taken to Hexham Castle. Esmond made free with these papers, and found
treasonable matter of King William's reign, the names of Charnock and
Perkins, Sir John Fenwick and Sir John Friend, Rookwood and Lodwick, Lords
Montgomery and Ailesbury, Clarendon and Yarmouth, that had all been
engaged in plots against the usurper; a letter from the Duke of Berwick
too, and one from the king at St. Germains, offering to confer upon his
trusty and well-beloved Francis Viscount Castlewood the titles of Earl and
Marquis of Esmond, bestowed by patent royal, and in the fourth year of his
reign, upon Thomas Viscount Castlewood and the heirs male of his body, in
default of which issue the ranks and dignities were to pass to Francis
aforesaid.

This was the paper, whereof my lord had spoken, which Holt showed him the
very day he was arrested, and for an answer to which he would come back in
a week's time. I put these papers hastily into the crypt whence I had
taken them, being interrupted by a tapping of a light finger at the ring
of the chamber-door: 'twas my kind mistress, with her face full of love
and welcome. She, too, had passed the night wakefully, no doubt; but
neither asked the other how the hours had been spent. There are things we
divine without speaking, and know though they happen out of our sight.
This fond lady hath told me that she knew both days when I was wounded
abroad. Who shall say how far sympathy reaches, and how truly love can
prophesy? "I looked into your room," was all she said; "the bed was
vacant, the little old bed! I knew I should find you here." And tender and
blushing faintly with a benediction in her eyes, the gentle creature
kissed him.

They walked out, hand-in-hand, through the old court, and to the
terrace-walk, where the grass was glistening with dew, and the birds in
the green woods above were singing their delicious choruses under the
blushing morning sky. How well all things were remembered! The ancient
towers and gables of the hall darkling against the east, the purple
shadows on the green slopes, the quaint devices and carvings of the dial,
the forest-crowned heights, the fair yellow plain cheerful with crops and
corn, the shining river rolling through it towards the pearly hills
beyond; all these were before us, along with a thousand beautiful memories
of our youth, beautiful and sad, but as real and vivid in our minds as
that fair and always-remembered scene our eyes beheld once more. We forget