ummer's day. No sooner were the Presbyterian republicans subdued by the
fanatics, who had gained the entire command of the army, than the murder
of the King, and the vindictive persecution of loyalty and episcopacy,
plainly shewed that, in the nomenclature of these men, forbearance and
liberty meant self-aggrandizement and most merciless oppression of all
who dissented from their opinions.

Major Monthault had sufficient political versatility and natural
baseness to be a busy actor in these scenes of perfidy and depravity;
but his talents were too limited to acquire distinction among men of
deep penetration, profoundly skilled in the art of fomenting and
managing the malignant passions; besides, the open scandal of his
profligate manners ill suited the decorous exterior of seeming saints.
His treachery to the Royal cause, therefore, only purchased him the
liberty of compounding for his estate at a less fine than was extorted
from persons of untarnished fidelity; and he was laid by as an
instrument equally mean and vile, incapable of further use. A bad heart
can never taste the pleasures which belong to tranquillity; and inaction
is torture to those who must shun reflection. Monthault had no resource
but in the indulgence of his brutal appetites. The beauty of Constantia
excited desire, while the avowed contempt with which she treated him
convinced him that the blandishments of flattery and persevering
assiduity would never remove the impressions which she had conceived to
his disadvantage. The licence of these disorderly times was favourable
to deeds of violence. Monthault formed the project of carrying off his
mistress by force, and securing her in his parental castle; and
disbanded soldiers were easily found, alike daring and lawless, to
execute such an atrocious design.

The only difficulty attendant on this undertaking seemed to consist in
wresting her from the protection of her friends; for though courts of
law no longer afforded relief to injured loyalists, a police was still
preserved, and the precincts of a college could not be violated with
impunity, or indeed with a prospect of success. He resorted, therefore,
to stratagem, invented a tale of distress, and disguised a female
accomplice to pass as the widow of a soldier who had fallen at Naseby. A
story of sick children perishing for want was likely to operate on the
feelings of humane young women. Constantia and Isabel were soon drawn
beyond the walls of Oxfo