enemies, if I can only
win an audience of the King, and plead my cause before him, I do not
think he will deny me justice."

"Justice!" exclaimed the Puritan with deep scorn. "James Stuart knows it
not. An archhypocrite, and perfidious as hypocritical, he holdeth as a
maxim that Dissimulation is necessary to a Ruler. He has the cowardice
and the ferocity of the hyaena. He will promise fairly, but his deeds
will falsify his words. Recollect how his Judas kiss betrayed Somerset.
Recollect his conduct towards the Gowries. But imagine not, because you
have been evil intreated and oppressed, that the King will redress your
wrongs, and reinstate you in your fallen position. Rather will he take
part with the usurers and extortioners who have deprived you of your
inheritance. How many poor wretches doth he daily condemn to the same
lingering agonies and certain destruction that he doomed your father.
Lamentable as is the good Sir Ferdinando's case, it stands not alone. It
is one of many. And many, many more will be added to the list, if this
tyrannical Herodias be suffered to govern."

And as if goaded by some stinging thought, that drove him nigh
distracted, Hugh Calveley arose, and paced to and fro within the
chamber. His brow became gloomier and his visage sterner.

"Bear with him, good Master Jocelyn," Aveline said in a low tone. "He
hath been unjustly treated by the King, and as you see can ill brook the
usage. Bear with him, I pray of you."

Jocelyn had no time to make reply. Suddenly checking himself, and fixing
his earnest gaze upon the young man, the Puritan said--

"Give ear to me, my son. If I desired to inflame your breast with rage
against this tyrant, I should need only to relate one instance of his
cruelty and injustice. I had a friend--a very dear friend," he
continued, in a tone of deep pathos--"confined within the Fleet Prison
by a decree of the Star-Chamber. He was to me as a brother, and to see
him gradually pining away cut me to the soul. Proud by nature, he
refused to abase himself to his oppressor, and could not be brought to
acknowledge wrongs he had never committed. Pardon, therefore, was denied
him--not pardon merely, but all mitigation of suffering. My friend had
been wealthy; but heavy fines and penalties had stripped him of his
possessions, and brought him to destitution. Lord of an ancient hall,
with woods and lands around it, wherein he could ride for hours without
quitting his own domains,