She stared at him with dilated, half-comprehending eyes; he took her hands and drew her down gently to sit beside him on the settle. He paused, trying to steady his voice. "It did not trouble him," he began; "indeed, General Harrison did seem to me to be as ready to break forth into thanksgiving as ever I have seen him on a battlefield when his enemies were put to flight. He bade me--my uncle bade me--say to you that to-day is as joyful to him as his marriage-day. He was borne up in a very ecstasy as it seemed to me, and when the judges railed on him for his share in the death of the king, he told them his conscience was clear, for in what he did, there was more from God than men are aware of. And when he said further that what was done, was done in the name of the parliament, which was the only lawful authority, for that the generality of the people in England, Scotland, and Ireland had owned it by obeying it, and foreign States by sending embassies to it, they were cut to the heart and desired to silence him." Dick's voice failed suddenly; what use to torture the unhappy wife of the regicide with the story of his trial and condemnation? He could not convey to her the intrepid composure, the exulting pride with which Harrison justified the deed for which he was arraigned. Mrs. Harrison asked no question, she did not even answer his words; for a moment she doubted if she had heard him; but then she spoke: spoke with a calmness that startled him till he realized that she dreamt even yet that her husband might escape, and was too completely absorbed in devising schemes for his deliverance to have time to realize her own misery or measure her own powerlessness. "Dick," she exclaimed, putting her hands to her temples, "I cannot think; I am half mazed without him, who always thought for me. Consider! I am very sure there are some we can move to help us! Count over your friends; there must be some one with a heart of flesh left in all England! General Monck loved you well once, though he wrote so wickedly counselling Oliver Cromwell to be very severe unto my beloved one when they threw him into prison at Portland. But what is a prison! A prison was ever to him the gate of heaven. Move but General Monck to have him cast once again into prison, and I will pray for him till my dying day! They say that blasphemer, Harry Marten, will but be imprisoned; why should my saint have a harder fate? Oh, let him but live, and though I never set eyes on him more, I shall be a happy woman!" "Dearest madam," he said tenderly, "it is, indeed, of no avail to turn to Monck or to any in power. How can they forget that he of all men yet alive was most forward in the death of Charles Stuart; and he has but now justified his share in it. Whomsoever they let escape, they will never loose their hold on him. Not the new king himself could help us."