of-war. On leaving Russia, he obtained the
post of British Consul at Ostend, held by him for many years. Returning
home, he was made a Burgess of his native town, and took up his abode at
the neighbouring village of Wilford, where, in 1760, he died. In the
quiet churchyard of that sweet spot, his tomb and that of his beloved
wife Elizabeth are to be seen:--

"His age, fourscore years and one."

"After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well."

The Author.

CHAPTER ONE.

MR HARWOOD AND ALETHEA IN SHERWOOD FOREST, AND JACK DEANE'S FIRST
ADVENTURE.

Romantic Sherwood! Its pristine glories since the days when bold Robin
Hood and his merrie men held sway within its borders, and levied taxes
from the passers-by, had sadly dwindled even in the year 1696, when our
history commences. The woodman's axe had been busy and the plough had
gone over the land, and mansions and homesteads had arisen where once
flourished the monarchs of the forest, and the huntsman's horn had been
wont to sound amid sequestered glades; still many a wide stretch of
woodland and moorland remained, over which the fallow deer roamed at
freedom, and rows of far-spreading trees overhung various by-paths green
and narrow winding in all directions, and shaded the king's highway
which ran north to York and south to the ancient and pleasant town of
Nottingham. And there were likewise majestic avenues leading to the
abodes of nobles and squires, and thick copses and scattered groves,
above which rose the hoary giants of ancient days; and by the borders of
the streams and rivulets which find their way into the Trent numberless
trees had been allowed to stand. Wide strips also of grass-land were to
be found running even with the road or between different estates,
extending sometimes in an unbroken line for several miles together, with
oaks and elms and beeches stretching out their umbrageous branches to
meet from either side, and preserving by their shade the soft velvet of
the turf even during the heats of summer.

Thus the old forest trees, if marshalled in close order, would have
formed a wood of no inconsiderable magnitude.

The noon-day sun of the warm summer was shining down on the branches of
the wide-spreading trees shading a long woodland glade, such as has been
described running from the north towards Nottingham, the walls of whose
siege-battered castle could be seen in the far