"Ay, man, wherefore not ?-does not her service to his fair lady require guerdon ?"

"She shall have none on't," said Foster ; she shall return it. I know his dotage on one face is as brief as it is deep. His affections are as fickle as the moon."

"Why, Foster, thou art mad-thou dost not hope for such good

fortune as that my lord should cast an eye on Janet? Who, in the fiend's name, would listen to the thrush when the nightingale is singing?"

"Thrush or nightingale, all is one to the fowler; and Master Varney, you can sound the quailpipe most daintily to wile wantons into his nets. I desire no such devil's preferment for Janet as you have brought many a poor maiden to. Dost thou laugh ?—I will keep one limb of my family, at least, from Satan's clutches, that thou mayst rely on-she shall restore the gold."

"Ay, or give it to thy keeping, Tony, which will serve as well," answered Varney; "but I have that to say which is more serious. Our lord is returning to court in an evil humour for us."

"How meanest thou?" said Foster; "is he tired already of his pretty toy-his plaything yonder? He has purchased her at a monarch's ransom, and I warrant me he rues his bargain."

"Not a whit, Tony," answered the master of the horse; "he dotes on her, and will forsake the court for her-then down go hopes, possessions, and safety-church lands are resumed, Tony, and well if the holders be not called to account in Exchequer."

"That were ruin," said Foster, his brow darkening with apprehensions; "and all this for a woman! Had it been for his soul's sake it were something; and I sometimes wish I myself could fling away the world that cleaves to me, and be as one of the poorest of our church."

"Thou art like enough to be so, Tony," answered Varney; "but I think the devil will give thee little credit for thy compelled poverty, and so thou losest on all hands. But follow my counsel, and Cumnor Place shall be thy copyhold yet. Say nothing of this Tressilian's visit-not a word until I give thee notice."

"And wherefore, I pray you ?" asked Foster, suspiciously.

"Dull beast!" replied Varney; "in my lord's present humour it were the ready way to confirm him in his resolution of retirement, should he know that his lady was haunted with such a spectre in his absence. He would be for playing the dragon himself over his golden fruit, and then, Tony, thy occupation is ended. A word to the wise -farewell-I must follow him."

He turned his horse, struck him with the spurs, and rode off under the archway in pursuit of his lord.

"Would thy occupation were ended, or thy neck broken, damned pander!" said Anthony Foster. "But I must follow his beck, for his interest and, mine are the same, and he can wind the proud Earl to his will. Janet shall gave me these pieces, though-they shall be laid out in some way for God's service, and I will keep them separate in my strong chest till I can fall upon a fitting employment for them. No contagious vapour shall breathe on Janet-she shall remain pure as a blessed spirit, were it but to pray God for her father. I need her prayers, for I am at a hard pass-strange reports are abroad concerning my way of life. The congregation look cold on me, and when Master Holdforth spoke of hypocrites being like a whited sepulchre, which within was full of dead men's bones, methought he looked full at me. The Romish was a comfortable faith; Lambourne spoke true in that. A man had but to follow his thrift by such ways as offered-tell his beads-hear a mass-confess and be absolved. These Puritans tread a harder and a rougher path; but I will try— I will read my Bible for an hour ere I again open mine iron chest." Varney, meantime, spurred after his lord, whom he found waiting for him at the postern-gate of the park.

"You waste time, Varney," said the Earl, "and it presses. I must be at Woodstock before I can safely lay aside my disguise; and till then I journey in some peril."

"It is but two hours' brisk riding, my lord," said Varney; "for me, I only stopped to enforce your commands of care and secrecy on

F

yonder Foster, and to enquire about the abode of the gentleman whom I would promote to your lordship's train, in the room of Trevors."

"Is he fit for the meridian of the antechamber, think'st thou?" said the Earl.

"He promises well, my lord,” replied Varney; "but if your lordship would please to ride on, I could go back to Cumnor, and bring him to your lordship at Woodstock before you are out of bed."

'Why, I am asleep there, thou knowest, at this moment," said the Earl ; "and I pray you not to spare horse-flesh, that you may be with me at my levee."

So saying, he gave his horse the spur, and proceeded on his journey, while Varney rode back to Cumnor by the public road, avoiding the park. The latter alighted at the door of the bonny Black Bear, and desired to speak with Master Michael Lambourne. That respectable character was not long of appearing before his new patron, but it was with downcast looks.

"Thou hast lost the scent," said Varney, "of thy comrade Tressilian-I know it by thy hang-dog visage. Is this thy alacrity, thou impudent knave?"

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Cogswounds!" said Lambourne," there was never a trail so finely hunted. I saw him to earth at mine uncle's here-stuck to him like bees' wax-saw him at supper—watched him to his chamber, and presto, he is gone next morning, the very hostler knows not where !" "This sounds like practice upon me, sir," replied Varney; "and if it prove so, by my soul you shall repent it !"

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Sir, the best hound will be sometimes at fault," answered Lambourne; "how should it serve me that this fellow should have thus evanished? You may ask mine host, Giles Gosling-ask the tapster and hostler-ask Cicely, and the whole household, how I kept eyes on Tressilian while he was on foot. On my soul, I could not be expected to watch him like a sick nurse, when I had seen him fairly a-bed in his chamber. That will be allowed me, surely."

Varney did, in fact, make some enquiry among the household, which confirmed the truth of Lambourne's statement. Tressilian, it was unanimously agreed, had departed suddenly and unexpectedly, betwixt night and morning.

"But I will wrong no one,” said mine host; "he left on the table in his lodging the full value of his reckoning, with some allowance to the servants of the house, which was the less necessary that he saddled his own gelding, as it seems, without the hostler's assistance."

Thus satisfied of the rectitude of Lambourne's conduct, Varney

began to talk to him upon his future prospects, and the mode in which he meant to bestow himself, intimating that he understood from Foster he was not disinclined to enter into the household of a nobleman. "Have you," said he, "ever been at court?"

"No," replied Lambourne; "but ever since I was ten years old I have dreamt once a-week that I was there, and made my fortune." "It may be your own fault if your dream comes not true," said Varney. "Are you needy?"

“Um!” replied Lambourne ; "I love pleasure."

"That is a sufficient answer, and an honest one," said Varney. "Know you aught of the requisites expected from the retainer of a rising courtier ?"

"I have imagined them to myself, sir," answered Lambourne ; “as, for example, a quick eye-a close mouth-a ready and bold hand -a sharp wit, and a blunt conscience."

“And thine, I suppose," said Varney, "has had its edge blunted long since ?"

"I cannot remember, sir, that its edge was ever over keen,” replied Lambourne. "When I was a youth I had some few whimsies, but I rubbed them partly out of my recollection on the rough grindstone of the wars, and what remained I washed out in the broad waves of the Atlantic."

"Thou hast served, then, in the Indies ?”

"In both East and West," answered the candidate for courtservice, “by both sea and land; I have served both the Portugal and the Spaniard-both the Dutchman and the Frenchman, and have made war on our own account with a crew of jolly fellows, who held there was no peace beyond the line.t

"Thou mayst do me, and my lord, and thyself good service," said Varney, after a pause. "But observe, I know the world—and answer me truly, canst thou be faithful?"

"Did you not know the world," answered Lambourne, "it were my duty to say ay without further circumstance, and to swear to it with life and honour, and so forth. But as it seems to me that your worship is one who desires rather honest truth than politic falsehood -I reply to you that I can be faithful to the gallows' foot, ay, to the loop that dangles from it, if I am well used and well recompensed; not otherwise."

"To thy other virtues thou canst add, no doubt," said Varney, in a jeering tone, "the knack of seeming serious and religious, when

the moment demands it?"

+ Sir Francis Drake, Morgan, and many a bold Buccanier of those days, were, in fact, little better than pirates.

"It would cost me nothing," said Lambourne, "to say yes-but to speak on the square, I must needs say no. If you want a hypocrite you may take Anthony Foster, who, from his childhood, had some sort of phantom haunting him which he called religion, though it was that sort of godliness which always ended in being great gain. But I have no such knack of it."

"Well," replied Varney, "if thou hast no hypocrisy, hast thou not a nag here in the stable?"

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Ay, sir," said Lambourne, "that shall take hedge and ditch with my Lord Duke's best hunters. When I made a little mistake on Shooter's Hill, and stopped an ancient grazier whose pouches were better lined than his brain pan, the bonny bay nag carried me sheer off, in spite of the whole hue and cry."

"Saddle him then, instantly, and attend me," said Varney. "Leave thy clothes and baggage under charge of mine host, and I will conduct thee to a service, in which, if thou do not better thyself the fault shall not be fortune's, but thine own."

"Brave and hearty!" said Lambourne, “and I am mounted in an instant. Knave, hostler, saddle my nag without the loss of one second, as thou dost value the safety of thy noddle. Pretty Cicely, take half this purse to comfort thee for my sudden departure."

"Gogsnouns?" replied the father, "Cicely wants no such token from thee. Go away, Mike, and gather grace if thou canst, though I think thou goest not to the land where it grows."

"Let me look at this Cicely of thine, mine host," said Varney; "I have heard much talk of her beauty."

"It is a sunburnt beauty," said mine host, "well qualified to stand out rain and wind, but little calculated to please such critical gallants as yourself. She keeps her chamber, and cannot encounter the glance of such sunny-day courtiers as my noble guest."

"Well, peace be with her, my good host," answered Varney; our horses are impatient-we bid you good day."

"Does my nephew go with you, so please you?" said Gosling. "Ay, such is his purpose," answered Richard Varney.

"You are right-fully right,” replied mine host-"you are, I say, fully right, my kinsman. Thou hast got a gay horse, see thou light not unaware upon a halter-or, if thou wilt needs be made immortal by means of a rope, which thy purpose of following this gentleman renders not unlikely, I charge thee to find a gallows as far from Cumnor as thou conveniently mayst; and so I commend you to your saddle."

The master of the horse and his new retainer mounted accordingly, leaving the landlord to conclude his ill-omened farewell to himself