s of England; and demand to know of what we
are accused, and by whose authority we are arrested?"

"Here is another howlet for ye!" exclaimed the impetuous old Knight;
"his mother speaks to a Puritan of charity; and thou must talk of law to
a round-headed rebel, with a wannion to you! What warrant hath he, think
ye, beyond the Parliament's or the devil's?"

"Who speaks of the Parliament?" said a person entering, whom Peveril
recognised as the official person whom he had before seen at the
horse-dealer's, and who now bustled in with all the conscious dignity
of plenary authority,--"Who talks of the Parliament?" he exclaimed.
"I promise you, enough has been found in this house to convict twenty
plotters--Here be arms, and that good store. Bring them in, Captain."

"The very same," exclaimed the Captain, approaching, "which I mention in
my printed Narrative of Information, lodged before the Honourable House
of Commons; they were commissioned from old Vander Huys of Rotterdam, by
orders of Don John of Austria, for the service of the Jesuits."

"Now, by this light," said Sir Geoffrey, "they are the pikes,
musketoons, and pistols, that have been hidden in the garret ever since
Naseby fight!"

"And here," said the Captain's yoke-fellow, Everett, "are proper
priest's trappings--antiphoners, and missals, and copes, I warrant
you--ay, and proper pictures, too, for Papists to mutter and bow over."

"Now plague on thy snuffling whine," said Sir Geoffrey; "here is a
rascal will swear my grandmother's old farthingale to be priest's
vestments, and the story book of Owlenspiegel a Popish missal!"

"But how's this, Master Bridgenorth?" said Topham, addressing the
magistrate; "your honour has been as busy as we have; and you have
caught another knave while we recovered these toys."

"I think, sir," said Julian, "if you look into your warrant, which, if I
mistake not, names the persons whom you are directed to arrest, you will
find you have not title to apprehend me."

"Sir," said the officer, puffing with importance, "I do not know who you
are; but I would you were the best man in England, that I might teach
you the respect due to the warrant of the House. Sir, there steps not
the man within the British seas, but I will arrest him on authority of
this bit of parchment; and I do arrest you accordingly.--What do you
accuse him of, gentlemen?"

Dangerfield swaggered forward, and peeping under Julian's hat, "Stop my
vital breath,"