At about twenty minutes to seven the first incident of that strange night occurred. The kitchen door was suddenly flung open, with never a “With your leave” or a “By your leave,” and a tall man entered. He was attired in a great hat, whose wide flapping brims were tied down over his ears and under his chin, doubtless that it might not fall a prey to the rude sea-wind; whilst a heavy cloak of a sanguine colour covered him from his neck to the calves of his legs, and left but a pair of extremely muddy riding-boots to be seen below. His voice was loud and high, and singularly penetrating. He addressed the landlord without the preface of any ceremony. “Landlord,” he said, “you have lately taken a new servant-man into your service, I believe, who goes by the name of Jackson. I wish to see him.” The landlord was full of tremors, but rum-and-water made him bold. This was doubtless a friend of the King, come to take his Majesty away into a safer seclusion. “The man Jackson is no longer in my service, sir,” said the landlord, shortly. Even as he uttered this, he thought it rather happy, it had the merit of being perfectly true. “When did he quit it?” asked the tall man, striving to conceal his excitement. “This morning,” said the landlord. “Did he go alone?” “To the best of my belief, yes,” said the landlord, firmly. “How odd!” said the other. “Did he give a reason for his departure, and did he say whither he was going?” “He was dismissed my service, sir,” said the landlord, with the inspiration of his rum-and-water. “His ways were not my ways, d’ye see, and he had to go. Not only was he the worst serving-man I have ever had, but I had occasion to doubt his truthfulness, not to say his honesty.” “Ah! yes, yes, to be sure!” said the visitor, with a remarkable admixture of laughter and amazement. “How very odd, how very odd; ’od’s fish, how very odd! But, after all, you were his master.” “I was, the more is the pity,” said the landlord. All this time he was fervently hoping that his unwelcome visitor would go, lest anything should happen to detain him. Whoever he was, he was determined that the King should not see him if he could help it. Charles was at present perfectly settled and quiet upstairs, and he seemed likely to remain so for some time to come if nothing occurred to disturb him. If possible, he must see nobody ere he saw Captain Culpeper and his men. The strange visitor, still repeating “How odd; ’od’s fish, how very odd!” in various inflections of tone, was preparing to take his departure, when the particular thing occurred that the landlord so desired to avert. The stairs began to creak, and the King’s long legs were observed to be coming down them. “My dear Colonel,” said the King, heartily, “I thought I could not be mistaken in your voice. It penetrated upstairs to my chamber, and I judged by the sound of it that our landlord was putting you off. I was half expecting you to-night.”