rk upon the coldness of the weather.

"Has my Lord Rookwood passed this way?" inquired he, reining in his
horse.

"He has, in truth," replied the servant, catching dexterously the
silver piece tossed him. "Even now, together with Mistress Vaux, he is
within the house."

"Vaux! Anne Vaux!" muttered Catesby, "there must be then some weighty
matter afoot that she comes to Hendlip." And touching his horse with
the spur, he galloped up the avenue which led to the main entrance of
the mansion. Being well known by its inmates he was at once conducted
to an upper chamber, the door of which was unbarred by Owen, who
motioned him to enter.

There were three occupants of the room. Before the great fireplace,
ablaze with logs, sat Henry Garnet. Scarce past middle age, the
learned prelate was a striking figure, clad though he was in the
simple, dark-hued garb of his Order. Beneath a brow white and smooth
as a child's, shone a noble countenance, gentle almost to effeminacy,
but redeemed by firm lines about the mouth, and the intensity of the
steel-gray eyes. As Catesby entered, these eyes, which had been gazing
abstractedly into the fire, lighted with a smile of welcome.

One of the Jesuit's companions was a personage whose dress and manner
proclaimed him a noble of the period. He leaned indolently against the
frame of the wide window facing the avenue, through which the horseman
had come, and he it was, Lord Rookwood, who first announced to the
Prelate that a visitor approached.

The third occupant of the apartment was a woman. Born and bred in
luxury, the daughter of a peer of England, Anne Vaux was numbered
among the most devoted followers of the Superior. Scarce six and
twenty, she had passed her minority at the court of Elizabeth, and the
accession of James the First had marked no change in the life of the
lady-in-waiting. Anne of Denmark, pleased with the loveliness of the
daughter of Lord Vaux, had retained her near her person.

Pausing on the threshold, Catesby took in the three personages at a
glance, but it was to the Jesuit that he offered his first salutation,
dropping on one knee as Garnet extended his hand, upon a finger of
which glistened the signet ring denoting his holy office.

"Welcome, Sir Robert Catesby!" murmured the Prelate, motioning the
cavalier to draw near the fire. "'Tis, indeed, a most happy
circumstance which brings to Hendlip so devoted a servant to the cause
of God."

"The more happy," repl