ted over his breast and shoulders; his arched brows
were still more elevated by disdain, while, glancing his eyes from his
screaming sister and her trembling husband, he fixed their
unextinguished lustre on the President. "I am an evidence for Eusebius
Beaumont," said he; "tender me the oath. My name is Allan Neville, and I
require to be confronted with Walter De Vallance, calling himself Earl
of Bellingham. Let him not escape," continued he, lifting his staff as
it were an ensign of authority. "I accuse him of perfidy, calumny,
fraud, usurpation, and murder."

Bellingham had more self-command than his guilty consort. His long
acquaintance with the terrors of guilt made him ever on his guard. He
knew of the preservation of Allan Neville during the civil wars, but he
hoped the death of his son might have terminated his days, or
irrecoverably clouded his reason; yet he was ever in apprehension of
having his title to greatness disproved by a living claimant, though he
knew all written documents to confirm his treachery had been destroyed.
He had resolved, if ever this man of many woes should burst upon him, to
abide by the criminal's last resource, denial of his identity, and
solemn protestations of his own innocence: and though the abode of
Neville had been so carefully concealed, that no trace of his residence
in London had been discovered, even by the vigilance of Oliverian spies,
the terrors to which the wretched Bellingham was a constant prey gave
him a degree of adroitness in a moment of surprise. Though a coward,
when only in the presence of God and his own conscience, the adhesive
habits of a practised courtier, gave him effrontery and address when
endeavouring to propitiate mankind in his favour.

"My Lord President," said he, "I must request that this unhappy maniac
may be taken into custody. The sight is too dreadful to the weakened
spirits of Lady Bellingham. Being a distant kinsman, we long supported
him by our bounty; but his disordered imagination has persuaded him that
he is the brother of my countess--that unfortunate and guilty man has
been long since numbered with the dead."

Neville answered with stern composure, "Stand forth, David Williams;
identify thy true Lord, the son of thy old master, to whom thou hast
adhered in all his calamities." Williams instantly complied with the
requisition, and Neville, then turning his indignant eyes on the
horror-struct Bellingham, exclaimed--"I trusted thee with my