not ensure his
safety. The sentiments he had imbibed from Barton led him to prefer the
more moderate counsels, and in the conduct of the contending factions he
had seen so much to condemn, that he wished to abstain from all
interference in public affairs. But his mother misinterpreting his
seclusion into a preference of his father's party, invited Cromwell to
Castle Bellingham, on his march against the Duke of Hamilton, and
requested that he would take her son with him as one of his suite. More
like a captive than a volunteer, Lord Sedley was compelled to acquiesce
in her proposal; but the intimate view which his situation gave him of
Cromwell's character, inspired him with the most revolting disgust. The
domestic situation of his parents dispirited him on the one side, while
something more than indifference to the cause for which he fought
operated on the other, till, hopeless of better times, careless of
safety, and desirous rather of losing life than of gaining glory, he
rushed into the battle; yet, when the conflict began, he felt roused by
a mechanical impulse, and, engaging in a hot pursuit of some of the
northern horse, he received those wounds from one of the troopers, which
nearly terminated his existence.

"Such, Isabel," continued he, "is the present condition of him, who must
again owe his life to your pity. I have no home, but one occupied by a
mother, engaged in plots for the destruction of her husband, and
determined to render her son the creature of an ambitious hypocrite,
rather than serve whom, he would die. I cannot join my father, for that
would be to add a second victim to the one, whom Cromwell has resolved
to expose to the sharpest ordeal. My hereditary claim to rank and title
is now merely the vision of a shadow, for I know it is the secret
intention of the fanatics to abolish the Peers as a political body, and
estates are now held by permission rather than right, nor are the
possessors secure of their inheritance for a single day. Greatness is
thus reduced to the bare simplicity of individual desert. In you,
Isabel, I see the genuine loveliness of unsophisticated virtue, the
qualities of fortitude, discretion, and sincerity, which these arduous
times peculiarly require. At present I have had little opportunity to
shew you my character, but let me intreat permission to be sheltered
under your uncle's roof, till I can arrange some plan for my future
conduct, and shew you more of the heart which i