while the mob surrounded it."

"Did you not hear them coming?"

"I did."

"And yet you did not attempt to escape from them?"

"No, I could not persuade them I was not there save by my utter silence.
I allowed them to come too close to leave myself time to
escape--besides, I could hardly persuade myself there could be any
necessity for so doing."

"It was fortunate it was as it happened afterwards, that you were able
to reach the wood, and get out of it unperceived by the mob."

"I should have been in an unfortunate condition had I been in their
hands long. A man made of iron would not be able to resist the brutality
of those people."

As they were speaking, a gig, with two men, drove up, followed by one on
horseback. They stopped at the garden-gate, and then tarried to consult
with each other, as they looked at the house.

"What can they want, I wonder?" inquired Henry; "I never saw them
before."

"Nor I," said Charles Holland.

"Do you not know them at all?" inquired Varney.

"No," replied Flora; "I never saw them, neither can I imagine what is
their object in coming here."

"Did you ever see them before?" inquired Henry of his mother, who held
up her hand to look more carefully at the strangers; then, shaking her
head, she declared she had never seen such persons as those.

"I dare say not," said Charles Holland. "They certainly are not
gentlemen; but here they come; there is some mistake, I daresay--they
don't want to come here."

As they spoke, the two strangers got down; after picking up a topcoat
they had let fall, they turned round, and deliberately put it into the
chaise again; they walked up the path to the door, at which they
knocked.

The door was opened by the old woman, when the two men entered.

"Does Francis Beauchamp live here?"

"Eh?" said the old woman, who was a little deaf, and she put her hand
behind her ear to catch the sounds more distinctly--"eh?--who did you
say?"

Sir Francis Varney started as the sounds came upon his ear, but he sat
still an attentive listener.

"Are there any strangers in the house?" inquired the other officer,
impatiently. "Who is here?"

"Strangers!" said the old woman; "you are the only strangers that I have
seen here."

"Come," said the officer to his companion, "come this way; there are
people in this parlour. Our business must be an apology for any rudeness
we may commit."

As he spoke he stepped by the old woman, and laying his hand upon