careful: and
extremely careful she was,--not leaving a single loop-hole for censure
or attack. This was the question of religion. On first taking the house,
Madame Bonaventure gave it out that she and the skipper were Huguenots,
descended from families who had suffered much persecution during the
time of the League, for staunch adherence to their faith; and the
statement was generally credited, though there were some who professed
to doubt it. Certain it was, our hostess did not wear any cross, beads,
or other outward symbol of Papacy. And though this might count for
little, it was never discovered that she attended mass in secret. Her
movements were watched, but without anything coming to light that had
reference to religious observances of any kind. Those who tried to trace
her, found that her visits were mostly paid to Paris Garden, the Rose,
and the Globe (where our immortal bard's plays were then being
performed), or some other place of amusement; and if she did go on the
river at times, it was merely upon a party of pleasure, accompanied by
gay gallants in velvet cloaks and silken doublets, and by light-hearted
dames like herself, and not by notorious plotters or sour priests.
Still, as many Bordeaux merchants frequented the house, as well as
traders from the Hanse towns, and other foreigners, it was looked upon
by the suspicious as a hotbed of Romish heresy and treason. Moreover,
these maligners affirmed that English recusants, as well as seminary
priests from abroad, had been harboured there, and clandestinely
spirited away from the pursuit of justice by the skipper; but the
charges were never substantiated, and could, therefore, only proceed
from envy and malice. Whatever Madame Bonaventure's religious opinions
might be, she kept her own council so well that no one ever found them
out.

But evil days were at hand. Hitherto, all had been smiling and
prosperous. The prospect now began to darken.

Within the last twelve months a strange and unlooked for interference
had taken place with our hostess's profits, which she had viewed, at
first, without much anxiety, because she did not clearly comprehend its
scope; but latterly, as its formidable character became revealed, it
began to fill her with uneasiness. The calamity, as she naturally enough
regarded it, arose in the following manner. The present was an age of
monopolies and patents, granted by a crown ever eager to obtain money
under any pretext, however unju