eling before her, pledge their troth, and take the sacred
oaths of allegiance and supremacy.

Allegiance to one who rules over the land that the great Macedonian
could not conquer; and over a continent of which even Columbus never
dreamed: to the Queen of every sea, and of nations in every zone.

It is not of these that I would speak; but of a nation nearer her
foot-stool, and which at this moment looks to her with anxiety, with
affection, perhaps with hope. Fair and serene, she has the blood and
beauty of the Saxon. Will it be her proud destiny at length to bear
relief to suffering millions, and with that soft hand which might
inspire troubadours and guerdon knights, break the last links in the
chain of Saxon thraldom?

END OF THE FIRST BOOK

BOOK II

Book 2 Chapter 1

The building which was still called MARNEY ABBEY, though remote from the
site of the ancient monastery, was an extensive structure raised at
the latter end of the reign of James the First, and in the stately and
picturesque style of that age. Placed on a noble elevation in the centre
of an extensive and well wooded park, it presented a front with two
projecting wings of equal dimensions with the centre, so that the form
of the building was that of a quadrangle, less one of its sides. Its
ancient lattices had been removed, and the present windows though
convenient accorded little with the structure; the old entrance door in
the centre of the building however still remained, a wondrous specimen
of fantastic carving: Ionic columns of black oak, with a profusion of
fruits and flowers, and heads of stags and sylvans. The whole of the
building was crowned with a considerable pediment of what seemed at the
first glance fanciful open work, but which examined more nearly offered
in gigantic letters the motto of the house of Marney. The portal opened
to a hall, such as is now rarely found; with the dais, the screen, the
gallery, and the buttery-hatch all perfect, and all of carved black oak.
Modern luxury, and the refined taste of the lady of the late lord, had
made Marney Abbey as remarkable for its comfort and pleasantness of
accommodation as for its ancient state and splendour. The apartments
were in general furnished with all the cheerful ease and brilliancy of
the modern mansion of a noble, but the grand gallery of the seventeenth
century was still preserved, and was used on great occasions as the
chief reception-room. You ascended th