, dry the
tears of your orphan girl."

In this manner did Isabel try to console the man of many sorrows, but he
had taken his resolution, and even when most composed, would not be
diverted from his purpose of following Dr. Beaumont to London, that he
might be ready to confront his enemies, or to share his fate. Mrs.
Mellicent was consulted on the subject, and she thought this
determination should not be opposed. It had been already agreed upon,
that Constantia should follow her father, and attend him in confinement;
and it was now settled, that Isabel and Evellin should privately
accompany her. Disguised as beggars, they were removed out of the
village, and being joined by Williams and Constantia, proceeded towards
London as fast as their destitute condition admitted.

They had left Waverly-Hall some weeks, when Dr. Lloyd and Jobson arrived
to communicate tidings which they thought would change the house of
mourning to the abode of happiness. But no sound or sight indicated that
these lonely ruins now afforded shelter to man. No trace of inhabitants
was visible.--No monarch of the feathered brood was heard aloud to crow;
no smoke rising from the chimney announced the preparation of the
homely, but social meal. Jobson entered at the unresisting door; the
furniture, like the family, had disappeared. He ventured into the secret
chamber, that too was vacant; nothing remained but the couch on which
the noble veteran had stretched his palsied frame, and, magnanimously
enduring his own anguish, descanted on the arduous duties of a soldier.

"Ah, worthy Doctor," said the dismayed Jobson, "those confounded
Roundheads have caught him at last. Here are some of the tatters of his
poor old roque-laure, and the woollen cap Mrs. Isabel used to draw over
his head so carefully. Here she used to kneel by his side, say her
prayers, and sometimes sing in such a sweet low voice; and then the
Colonel would kiss her, and tell her she would kill herself with
watching him. But when she crept through that little arch to go away, he
would look at her as if his soul was parting from his body. And then she
would come back again, and say she had not shaken hands with the honest
trooper, (meaning me,) and would whisper me, to keep up his spirits; and
so they would trifle away half the night."--"'Serjeant,' the Colonel used
to say to me, bless his good heart! though I never was more than a
corporal, 'that girl has the courage of a lion.' 'Aye, and a