itain."

"Stop him," said the King; "we must know by what means this maiden found
access to those confined in our prisons."

"I refer your Majesty to your most Protestant jailer, and to the most
Protestant Peers, who, in order to obtain perfect knowledge of the
depth of the Popish Plot, have contrived these ingenious apertures for
visiting them in their cells by night or day. His Grace of Buckingham
can assist your Majesty, if you are inclined to make the inquiry."[*]

[*] It was said that very unfair means were used to compel the
prisoners, committed on account of the Popish Plot, to make
disclosures, and that several of them were privately put to the
torture.

"Christian," said the Duke, "thou art the most barefaced villain who
ever breathed."

"Of a commoner, I may," answered Christian, and led his daughter out of
the presence.

"See after him, Selby," said the King; "lose not sight of him till the
ship sail; if he dare return to Britain, it shall be at his peril.
Would to God we had as good riddance of others as dangerous! And I
would also," he added, after a moment's pause, "that all our political
intrigues and feverish alarms could terminate as harmlessly as now. Here
is a plot without a drop of blood; and all the elements of a romance,
without its conclusion. Here we have a wandering island princess (I pray
my Lady of Derby's pardon), a dwarf, a Moorish sorceress, an impenitent
rogue, and a repentant man of rank, and yet all ends without either
hanging or marriage."

"Not altogether without the latter," said the Countess, who had an
opportunity, during the evening, of much private conversation with
Julian Peveril. "There is a certain Major Bridgenorth, who, since your
Majesty relinquishes farther inquiry into these proceedings, which he
had otherwise intended to abide, designs, as we are informed, to leave
England for ever. Now, this Bridgenorth, by dint of law, hath acquired
strong possession over the domains of Peveril, which he is desirous
to restore to the ancient owners, with much fair land besides,
conditionally, that our young Julian will receive them as the dowry of
his only child and heir."

"By my faith," said the King, "she must be a foul-favoured wench,
indeed, if Julian requires to be pressed to accept her on such fair
conditions."

"They love each other like lovers of the last age," said the Countess;
"but the stout old Knight likes not the round-headed alliance."

"Our roy