rd (another
Milo) carried on his back for a wager four bushels salt-water measure,
all the length thereof;" or that the bridge is a veritable esquire,
bearing arms of its own (a ship and bridge proper on a plain field),
and owning lands and tenements in many parishes, with which the said
miraculous bridge has, from time to time, founded charities, built
schools, waged suits at law, and finally (for this concerns us most)
given yearly dinners, and kept for that purpose (luxurious and liquorish
bridge that it was) the best stocked cellar of wines in all Devon.

To one of these dinners, as it happened, were invited in the year 1583
all the notabilities of Bideford, and beside them Mr. St. Leger
of Annery close by, brother of the marshal of Munster, and of Lady
Grenville; a most worthy and hospitable gentleman, who, finding riches
a snare, parted with them so freely to all his neighbors as long as he
lived, that he effectually prevented his children after him from falling
into the temptations thereunto incident.

Between him and one of the bridge trustees arose an argument, whether
a salmon caught below the bridge was better or worse than one caught
above; and as that weighty question could only be decided by practical
experiment, Mr. St. Leger vowed that as the bridge had given him a good
dinner, he would give the bridge one; offered a bet of five pounds that
he would find them, out of the pool below Annery, as firm and flaky a
salmon as the Appledore one which they had just eaten; and then, in the
fulness of his heart, invited the whole company present to dine with him
at Annery three days after, and bring with them each a wife or daughter;
and Don Guzman being at table, he was invited too.

So there was a mighty feast in the great hall at Annery, such as had
seldom been since Judge Hankford feasted Edward the Fourth there; and
while every one was eating their best and drinking their worst, Rose
Salterne and Don Guzman were pretending not to see each other, and
watching each other all the more. But Rose, at least, had to be very
careful of her glances; for not only was her father at the table, but
just opposite her sat none other than Messrs. William Cary and Arthur
St. Leger, lieutenants in her majesty's Irish army, who had returned on
furlough a few days before.

Rose Salterne and the Spaniard had not exchanged a word in the last six
months, though they had met many times. The Spaniard by no means avoided
her compan