"That which the Queen said methinks is true; Hastings will be loyal; but after the example we have to-day, the execution of Rivers, Grey and Vaughan, what may we expect from the Chancellor's influence? Were he to oppose the Protector he might be the next to post to Heaven. No," continued my friend, "we must not look for succour, from the tyranny of Richard, to any source but the whole people. They, when they are all united, have the power to force him to do right. But no single noble is sufficiently powerful to cope successfully with Gloucester." "But how long must this crime and tyranny endure, ere a period be put to them?" "Not long. Richard is now building a tower of crime. Such structures are but frail houses in which to dwell. Presently a strong tempest of popular indignation will sweep across the land; the structure must fall, and the builder shall be crushed beneath the ruins. He is building it in great haste; therefore it shall fall the sooner." Harleston spoke with such confidence, as though the whole scene had been enacted before his eyes, that one could not help but believe him to be right. Just then the girls entered. This put an end to our gloomy conversation, for which I, for one, was glad. The close life of the Sanctuary was now beginning to make the effects of its work visible in the paler hues and careworn looks of the girls' faces. "Oh, Walter dear, I am so tired of this life of sorrow!" said Hazel, when we had strolled to that part of the room most distant from Mary and Frederick. "Yes, my fair one, and I can see no reason why thou shouldst forever share the sorrows and burdens of others, even though they are the troubles of those which thou lovest well. When the present situation may change, God alone can tell. "Remember the promise that thou didst make, when we lived in happier times. When our path seemed flooded with the light of Heaven. Then came this heavy cloud, that seemeth ever to grow blacker. Let us sweep on from beneath its chilling shadow, and let the sun of love and happiness, as we stroll among the flowers, beneath the trees of our joint home, drive away the troubled memories of this heart-chilling imprisonment within the dreary walls of a Sanctuary, made yet more sad by the unfortunate family which here takes refuge. Thou canst not help them by thus sharing their sorrows, and it doth but make two other souls unhappy." As I spoke these words the scene, drawn by my mind as I paced back and forth across my room that happy night of the last ball given by Edward at Windsor, when all my ambitions seemed about to be realized, and yet when the first clouds were gathering, came again clearly to my mind. I therefore waited, with the pain of expectation, for Hazel to answer. When, after a short silence, in which she seemed weighing her reasons both pro and con granting my request, her answer came, and was partly what I had hoped to hear, and wholly what I had expected.