duty if he preached
each week two sermons, and enforced humility on his congregation and
gratitude for the blessings of this life. The high Street and some
neighbouring gentry were the staple of his hearers. Lord and Lady Marney
came, attended by Captain Grouse, every Sunday morning with commendable
regularity, and were ushered into the invisible interior of a vast pew,
that occupied half of the gallery, was lined with crimson damask, and
furnished with easy chairs, and, for those who chose them, well-padded
stools of prayer. The people of Marney took refuge in conventicles,
which abounded; little plain buildings of pale brick with the names
painted on them, of Sion, Bethel, Bethesda: names of a distant land,
and the language of a persecuted and ancient race: yet, such is the
mysterious power of their divine quality, breathing consolation in the
nineteenth century to the harassed forms and the harrowed souls of a
Saxon peasantry.

But however devoted to his flock might have been the Vicar of Marney,
his exertions for their well being, under any circumstances, must have
been mainly limited to spiritual consolation. Married and a father he
received for his labours the small tithes of the parish, which secured
to him an income by no means equal to that of a superior banker's clerk,
or the cook of a great loanmonger. The great tithes of Marney, which
might be counted by thousands, swelled the vast rental which was drawn
from this district by the fortunate earls that bore its name.

The morning after the arrival of Egremont at the Abbey, an unusual
stir might have been observed in the high Street of the town. Round
the portico of the Green Dragon hotel and commercial inn, a knot of
principal personages, the chief lawyer, the brewer, the vicar himself,
and several of those easy quidnuncs who abound in country towns, and who
rank under the designation of retired gentlemen, were in close and very
earnest converse. In a short time a servant on horseback in the Abbey
livery galloped up to the portico, and delivered a letter to the vicar.
The excitement apparently had now greatly increased. On the opposite
side of the way to the important group, a knot, larger in numbers
but very deficient in quality, had formed themselves, and remained
transfixed with gaping mouths and a Curious not to say alarmed air. The
head constable walked up to the door of the Green Dragon, and though
he did not presume to join the principal group, was evi