doleful creature, if you would not lose her for ever. I hope you will do so, for I have never done, and never will do aught which could displease you, but I am ready to die for attachment to your person and power. By my faith, my redoubted lord and prince, by the love of God and my Lord St. George, I beg you to consider my melancholy situation, for it seems as if you had entirely forgotten me.

"Nothing more have I to say at present, but that I ought sooner to have sent Sir Louis de Monfoort to you; for he cannot longer remain here, though he kept close to me when I was abandoned by all the rest, and he will tell you more particularly all that has happened than I can do in a letter. I entreat, therefore, you will be a kind lord to him, and send me your good pleasure and command, which I will most heartily obey. This is well known to the blessed son of God, whom I pray to grant you a long and happy life, and that I may have the great joy of soon seeing you!

"Written in the false and traitorous town

of Mons, with a doleful heart, the 6th day of

July.

"Your sorrowful and well-beloved daughter,

suffering great grief for your service,

"JACQUELINE."

It was impossible for Glocester to resist such appeals as these. On the receipt of this letter, delivered into his hands in London by the faithful Ludwick Van Monfoort, he gave himself no time for reflection or scruple. He at once made up his mind to accompany the bold Hollander to a proposed meeting with Jacqueline and the Bishop of Utrecht, which she did not venture to allude to in her written communication, but entrusted to Van Monfoort's verbal announcement, and which her secret departure from Mons with her mother enabled her to effect. The rough but honest eloquence of Van Monfoort made great impression on the lord protector; and the picture presented to him of

Jacqueline's heroic endurance of all the ills that beset her, caused him keen pangs of remorse, that he could only hope to allay by a prompt measure of generosity towards her. He immediately summoned the Earl of Salisbury and Lord Fitz-walter to a secret council. The former of these, inflamed with jealousy against Philip of Burgundy, was anxiously longing for the protector's orders to set out with a powerful armament, some time in preparation for another invasion of Hainault. But it still required delay to make ready an expedition on so large a scale. All, therefore that could for the moment be done, was to despatch the advanced guard of three thousand men, in itself an important reinforcement, under the command of Fitz-walter, to aid the efforts of Bishop Zweder and the Hoeks, in Holland or Zealand, as might appear best, and strike a grand blow before Philip's preparations for invasion were complete, or that Bedford could interfere in England to prevent this co-operation.

Fitz-walter's heart throbbed with a joy as strong, but less fierce, than Salisbury's; but it was much lessened by Glocester's intimation, as soon as Salisbury retired, that he meant himself to precede the expedition along with Fitz-walter, to meet Jacqueline and the bishop in the proposed rendezvous of the Zeven-volden, and frankly explain to her whom he had so much and so long neglected, the circumstances which prevented him from personally acting in her cause. This generous impulse he resolved, with his usual impetuosity, to carry into effect at once, and to set out without trusting himself to the dangers of a parting interview with Elinor, his courage being strong enough to make him separate from her, but not sufficient to let him meet her dissuasions, her reproaches, or her tears. For the influence she had by this time gained over him was almost boundless whenever she was in his presence; and even when absent, Glocester was in the worst species of slavery to this artful and impassioned enthusiast, for he

firmly believed in her magical skill, and that she held him bound to her by some spell of sorcery, with Bolingbroke's aid, still stronger than the obligation of his oath, or the links of passion.

What private feelings influenced Fitz-walter's dissatisfaction at the protector's decision to accompany him, may be seen hereafter; but whatever they were, he had now no time to brood over them, in the rapid bustle of departure. The troops, which had been for some days waiting ready in the ships, were in another day at sea; while Glocester, Fitz-walter, and Van Monfoort, in the fast sailing brigantine which had borne the latter to England, were already before the wind, in direct course for the Zuyder Zee.

Just before Glocester put his foot on board the brigantine, he despatched a missive to Elinor, telling her (for he dared not quite conceal plans which he believed she had power to divine) of his hasty voyage and its object, announcing that Ven Monfoort's castle in the isle