Ticehurst, Elias Crundy, and the rest of our acquaintances, who had accompanied their master to the gate. But the most formidable demonstration was made by Ninian, who having fled to the farmyard, presently returned at the head of a posse of rustics, armed with flails, pitchforks, and bills. These sturdy fellows, as they rushed up, surrounded Colonel Maunsel and Dulcia, like a bodyguard, uttering fearful threats against the Roundheads.

On the other hand, Nehemiah and his party had been materially reinforced, and maintained their ground resolutely. No sooner was the pistol fired by the state messenger, than, apprehensive of mischief, Thomas Geere hurried off to all such cottages as were tenanted by Puritans, and in a very short space of time collected together some dozen or fourteen hinds, armed much in the same manner as Ninian's companions. Chief amongst these upholders of the authority of the Rump Parliament was Morefruit Stone, a fanatic of such a morose-looking and ill-favoured aspect that if his daughter, Temperance, had borne any resemblance to him, it is not likely she would ever have caused Patty Whinchat a moment's jealous uneasiness.

A conflict seemed imminent; and if it took place, the passions of the men on both sides being fully roused, there could be no doubt that the consequences would be disastrous. It was this feeling that prevented the colonel from allowing his men to make an attack upon their opponents.

Taking up a position by the side of his father, Ninian began deliberately to bend his cross-bow with the gaffle, muttering to himself, as he did so,

""Twere a pity to lose a chance like this. If I happen to hit yon psalm-singing rook, 'twill be a good riddance, and little harm done, fegs!"

Unconscious of his danger, the Independent divine seemed anxiously bent upon preventing a collision between the opposing parties. Addressing himself to the Puritanical cottagers, over whom, as their minister, he naturally exercised great control, and specially to Morefruit Stone, as an elder, he enjoined them not to strike a blow unless they themselves were stricken; and his pacific efforts were seconded by Thomas Sunne, who seemed to labour under great alarm. Having succeeded in keeping the members of his flock quiet, Micklegift next addressed himself to Nehemiah, who boldly confronted the colonel and his clamorous attendants. The state-messenger had not budged an inch, but having drawn a second pistol from his belt, held it in readiness.

"Put up thy weapon, Nehemiah," Micklegift said to him, "and cut not off any of these malignants in their sin. Leave them time for repentance and amendment. Perchance, they may yet be gathered into the fold."

"How sayst thou ?" Nehemiah exclaimed. "Wouldst have me

VOL. XLVII.

C

allow the proclamation of the Parliament, whose officer I am, to be cast down and trampled under foot? Wouldst have me tamely stand by, and hear his Excellency the Lord-General Cromwell insulted by yon contumacious malignant? As spake Joshua the son of Nun,-'O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies?'-what shall I say unto the captain of our second Joshua when his mandates have been set at naught. Interpose not between me and these men of Ai."

"I say unto thee again, put up thy weapon, Nehemiah," the Independent minister rejoined; "for if thou take the life of this man, or the life of any of his followers, thou shalt not be justified. Make not of this peaceful dene a second Valley of Achor."

Then seeing Colonel Maunsel draw his sword, as if about to lead his men to the attack, he stepped fearlessly towards him, and taking hold of his bridle, besought him to desist.

"Who art thou who wouldst stay me?" Colonel Maunsel cried, feigning not to recognise him.

"Thy friend, if thou wilt let me be so," Micklegift rejoined, in a pacific tone, "who would fain save thee from the peril into which thou art about to rush. Have respect, I pray thee, for lawful and constituted authority. Join thy entreaties to mine, damsel," he added to Dulcia, seeing that the colonel paid little heed to him, "and prevail upon this hot-headed gentleman not to bring certain destruction upon himself and others."

There was a certain significance in Micklegift's tone that, even in that moment, did not escape Dulcia, and she at once comprehended the jeopardy in which the infuriated old Cavalier's rashness might place Clavering and her father. She therefore implored the colonel not to engage in actual strife with the Parliamentary officer and his supporters.

"I shall not come to blows with them till you are out of harm's way, rest assured, girl," the old Cavalier rejoined.

"Disperse your followers, Colonel Maunsel," Micklegift continued, in a low tone, "and I will answer for it that the matter shall be amicably adjusted. Believe me, I counsel for the best." "Indeed he does," Dulcia cried. "In this instance, at all events," she added.

"What! dost thou, too, side with Puritans and rebels, girl?" the colonel cried. "Well, I own I have been over hasty," he continued, returning his sword to the scabbard; "yet the knave gave me great provocation." Then turning to his followers, he said, "I thank you, good fellows, for this display of your attachment, but I will not put it to further proof. Return to your occupations, all of you-except Eustace Saxby."

Upon this, the throng around him moved off, though reluctantly, and with very dissatisfied looks; many of them turning round as they went to shake their fists at the Roundheads, or make other

gestures of defiance. Observing Ninian linger behind, the colonel motioned him to depart.

"Must I go too, your honour?" the young falconer asked. "Of a certainty," the old Cavalier answered. "Yon pestilent

varlet will be sure to take exception to thee."

"Here's wishing your honour and Mistress Dulcia a pleasant morning's pastime, then," Ninian said, doffing his cap, "though it hath begun badly, fegs! Take the spaniels, father. I'll go round by the shaw," he whispered," and join you by the nearest burgh on the downs. The rook hath 'scaped me now," he muttered, eyeing Micklegift askance, as he went away; "but though I have missed this chance, I may find another."

Meanwhile, at the exhortation of Micklegift, Morefruit Stone and the rest of the sanctimonious flock had likewise returned to their labour.

"Peace is restored," Micklegift said to the colonel. "Proceed on thy way."

"Hold" Nehemiah exclaimed. "I will not shut mine ears to the voice of a Minister of the Word, and since thou desirest peace, peace there shall be. Yet ere I suffer this dangerous malignant to pass, I must know his errand. He is placed under restraint by the Council, and may not go beyond a limit of five miles."

"You hear what the man in authority saith," Micklegift cried, addressing the colonel. "Satisfy him, I pray you."

"My errand is apparent," the old Cavalier rejoined, chafing at the interruption. "I am not as yet a prisoner in my own house, and am about to enjoy the pastime of hawking upon yonder downs."

"So thou sayest," Nehemiah rejoined; "but I have been too often deluded by those of thy dissembling party to trust thee without some pledge of thy sincerity."

"Ha! dost dare to doubt me, fellow?" the colonel cried.

"Hinder him not," Micklegift interposed. "I will be his surety."

"Thou!" Nehemiah exclaimed, in astonishment, while the colonel himself looked equally surprised.

"Even I, one of the elect," the minister replied. "Let him pass freely. These worthy persons," he added, in a lower tone to the colonel, glancing at the same time at Dulcia, "tarry with me till to-morrow, and much vexation and trouble may be spared thee by discreet behaviour towards them."

To this speech the colonel vouchsafed no reply, but rode slowly past Nehemiah and the emissary from Goldsmiths' Hall, who stood beside him, followed by the elder Saxby with the hawks and spaniels.

As Dulcia went by, the Independent minister drew near her, and regarding her fixedly, said in a low tone, "I shall expect thy answer to-morrow, damsel."

III.

THE TARTARET AND THE HERON.

AFTER this somewhat inauspicious commencement of his ride, Colonel Maunsel, with Dulcia and Eustace Saxby, turned off on the right, and mounting a steep road cut in the chalk, which skirted the garden-wall, soon gained the charming down at the rear of the mansion.

The day was delightful. A pleasant breeze, fresh but not too strong, and redolent of the sea, came from the south-west. Fleecy clouds swept rapidly overhead, their shadows flitting across the downs in the direction which the party were about to take. So invigorating was the breeze-so beautiful the prospect so calm and gentle the aspect of all nature-that the colonel, though wornout by long watching, fatigue of body, and great mental anxiety -exasperated, moreover, by the insults he had recently endured -soon experienced the kindly influence of the scene, felt his chest dilate, and his spirits revive.

At no point, as we have elsewhere remarked, are the downs more beautiful than here. Our old Cavalier had a great love for the eminence on which he now found himself. In moments of impatience he talked of exiling himself from the rebellious land of his birth, but he would have been miserable if he had carried his threat into execution. His severe rheumatic attacks having confined him of late altogether to the house and garden, summer had gone by, and he had not once visited his favourite downs. It was, therefore, with redoubled delight that he found himself, after so long an absence, once more upon their breezy heights. He seemed as if he would never tire with gazing at the prospect around him. Familiar as it was, if he had looked upon it for the first time it could not have charmed him more.

Crossing the brow of the hill, the party reached the brim of a steep escarpment dipping into a beautifully hollowed combe; and here the colonel came to a momentary halt. The sides of this hollow, smooth as if scooped out by art, were covered with a carpet of the richest turf. Here and there, a little rounded prominence, or gentle depression, heightened their charm, as a mole or a dimple may lend piquancy to the cheek of beauty. A delightful air of solitude reigned over this fairy dell, which well deserves its present designation of the Happy Valley. On the right of the combe, near a circular excavation filled with water for sheep, grew a grove of trees of considerable size, with a thicket beyond them. The sides of the down, which hemmed in the valley on the opposite side, were by no means so steep as those of the escarpment, and had a warm brown tint, being clothed with gorse and heather. Through the midst of the combe wound a road leading from Rottingdean to

Lewes, and looking over the shoulder of the hill on the right, could be discerned the old church and clustered houses of the former place.

While contemplating this beautiful combe, the colonel fell into a reverie, which Dulcia did not care to disturb, and Eustace Saxby remained at a little distance behind them. The silence, therefore, was unbroken, until a blithe voice was heard singing:

"In my conceit, no pleasure like to hawking there can be:

The tongue it lures, the legs they leap, the eye beholds the glee;
No idle thought can harbour well within the falconer's brain,

For though his sports right pleasant be, yet are they mixed with pain.
He lures, he leaps, he calls, he cries, he joys, he waxeth sad,
And frames his mood, according as his hawk doth ill or bad."

"Ah! art there, Ninian?" the colonel exclaimed, as, recog nising the voice of the singer, he looked back and perceived the young falconer descending the slope towards them. "I ought to chide thee for disobeying orders. But i'faith! I am not sorry thou hast come after us."

Ninian, who had disencumbered himself of his cross-bow, and brought a hawking-pole with him instead, laughed cheerily, and went on with his song:

health

"At cockpit some their pleasures place to wager away,
Where falconers only force the fields to hear the spaniels bay.
What greater glee can man desire, than by his cunning skill,
So to reclaim a haggard hawk, as she the fowl shall kill;
To make and man her in such sort, as tossing out a train,

Or but the lure, when she's at large, to whoop her back again?"

"Well sung, i'faith, lad!" exclaimed the colonel, as Ninian drew near him. "There is good sense in thy ballad."

"It is written by old Geordie Turbervile," Ninian replied. "There is more of it, if your honour and Mistress Dulcia have patience to listen." And he struck up again:

"When hawks are hurt and bruis'd by rash encounter in the skies,

What better skill than for their harms a powder to devise,

To dry the blood within the bulk, and make the mummy so

As no physician greater art on patients can bestow?

To cut her hoods, to shape her jess, her tyrets, and her line,
With bells and bewets, varvels eke, to make the falcon fine,
Believe me is no common skill, nor every day devise,
But meet for civil, courtly men that are reputed wise."

"A good song, and well trolled," cried the colonel. "But let us set forward.”

Taking their way over several gentle undulations, covered with the softest sward, and still keeping on the uplands, the party, ere long, approached a large barn, in front of which was a stubblefield, and here, as a covey of partridges was pretty sure to be found, the spaniels were uncoupled, and set free by Ninian, while the colonel took the merlin from the elder Saxby, and began to unstrike her hood.