the Spaniard forth to brave it. My pride a
little revolted at the idea of following him; but I persuaded myself
that Isora's happiness, and perhaps her father's safety, depended on my
obtaining some knowledge of the character and designs of this Barnard,
who appeared to possess so dangerous an influence over both daughter and
sire; nor did I doubt but that the old man was now gone forth to meet
him. The times were those of mystery and of intrigue: the emissaries of
the House of Stuart were restlessly at work among all classes; many of
them, obscure and mean individuals, made their way the more dangerously
from their apparent insignificance. My uncle, a moderate Tory, was
opposed, though quietly and without vehemence, to the claims of the
banished House. Like Sedley, who became so stanch a revolutionist,
he had seen the Court of Charles II. and the character of that King's
brother too closely to feel much respect for either; but he thought it
indecorous to express opposition loudly against a party among whom were
many of his early friends; and the good old knight was too much attached
to private ties to be very much alive to public feeling. However, at
his well-filled board, conversation, generally, though displeasingly to
himself, turned upon politics, and I had there often listened, of
late, to dark hints of the danger to which we were exposed, and of the
restless machinations of the Jacobites. I did not, therefore, scruple to
suspect this Barnard of some plot against the existing state, and I did
it the more from observing that the Spaniard often spoke bitterly of the
English Court, which had rejected some claims he had imagined himself
entitled to make upon it; and that he was naturally of a temper
vehemently opposed to quiet and alive to enterprise. With this
impression, I deemed it fair to seize any opportunity of seeing, at
least, even if I could not question, the man whom the Spaniard himself
confessed to have state reasons for concealment; and my anxiety to
behold one whose very name could agitate Isora, and whose presence could
occasion the state in which I had found her, sharpened this desire into
the keenness of a passion.

While Alvarez descended to the beach, I kept the upper path, which wound
along the cliff. There was a spot where the rocks were rude and broken
into crags, and afforded me a place where, unseen, I could behold what
passed below. The first thing I beheld was a boat approaching rapidly
towa