Sir Edgar de Neville was at this moment preparing to retire to rest. Hearing a body of horse drawn up beneath his casement, however, and a knock that made the glass ring, as if it would leap out of its crazy leaden frame, inflicted on the gate, he came to a pause. As he did so, a foreboding that the incident was some way connected with himself, in reference to the crime he was charged with, insensibly stole over him, and he waited the issue with the most intense anxiety. At last he heard some heavy steps on the adjacent stairs. The next moment, the door of his chamber was pushed open, and a tall, sharp-visaged man, habited in a suit of deep brown, and attended by three soldiers, passed in. Advancing a few paces, he held out a folded paper to Sir Edgar; and the latter, making a step forward, took it from him, and drew it open. It was a warrant from Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State, ordering him to be removed to the gaol of Newgate, in London. CHAPTER V. A few boats’ lengths from the quay of the corporation of Exeter, in the port of Topsham, on the morning posterior to the date of the last chapter, there lay several gallant-looking ships, of no ordinary size and burthen. There were, as has been observed, several of these ships, but only one of them has immediate reference to our history; and, therefore, it is to her alone, at the present moment, that we have to direct attention. She was a large vessel, and, though fitted up for the purposes both of war and traffic, had evidently been constructed, in the first instance, chiefly with a view to making her a sailer. This was not only manifest in the rounding of her bows, which was, considering the practice of the time, rather sharply turned, but also in a certain slanting in her tall masts, giving her that look which, in nautical parlance, is termed “rakish.” Her rig also, in the main, was adapted to develop her sailing qualities, and was of that hybridous character called “brigantine.” But although her builder had so laboured to make her a fast vessel, she was still roomy, and presented a more extensive interior than one would have expected. Her forecastle was lofty, as was also her after-deck, or poop, rising a good height above her deck; and though she was low midships, or in that part of her hull between the forecastle and poop, this showed her dimensions to disadvantage. There were two brass guns mounted on her forecastle, and two others, of rather a larger bore, on her poop, which was further defended by a long swivel-gun, peeping out on her stern. With this latter part of the ship, where his labours finished, the builder had taken considerable pains, having adorned its outline with a border of relievo flowers, enclosing, about the centre of the elevation, an ingenious representation of three casements. The two outer casements were represented to be open, and here the artist had found room to show his knowledge of details; the ideal aperture of the two