virtues."

"Eustace Evellin!" returned the good Lady, while her eyes filled with
tears, "Did you know him, Sir?--The murderous insurgents cut him off at
Pembroke in cold blood. That is their usual method; they only spare
useless logs like myself--a withered blasted tree, stripped of all its
branches, fit only to sustain the trophies of their accursed triumph.
How long, Lord, how long!" continued she, wringing her hands and looking
up to Heaven.

Dr. Lloyd now cautiously informed her of the almost miraculous escape of
Eustace, and the lively interest he took in his preservation. He added
an account of the dangers of De Vallance, and assured her, that he had
left them both in his cottage, as safe and happy as English Loyalists
could be, while their country groaned under the yoke of Cromwell. The
fortitude, nay even the corporeal strength of Mrs. Mellicent, revived at
the recital; her own necessities were forgotten, and she scarcely
lamented that she had not now a house to welcome, or even the widow's
barley-cake to bestow on, the kind protector of the generous youths whom
she so fondly loved. Every regret was lost in the prospect of better
times, in the future happiness of Constantia and Isabel, in the
restoration of the Neville line, and the adoption of the amiable De
Vallance into its unpolluted branch. Only one life appeared to stand in
the way of their felicity:--Remove the stern Usurper, a penitent nation,
weary of oppression, would joyfully welcome back its exiled Sovereign.
What might not the Beaumonts and the Nevilles hope from the justice of a
Prince for whom they had bled and suffered! Such agreeable reveries as
these supported Mrs. Mellicent's spirits during that long period of
suspense, in which (for fiction must not anticipate the slow progress of
history) she expected their realization. And if hope invested the
enlivening phantom of royal gratitude in too gorgeous colours, may we
not bless, rather than censure, the fortunate delusion? We are to
consider, that the venerable spinster having passed her days in privacy,
was ignorant of the chicanery of courts, and disposed to believe, that
honour, gratitude, and sincerity, are the inseparable concomitants of
illustrious birth. She herself never forgot either her benefactors or
her enemies; and she knew not how early Princes are taught to consider
the sacrifice of life and fortune as positive debts due to them from
their subjects. She was not aware how often exp