o remain;
he, however, accepted the apartment provided for him by Sir Robert
Cecil. The ladies, attended by their women, withdrew immediately
afterwards, and, as Lady Frances kissed her friend's cheek, she
whispered,--

"Didst see how Major--plague upon me to forget his name--eyed both you
and the handsome stranger?" And then she whispered so as to be quite
inaudible, ending by saying--while Constantia affectionately pressed her
hand,--

"Ah! those holy eyes of blue, remaining so silent and so fixed, do more
mischief than my poor little brown ones, that are ever roaming about
seeking what they can devour, but securing no prey."

CHAPTER X.

With that smooth falsehood, whose appearance charms,
And reason of each wholesome doubt disarms;
Which to the lowest depths of guilt descends,
By vilest means pursues the vilest ends.
Wears friendship's mask for purposes of spite,
Fawns in the day and butchers in the night.

CHURCHILL.

The dwelling of Sir Willmott Burrell was about eighteen or twenty miles
from the island of Shepey, on the Kentish border. The mysterious
companion of De Guerre had correctly stated, that at the period of his
introduction to the Cecil family the youth had little chance of meeting
with his treacherous antagonist of the evening on which the remains of
Lady Cecil were consigned to the tomb; the knight having been, for some
days previous, occupied upon certain weighty affairs within his own
house. A bad landlord can never succeed in convincing his tenantry that
he is a good man. The presence of Sir Willmott was by no means desirable
to his poorer neighbours and dependents, by whom he was at once dreaded
and disliked. Rarely, indeed, was it that a blessing ever followed the
mention of his name; and, although his influence and authority were such
as to render it dangerous to murmur against the one, or oppose the
other, Sir Willmott had ample reason to know that he was nowhere
surrounded by so many secret enemies as when residing upon his
hereditary estate. The domestics who had served his progenitors had long
been dismissed, and their places supplied by more subservient creatures,
and more willing panders to the vices that had increased with his
increasing years. Although he had taken especial care to surround
himself with knaves of great apparent devotion, in order that his
character might not suffer in the estimation of the few really religious
personages by