romance and gene- 
 rous enthusiasm that constituted her character im- 
 pelled her to undertake an enterprize for Jocelyn's 
 liberation, which the imagined urgency of his danger 
 first suggested to hermirid, and which she immediately 
 proceeded to execute with her customary promptitude 
 and energy. " Be of good cheer," she said to Julia, 
 as. she embraced and bade her adieu: "I will not 
 tell you my plan, lest I should excite hopes which the 
 event may not justify ; it has reference, however, to 
 the rescue of Jocelyn from the Tower ; and lest the 
 apparent inadequacy of my means should excite des- 
 pondency, it may be well to remind you that the mouse 
 has been able to extricate the lion from the toils. I 
 have saved Jocelyn before I may do so again 
 Adieu !" 
 
 It was Constantia's purpose to seek an interview 
 with the King, whose ear she believed to have been 
 abused ; to undertake Jocelyn's vindication ; and to 
 implore that he might be either brought to trial and 
 allowed to exculpate himself, or be immediately set at 
 liberty. Her courageous, self-acting mind needed no 
 counsellor in this affair; and, with her usual disregard 
 of appearances where there was a great object in view, 
 she set out alone to execute her project. On her 
 arrival in London, however, she found it necessary to 
 consult some friend as to the best method of gaining 
 access to his Majesty; and proceeding for this purpose 
 to Alderman Staunton, who was then staying at his 
 country house, near Hampton, she had not only the 
 satisfaction of learning that the Court was at the 
 neighbouring palace, but that the King had signified 
 his intention of visiting the alderman, for the purpose
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 281 
 
 of inspecting the alterations he had been making m 
 his house and grounds. This was an opportunity which 
 suggested itself to her as infinitely better adapted to 
 her purpose than the publicity of a court ; and, in- 
 stantly determining to avail herself of it, she awaited, 
 with some impatience, the arrival of the day appointed 
 for the royal visit. On that morning, she paid a more 
 than usual attention to her toilette, and arrayed herself 
 in the most becoming garb that her mourning, which 
 she still retained, would allow ; whispering to herself, 
 as if her lofty mind needed an excuse for this uncus- 
 tomary vanity, that whatever personal attractions she 
 possessed might at least be rendered subservient to a 
 good cause, when so many others in the neighbourhood 
 of the Court perverted their's to far different purposes. 
 The King, who came almost unattended (except by 
 a long retinue of dogs, which, to the grievous annoy- 
 ance of the alderman, left marks of their visit in every 
 room), had no sooner seen Constantia, than he started 
 with surprise and pleasure ; and, having whispered to 
 the alderman to inquire who she was, continued in the 
 same low tone, " Tilly valley, Mr. Alderman ! there is 
 no Dutch blood in her. On my life ! her mother must 
 have played the worthy Burgomaster false with some 
 gallant Cavalier of Gaul, for she is a French woman 
 all over, and, i'r'aith ! a stately damsel she is. Why 
 have you not brought her to our Court ? So noble an 
 eagle ought not to be kept any longer in the mew." At 
 these words he went up to Constantia, and, addressing 
 her with that elegant courtesy, which he so well knew 
 how to assume, fell into a conversation with her that 
 lasted a considerable time. If he had been struck in 
 the first instance with the grand and majestic sedate- 
 ness of her beauty, so different from the languishing
 
 282 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 and voluptuous frivolity of countenance to which he 
 had been accustomed, he found in the solidity of her 
 judgment, and the pure lofty tone of her sentiments, 
 a not less forcible contrast to the loose blandishments 
 and jejune flippancy of the Court females. Even the 
 decorous style of her dress, sombre as it was, seemed 
 to assimilate with the character of her beauty, and to 
 possess peculiar attractions for one who had been so 
 long satiated with an unreserved display of personal 
 charms, that he rather desired provocatives for his ima- 
 gination than his eye. Having long since exhausted 
 the ordinary routine of enjoyments, novelty had become 
 his great desideratum ; here he beheld it in its most 
 piquant and delectable form, and such was its fascina- 
 tion, that his enjoyment seemed to increase with the 
 protraction of their colloquy. 
 
 How much longer it might have lasted, it would be 
 difficult to determine, had not Alderman Staunton, who 
 was quite in a fidget till his Majesty could inspect the 
 alterations in his grounds and gardens, approached to 
 inquire when he would be pleased to visit his pine- 
 houses, where he had some fruit raised from seed given 
 to him by the royal gardener, Mr. Rose, of larger di- 
 mensions than any that had been yet produced. " 'Ods- 
 fish ! Mr. Alderman," cried Charles, gaily, " we crave 
 your pardon, but had you invited us to see the gardens 
 of Alcinous, or those whose golden fruit was entrusted 
 to the Hesperides, we should have forgotten them all, 
 while listening to this fair enchantress. Lead on . the 
 King shall follow you, and this shall be his queen, 
 worthy indeed to reign upon Olympus, as being still 
 more majestic and beautiful than Homer's ox-eyed 
 Juno." He bowed, and tendered his arm; Constantia 
 accepted it, and they proceeded to the pinery, where
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 283 
 
 the worthy alderman's prolix history of every pine, 
 which he usually narrated to every visitant, was cut 
 short by the disappearance of his royal guest, who 
 walked out of an opposite door, and strolled with his 
 fair companion among the walks and parterres of the 
 garden, until they entered a small arbour, in which he 
 invited Constantia to sit down and rest herself. 
 
 Deeming this an advantageous opportunity for her 
 purpose, she implored his Majesty's pardon for the 
 liberty she was about to take, especially in the first 
 interview with which she had been honoured ; and after 
 a few more prefatory apologies, concluded by stating 
 that she had a favour to ask. 
 
 " Pardi, ma belle !" cried the King with great ani- 
 mation, " I am right glad to hear it. It likes me well 
 to be asked favours by those who have favours to bestow ; 
 your's therefore is granted, even before it is named." 
 
 In as concise a manner as possible, Constantia now 
 explained the origin of Jocelyn's connection with 
 Colonel Rathborn ; vindicated his conduct and his 
 loyalty ; and wound up her statement by requesting 
 that his Majesty would be graciously pleased to order 
 his immediate discharge from prison. 
 
 " And so to restore Mistress Beverning an admired 
 admirer, I presume," said Charles, whose dusky coun- 
 tenance had been gradually lowering. " More than 
 once has this saucy spark already presumptuously at- 
 tempted to cross my path." 
 
 " Not for myself am I a petitioner, I most solemnly 
 assure your Majesty," said Constantia, but for a dear 
 friend who is betrothed to Mr. Compton, and whose 
 anguish at his arrest, if I had the power of depicting it, 
 would render your Majesty not less anxious than my- 
 self to remove it."
 
 284 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 " Gramercy ! madam, if there be a distressed Aman- 
 da in the case," said Charles, with a more cheerful 
 countenance, " I am bound, as a true Knight of the 
 Garter to afford her relief, by restoring her Damon to 
 her arms ; but as to my giving an order for his dis- 
 charge " He paused, for he had the fear of Lady 
 Castlemaine before his eyes, and shook his head, as if 
 the contemplated measure were impracticable ; but, 
 after a moment's consideration, he continued " There 
 are better methods of obliging Mistress Beverning, with- 
 out implicating the King. On Friday I shall return to 
 Whitehall, whither I can order him to be brought up 
 in the Tower-wherry for examination by the Privy 
 Council. If he have brisk and stirring friends, let 
 them run on board the boat, which will be but lightly 
 manned, and whisk him away ; and I will take good 
 care that there be no further hue and cry for his re- 
 capture. How say you, my stately queen of Olympus, 
 can this be done ?" 
 
 " At all events it can be attempted," said Constan- 
 tia ; " and I shall ever hold myself indebted to your 
 Majesty." 
 
 "Tush, madam!" said Charles " the King hopes 
 to be soon indebted to Mistress Beverning : but he 
 must first set his seal to the present bargain." So say- 
 ing, he took her hand, and having tenderly pressed it, 
 drew off a brilliant diamond ring from his finger, which 
 he was about to place upon her's, when she exclaimed 
 " Ycur Majesty must excuse me ; I have received 
 one favour already in the gracious compliance with 
 which my petition has been honoured ; I dare not so 
 soon accept a second, lest I should prove bankrupt in 
 gratitude. This will be for our next meeting," and 
 she repassed the ring upon the finger from which he
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 285 
 
 had witlidrawn it. " For our next meeting be it ! " 
 cried the King, " and the day be an early one. and the 
 interview not less delightful than the present !" He 
 still retained her hand, and was proceeding to indulge 
 in a species of toying and dalliance not very acceptable 
 to Constantia, when she started up, exclaiming " Here 
 come our worthy host and his friends ; they are seeking 
 your Majesty shall we rejoin them ?" And she imme- 
 diately walked forward to the party, accompanied by 
 the King, who refused to resign the arm which he had 
 placed within his own, and whispering once more in 
 her ear, " Remember Friday !" returned with her into 
 the house. 
 
 It yet wanted five days to Friday, and these five 
 days did Constantia, who immediately returned to 
 London, dedicate to the completion of her enterprize, 
 with an acuteness of contrivance, and prompt energy 
 of execution, which, when seconded by her ample com- 
 mand of money, could scarcely fail of success. The 
 Friday morning at length arrived, and Jocelyn, who 
 had received notice that he was to be conveyed to 
 Whitehall for examination, and who had already drawn 
 the most sinister auguries from his dismissal from his 
 office of Private Secretary, began to think that his ruin 
 was indeed resolved, since even that public disgrace 
 was deemed insufficient. Under any other circum- 
 stances, indignation might have given him fortitude, or 
 the consciousness of innocence might have reconciled 
 him. to the quiet endurance of his wrongs ; but the 
 thought of what Julia must suffer her unprotected 
 state his own destitution, now that he had been 
 cashiered and the uncertainty of his future fate all 
 conspired to affect him with an unusual prostration of 
 spirits. Nor was this feeling lessened when manacles
 
 286 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 were placed upon his wrists, and he was guarded down 
 'the water-steps of the fortress, and ushered into the 
 Tower- wherry. 
 
 As the prisoner was thus secured, and no idea was 
 entertained of danger or an attempted rescue in tra- 
 versing the Thames at mid-day, the boat, as the King 
 had anticipated, was but lightly guarded. They had 
 passed London Bridge, and had made good progress, 
 pulling against a strong current towards Westminster, 
 when the rowers perceived a heavy Dutch-built boat 
 coming rapidly towards them with the tide, and hav- 
 ing sailors on board, who by the bottles in their hands, 
 and their ridiculous gestures, seemed to be intoxi- 
 cated. Jocelyn's watermen having already called out 
 to them to look a-head, were repeating the order in no 
 very decent language, when the strange boat ran right 
 on board of them, and at the same moment the sailors 
 jumped into the Tower-wherry, tossed its crew neck 
 and heels, with the exception of Jocelyn, into the 
 Dutch boat, of which they brought away the oars, and 
 instantly began pulling with the stream towards Lon- 
 don Bridge. All this was so rapidly effected, and the 
 crew of the wherry were so unprepared for attack, that 
 they had no opportunity of making resistance ; and 
 they now found themselves in a Dutch boat which they 
 were unable to manage from the want of oars, while 
 their outcries were either unnoticed, or treated as the 
 idle clamour of some wrangling Dutchmen. 
 
 Jocelyn would have been utterly at a loss to know 
 the meaning of this rescue, had he not recognized 
 Winky Boss among the foremost of his deliverers, who, 
 having whispered to him to sit" still, took the stump 
 of a pipe from his waistcoat-pocket ; this he inserted 
 into one corner of his mouth, and then, seizing an oar,
 
 BIIAMBLETYE HOUSE. 287 
 
 began to pull with the regularity, and almost with the 
 power, of a steam engine. Our hero's manacles were 
 quickly removed and thrown into the river, and thus 
 in gallant plight, with the King's arms painted upon 
 her stern, and the royal flag streaming upon the wind 
 behind her, did the wherry pass beneath the very guns 
 of the fortress to which she belonged, bearing the res- 
 cued prisoner rapidly along without challenge or inter- 
 ruption from any of the ships of war that they passed. 
 Before the tide failed them, a stiff and favourable breeze 
 sprung up ; they spread their canvass, the boat was 
 built expressly for expedition, and in a space of time 
 that would have rendered all pursuit unavailing, even 
 if it had been attempted, they found themselves at the 
 mouth or the river. Here they observed a small Dutch 
 brig, tacking backward and forward ; and, running 
 alongside, Jocelyn was utterly amazed at observing Con- 
 stantia, Julia, and Mrs. Walton, standing upon the deck. 
 It is unnecessary to state with what transports they 
 welcomed him on board, with what delight of heart 
 he found himself so unexpectedly restored to liberty 
 and to his friends, or what rapture of gratitude he 
 expressed towards Constantia, when he learnt that he 
 was indebted to her once more for his deliverance. 
 
 ''To me, individually," said Constantia, " there is 
 less merit due for this enterprize than you seem to 
 imagine. The King himself suggested the mode of 
 your escape; and, by the promise of a liberal reward, 
 your trusty servant, Winky Boss, induced some of his 
 shrewd and stout-hearted countrymen to undertake its 
 execution ; a task which they have well and happily 
 performed. For our ulterior views this vessel was 
 engaged, and Julia and Mrs. Walton needed no in- 
 ducements to accompany me on board it, when they
 
 288 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 knew the purposes to which it was to be applied. We 
 are now bound for France, whither we shall soon be 
 wafted by this auspicious breeze. My friends will not 
 regret their temporary absence from a country where 
 their mutual happiness might have been still longer 
 delayed, or ultimately defeated, by perjury and malice: 
 and, for myself, I have important plans in agitation, 
 which could only be executed on the spot to which we 
 are now directing our course." 
 
 On their arrival at Calais, which place they reached 
 without any adverse incident, the sailors were remu- 
 nerated even beyond their expectations, and dismissed ; 
 Winky Boss being retained to accompany the party 
 to Paris, in which capital Constantia declared that she 
 had weighty purposes to accomplish. Contrary to her 
 usual habits of reserve, she put herself forward as the 
 regulator of every thing during their progress, superin- 
 tending all arrangements with an alacrity that indi- 
 cated the pleasure she derived from the journey ; while 
 her constitutional sedateness, which, since the death of 
 her father, had almost amounted to melancholy, was 
 now succeeded by a calm, smiling happiness, which 
 her friends noticed with not less satisfaction than sur- 
 prise. She appeared to be elated and sustained by 
 some great, though secret, design, upon which her 
 heart brooded with a serene delight. What it was they 
 had no means of guessing, for, though she occasionally 
 alluded to her ulterior plans, with a mysterious smile, 
 she never dropped a word that might enable them even 
 to guess at her intentions. It was sufficient for Julia 
 to find in the happiness of her friend, the presence of 
 her lover, and her own altered prospects, a sufficient 
 warrant for that ebullient cheerfulness which was na- 
 tural to her, and in which she now indulged without
 
 BKAMBLETYE HOUSE. 289 
 
 control, although it was occasionally checked by a 
 reflection that still involved her birth. Such was the 
 state of exhilaration in which they all arrived at Paris, 
 where Constantia announced that it was by no means 
 her intention to resign the authority which she had 
 exercised during the journey, but, on the contrary, to 
 assume a more plenary control, and exact a more im- 
 plicit obedience, than any she had hitherto claimed ; 
 adding, with a significant look, that, when she restored 
 them to their full liberty, she flattered herself they 
 would not be dissatisfied with her sway during the 
 continuance of her temporary usurpation. 
 
 "The first act of my despotism," said Constantia, 
 taking the hands of Julia and Jocelyn in her own ; 
 "the first mandate to which I shall expect an uncon- 
 ditional submission, is that these my subjects and 
 friends shall consent to be immediately married. I 
 wish to place their happiness beyond the reach of fate 
 and fortune : they have experienced such sudden and 
 unexpected reverses of both, that they must snatch the 
 blessings of life while yet within their reach, or they 
 may still elude their grasp. What means this rebellious 
 blood, my dear Julia, that is mounting to your cheeks ? 
 I forgive your blushes, but I will have no further 
 mutiny against my wishes. As to your intended hus- 
 band, he already stands charged with treasons enough, 
 and I am happy to observe that upon this occasion he 
 is the most obedient and loyal of all subjects. I charge 
 myself with every thing that appertains to your mar- 
 riage ; all shall be arranged and provided by me. I 
 will have no interloper, no assistant, not even an ad- 
 viser. For some days I shall of course be much occu- 
 pied, and if I leave you alone more than strict polite- 
 ness may warrant, I doubt not you will excuse me, 
 VOL. n. v
 
 290 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 even if you did not know that I was employed in 
 accomplishing your happiness." 
 
 In the interval that elapsed before the time fixed for 
 their nuptials, Jocelyn renewed his acquaintance with 
 some of the families whom he had known in his former 
 residence at Paris : at the request, or rather by the 
 order, of Constant! a, Julia called upon several of her 
 mother's kindred who dwelt in the metropolis, as well 
 as upon some of her late father's connexions, all of 
 whom she was imperatively commanded to invite to 
 the wedding feast. Jocelyn received similar instruc- 
 tions as to his own friends. None needed a second 
 solicitation to be partakers of a joyous ceremony which, 
 in France, is always celebrated with an extraordinary 
 festivity, and which upon the present occasion, Con- 
 stantia had invested with a degree of costly magnifi- 
 cence, rather adapted, as her friends thought, to her 
 own generosity of heart, than to the impoverished cir- 
 cumstances of the parties. At length arrived the happy 
 day for which such splendid preparations had been 
 made. Constantia accompanied the bride and bride- 
 groom to the church, where she witnessed the comple- 
 tion of the solemnities, but, declaring that very parti- 
 cular reasons would prevent her participation in the 
 banquet she had provided, she requested that her 
 friends would call upon her, after their guests had de- 
 parted, at a particular house in Paris, of which she 
 gave them the address. This was a great disappoint- 
 ment to all parties, but, as she declared herself to be 
 more inexorable and despotic upon this point than any 
 other, they forbore vain solicitations, and prepared to 
 entertain their visitants with all due cheerfulness and 
 hospitality. Exclamations of astonishment and delight 
 burst from almost every mouth as they entered the
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 291 
 
 banquetting-room, which had been decorated, under 
 Constantia's immediate orders, with a richness that 
 would have appeared gorgeous, had it not been relieved 
 by the exquisite elegance and taste of every embellish- 
 ment. Nor was the repast incompatible with the 
 splendid saloon appropriated for its reception. The 
 most scientific culinary artists had been engaged to 
 furnish it, and the guests seemed resolved to do full 
 justice to their skill. 
 
 Long sittings after a feast being happily as much 
 unpractised in France, at that period, as they are now, 
 the company, after drinking the health of the bride 
 and bridegroom, with that of the munificent foundress 
 of the entertainment, took their departure at an early 
 hour ; and Julia, Jocelyn, and Mrs. Walton proceed- 
 ed immediately in a carriage to keep their appointment 
 with Constantia. The driver stopped at the arched 
 doorway of an extensive and ancient pile with pro- 
 jecting stone-shafted windows, of which the glass was 
 rendered impervious to sight, by being stained of a 
 deep purple colour. They alighted, and were ushered 
 into a small plainly-furnished parlour, much wondering 1 
 what could be the meaning of this mysterious ren- 
 dezvous, or the object of a small green curtain, which 
 hung against the wall on one side of the chamber. 
 Their doubts as to the latter were presently dispelled, 
 for the curtain being slowly drawn up, discovered an 
 iron grating, behind which was seen a female figure, 
 attired as a candidate nun, who is about to take the 
 veil. It was Constantia ! Her dark luxuriant locks had 
 been all cut off", and the plain black coif that enclosed 
 her face imparted a pale hue to her countenance, 
 while it made her eyes appear even more large and 
 lustrous than usual ; altogether injuring the general 
 
 u 2
 
 292 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 character of her beauty, but assimilating well with the 
 solemn, though sweet and serene, expression of her 
 features at the present moment. 
 
 " Constantia ! " exclaimed her three visitants, in 
 accents of profound amazement. 
 
 " Yes, my dear friends," she replied : " it is Con- 
 stantia, who, having this morning accomplished, by 
 your happy union, every object for which she wished 
 to live, is about to exchange the world and all its 
 anxieties for the seclusion and happiness of the cloister. 
 This step I have long contemplated ; to this destiny I 
 was peculiarly adapted by my temperament to this 
 destiny am I now inevitably impelled by the circum- 
 stances of my fate. There was but one woman, to 
 whom my whole heart was bound by the ties of friend- 
 ship ; there was but one man for whom in whose 
 favour " She paused, blushed deeply, and appeared 
 confused. At length, after a few moment's delibera- 
 tion, she continued, still, however, keeping her eyes 
 fixed upon the ground " Should I not rather be proud 
 of so difficult a victory, than ashamed to confess a 
 weakness that I have conquered ? There was but one 
 woman to whom I was bound by friendship, there was 
 but one man whom I loved. I have triumphed over 
 my passion I have proved the sincerity of my friend- 
 ship I have made these two people happy by bestow- 
 ing them upon one another I have not lived in vain. 
 My purpose in life has been accomplished ; I am now 
 useless to the world, and to me it has lost all its at- 
 tractions. What is man ? Yesterday's clay, to-mor- 
 row's dust ! In a few short years all that moves, or 
 owns the breath of life, will have passed away. I 
 cannot attach myself to this fleeting pageant; my sou; 
 rejects its tantalizing and evanescent joys, and yearns
 
 BRAMBI-ETYE HOUSE. 293 
 
 for more enduring beatitudes. I have therefore re- 
 signed it, that I may dedicate myself to Heaven ; 
 and that our double wedding may be solemnized on the 
 same clay, I am about to become the bride of an im- 
 mortal Bridegroom. The ring with which I am to be 
 married to Him has been already laid upon the altar ; 
 this night I am to pronounce the vows and to be so- 
 lemnly invested with the veil ; and this, therefore, my 
 dear friends, is the last time, in this world at least, that 
 
 we shall ever ever" Again she paused, for 
 
 her voice had grown indistinct and tremulous, while 
 her throat, swelling with the emotion which she in vain 
 struggled to subdue, denied her the power of further 
 utterance. 
 
 Julia, who guessed the threatened separation, rather 
 by the distress of her friend than by her expressions, 
 rushed forward, and falling upon her knees, while she 
 held up her elapsed hands against the iron bars, pas- 
 sionately exclaimed " Oh, no, no, no ! My kind, my 
 generous, my noble benefactress ! my own Constantia 
 you cannot, will not, leave us for ever ! We may at 
 least see you, if it be only thus ; if it be only to con- 
 vince you that you have not sacrificed yourself in vain, 
 to prove to you that we are happy to renew to you 
 the assurances of our eternal gratitude." 
 
 " It must not be," said Constantia, shaking her 
 head " I should not dare to trust my heart; a minute's 
 interview might destroy all the resolutions of a month. 
 Julia, Jocelyn, Mrs. Walton ! help me to be firm. 
 Prove yourselves to be indeed my friends, by assisting 
 me to support this most painful most trying " In 
 spite of all her efforts, the tears flowed so fast that she 
 was again unable to proceed, until she had paused for 
 a few moments, when she gathered strength to exclaim
 
 294 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 "These are the tears of the flesh, not of the spirit ; 
 the body is weak, but the soul is firm. My dear, dear 
 friends, farewell ! farewell for ever. Consider me as 
 bidding you a last adieu from my death-bed ; these 
 hands which I pass to you through the bars of my 
 convent, consider them as being stretched out to you 
 from the grave ; henceforward look upon Constantia 
 as dead !" 
 
 At this instant the chapel-bell of the convent began 
 to toll for the approaching ceremony, a sound which, 
 in conjunction with the last words she had heard, fell 
 with such an appalling effect upon Julia's ear that, 
 uttering a shriek of anguish, she threw herself upon 
 Constantia's extended arm, grasping it, as if she would 
 prevent the execution of her purpose, and sobbing 
 aloud in an uncontrollable agony of grief. Mrs. Walton, 
 whose firmer soul had hitherto enabled her to support 
 the scene, now yielded to her emotion ; her compressed 
 lips moved rapidly up and down, the lower part of her 
 face was convulsed, and the tears rolled rapidly though 
 silently down her cheeks. Jocelyn, who had been 
 endeavouring to set an example of firmness, was no 
 longer able to resist the contagion of the distress that 
 surrounded him, and the drops, gushing suddenly 
 from his eyes, rained upon the hand that had been 
 held out to him through the bars. 
 
 "Oh God !" exclaimed Constantia, with vehemence; 
 "this is too much; women are feeble and sensitive 
 creatures ; I can bear to see them weep. But the tears 
 
 of a man of the man whom I Spare me this 
 
 pang. Oh, spare me, for the love of mercy ! Send me 
 not to my heavenly espousals desecrated with the 
 tears of an earthly attachment." 
 
 She had shut her eyes as if to avoid the sight, and
 
 BRAMI5LETYE HOUSE 295 
 
 now withdrawing her hands, and pressing them both, 
 upon her left side, apparently in much pain, from the 
 violent heaving of her bosom, she ejaculated : " My 
 heart! my throbbing heart! it will break it will burst." 
 
 Turning suddenly round at these words, she threw 
 
 herself on her knees before a large crucifix that stood 
 on one side the grating, exclaiming, as she embraced 
 the feet of the image : " Save me, help me, thou hus- 
 band of my soul !" and fixing her streaming eyes upon 
 the figure, her lips continued moving for some time, 
 in fervent though inaudible prayer. 
 
 Fortified by this act of devotion, she arose with much 
 more composure ; her features were animated by a 
 religious enthusiasm, as she again passed her arm 
 through the grating, took Jocelyn's hand, which she 
 tenderly clasped, and exclaimed : " Farewell for 
 ever ! May the blessing of Almighty God be upon 
 you !" The same parting benediction was then so- 
 lemnly pronounced upon Julia, who alternately pressed 
 the extended hand to her bosom, and covered it with 
 kisses and tears. 
 
 At this moment the bell again tolled ; the door of 
 the inner room opened ; the bishop and a train of 
 attendants entered to escort her to the altar, where 
 she was to receive the veil and pronounce the irrevoca- 
 ble vow ; and Constantia, raising her arms to Heaven, 
 and chanting in a low and still tremulous voice : 
 " Ancilla Christi sum," walked slowly out of the room. 
 As the door that shut her out for ever from the world 
 was closed behind her, the sound smote the heart of 
 Julia with "an effect as deathlike as if she had seen 
 her friend lowered into the grave, and had heard the 
 earth rattling upon her coffin. Fixing her eyes upon 
 the door through which she had passed, she remained
 
 296 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 for some time gazing at it in a stupor of bewildered 
 grief; when, as if suddenly recollecting herself, she 
 called, in a low and hollow voice, " Constantia ! " 
 After a short pause she repeated it in a louder tone ; 
 and again a third time in a still more elevated key ; 
 but, rinding her unavailing cry succeeded by a dead 
 silence, her whole frame became agitated with convul- 
 sive heavings. She uttered a low shuddering groan, 
 burst immediately afterwards into a shriek of hysterical 
 laughter, and, sinking into the arms of her husband, 
 was conveyed out of the apartment in a passion of 
 ungovernable grief. 
 
 THE CONCLUSION. 
 
 But, mistress, know yourself; down on your knees, 
 And thank Heaven, fasting, for a good man's love ; 
 For I must tell you friendly in your ear, 
 Sell when you can, you are not for all markets ; 
 Cry the man mercy, love him, take his offer. 
 
 SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 ON their return to the house where the marriage had 
 been celebrated, Jocelyn found a casket addressed to 
 himself, which had been left during their absence at 
 the convent. He broke it open, and discovered a 
 bundle of papers, together with a long letter from Con- 
 stantia, of which he eagerly commenced the perusal. 
 It began with stating that, as the immense fortune left 
 to her by her father had always been an incumbrance,
 
 BUAMBLETYE HOUSE. 297 
 
 and was now become absolutely useless, she was under 
 the necessity of requesting her friends to divide the 
 burden among them, so far as to lighten her own load; 
 though she had already enriched her convent, of which 
 the Abbess was her distant relation, and had besides 
 retained sufficient for all the purposes of charity. In 
 this emergency she trusted that her dear friends would 
 accept, as a marriage gift, the extensive estates of 
 Saint Ouen in Normandy, which had devolved upon 
 her in right of her mother, and of which she herself 
 was quite incompetent to take the charge ; and refer- 
 ring to the papers in the box, which contained an 
 irreversible conveyance of the property in question, 
 she requested that, if they resided in the mansion, its 
 name might be changed to the Chateau de Compton. 
 As the house in which the nuptial feast had been 
 held, and which she had herself taken pains to de- 
 corate, might from those circumstances possess some 
 value in their eyes, independently of its convenience 
 as a Parisian residence, she requested that they would 
 still further oblige her by accepting it ; and after re- 
 newing her blessings and good wishes for their hap- 
 piness, she concluded by stating that, although her 
 resolution never to see them again would remain 
 inflexible, being cemented by a solemn vow, yet she 
 should be happy in still occasionally communicating 
 with them by letter. 
 
 At the bottom of the box was a separate parcel for 
 Mrs. Walton, in which was found a most affectionate 
 letter, and a conveyance of property that ensured 
 her a competent provision for the remainder of her life. 
 
 Thinking it might have a soothing influence upon 
 Julia's agitated mind, Jocelyn read to her the letter 
 addressed to himself; but its effect was far from tran-
 
 298 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 quillising, for these affecting proofs of her friend's un- 
 bounded generosity and tenderness only melted her 
 into a fresh flood of tears, and increased the pang of 
 separation by showing the inappreciable value of what 
 she had lost. Jocelyn, too, upon this second perusal, 
 made a discovery that still added to the incalculable 
 obligations she had conferred upon him, for he recog- 
 nized, by the hand-writing, the munificent friend who 
 had some time before sent him a box of gold to ex- 
 tricate him from his difficulties, and an anonymous 
 monitory letter for the regulation of his conduct. By 
 far the most welcome part of her communication, and 
 that which they both valued above all her gifts, lavish 
 as they were, was the promise of her still allowing an 
 interchange of their minds by means of correspondence. 
 To Julia, especially, this was a consolation that much 
 alleviated the bitterness of her grief. Constantia was 
 not now so utterly dead to, and severed from, the 
 world, as she had previously seemed to be. Their 
 spirits could still meet and embrace one another ; their 
 hearts could sympathise together ; their intellects could 
 participate in the same ideas : it was a privilege too 
 estimable not to be immediately exercised, and both 
 Jocelyn and Julia availed themselves of it without delay, 
 by writing an answer to her communication, couched 
 in such terms as the most unbounded gratitude and 
 affectionate devotedness could suggest. 
 
 On the day after his marriage, our hero despatched 
 an epistle to his father, giving a full account of that 
 happy event, and of the unexpected generosity by 
 which he had become so suddenly enriched, expres- 
 sing a hope that his fortune might assist in accelerating 
 the decision of the Brambletye cause, and restoring 
 the dilapidated mansion of his ancestors. To his friend
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 299 
 
 Tracy also he communicated the happy change in his 
 destiny, explained the nature of his connection with 
 Colonel Rathbora, and requested his advice as to the 
 best mode of proceeding for the establishment of his 
 innocence, and the public clearance of his character 
 from all imputation. From the latter he speedily 
 received an answer, congratulating him on his good 
 fortune, and informing him that, although the whole of 
 the conspirators, both at the time of trial and place of 
 execution, had completely exonerated him from any 
 participation in their desperate plans, it might be 
 highly adviseable for him to return immediately, and 
 offer himself, for form's sake, to justice, lest his escape 
 and continued residence abroad should be assumed by 
 his enemies as a confession of guilt. The proceedings 
 against him, he added, had all been withdrawn, but 
 still the legal proof of his innocence could only be 
 established in the manner he suggested. 
 
 This advice our hero deemed it expedient to adopt 
 without delay, and, accordingly, after writing a letter 
 to Constantia, detailing the motives of their return to 
 England, and promising to acquaint her with the result 
 of their expedition, the party commenced their journey 
 to London, taking with them the faithful and phlegma- 
 tic Winky Boss, who, though he seldom removed the 
 pipe from his mouth, except for the purpose of sup- 
 plying its place by a draught of Schiedam, or some 
 equivalent compound, was, from his methodical habits, 
 quiet manner, and long experience of travelling, a most 
 useful personage upon the road. Jocelyn, too, from 
 the remembrance of his services upon various occasions, 
 particularly in rescuing him from the Tower-wherry, 
 had become warmly attached to him ; and Winky Boss 
 was not less kindly disposed towards his master, al-
 
 300 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 though his heavy and sluggish features never betrayed 
 any external symptom of emotion of any sort. 
 
 Upon their arrival in London, which city they 
 reached without accident, Mrs. Walton signified her 
 
 ' o 
 
 intention of retiring to reside at Ely, where she still 
 retained a few chosen friends, who revered the me- 
 mory of her husband, and participated in her own pe- 
 culiar notions, both as to religion and politics. Here 
 she had spent the early part of her life ; here she 
 wished to deposit her bones among those of the saints 
 who had preceded her ; and with a good conscience 
 for the past, her Bible for the present, and hope for 
 the future, she expressed a confident trust that the 
 remainder of her pilgrimage upon earth would be ac- 
 complished in perfect tranquillity and peace. 
 
 In conformity with Tracy's advice, our hero tendered 
 himself to answer every charge that might be brought 
 against him ; and finding that all proceedings had been 
 quashed, he procured a public notification of that cir- 
 cumstance to be inserted in the Gazette, together with 
 the confession of the conspirators, in full confirmation 
 of his innocence. His fair fame being thus vindicated 
 from all reproach, he only stayed long enough in Lon- 
 don to visit his friends, by all of whom he was received 
 with undiminished kindness, and then set out for the 
 Moated House, in order to introduce his bride to Sir 
 John. On approaching that usually dull and sleepy- 
 looking residence, he was surprised at observing a flag 
 waving from its roof; and this wonder was so keenly 
 enhanced, when he noticed a column of smoke from 
 almost every chimney, as if some great festivity were 
 about to be celebrated within, that he urged the horses 
 rapidly forward, in order to obtain some explanation 
 of these phenomena.
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 301 
 
 Before Sir John was apprized of their arrival, they 
 had learned the occasion of all these joyful and un- 
 usual demonstrations. The long-pending Brambletye 
 cause had not only been decided in favour of the an- 
 cient and rightful owner, but the purchaser had been 
 ordered to make restitution of all the rents he had re- 
 ceived, and to pay over a considerable sum for the dis- 
 mantling and the dilapidations of the mansion ; and 
 this righteous award was not likely to be further con- 
 tested. The " crop-eared Roundhead," who had 
 bought the estate, and whom Sir John continued to 
 designate by that opprobrious term, even when he 
 came to make propositions for payment, had agreed 
 to perform the remainder of the decree in the course 
 of the following week ; and, in the mean time, had 
 made a formal surrender of the mansion and estate. 
 This most welcome occurrence, which Lady Compton 
 entirely attributed to her visit to Whitehall, and her 
 personal influence with the King, together with the 
 expectation of the large sum in ready money to be 
 paid next week, of which she never thought without 
 instinctively working all her fingers, as if she were 
 counting it, had so overset her that, in the generosity 
 of gratified avarice, she had suddenly given her con- 
 sent to a measure which she had been ever since re- 
 gretting. She had stipulated to surrender the key of 
 the wine-cellar, and the disposal of the moated house 
 for one entire day ; and the delighted Sir John, who 
 said he was determined that every chimney should 
 smoke for it, and every bin be rummaged upon the 
 occurrence of so rare a jubilee, and one which could 
 be now so well afforded, had made preparations for a 
 grand festival, to which many of the neighbouring gen- 
 try were invited ; while all those of the tenantry who
 
 302 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 had paid their rents to him, in spite of the " crop-eared 
 Roundhead" aforesaid, were to be plentifully regaled 
 in the front of the house, for which purpose tables were 
 spread between the porch and the moat. 
 
 The occasion of these hilarious doings was not less 
 gratifying to Jocelyn and Julia than the sight of the 
 happy throngs, through which they had to pass as they 
 approached the mansion. Jack Whittaker, who, not- 
 withstanding his aversion to swipes, and his frequent 
 threats of abandoning Skin-flint-hall, as he had nick- 
 named the abode, could never make up his mind to 
 quit his old master, had not only communicated all 
 these welcome tidings to Jocelyn before he alighted 
 from his coach, but had kindly undertaken to induct 
 Winky Boss into the buttery, advising him to lose no 
 time in addressing himself to the double ale, as his 
 stomach would very soon be put upon half- pay, and 
 reduced to the ordinary ration of sour small beer. 
 
 " 'Sblood ! my dear boy !" cried Sir John, as he 
 threw away his crutches, hopped into the parlour upon 
 one leg, and snapped his fingers for joy, as Jocelyn 
 approached " this is lucky indeed. Nothing but this 
 was wanting to complete the happiness of the day. 
 Welcome ! a thousand times welcome ! And is this 
 buxom beauty your wife ? Zooks ! she's a likely-look- 
 ing lass, and a merry. Right welcome are you, my 
 pretty daughter, to the moated house." At these words; 
 he embraced her with a loud and hearty smack, and 
 then continued " Body-o'-me, Jocelyn ! are you not 
 an undutiful dog and a saucy, to make so much better 
 a match than your father? Your wife is young and 
 beautiful ; mine is neither one nor t'other ; your's 
 brings you money ; mine takes it away : but, psha ! 
 comparisons are odious. You have heard all the good
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 303 
 
 news, I find ; I won't tell you any of the bad ; so, 
 instead of a word more about her ladyship, you and 
 I will sing, 
 
 Hang care and sorrow ! 
 
 A fig for to-morrow ! 
 Let's be happy and merry to-day. 
 
 With a chirping glass, 
 
 And a laughing lass, 
 
 How goes the rest o'nt ? No wonder the laughing lass 
 put me out, for I haven't had such an article in the 
 house for this many a year and sad. Your wife, Jo- 
 celyn, shall supply the place. 'Gad ! she has a roguish 
 eye. Who would have thought a poor foundling would 
 ever turn out such a " 
 
 " I thought you had determined not to allude to 
 any painful subjects to-day," whispered Jocelyn. 
 
 " 'Sblood ! and so I had : I quite forgot that 
 poor ! poor thing ! I won't say a word more about it. 
 So come, my pretty lass, as you have no father or 
 mother of your own, you must lean upon the arm of a 
 gouty old father-in-law, who will hop with you into the 
 drawing-room, and introduce you to Lady Compton, 
 and our friends and neighbours, for it's almost dinner- 
 time, and our jollification shall wait for nobody." 
 
 With all the premonitions that Julia had received 
 from her husband, not to be startled at the strange 
 appearance of her mother-in-law, and with every dis- 
 position in the world to resist the contagious titter that 
 was ""running round the drawing-room, Julia could 
 hardly suppress her risible tendencies on being intro- 
 duced to that august specimen of bedizened pinguitude. 
 To avoid the expense of new purchases, her Ladyship 
 had still retained a Dutch gala-dress which, being 
 renovated and vamped up for this joyous occasion, was
 
 304 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 enriched with her whole stock of finery, consisting of 
 gilt buttons, bobs and tags, silver loops an/1 tassels, 
 sprigs of coloured foil and equally valuable trumpery ; 
 the stomacher being at the same time emblazoned with 
 a whole constellation of paste jewellery, flint ornaments, 
 and flaring glass beads. Although she had rendered 
 herself thus gorgeous in honour of the occasion, she 
 was so far from having invested her face with any 
 holiday costume, that it wore a more than usual ex- 
 pression of peevishness and ill-humour, the probable 
 expense of the entertainment having rendered her 
 completely miserable. In splenetic exclamations of 
 Dutch, French, and English ; dollars, guilders, and 
 stivers ; pounds, shillings, and pence ; she kept per- 
 petually inveighing against the cost of one article, the 
 inutility of a second, the wastefulness of a third, and 
 the gormandizing propensities of the rabble without, 
 who were eating and drinking as if they would never 
 be satisfied. Even the joy that she expressed at seeing 
 Jocelyn and Julia was flatly contradicted by her coun- 
 tenance, as she declared that she knew not where they 
 were to sit, for " Saar Jan" had already invited more 
 than the table would accommodate. 
 
 " Zooks, madam ! what signifies ?" cried Sir John, 
 pettishly " if the table won't accommodate them, 
 they must accommodate themselves to the table. Surely 
 you will not deny room to Jocelyn, now that he comes 
 as the prodigal son returned." 
 
 " If he is de verlooren zoon, zo waar als ik lieve as 
 sure as I live, you are de prodigal Vader," replied her 
 ladyship, with a risible sound, something between a 
 chuckle and a grunt. 
 
 " I have no objection to the character," retorted 
 Sir John, " provided your ladyship will act the part of
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 305 
 
 the fatted calf, and be killed for the comfort of the 
 party." A loud laugh attested his own sense of this 
 coarse rejoinder ; and her ladyship, whose previous 
 ill-humour was aggravated by the triumph of her hus- 
 band, was about to reply in a strain rather adapted 
 to her original station of a fisherman's wife than to 
 her present elevated rank, when hostilities were luckily 
 prevented by the announcement of dinner. 
 
 To the dinner-room they accordingly betook them- 
 selves, where the mistress of the feast actually groaned 
 aloud at the sight of the well covered table, valuing 
 each dish in succession, and casting up a mental sum- 
 total that quite completed her dismay and ill-temper. 
 Prepared for this alarming effect upon the mind of his 
 sordid spouse, Sir John had endeavoured to neutralize 
 it, by placing before her a large tureen of her favourite 
 water-zootje, which so far answered the purpose that 
 she instantly dedicated herself to it with great voracity, 
 leaving her guests to shift for themselves, or make a 
 fast instead of a feast, if they did not like to imitate 
 the example of their hostess. In the scarcity of atten- 
 dants to wait upon so numerous an assemblage, Winky 
 Boss had been pressed into the service, and happened 
 to enter the room, bearing a sirloin of beef, just at the 
 moment when her ladyship was holding up her head to 
 take breath. No sooner had she caught sight of him 
 than her eyes seemed starting from their sockets, she 
 uttered a piercing scream, let fall the uplifted ladle 
 from her hand, threw herself back in her chair, and 
 ejaculated, " Godt Almagtig ! het is Wouter Weeg- 
 schaal !" 
 
 Winky Boss seemed to be scarcely less astoimded 
 than her ladyship. His eyes, as they were riveted 
 upon her, winked with an alarming rapidity, his arms, 
 
 VOL. II. X
 
 306 BUAMI5LETYE HOUSE. 
 
 losing- all power, gradually sunk down to his sides, 
 leaving the dish and the sirloin to make their own way 
 to the floor, and he exclaimed, with a groan, " De 
 Dood ende de Duivel ! it is my wife !" 
 
 " Your what?" shouted Sir John, starting up, and 
 hopping towards him, in springs of a yard each : 
 " Your what ? my good fellow, my worthy friend, my 
 invaluable Mr. Wouter Weegschaal ! will you oblige 
 me by the repetition of that last monosyllable ? What 
 did you call her ?" 
 
 The party thus addressed remained silent, betraying 
 no further signs of emotion than by the continued and 
 increased workings of his eyelids. 
 
 " 'Sblood ! you winking loggerhead!" cried Sir 
 John, losing patience, " don't tantalize me in a matter 
 of this moment. Are you Wouter Weegschaal ? Is my 
 lady your wife !" 
 
 " Ja, ja; that she is, sure enough," said Boss, with 
 a rueful nod of the head, " at least she was." 
 
 " Was, you scoundrel ! was, you blinking blockhead !" 
 shouted % Sir John, " what do you mean by was ? If she 
 was, she is ; and body o'me, I believe it now : you be- 
 gin to look as if she were," cried Sir John, and, at the 
 same time, seizing and grasping his hand, he continued: 
 " My dear Mr. Wouter Weegschaal, my invaluable 
 friend, allow me to congratulate you, for nobody can 
 do it so sincerely as myself. Your wife will be not 
 only restored to you in good condition as to flesh and 
 fatness, but you will be well paid for having favoured 
 me with the loan of her ; for she is rich, she must be 
 rich, though the devil only knows where she hides her 
 money. You are welcome to it all : take every thing 
 that belongs to me, provided only you take one thing 
 that belongs to yourelf videlicet your wife."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 307 
 
 By this time her ladyship, or Mrs. Weegschaal, as 
 we must henceforth call her, had been removed from 
 the apartment, in a sort of hysteric, compounded of 
 weeping and water-zootje ; and a few questions, ad- 
 dressed to her husband, sufficed to explain that, al- 
 though his herring-buss had foundered in a storm, as 
 had been correctly reported to his wife, he himself had 
 been picked up by a fisherman of Yarmouth, and 
 carried into that town, where he remained several 
 years, having entered into partnership with his pre- 
 server. Not succeeding in his pursuit, and finding, 
 upon his return to Holland, that his wife was wandering 
 about with the exiled king of England and his court, 
 and by no means anxious to resume the connexion, 
 he had entered into the service of the Burgomaster 
 at Rotterdam, where his present master had become 
 acquainted with him in the manner we have already 
 shown. 
 
 " Jack Whittaker !" cried Sir John, feeling some 
 sort of compassion for the woman, now that he was 
 sure of getting rid of her, " step and inquire how my 
 lady is, I mean Mrs. Weegschaal ; see that she has 
 every thing she desires, and draw her a fresh mug of 
 small beer to comfort her ; she will like nothing 
 better." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Sir John," answered Whittaker, 
 " but I'll be cursed if I do. What, the foul fiend ! 
 have I been standing all this time behind the chair of 
 a Dutch fisherman's wife ? She may draw her own 
 swipes for me ! that's the least she can do, after making 
 me drink it so long." 
 
 " My kind-hearted Mr. Wouter Weegschaal," con- 
 tinued Sir John " you have the look of an amiable 
 husband ; you must have many things to say to one 
 
 x 2
 
 308 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 another after so long a separation ; had you not better 
 fly to your wife upon the wings of love ?" 
 
 " Ja, ja, certainly" replied the party thus addressed, 
 as he crawled with a most lingering alacrity out of the 
 apartment. 
 
 " And now, my friends," cried Sir John, hopping 
 back to his place, and rubbing his hands together with 
 egregious glee " let us lose no more time, but begin 
 the feast as well as we may, though we want the lady 
 at the head of the table, and the joint at the bottom. 
 Mr. Wouter Weegschaal (bless him for his uxorious- 
 ness ! but curse him for his clumsiness !) has not only 
 deprived me of my rib, but my surloin. If you can do 
 without the one, I promise you I can do without the 
 other : but to show that I have not forgotten her, I 
 beg to propose, before a mouthful be eaten, that we 
 all drink her health in a bumper." 
 
 To humour their host, his guests cheerfully complied 
 with his request. The banquet thus auspiciously begun 
 was kept up with most hilarious mirth ; the claret, libe-, 
 rated from the hand that had hitherto stinted its supply, 
 passed rapidly and merrily round ; and Sir John, who 
 repeatedly declared that to have his estate and his son 
 restored to him, and his wife taken from him, all at the 
 same time, were such special blessings as called upon 
 him to be sober and grateful for the remainder of his 
 life, sang scraps of all his old songs, and joked, and 
 thanked Heaven for his good luck, and chuckled, and 
 tippled, until he was finally conveyed to bed in a state 
 that threatened very ominously for the gout, should he 
 continue to exercise his recovered authority over the 
 claret-celler with similar indiscretion. 
 
 The guests had all retired, the clamour and merriment 
 had subsided into the quietude that usually invested
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 309 
 
 the dull precincts of the moated house, and the family 
 were about to separate for the night, when loud shrieks 
 were suddenly heard from without, and some of the 
 servants, who had hurried to the spot, came running 
 back to Wouter Weegschaal in great consternation, to 
 inform him that his wife had fallen into the moat, im- 
 ploring him to hasten to her assistance, as she was so 
 corpulent and heavy that they could not raise her. 
 " Ja, ja," said Weegschaal, " I won't lose a moment. 
 I'll just light my pipe, and get a drop of something 
 warm, for the night air's raw, and be with you in a 
 twinkling." After these indispensable preparations for 
 saving his wife, he walked to the moat, where his vigo- 
 rous arm, soon extricating her from the mud and 
 water in which she was immersed, enabled him to dis- 
 cover the cause of the accident, and at the same time 
 to claim, or rather to seize a reward for his services, 
 which his tardy exertions in her behalf had scarcely 
 merited. 
 
 In a hole of the moat-wall, which had formerly served 
 as a drain, this sordid and avaricious woman had con- 
 cealed a small iron box, to which, for some years past, 
 she had been in the habit of stealing in the dark to 
 deposit her hoardings. So secret had been her pro- 
 ceedings, that she had hitherto pursued this course 
 without detection ; and so diligently had she scraped 
 and pilfered, that the box was nearly filled with gold, 
 and was of course prpportionably heavy Her first 
 thought, after having so unexpectedly discovered her 
 husband, was the security of her hidden treasure : pre- 
 suming that she would be immediately ejected from 
 her present abode, and taking it also for granted that 
 Sir John would lay an embargo on the contents of her 
 strong box, if he detected it, she began to be appre-
 
 310 BHAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 hensive that all would be lost, unless she could imme- 
 diately effect is removal ; and with this intention she 
 had betaken herself to the place of its concealment. 
 Had she accomplished her purpose, her husband would 
 in all probability have remained as ignorant of her 
 wealth as Sir John had been ; but the weight of the 
 box proved too much for her strength, and she rolled 
 with her treasure into the moat : by abandoning the 
 box she might have easily floundered out ; but being 
 of Shylock's opinion, that they might as well take her 
 life as that whereby she lived, she clung to her be- 
 loved gold, and plunged and struggled, until she became 
 so completely imbedded in the mud, as to be obliged 
 to call aloud for help. To the last, however, she re- 
 tained her clutch of the handle, although she was so 
 exhausted, upon being pulled up from the moat, that 
 her husband easily loosened her ringers from their 
 grasp, and took upon himself the trouble of carrying 
 off the weighty strong box, which he forthwith locked 
 up in a cup-board, and put the key in his own pocket. 
 That we may not have occasion to recur to this 
 Dutch couple, we may as well despatch the remainder 
 of their history at'once, by stating that, when Weegs- 
 chaal found himself to suddenly enriched by Sir John's 
 permitting him to retain the money thus secured from 
 his wile's grasp, he very naturally determined to quit 
 service, and immediately set off for Holland with his 
 vrouw, loaded with additional gifts from Jocelyn and 
 Julia. Scarcely had Juffrouw Weegschaal set foot on 
 her native land, when the violent cold she had caught 
 from her immersion in the moat, being aggravated by 
 the voyage, and the moist fogs she encountered upon 
 her arrival, produced an inflammation of the chest, 
 which in a few days carried her oft". There were some,
 
 BRAM1H.ETYE HOTSE. 311 
 
 who, from her own statements, rather attributed her 
 death to a broken heart, occasioned by the discovery 
 and seizure of her strong- box ; whatever was the cause of 
 the catastrophe, her husband supported it with hisusuul 
 phlegmatic philosophy. With a perfectly stoical resigna- 
 tion he departed for Rotterdam, on the day after her 
 interment, and purchasing a handsome edifice on the 
 Boompies, commenced business as a tavern-keeper ; 
 giving his house, out of compliment to his old master, 
 the name of the Beverning Arms, and exhibiting the 
 cognizance of that family in a blazing escutcheon over 
 the door. Here, while he had ample accommodations 
 for the gentry and the better class of vistants, the task 
 of attending to whom he resigned to a major-domo, he 
 constituted himself sole sovereign of the tap - room ; 
 in which cheerful kingdom, if any of his subjects requir- 
 ed a helpmate in despatching a modicum of schiedam, 
 or wanted a companion in a pipe, they might always 
 confidently look up for assistance to the mouth of 
 Mr. Wouter Weegschaal. 
 
 Returning to the party at the moated house, and the 
 night when the late mistress of the mansion had been 
 rescued from the mud, we proceed to state that the 
 interrupted tranquillity of the abode had been just re- 
 stored, and its inmates were again upon the point of 
 retiring to rest, when Jocelyn was informed that a 
 stranger had been admitted, who wished to see him 
 upon most urgent business. Surprised at such a late 
 hour to hear of a visitant, he proceeded to the parlour, 
 where he beheld a tall person, who, having thrown 
 aside the roquelaure in which he had been enveloped, 
 discovered the figure of a monk, in the garb of the 
 Jesuits. "A Jesuit here!" exclaimed Jocelyn, who 
 had a vehement prejudice against that order, and im-
 
 312 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 mediately began to suspect some new plotting and 
 trepanning. " May I inquire why I am favoured with 
 a visit at an hour seldom chosen by those whose pur- 
 poses are open and honourable ?" 
 
 "May not we rather inquire," calmly replied the 
 monk, " why, under the persecution that we are so 
 cruelly suffering, we are compelled to steal out covertly 
 and in the dark, even when our purposes are those of 
 common charity and Christian brotherhood ? I forgive 
 you that incredulous smile ; we have been so long mis- 
 represented that it surprises me not. Calumny ever 
 precedes cruelty ; beware lest by listening to one, you 
 render yourself capable of the other. I come not to 
 vindicate our order, but to discharge that duty which 
 we make it our pride to perform, through good and 
 evil report, alike towards those that love us, and those 
 who despitefully use us. You knew, I believe, the 
 deceased woman, Mary Lawrence ?" 
 
 " I have understood that she was of your commu- 
 nion," said Jocelyn ; " and I know that she was ever 
 a bitter enemy to our house, although I could never 
 guess the cause." 
 
 " Of that anon," said the monk. " You married, I be- 
 lieve, Julia, the adopted daughter of Valentine Walton." 
 
 " Ha!" exclaimed Jocelyn, throwing off the reserve, 
 which he had hitherto maintained, " can you tell me 
 aught concerning Julia ? Can you solve the mystery 
 of her birth ?" 
 
 " I am come for that express purpose," replied the 
 monk. " I was confessor to the unfortunate Mary 
 Lawrence, whose death releases me from my vow of 
 secrecy, and enables me to make two fellow- creatures 
 happy by revealing those facts which I had often en- 
 joined her to communicate to you or to your wife."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 313 
 
 He then proceeded to relate every particular of Julia's 
 abduction, exactly as Mrs. Lawrence had stated it to 
 Mark Walton ; repeating, that he had often commanded 
 her to make atonement for the outrage she had com- 
 mitted, by restoring Julia to her family ; more espe- 
 cially, after he had learned the arrival of the latter in 
 the neighbourhood of Brambletye ; and that upon her 
 refusal he had imposed a heavy penance upon her, and 
 suspended her from participating in the rites of the 
 church, at which she had ever been a regular at- 
 tendant. 
 
 " I was not aware," said Jocelyn, " that we had in 
 our vicinity any establishment for the celebration of 
 the Romish solemnities." 
 
 " God's word is not extinct among the people," re- 
 plied the monk ; " though we may be prevented by 
 grievous oppression from lifting up our voice as in the 
 better time. But, if we are driven from our temples 
 above-ground, we have subterranean oratories, and 
 altars, where, with shorn splendour, but undiminished 
 zeal, we worship God according to the observances of 
 our fathers ; and where we have often celebrated mass, 
 while the persecutor and slanderer have passed over 
 our head, little wotting of our holy, though forbidden, 
 doings. To one of these secret sanctuaries, and to my 
 custody, did Mary Lawrence commit the vouchers that 
 proved the parentage of the child she had rapt away 
 the rich ornaments she wore, the chain and miniature 
 with which she was found playing ; and it was to de- 
 liver these into your own hands, to restore your wife to 
 the fortune and honours of her family, that I have ven- 
 tured forth from our little Zoar in the forest, braving 
 arrest and danger by wearing this interdicted habit, 
 and exposing myself to the suspicions and harsh con-
 
 314 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 elusions of the man whom I was serving by visiting 
 
 J 
 
 him at an hour seldom chosen by those whose purposes 
 are open and honourable." As he concluded his 
 speech, he drew from beneath his robes a small casket, 
 containing the articles to which he had alluded, and 
 placed it in Jocelyn's hands. 
 
 " I stand abashed and self- rebuked at my injustice," 
 exclaimed Jocelyn, who had listened with the deepest 
 interest at this recital. " You have conferred upon me 
 an obligation inestimable in my eyes, because it secures 
 the happiness of one whom I love better than myself. 
 If I knew how to express my gratitude how to reci- 
 procate this invaluable favour " 
 
 " I am sufficiently rewarded already," said the monk ; 
 " I have done my duty : for myself I demand no 
 other remuneration ; but for others of my communion I 
 venture to request that you will henceforth judge more 
 charitably of them, from what you have now seen of 
 me." He crossed his hands upon his bosom, bowed, 
 and walked out of the room. 
 
 Gratified as Julia was at this unexpected accomplish- 
 ment of the only thing that was wanting to complete 
 her happiness, she rejoiced in it more on the account 
 of others than on her own. Any humiliating consi- 
 derations that might attach to herself from the obscu- 
 rity of her birth she could bear with fortitude, how- 
 ever she might wish to see them removed ; but she had 
 the keenest sense of any reproach, any thing deroga- 
 tory to his dignity, that might be entailed upon her 
 husband, by the choice he had made; and she was 
 doubly delighted to find not only that both were re- 
 lieved from this stigma, but that by proving to be the 
 daughter of the late Sir William Compton, she might 
 ultimately restore that friendly intimacy which her ab-
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 315 
 
 duction many years ago had so unfortunately inter- 
 rupted. Nor was it a less grateful reflection that this 
 accession of happiness would be fully shared by Con- 
 stantia, to whom she immediately wrote a circumstan- 
 tial account of the discovery, declaring that notwith- 
 standing all the generous sacrifices made in her behalf, 
 her joy would have remained incomplete without this 
 developement of the mystery that involved her birth ; 
 and promising to send her a full, true, and particular 
 statement of her interview with her grandfather, the 
 Earl of Northampton, to whose seat in Warwickshire 
 she had determined to proceed without delay. 
 
 As to Sir John, he had no sooner learned the wel- 
 come news, than he snapped his fingers, and hopped 
 round Julia, and kissed her, and congratulated her 
 with an ungovernable glee ; declaring that, if he hadn't 
 been as blind as a buzzard, he might have seen that 
 she was of his own birth and kin, since she had the 
 merry eye of the Comptons, and their fine figure, and 
 in fact the family beauty ; adding, however, that the 
 Warwickshire branch, though they called themselves 
 the head of the tree, were never so handsome as the 
 Comptons of Sussex. He approved of the visit to the 
 Earl, whom he irreverently designated as the surly old 
 Hurlothrumbo ; authorising Jocelyn to declare that, 
 although he could not admit himself to have been in 
 error when they quarrelled so many years before, he 
 was willing to make any reasonable overtures towards 
 a reconciliation, which he hoped this auspicious mar- 
 riage would perpetuate. Charged with these pacific 
 instructions, which Jocelyn determined to exceed, if 
 necessary to his purpose, he set off, accompanied by 
 Julia, and arrived in due time in the immediate vici- 
 nity of the Earl's seat. A diverging road, at a little
 
 316 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 distance from the mansion, occasioning the driver to 
 stop and apply for instructions, which of the two 
 branches he was to select, Jocelyn, who was equally 
 unacquainted with the neighbourhood, alighted for the 
 purpose of making some inquiry at a cottage. Ad- 
 vancing a little way for this purpose, he saw a party 
 approaching him, preceded by a stern, though vene- 
 rable-looking personage, whom, from the descriptions 
 he had received, he immediately guessed to be the 
 Earl. This conjecture proved correct, nor was it, in- 
 deed, easy to be mistaken as to his identity. Dis- 
 daining all modern innovations, his lordship retained 
 the old Cavalier vest and cloak, with slouched hat and 
 drooping feather ; his grey hair fell down to his shoul- 
 ders, he had an ancient basket-hilted sword by his 
 side, and his solid black boots had loose hanging tops 
 of russet leather. An unhoocled soar falcon, with the 
 Earl's vervailes, was perched upon his right wrist ; 
 and, as he walked forward in a stately kind of march, 
 his falconer and other servants followed at a respectful 
 distance, one of them leading his horse, whose bit- 
 bridle was studded with ivory, and the saddle and 
 holsters richly embroidered with velvet and gold. 
 
 " I believe I have the honour to address the Earl of 
 Northampton," said Jocelyn, taking off his hat and 
 saluting him. 
 
 After drawing himself up with considerable dignity, 
 putting one hand over his eyes, and measuring Jocelyn 
 with a look of cold wonder, his lordship made a very 
 slight inclination of his head, as if in assent to the 
 conjecture. 
 
 " I am the only son of Sir John Compton of Bram- 
 bletye," continued our hero, " whose respects I am in 
 the first place charged to convey to your lordship."
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 317 
 
 " You have not found the load very weighty, sir, I 
 apprehend," said the Earl haughtily ; " and yet you 
 must have been a long while upon the journey, for 
 methinks it is now many years since the Earl of 
 Northampton has been honoured with any notice from 
 that inferior branch of his family." 
 
 " Public troubles and private misfortunes have 
 hitherto prevented the performance of these courtesies, 
 so regularly as he could have wished," said our hero ; 
 " but I hope my father's future deference will atone for 
 all his past omissions ; and I flatter myself, that the 
 intelligence, of which I am the bearer, will effectually re- 
 store him to your lordship's good graces." Jocelyn then 
 entered into a concise narrative of the circumstances 
 that proved the birth of Julia, observing that Mrs. 
 Walton was able to confirm them in every particular ; 
 mentioning his marriage before these discoveries had 
 been made; and concluding his statement by informing 
 his lordship that she had come to implore his blessing, 
 and was waiting in a carriage at a little distance, to- 
 gether with the jewels and ornaments in which she 
 had been attired when she was stolen away from 
 Brambletye House. 
 
 " A marvellous proper story !" said the Earl, with 
 a sneer "and cunningly enough devised; but the 
 Earl of Northampton admits not any claimant to as- 
 sume the honours of his family without better warrant 
 of identity and right than any you have yet adduced." 
 
 " Will your lordship allow me to submit the vouchers 
 to your inspection?" inquired Jocelyn. 
 
 " I dispute not the claim of the trinkets," replied 
 the Earl " nothing so likely as that they may belong 
 to my family ; but it is not every female adventurer 
 who may have possessed herself of these baubles that
 
 318 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 is to be received as my grand-daughter, or to be ac- 
 knowledged as the heiress of the large fortune of Sir 
 William Compton." 
 
 " Your lordship is the only man in England," said 
 Jocelyn, reddening with anger, " whom I would allow 
 to breathe such an insinuation with impunity. By the 
 munificence of a female friend, your grand-daughter is 
 already enriched beyond my utmost wishes ; they who 
 have divided among themselves the fortune, to which 
 she is entitled, may therefore retain it. I come not to 
 claim her inheritance, but to demand her full recogni- 
 tion by the family from which she sprang, to restore to 
 yourself a grand-daughter, of whom the first nobleman 
 in England might justly be proud, and to solicit on her 
 behalf, as well as on my own, the patronage and pro- 
 tection of the powerful Earl of Northampton." 
 
 Neither the spirited and liberal tone of this speech, 
 nor its ingratiating conclusion, were lost upon the Earl, 
 who exclaimed in a more gracious manner than he had 
 hitherto adopted, " Where is this young woman ? bring 
 her hither : I can have no objection to see her ; but as 
 to any further proceedings relative to her claims, I 
 must decline personal interference, and refer you to my 
 attorney." 
 
 Losing no time in availing himself of this permission, 
 Jocelyn returned to the carriage, and led back the 
 agitated Julia, who was about to bend on one knee 
 and implore the Earl's blessing, when he exclaimed in 
 a harsh and peremptory voice " Stand up, Madam ! 
 stand up, and raise your head, that I may peruse your 
 features." He fixed a hand upon each shoulder as he 
 s;:id this, and, holding her at some distance, proceeded 
 to scrutinize her countenance ; while the falcon, re- 
 treating up his arm, fixed its large piercing eyes upon
 
 BRAMRLETYE HOUSE. 319 
 
 Julia, as if determined to examine her as intently as 
 its master. 
 
 The stern suspicion which had at first imparted a 
 peculiarly forbidding expression of incredulity to the 
 Earl's countenance, gradually subsided into a look of 
 tenderness and melting affection : sad and affecting 
 
 o O 
 
 recollections seemed to be passing through his mind ; 
 the muscles of his face relaxed, his eyes glistened, his 
 compressed lips were drawn down at the corners, and 
 he exclaimed in a broken voice " My brave boy ! 
 my darling William ! methinks I see him again stand- 
 ing before me. There is his merry eye, his smiling 
 mouth, the very dimples in his cheeks, and his noble 
 
 " His voice failed him, and he remained 
 
 contemplating his grand-daughter in silence, until the 
 emotions which he was endeavouring to control could 
 no longer be repressed* the tears rolled down his 
 cheeks he threw up his arms, tossing off the falcon 
 into the air; and pressing Julia to his bosom, while his 
 head reclined upon her neck, he sobbed aloud " My 
 child ! my child ! my child !" 
 
 From that moment not a syllable more was uttered 
 about a reference to his lordship's attorney. The old 
 Earl was not less satisfied of his grand - daughter's 
 identity^ than proud of her charms and accomplish- 
 ments ; while Jocelyn's overtures towards a general 
 reconciliation of the family were now received with 
 the most cordial assurances of reciprocal good-will 
 and amity. 
 
 After having been entertained for some time with 
 extraordinary splendour and festivity, the newly-mar- 
 ried couple returned to the Moated House, when 
 Jocelyn recommended his father who had now re- 
 ceived the large arrears that were due from the pur-
 
 320 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 chaser of Brambletye, to appropriate part of the money 
 to the rebuilding of the dilapidated mansion. But Sir 
 John, partaking largely of the superstitious feelings 
 then so prevalent, declared that the place was unlucky, 
 that the curse of the black ghost was upon the walls, 
 that it was ominous to re-construct a dwelling where 
 two people had so lately met a violent death, and 
 finally, that he was too old and infirm for so extensive 
 an undertaking, and, moreover, very comfortable where 
 he was. Brambletye House was accordingly abandoned 
 to its fate ; and the time that has intervened since its 
 desertion, combining with the casualty and violence 
 by which it was originally shattered and dismantled, 
 has reduced it to its present condition of a desolate 
 and forlorn ruin. 
 
 A letter from his old friend Tracy, to whom he had 
 communicated his happiness, informed Jocelyn that 
 the Queen still remained as well disposed towards him 
 as ever, and would, if he still desired it, exert her in- 
 fluence to procure his restoration to favour and some 
 new appointment. But Jocelyn had seen too much 
 of courts, to wish any return to such heartless and de- 
 moralizing scenes. Birth and education had indeed 
 made him in earlier life a staunch, not to say a bigoted 
 and obstinate, Royalist ; but observation and expe- 
 rience had done much to qualify, and perhaps to exalt, 
 the feeling, by reducing it to the government of reason. 
 However he might honour the generous self-devotedness, 
 the chivalrous courage, the inflexible attachment, which 
 had induced so many of the Cavaliers to sacrifice their 
 lives and fortunes in the cause of royalty, he could 
 not reverence the blind principle by which they were 
 actuated. He could not do homage to that unreason- 
 ing, abject, dog-like fidelity which levels man to the
 
 BRAMBLKTYE HOUSE. 321 
 
 brute, by making him crouch to the earth, and lick 
 the feet of his master, and only increased his crawling 
 submission as his oppressor becomes more cruel and 
 tyrannical. According to his interpretation of the word, 
 loyalty signified that submission to the law which, 
 while it inculcated fealty to an individual for the good 
 of the community, called upon every true patriot to 
 withdraw his allegiance from the mistaken monarch 
 who should attempt to subvert the constitution which 
 he was appointed to guard. This contingency ap- 
 peared to him to be rapidly approaching. From the 
 avowed religion of the Duke of York, the next heir to 
 the throne, as well as from the political measures of 
 the Cabal, he saw clearly that it was intended to in- 
 troduce Popery and arbitrary power ; and, as he did 
 not believe that the people of England would tamely 
 submit to this double outrage upon their rights and 
 feelings, he was not sorry to withdraw himself from 
 the approaching struggle, at least until the arrival of 
 the moment when he might contribute his individual 
 efforts to the good cause, with some prospect of bene- 
 fiting his country. 
 
 Under the influence of these impressions, he retired 
 with his wife to the Chateau in Normandy, which, to- 
 gether with the ample estates that surrounded it, had 
 been presented to them by the munificent Constantia ; 
 and its romantic situation, combined with the amiable 
 and lively character of the French people, and the fa- 
 cilities of more frequent communications with their be- 
 nefactress, attached him permanently to the spot. If 
 ever the reader have travelled the beautiful lower road 
 from Paris to Rouen, he has doubtless paused upon 
 the heights that overhang Saint Ouen to admire the 
 rich prospect before him, watered by the Seine, there 
 
 VOL. II. Y
 
 322 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 a broad and majestic river, studded with numerous 
 green and romantic islands. Upon those heights, and 
 in full command of this picturesque and extensive view, 
 stood the Chateau until the time of the Revolution, 
 when it was purchased by the Bande Noire, and de- 
 molished for the sake of the materials. The stables, 
 however, converted into a farm-house, and still exhi- 
 biting the remains of the Compton-arms over the Porte- 
 cochere, are now in existence ; and the name of the- 
 Bois de Compton, retained to this day by the wood 
 that sheltered the back of the mansion, sufficiently 
 attests its site. 
 
 Freed from all the painful circumstances and dis- 
 heartening associations, that had hitherto checked, 
 though they could not entirely suppress, the natural 
 exuberance of her spirits ; and animated by the prin- 
 ciple, that the innocent happiness of the creature must 
 be the most acceptable offering to the Creator, his 
 beloved Julia constituted the delight of her husband, 
 and dispensed cheerfulness and gaiety over the whole 
 sphere in which she moved. Jocelyn's own experience 
 had convinced him that vicious indulgence was not 
 less discreditable to the head than dull and disappoint- 
 ing to the heart ; not less culpable as a crime than 
 contemptible as a proof of stupidity ; and the example 
 of Julia now afforded him a perpetual evidence that 
 there is no felicity so pure, no joyousness so unfailing, 
 as those which spring from the self- satisfaction of 
 virtue. All the misanthropical notions which he had 
 for a moment imbibed, when he was seeking to justify 
 his own evil courses by attributing the same depravity 
 to others, he now utterly abjured ; protesting, in his 
 vindication, lhat he had never been ;i misogynist, since, 
 in his progress through life, lie had invariably found
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 323 
 
 that all the more exalted, heroical, and sublime in- 
 stances of constancy, virtue, disinterestedness, and 
 self'-devotedness, had been furnished by the female 
 sex. 
 
 Well, indeed, might he say so, after the sacrifices 
 Constantia had made for his happiness ; well might he 
 continue to entertain that feeling as he perused her 
 letters. In those high and holy effusions, the celestial 
 ardour of which was not, like that of Eloise, desecrated 
 by the remains of an earthly passion, she congratulated 
 herself more and more upon the choice she had made, 
 and painted, in glowing colours, the pure and unalloyed 
 felicity of her existence. Her enthusiasm had now 
 assumed that tendency, to which, by the constitution 
 of her mind, it had always been peculiarly adapted : 
 her heart had found an object upon which it might 
 pour out its affections even to overflowing ; the yearn- 
 ings of her soul might now satiate themselves to the 
 very fulness of fruition. Only attached to this fleshly 
 scene by the exercise of her charities, and by her cor- 
 respondence with Julia and Jocelyn, she was, in all 
 other respects, filling an intermediate existence, heaven- 
 ly in all her thoughts, feelings, and aspirations, although 
 her spirit was not yet set free from earth. She con- 
 templated the world as a glorious and majestic, though 
 fleeting pageant, the chief use of which was to lift up 
 her thoughts to the Creator. Earth, with its sun and 
 moon, the stars and clouds with their overhanging 
 firmament, were but as conductors that brought down 
 to her bosom the heavenly flame of holiness ; or rather 
 they were as stepping-stones for her imagination, by 
 which she was enabled to pass over the depths of 
 space, and climb up to the highest heaven, to hear the 
 melody of seraph harps and angel voices, and gaze
 
 324 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. 
 
 upon the ineffable glories of the Divine presence, until, 
 in an antepast of the celestial beatitudes, her soul 
 fainted with excess of ecstasy. These flights of the 
 spirit, escaping for a short while from the body that 
 engaged it, might be termed raptures, visions, dreams, 
 but what dull reality of life, what " sober certainty 
 of waking bliss," was ever half so pure, so sweet, so 
 exquisite ? 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 ANI>O\ ER : 
 SlKK;-;OTYi'KD 4.N1) FRlNTiiD BV B. BENSI.EY.
 
 a g 
 
 I * 
 
 _M I, |2 ^ 
 
 ^Aavaan-^ 
 
 
 
 & u- 
 ^5 O
 
 
 .5ME-UNIVERS/ 
 
 fc ~ s 
 
 A 000137861 1
 
 SiiaslaS