o his
hands before her final release from all earthly cares and anxieties; and
in consideration of the length and importance of her services, none were
surprised at the readiness with which her request was granted.

Lord Greville had never visited the North since the death of his first
wife, a young and beautiful woman whom he had tenderly loved, and who
died and was interred at Greville Cross. She left no children, and the
heir, a fine boy in the full bloom of childhood and beauty, who
now accompanied Lord Greville, was the sole offspring of his second
marriage.

Helen, the present Lady Greville, was by birth a Percy; and although her
predecessor had been celebrated at the Court of Charles, as one of the
most distinguished beauties of her time, there were many who considered
her eclipsed by the lovely and gentle being who now filled her place.
She was considerably younger than her husband; but her attachment to
him, and to her child, as well as her naturally domestic disposition,
prevented the ill effects often resulting from disparity of years. Lord
Greville, whose parents were zealous supporters of the royal cause, had
himself shared the banishment of the second Charles; had fought by his
side in his hour of peril, and shared the revelries of his court in
his after days of prosperity. At an age when the judgement is
rarely matured, unless by an untimely encounter with the dangers and
adversities of the world, such as those disastrous times too often
afforded, he had been employed with signal success in several foreign
missions; and it was universally known that the monarch was ever prompt
publicly to acknowledge the benefit he had on many occasions derived
from the prudent counsels of his adherent, as well as from his valour in
the field.

But notwithstanding the bond of union subsisting between them, from
the period of his first marriage, which had taken place under the Royal
auspices, Greville had retired to Silsea Castle; and resisting equally
the invitations of his condescending master, and the entreaties of his
former gay companions, he had never again joined the amusements of the
court. Whether this retirement originated in some disgust occasioned by
the licentious habits and insolent companions of Charles, whose
present mode of life was peculiarly unfitted to the purer taste, and
intellectual character of Lord Greville; or, whether it arose solely
from his natural distaste for the parasitical existence of a