person."

"Ay, but," rejoined the agent of the Marquis, "it is in vain to look
back on past service and auld respect, my lord; it will be present
service and immediate proofs of regard which, in these sliddery times,
will be expected by a man like the Marquis."

The Lord Keeper now saw the full drift of his friend's argument, but he
was too cautious to return any positive answer.

"He knew not," he said, "the service which the Lord Marquis could expect
from one of his limited abilities, that had not always stood at his
command, still saving and reserving his duty to his king and country."

Having thus said nothing, while he seemed to say everything, for the
exception was calculated to cover whatever he might afterwards think
proper to bring under it, Sir William Ashton changed the conversation,
nor did he again permit the same topic to be introduced. His guest
departed, without having brought the wily old statesman the length
of committing himself, or of pledging himself to any future line of
conduct, but with the certainty that he had alarmed his fears in a most
sensible point, and laid a foundation for future and farther treaty.

When he rendered an account of his negotiation to the Marquis, they
both agreed that the Keeper ought not to be permitted to relapse into
security, and that he should be plied with new subjects of alarm,
especially during the absence of his lady. They were well aware that her
proud, vindictive, and predominating spirit would be likely to supply
him with the courage in which he was deficient; that she was immovably
attached to the party now in power, with whom she maintained a close
correspondence and alliance; and that she hated, without fearing, the
Ravenswood family (whose more ancient dignity threw discredit on the
newly acquired grandeur of her husband) to such a degree that she would
have perilled the interest of her own house to have the prospect of
altogether crushing that of her enemy.

But Lady Ashton was now absent. The business which had long detained her
in Edinburgh had afterwards induced her to travel to London, not without
the hope that she might contribute her share to disconcert the
intrigues of the Marquis at court; for she stood high in favour with
the celebrated Sarah Duchesss of Marlborough, to whom, in point of
character, she bore considerable resemblance. It was necessary to press
her husband hard before her return; and, as a preparatory step, the
Marquis wrote t