or Lauderdale and Hollis !-the dull foolswe will outwit them all, and yet reign, as our father did before, a king in something more than name !"

But the enthusiast strode forth, the tessellated floor of the proud gallery ringing beneath his massive stride, exulting and triumphant; and as he passed the vestibule, where there were none to mark his actions, he clasped both his hands above his head, and cried out in a voice husky and stifled with emotion, "My country-oh, my country!—have I then-have I won for thee, peace, happiness, and freedom ?"

CHAPTER III.

Let us see

Leave, gentle wax; and manners blame us not :

To know our enemies' mind we'd rip their hearts;
Their papers is more lawful.

King Lear.

THE third day after Cromwell's interview with Charles, Ardenne, who had purchased a small house in the Strand, with pleasant gardens sloping to the river, making it his continual abode when not engaged in military duties, was walking on the terrace close to the water's edge in one of those abstracted and half-melancholy moods, which had become almost habitual to him, except when circumstances calling for

sudden action roused him at once to all his former energy. The day had been one of storm, more like a winter's tempest than a summer's shower; the rain, driven along the river's course by a cold eastern gale, had fallen constantly since daybreak; and though towards evening it had ceased, and the wind sunk, a thick chilling mist crept up the stream, at the first clinging only to the opposite shores and curtaining the distant objects, but increasing gradually in its volume, till the whole space from bank to bank was filled with a gray mass of fog, so palpable and dense that barge and wherry passed and repassed unseen, although the near dash of their oars and the loud voices of the rowers showed that they could scarcely be at ten yards distance. A transient gleam of sunshine had drawn forth Sir Edgar from his solitary studies, and once plunged in his gloomy reveries he continued to walk to and fro, scarce conscious of the increasing badness of the weather. But suddenly, as he paused near the little wharf, to which his barge

was moored, a stern voice, whose accents of command he recognised at once, rose from the misty river, above the plashing of the oars which had been for some time approaching.

"Ho! put in here, thou stupid knave-here at this private stair; 'tis here we would be landed."

It was, he could not be mistaken, the voice of Cromwell; and immediately the sharp beak of a wherry ran upon the steps, pulled by two watermen, with two more men, soldiers it seemed, reclining in the stern. Oliver (for one was indeed he) leaped out forthwith and addressed Edgar hastily, as if afraid that he should speak first, and in a tone so loud that it was evident he wished the boatmen to hear what he said.

"Is not this, I beseech you the dwelling of the brave Colonel Ardenne? We have come hither from the army-two of the adjutators-to bear tidings to him."

"It is, sir," Edgar replied, quickly comprehending Cromwell's wish, "and I am Colonel

Ardenne. I pray you walk up to the house, you and your comrade."

"Surely, most surely," Oliver replied with well-feigned bluntness. "We have come by the river up from Brentford; and I profess that I am chilled, and yearning for the creature comforts. How say you, Fast-and-Pray, think'st thou a quartern of strong-waters would go down amiss? You, watermen," he added, "make fast your boat there to the stairs, and follow us to the house, we cannot tarry here in this foul mist to pay your fares."

They were joined, while he was speaking, by the other soldier, whom, despite his dress, Ardenne at first sight discovered to be Ireton; and although not a little wondering at their visit, and the disguise they had adopted, judging the garden no place for inquiry, he led them in all haste toward the house.

Both wore coarse scarlet cassocks, with buff breeches and immense jack-boots, and the uniform of privates in the ironsides off duty, long