mber of
his courtiers, only three or four attended him on the scrutiny which he
intended. Whilst, therefore, the rest of the train amused themselves
as they might in other parts of the Tower, the King, accompanied by the
Dukes of Buckingham, Ormond, and one or two others, walked through the
well-known hall, in which is preserved the most splendid magazine of
arms in the world, and which, though far from exhibiting its present
extraordinary state of perfection, was even then an arsenal worthy of
the great nation to which it belonged.

The Duke of Ormond, well known for his services during the Great Civil
War, was, as we have elsewhere noticed, at present rather on cold terms
with his Sovereign, who nevertheless asked his advice on many occasions,
and who required it on the present amongst others, when it was not a
little feared that the Parliament, in their zeal for the Protestant
religion, might desire to take the magazines of arms and ammunition
under their own exclusive orders. While Charles sadly hinted at such a
termination of the popular jealousies of the period, and discussed with
Ormond the means of resisting, or evading it, Buckingham, falling a
little behind, amused himself with ridiculing the antiquated appearance
and embarrassed demeanour of the old warder who attended on the
occasion, and who chanced to be the very same who escorted Julian
Peveril to his present place of confinement. The Duke prosecuted his
raillery with the greater activity, that he found the old man, though
restrained by the place and presence, was rather upon the whole testy,
and disposed to afford what sportsmen call _play_ to his persecutor.
The various pieces of ancient armour, with which the wall was covered,
afforded the principal source of the Duke's wit, as he insisted upon
knowing from the old man, who, he said, could best remember matters
from the days of King Arthur downwards at the least, the history of the
different warlike weapons, and anecdotes of the battles in which they
had been wielded. The old man obviously suffered, when he was obliged,
by repeated questions, to tell the legends (often sufficiently absurd)
which the tradition of the place had assigned to particular relics. Far
from flourishing his partisan, and augmenting the emphasis of his voice,
as was and is the prevailing fashion of these warlike Ciceroni, it was
scarcely possible to extort from him a single word concerning those
topics on which their information