y at the result of his
stratagem.

The servitors appeared; and the smoking victuals were disposed in their
due order. The joints were placed at the upper end of the board, while
broth and pottage steamed out their savoury fumes from the lower end of
the table. At some distance below the master and his dame sat the male
domestics, then the females, who occupied the lower places at the feast,
except two, who waited on the rest.

The master blessed the meal, the whole company standing. The broth was
served round to the lower forms, and the meat and dainties to the
higher; but Elizabeth was still absent.

When she left the hall it was for the purpose of speaking to Gregory,
whom she found skulking and peeping about the premises.

"Gregory, why art thou absent from thy nooning?" inquired Elizabeth,
with a suspicious and scrutinising glance.

"I'm not o'er careful to bide i' the house just now. Is there aught come
that--that"--Here he stammered and looked round, confirming the
suspicions of the inquirer.

"Gregory, thou art a traitor; but thou shalt not escape thy reward. I'll
have thee hung--ay, villain, beyond the reach of aught but crows and
kites."

"Whoy, mistress, I'd leifer be hung nor stifled to death wi' brimstone
and bad humours."

"None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs.
Confess, or I'll"--

"Whoy, look ye, mistress, you've been kind, and pulled me out of many an
ugly ditch."

"Why dost thou hesitate, knave? I'm glad thy memory is not so
treacherous as thy tongue."

"Nay, mistress, I've no notion to sup brose wi' t' old one: those that
dinner wi' him he may happen ask to supper; and he'd need have a long
whittle that cuts crumbs wi' the de'il."

"Art thou at thy riddles again? Speak in sober similitudes, if thou
canst, sirrah."

"Your father sent me on a message to the little devilkin last night. I
was loth enough to the job; but he catched me as I went wi' the
victuals."

"A message!--and to what purport?"

"Nay, that I know not. The invitation was conveyed in a scrap of
writing, and I'm not gifted in clerkship an' such like matters."

A ray of intelligence now burst upon her. She saw the imminent danger
which threatened the fugitive, who had been hitherto concealed
principally by her contrivances. Gregory watched the rapid and changing
hues alternating on her cheek. She saw the full extent of the emergency;
and, though her father was the traitor, she hesitated not in