soon
returned, for night was closing upon them, and they had searched the
ruins of Minster, and galloped over the wild hills of Shepey, without
being able to trace the misguided Jewess. Colonel Jones could,
therefore, do nothing more than advise Sir Michael Livesey (the sheriff,
who resided, as we have stated, at Little Shurland) of the circumstance
that had occurred, and send off to King's Ferry, Sheerness,
Queenborough, and all the little hamlets along the coast, information of
the melancholy event, with orders to prevent any stranger, male or
female, from quitting the island, until his Highness's future pleasure
was known.

The murder of Lady Cecil's favourite was calculated to excite strong
feelings among all classes; for the poor had long considered the
residence of so good a family on their island as a blessing from Heaven;
more particularly, as the former possessor, Sir Herbert, Sir Robert's
elder brother, only lived at Cecil Place occasionally, being of too gay,
too cavalier a temperament, to bide long in so solitary a dwelling. He
had been warmly attached to the house of Stuart; and while his younger
brother sought, and made friends of the Parliamentarian faction, he
remained steady in his loyalty, and firm in his attachment to the
unfortunate and unpopular Charles. Upon this topic we may hereafter
treat: at present, we have to do with the living, not the dead.

We cannot now intrude upon the privacy of either Lady Frances or
Constantia; we must content ourselves with simply stating that Colonel
Jones took his departure, leaving, at Lady Frances's request, a guard of
six soldiers at Cecil Place--a precaution he felt justified in adopting
when he had taken late events into consideration, and was made
acquainted with the miserable condition of Sir Robert's mind, to whom
also he undertook to send immediate medical advice. The servants,
particularly Lady Frances's women, assembled in the great hall, and with
many tears, real and unfeigned tears, lamented the loss of poor
Barbara--talked of the mystery of her birth, and the sudden and almost
supernatural appearance of her father. Greatly did they blame themselves
for permitting him to remove the body, "not knowing," as they said, "but
he would give it heathenish and not Christian burial."

After a little while they conversed upon the malady that had overtaken
their master, and then hints and old tales were thought of, and almost
forgotten rumours of Sir Herbert a