y grew into the youth; the youth approached to the
man; but still Lord Clynton evinced no interest in his young son--gave no
demonstration of awakening affection. With time also crept on the angry
and troubled clouds that arose upon the political horizon of the land. The
storm at length burst forth. The fatal struggle commenced between the
unfortunate Charles and his Parliament; and the civil wars broke out. A
stanch Royalist, Lord Clynton joined with enthusiasm the cause of the
monarch; while Mr Lyle, whose tenets were of the Presbyterian persuasion,
and whose political opinions were entirely of that party, found himself
enrolled in the ranks of the Parliamentary army, in which his name and
fortune and his active, but stern, cold courage, gave him much influence.

Entirely deprived of the affections of a father, whom he never remembered
to have seen, and on whom, with the usual levity of boyhood, he seldom or
never bestowed a passing thought, Gerald Clynton, or Gerald Lyle, as he
was constantly called after his uncle--and most people knew not that he
bore any other name--naturally imbibed the opinions and sentiments of his
protector; and, when the civil war was openly declared, followed him to
the camp. The reflection never crossed him, that the unknown author of his
being might be engaged in the ranks of the enemy; that his uncle and his
father might chance to meet face to face upon the battle-field; that
either his real parent, or the parent of his affections, might fall by the
hand of the other. To do justice to the feelings of the youth, no idea of
the kind had ever been suggested to him by his uncle, not a word mentioned
of the political sentiments of his father. Colonel Lyle--for such became
his rank in the Parliamentary army--was a man of firm adherence to his
principles; and although a cold, hard man, in all things but his affection
for his adopted son, too earnest and eager a supporter of the party for
which he battled, to allow such a proselyte to what he considered the just
and upright cause--such a follower in his own footsteps as his nephew--to
escape him on account of any family considerations, which he stigmatized
as "prejudices to be despised and set at nought in so holy a matter."

Enrolled as a volunteer in his uncle's regiment, Gerald had, in some of
the scanty moments of peace and repose snatched between the quickly
following phases of the struggle, found opportunities to cultivate the
acquaintance o