of people who go
year after year to the two well-known towns of Conway and Llandudno pass
it often, though they remark its old Elizabethan windows, its twisted
chimneys, and queer odd look, none ever take much notice of it, because
near it stands the lordly house of Gloddaeth, surrounded by its sweeping
woods and noble park. Yet it is just of this old farm-house I am going
to tell you."

"Don't talk of trees and parks, Enrico; it makes me feel such a longing
for land," said Isabel.

"It was a curious pile in the days of which I speak, that old house of
Penrhyn, with its uncouth rambling style of architecture, belonging to
no age in particular, but a little to all. The principal part of it,
however, had been built in Queen Elizabeth's time, and, as I have said,
many of the queer gables and twisted chimneys yet remain. Before it
lies the sea, and away to the right a chain of magnificent mountains,
sweeping into the very heart of Snowdonia. The Denbighshire range, and
the long low hills trending away to the mouth of the Dee, give a charm
to the landscape, while the broad lands of Penrhyn lie stretched around.
The woods of Gloddaeth and Bodysgallen add to the beauty of the scene,
and close to the house a chapel, in good repair, the ruins of which
still stand, then told of the religious faith of the Pughs of Penrhyn.

"Between them and the powerful family of the lords of Gloddaeth a feud
existed, and the Sir Roger Mostyn of that day had added to it by forcing
his neighbour to remove the stone cross which formed the only ornament
of the chapel. The owner of the place, Robert Pugh of Penrhyn, was old,
and a mere tool in the hands of a wily priest, Father Guy. This latter
was a dangerous man. Bred in the Jesuit `Collegio dei Nobili' at Rome,
he had by accident inherited his brother's titles and part of his
estates. The rank Sir William Guy never publicly assumed. Wholly
absorbed in his religious views he had visited many countries, and had
in his fanaticism longed even for the crown of martyrdom.

"The small Catholic community, existing by sufferance only in the heart
of this wild Welsh land, had attracted his attention, and he had asked
and obtained the small chaplainry of Penrhyn, soon acquiring a complete
ascendancy over the owner.

"The tenants of the place, as well as those of Coetmore, were at his
disposal, old Robert Pugh's only son and heir, Henry, being affianced to
Lucy Coetmore. Help had been promised