ess."

"To your cell----"

Overpowered and heart-stricken, for he hoped to have been granted speech
of the Cavalier, Robin obeyed the mandate, and the Protector of England
passed alone along his palace-roof.

"Ever in the ascendant!" he said, casting his eyes on the star of his
nativity, that shone brightest among the countless multitudes of night.
"High, high, highest, and most powerful," he repeated, gazing upon his
favourite planet with that extraordinary mixture of superstition and
enthusiasm which formed so prominent a part of his most singular
character. "I never saw thee brighter" (he continued) "save upon
Naseby-field, when I watched thy pathway in the heavens, while hundreds
of devoted soldiers couched around me, waiting the morrow's fight.
I prayed beneath thy beam, which, as the Lord permitted, fell right
upon my breast, glistening upon the bright and sturdy iron that
openly, and in the sight of all men, covered it then--pouring into
my heart courage, and confidence into my soul! Would that I might
sleep the sleep of death upon that same field, that you might again
watch over this poor body which now panteth for repose! Yea, there,
under the turf of Naseby, shall my grave be made; there shall I sleep
quietly--quietly--quietly--with thee to keep watch above the bed in
which this poor body shall be at peace, when the ever-restless spirit is
with Him whose right hand led me through the furnace, and made me what I
am. Shine on still, bright star, even to the fulness of thy splendour;
yea, the fulness of thy splendour, which is not yet come. Ah! well do I
remember how you lingered in the grey dawn of morning, eager to behold
my glory--my exceeding triumph upon that eventful field; and thou hast
seen me greater than I dreamed of, great as I can be--or if I can be
greater, to thee all is known, yea, all of the future as well as of the
past is known to thee."

And as he walked along, and again and again traversed the leaded space,
his step was as the step of war and victory; but suddenly it lingered,
and came more heavily, and his foot was more slowly raised, and his
eyes, that so lately drank in the rays of his own star with so much
exultation, fell upon the spot where the little deformed prisoner, even
Robin Hays, of the Gull's Nest Crag, was incarcerated. Again he spoke:
"Complimented by the subtle Frenchman, feared by the cunning Spaniard,
caressed by the temperate Dutch, knelt to by the debased Portuguese,