rded him great relief and satisfaction; but
the feeling was quickly succeeded by one of extreme anger when informed
of the total destruction of the Fire-fly, which he had desired to
preserve for his own special purpose. Yet, until the prisoners had been
conducted into Cecil Place by the private entrance, as he had previously
arranged, his displeasure only found vent in occasional exclamations.
The house was alive with alarm and curiosity, but its inmates received
little information to quiet or to satisfy their eager thirst for
intelligence. As the soldiers passed the gates, lights floated through
the dwelling, and the windows were crowded with inquisitive
countenances; great, therefore, was the disappointment when they
observed the party separate, and one portion of it take a private path,
leading to the Protector's apartments, while the other proceeded round
an angle of the building to the stables. Many of the domestics met them
at the stable gates, but could learn nothing from those trusty soldiers,
who perfectly understood, and invariably acted upon, their master's
favourite motto, "safety in silence;"--still they could not rest, no one
went to bed, for all were in expectation of--they knew not what.

The clock struck one; about five minutes afterwards Cromwell had closed
the door of his chamber; the half-hour chimed. Constance was looking on
her father, sleeping calmly in his chair, in a closet that opened into
his favourite library. He had not been in bed for several nights, and,
since his afflicting insanity, could seldom be prevailed on to enter his
own room. After pausing a few minutes, while her lips appeared to move
with the prayer her heart so fervently formed, she undid the bolt,
quietly opened the door, then partially closed it, and left her wretched
parent alone with his physician.

She could hear within the library, in which she now stood, the heavy
breathings of the afflicted man. A large lamp was burning on the massive
oak-table: it shed a cheerful light, but it was a light too cheerful for
her troubled and feverish spirit--she sank upon a huge carved chair, and
passed her small hand twice or thrice over her brow, where heavy drops
had gathered; then drew towards her the large Bible that had been her
mother's. On the first page, in the hand-writing of that beloved mother,
was registered the day of her marriage, and underneath the births of her
several children, with a short and thanksgiving prayer affix