TERESTING.

We must now change the scene for a short time, and introduce to our
readers a company assembled in the best inn which, at that time, was to
be found in the town of Cherbourg. The room in which they were
assembled was large in dimensions, but with a low ceiling--the windows
were diminutive, and gave but a subdued light, on account of the
vicinity of the houses opposite. The window-frames were small, and cut
diamond-wise; and in the centre of each of the panes was a round of
coarsely-painted glass. A narrow table ran nearly the length of the
room, and, at each end of it there was a large chimney, in both of which
logs of wood were burning cheerfully. What are now termed _chaises
longues_, were drawn to the sides of the table, or leaning against the
walls of the room, which were without ornament, and neatly coloured with
yellow ochre.

The company assembled might have been about thirty in number, of which
half-a-dozen, perhaps, were in the ecclesiastical dress of the time;
while the others wore the habiliments then appropriated to cavaliers or
gentlemen, with very little difference from those as worn in the times
of the Charleses in England, except that the cloak had been discarded,
and the more substantial roquelaure substituted in its place. Most of
the party were men who had not yet arrived to middle age, if we except
the clericals, who were much more advanced in life; and any one, who had
ever fallen in with the smuggling lugger and its crew, would have had no
difficulty in recognising many of them, in the well-attired and
evidently high-born and well-educated young men who were seated or
standing in the room. Among them Sir Robert Barclay was eminently
conspicuous; he was standing by the fire conversing with two of the
ecclesiastics.

"Gentlemen," said he at last, "our worthy Father Lovell has just arrived
from St. Germain; and, as the most rapid communication is now necessary,
he is empowered to open here and before us every despatch which we bring
over, before it is transmitted to head-quarters, with permission to act
as may seem best to the friends of his majesty here assembled."

The fact was, that King James had lately completely given himself up to
religious exercises and mortification, and any communication to him was
attended with so much delay, that it had been considered advisable to
act without consulting him; and to avoid the delay consequent on the
transmission of communications to P