Following with his eye the plumed stranger until he was lost in the intervening copse, the governor turned to his daughter, and fixing a steady, penetrating glance upon her, exclaimed, “Ha! then the young malignant’s designs appear to be more open than they were. But, mark me, daughter Bridget,” and his eye became sterner and darker as the pupil dilated with his awakening passion, and his haughty lip curled with increased scorn—“mark me, Bridget, sooner than I’d see thee mated with one of his malignant race, mine own hand should stretch thee at my feet a breathless corpse!—yea, as Jephtha slew his daughter, so would I slay thee!” The agitated and frightened girl threw herself upon her father’s breast, and, amid tears and sobs, stammered out— “Father—dearest father! think not so. Raphe de Merefield is naught to me; he never spoke to me but with the most studied politeness, and, indeed, he shuns rather than seeks my presence.” —“’Tis well, then, maiden—my suspicions are unfounded; the wolf has not entered the sheepfold to steal the tender lamb; but I have observed him lately wandering about these grounds, and I feared my daughter was the object. But listen!” and again his eye flashed, his lip trembled—“verily, I know that young man well—ay, better than he knows me—for his father was my neighbour and my deadliest foe!—and what was more, the foe of Cromwell! He it was that assisted that tyrannical man, Charles Stuart, in his escape from Hampton Court, and after aided him in his long struggles to maintain possession of a crown which had long been doomed to destruction. He it was that beggared his brother to obtain money to carry out that well-slain tyrant’s nefarious designs! And he it was that, at the battle of Naseby, gave me this ugly sign of recognition,” pointing to the scar which disfigured his cheek. “But was he not discomfited? Yea, as the dry leaf he fell. Lo! as David girded up his strength in the day of battle, so girded I up mine; and as he smote his enemies with the edge of the sword, so my trusty weapon stretched the haughty Philistine upon the ground, never to rise again! Guess, then, if thou canst, how much I love yon cavalier, who hath sucked in with his very milk the taint of papistry—for did not that Babylonish woman whom men call the Queen of England rear him up from his cradle? yea, and taught him all her sorceries. Had my honoured friend and master, the protector, followed my advice, this young traitor to the commonwealth would never have escaped from England to disseminate his malignant poison abroad. Cromwell should have crushed the egg before it was hatched. But verily I wax hot and am impatient, not considering the time approacheth when rebels and arch-rebels shall melt away as the hoar frost melteth before the sun. Despatches have reached me that it is Cromwell’s intention to send, in the course of a few months, a squadron against St. Domingo, and my instructions are to see that a proper troop be