the plainness, which had degenerated into absolute vulgarity and brutal coarseness, among the ordinary followers of Puritanism.

Sir Everard extracted the honey, and his lady the gall, from every thing and everybody; yet good might have arisen to each out of this dissimilarity, inasmuch as the mingling of opposites may form the most desirable combination, had not Lady Sydney entertained a perfect contempt for her husband's simple tastes and feelings. It is to be lamented that those who judge harshly of human nature too frequently judge rightly; so many flaws and errors were developed in the characters of those whom the baronet, in the warmth and innocence of his heart, had installed in his opinion as paragons of all earthly perfection, that, in a little time, his good word became a passport to the ill graces of his more penetrating lady-wife; this, and numerous other differences, produced a distrust-that first step to disunionwhich increased as they grew older-for wisdom came not with their gathering years.

Sir Everard's pursuits "kept him in innocency," that innocency of heart and action which a judicious woman would have treasured above all earthly possessions. The covert and weakly fosterage bestowed by Charles upon those of the Catholic faith awoke, or rather uproused, Lady Sydney's dangerous ambition. James succeeded his brother, and the cross and the cowl traversed our English streets triumphantly,

"The mass was sung,
And the bells were rung,"

and Father Frank, who, under an assumed name, had expe. rienced the kind attention and protecting care of the liberal master of Sydney Pleasance, came forth in his proper character of "a friar of orders---gray," but not grave; and positively said Latin grace at the table of his Protestant patron : he went further, he even hinted to Lady Sydney that Sir Everard might be wiled over, and Mistress Rosalind compelled to a change of faith; to which the lady replied, "that Sir Everard was hardly worth converting, and as to Mistress Rosalind, the time would soon arrive when she must be domiciled elsewhere, despite her husband's ridiculous attachment to the base-born offspring of his dissipated brother."

Reasons for her dislike to this innocent and unfortunate girl will in time appear; but having mentioned the devoted attachment manifested by Lady Sydney to her son, we must make some note of the handsome and gallant Captain Basil Sydney, the very flower and pink of the army of King James.

Basil was the second son of this ill-assorted marriage, and entered as a soldier during the lifetime of his elder brother, whose naturally weak constitution yielded at last to the pressure of disease; at fifteen the young ensign found himself the heir of his house. How blessed are the feelings of youth, how totally unselfish! this event occasioned him but one sensation-sorrow for his brother's death. He knew how deeply beloved of his father was this boy; even at that young age his observation taught him that this parent was a being more to love than to counsel with, and he determined to pursue steadily the course upon which he had entered his father's letters breathed the very essence of tenderness.

:

"Come to us," he said; "why should you continue with the unruly, when all the calm and quiet of a virtuous and happy life await you here? You are now all we have upon earth to love. It is a fearful thing to hear the gathering storm, and to feel that our only one may be exposed to its violence. You have never been with us except during the intervals of study, yet your mother's heart clings to you as to nothing else in life; it is your name, and your name only, can call the mantling blood to her cheek. Come to us, my son; old Andrew mews your hawks with his wonted care and skill; the falcon, the tassel-gentle, the jack-merlin, and that rare bird, the blood-red rook from Turkey, would afford you sport; their reclaiming, dieting, and practice might pleasure kings. The dogs, I am told, are in good training; and you remember that one of the qualifications which Xenophon praises in his Cyrus was, that he hunted wild beasts. 1 speak not of my own recreations, which may be all too simple for a youth whose first toy was a broadsword; albeit he who is gone loved the hum of bird and bee, the music of the lark, and the small note of the honest robin, with all the purity of a naturalist---he was the more fit for heaven !"

Such was the tone of the father's letter: that of the mother's was different.

"Much as I am afflicted, much as I miss your brother, I would not have you, my son, confined to a life of inglorious ease. I have commended you earnestly to the care of those holy men who are constantly about the person of our blessed ruler, and I make no doubt you will be preserved from the snares of the ungodly, although your father insisted on your being brought up in his creed; the life and actions of our good king (whose piety is thrown over this still too much misguided nation, as a shield for its defence) will doubtless train your fine mind into the right path. God knows how my heart yearns towards you, longs to embrace you, dearest object of my torn affections; yet I would hear of you as creating greatness around you, and distinguishing yourself in the extermination of your king's enemies."

It is impossible not to admire the spirit of self-denial that influenced Lady Sydney's advice to her son: she would have him great, would have him distinguished, though at the sacrifice of those maternal feelings that sprang more warmly than ever within her bosom. She had also another object to answer---the wiling her son from the faith of his father to the faith of his mother.

Sir Everard had been firm and authoritative on this point, if on no other; and conceiving the honour of his family at stake, had watched over the creed of his sons with a carefulness which, despite his simplicity on ordinary matters, neither his wife nor her confessor could frustrate or over

come.

Basil was now in the midst of a Catholic camp, and Lady Sydney had agents ready and willing to play upon the spirit and inexperience of the young and ardent soldier. What would she not sacrifice for the certainty of his salvation! She endeavoured to persuade herself that she would hail his death as a blessing, were she satisfied of his departure in "the true faith;" as it was, her ambition, her imagination, her pent-up feelings of affection, all found something to dwell upon and cherish in this idolized being. It is even doubtful, had he remained at home, that he could have obtained so great a hold over his mother's affections; for then there would not have been a possibility of conveying him to the land of Romance, and investing him with the

Though she thus

attributes and achievements of a hero. panted for distinction for her child, her tenderness increased; every scrap of his handwriting found its resting-place within his mother's bosom; his miniature was the treasure, next to himself, nearest her heart; in times of public tumult, she looked for his being classed above all others in feats of arms; and in the piping times of peace, she hoped he would shine forth the statesman of his country.

Interwoven with Lady Sydney's religious enthusiasm was a strong spirit of superstition; not alone that species of superstition which bends the knee and hallows the relic, but a superstition of a much darker character-a seeking after mysteries, a diving into unknown things; a thirsting for knowledge which, if properly directed, would have made her wise, but, as it was, only rendered her wicked: every star that rose silently and brightly to pursue its appointed path in the blue heavens, to her seemed sent on some especial embassy for the furtherance or impeding of her puny ends and aims; many and long were her night-watches, either from the open casement of her oratory, or from a ruined turret of a portion of the building, which had fallen into picturesque decay; and often had she frightened the timid bird from its nesting bough, and the no less timid hare from its evening meal, while sweeping, dark, lonely, and majestic, to whatever spot in her domain presented the most unobstructed view of some favourite planet, where, enveloped in the midnight folds of her velvet mantle-her head drawn to its full and noble height-her dark eye gleaming and flashing like a meteor beneath her white and towering but contracted forehead-her hands now clasped, now extended, according to the alterations clearly perceptible to her eagle ken in her planet's course, Lady Sydney would watch and pray with the spirit of a Pythoness for whatever she desired, were it for good or for evil; thus communing with the mysteries of the starry heavens by night, and steeping her spirit in the darker observances of her church by day, her character assumed a decided and peculiar cast, sadly at variance with the feelings natural to her age and sex.

Lady Sydney had concluded her morning orisons; chidden her attendant in a low but harsh tone, forasmuch as the precious chalice, containing holy water, had been deprived of a crown of thorns which she had placed upon it as em

blematic of the ruggedness of the world and the cruelty of its ways; and, finally, taken up her breviary, which she looked not in, for her eyes were fixed on the features of a beautiful Madonna that smiled dimly from forth the gloomy niche wherein she was curtained, when a low and particular knock at the door intimated that Father Frank demanded admittance. The worthy priest entered with a more joyous expression of countenance than was even his wont, happyhearted though he was; a smile elongated his mouth, and lent a brightness to his gray and sunken eyes, of which every other feature of his jovial and rubicund countenance partook. Nothing of austerity was there about the good father, nothing harsh, nothing naturally unkind; he was one of those who create a summer atmosphere around them, and if the blight of prejudice occasionally fell on and cankered the kindly fruits of so good a temperament, it was evidently the effect of education, not the natural habit of his mind; even Lady Sydney's austerity could not conquer his free and happy

nature.

After the usual morning salutations had passed, Lady Sydney waited for the holy man to convey the information of which he seemed brimful; her eye questioned, though her lip spoke not, and after some, hesitation he commenced :

"Sir Everard has gone forth earlier even than usual, to entrap the nest of some unwary bird, for I encountered him and his shadow near the river; he may meet with a most extraordinary, I may say joyful, surprise on his return."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Lady Sydney. "Have you then, father, condescended to prepare such a surprise for the lord of Sydney Pleasance? Have you procured him a goldfinch with three wings instead of two? Or," she added, with a smile that had more of the bitter than the sweet in its composition, "has some one of the village urchins presumed again to play upon the credulity of the chief of an ancient house, and sent forth a pigeon painted as a crow, to induce him to believe in a new race of-what do you term them?" "Corvi."

"And have they further presumed to consult you on this impertinence?"

Father Frank fidgeted on his seat in rather an undignified manner, for the story militated sadly against himself, inasmuch as he was shrewdly suspected of having more to do