a sullen and dejected air; and, making a sign to
his followers, turned back the same road which he had come. Sir Geoffrey
looked after him for some minutes. "Now, there goes a man," said
he, "who would have been a right honest fellow had he not been a
Presbyterian. But there is no heartiness about them--they can never
forgive a fair fall upon the sod--they bear malice, and that I hate as I
do a black cloak, or a Geneva skull-cap, and a pair of long ears rising
on each side on't, like two chimneys at the gable ends of a thatched
cottage. They are as sly as the devil to boot; and, therefore, Lance
Outram, take two with you, and keep after them, that they may not turn
our flank, and get on the track of the Countess again after all."

"I had as soon they should course my lady's white tame doe," answered
Lance, in the spirit of his calling. He proceeded to execute his
master's orders by dogging Major Bridgenorth at a distance, and
observing his course from such heights as commanded the country. But it
was soon evident that no manoeuvre was intended, and that the Major was
taking the direct road homeward. When this was ascertained, Sir Geoffrey
dismissed most of his followers; and retaining only his own domestics,
rode hastily forward to overtake the Countess.

It is only necessary to say farther, that he completed his purpose
of escorting the Countess of Derby to Vale Royal, without meeting any
further hindrance by the way. The lord of the mansion readily undertook
to conduct the high-minded lady to Liverpool, and the task of seeing her
safely embarked for her son's hereditary dominions, where there was no
doubt of her remaining in personal safety until the accusation against
her for breach of the Royal Indemnity, by the execution of Christian,
could be brought to some compromise.

For a length of time this was no easy matter. Clarendon, then at the
head of Charles's administration, considered her rash action, though
dictated by motives which the human breast must, in some respects,
sympathise with, as calculated to shake the restored tranquillity of
England, by exciting the doubts and jealousies of those who had to
apprehend the consequences of what is called, in our own time, a
_reaction_. At the same time, the high services of this distinguished
family--the merits of the Countess herself--the memory of her gallant
husband--and the very peculiar circumstances of jurisdiction which took
the case out of all common rules,