o to keep her husband from
some furious act of fanatical retaliation for John Felton's death--some
useless provocation of the authorities; the children at the Dower House
began to come to the Hall less often, not because they were less
welcomed, but because there was a constraint in the air. All seemed
preoccupied; conversations ceased abruptly on their entrance, and fits of
abstraction would fall from time to time upon their kindly hosts. In the
meanwhile, too, the preparations for James Maxwell's departure, which had
already begun to show themselves, were now pushed forward rapidly; and
one morning in the late summer, when Isabel came up to the Hall, she
found that Lady Maxwell was confined to her room and could not be seen
that day; she caught a glimpse of Sir Nicholas' face as he quickly
crossed the entrance hall, that made her draw back from daring to intrude
on such grief; and on inquiry found that Mr. James had ridden away that
morning, and that the servants did not know when to expect him back, nor
what was his destination.

In other ways also at this time did Sir Nicholas actively help on his
party. Great Keynes was in a convenient position and circumstances for
agents who came across from the Continent. It was sufficiently near
London, yet not so near to the highroad or to London itself as to make
disturbance probable; and its very quietness under the spiritual care of
a moderate minister like Mr. Dent, and its serenity, owing to the secret
sympathy of many of the villagers and neighbours, as well as from the
personal friendship between Sir Nicholas and the master of the Dower
House--an undoubted Protestant--all these circumstances combined to make
Maxwell Hall a favourite halting-place for priests and agents from the
Continent. Strangers on horseback or in carriages, and sometimes even on
foot, would arrive there after nightfall, and leave in a day or two for
London. Its nearness to London enabled them to enter the city at any hour
they thought best after ten or eleven in the forenoon. They came on very
various businesses; some priests even stayed there and made the Hall a
centre for their spiritual ministrations for miles round; others came
with despatches from abroad, some of which were even addressed to great
personages at Court and at the Embassies where much was being done by the
Ambassadors at this time to aid their comrades in the Faith, and to other
leading Catholics; and others again came with pamphle