There stand the venerable old Tower by the Orwell's side in the midst of the trees, grown old, and grey, and useless. There it stands as it stood centuries ago; but it may not stand many more. It may stand a long time after the hand which writes the record of these events may be unable to pen a line--but it will not stand a hundred thousandth nor a million of a million parts of the time, compared with the endurance of the spirit which dictates these pages, be they for good or for evil. When the old Tower shall have fallen, these pages will serve to show that it once existed: but it does exist at this time, and any man may see it who will, and trace its aptitude to the scenes, and the events herein described. The happy couple who had left their horses in the care of one of the old tenants of the Hall farm, now walked towards the village church, which at that time stood on the verge of the western side of the park palings. Indeed, the knoll upon which the building had been raised, was given by the Lord De Freston, as his offering to the memory of St. Peter, and was subject to the Priory of that name in Ipswich, which had to furnish a priest to discharge the duties thereof. Their faithful domestic, who lived with them at the time they married, and who was with Ellen in the Tower on the memorable night of St. Ivan's funeral, had married and settled with her sailor husband at the Bourne Ford, at that time the Pilot's Home, close by Bourne Bridge. She had lost her husband in the second year of her marriage, and through the kindness of the Lady Latimer, had been received into her house in Gloucestershire. She had also journeyed with them into Suffolk, and was upon a visit to her parents, Joseph and Ann Sage, who had at that time a cottage near the church. It was Joseph's occupation to fell timber for repairs, and to see that the boundaries of the estate were well fenced in, and, especially the park and church palings, in good repair. The old man was full of grief at the news brought him by his daughter, that the Lady Ellen was about to convey the estates of her father into the hands of the Goodynge family, not from any distaste to the purchasers, but because the names of De Freston and Latimer were so pleasant to the daily associations of the good old man, that he had flattered himself he should live to serve one of their name and descent. He was agreeably surprised when informed, by Ellen, of the reservation of the Tower for his residence, and of the monthly sum to be paid, whensoever he should choose to give up the labors of his life to his son, and retire with his two daughters to the Tower. It was whilst Latimer and Ellen were seated in the old man's neat kitchen, parlor, hall, or keeping-room, and had just made his heart beat for joy at these tidings, that a miserable object of human beggary tapped at the door, and asked if old Joseph Sage lived there.