after thee! Thus saith the Lord, whose messenger I am."

CHAPTER XXI.

Consequences of the Puritan's warning.

Coupling Hugh Calveley's present strange appearance and solemn warning
with his previous denunciations uttered in secret, and his intimations
of some dread design, with which he had sought to connect the young man
himself, intimating that its execution would jeopardize his life;
putting these things together, we say, Jocelyn could not for an instant
doubt that the King was in imminent danger, and he felt called upon to
interfere, even though he should be compelled to act against his
father's friend, and the father of Aveline. No alternative, in fact, was
allowed him. As a loyal subject, his duty imperiously required him to
defend his sovereign; and perceiving that no one (in consequence of the
King's injunctions) advanced towards the Puritan, Jocelyn hastily
quitted the Conde de Gondomar, and rushing forward stationed himself
between the monarch and his bold admonisher; and so near to the latter,
that he could easily prevent any attack being made by him upon James.

Evidently disconcerted by the movement, Hugh Calveley signed to the
young man to stand aside, but Jocelyn refused compliance; the rather
that he suspected from the manner in which the other placed his hand in
his breast that he had some weapon concealed about his person. Casting a
look of bitterest reproach at him, which plainly as words
said--"Ungrateful boy, thou hast prevented my purpose," the Puritan
folded his hands upon his breast with an air of deep disappointment.

"Fly!" cried Jocelyn, in a tone calculated only to reach his ears. "I
will defend you with my life. Waste not another moment--fly!"

But Hugh Calveley regarded him with cold disdain, and though he moved
not his lips, he seemed to say, "You have destroyed me; and I will not
remove the guilt of my destruction from your head."

The Puritan's language and manner had filled James with astonishment and
fresh alarm; but feeling secure in the propinquity of Jocelyn to the
object of his uneasiness, and being closely environed by his retinue,
the foremost of whom had drawn their swords and held themselves in
readiness to defend him from the slightest hostile attempt, it was not
unnatural that even so timorous a person as he, should regain his
confidence. Once more, therefore, he restrained by his gestures the
angry impetuosity of the nobles around him, who were burning to cha