aimed the King, when he saw him, "I remember you
well,--a loyal, sturdy supporter of our cause. We have had so many
loyal gentlemen applying for posts that we fear all have been filled up,
but depend on it we will not forget you. Go back to Eversden, and wait
with such patience as may be vouchsafed you. In due course of time you
will receive notice of the appointment to which we shall have the
satisfaction of naming you."

Colonel Tregellen took his leave and returned to Eversden, but he was
too old a soldier to have his hopes raised high, and from that time to
the present he had received no further communication on the subject--
indeed, he had reason to believe that the King had forgotten all about
him. Though he did not in consequence of this waver in his loyalty, it
did not increase his affection for the King, and made him criticise the
monarch's proceeding with more minuteness than might otherwise have been
the case. He had ever been a firm Protestant, and he had become still
more attached to the Reformed principles, and more enlightened, from the
example set him by his wife, and also from the instruction he received
from her. He was sufficiently acquainted with political affairs to know
that the King was more than suspected of leaning to Romanism, while the
Duke of York--the heir to the throne--was a professed Romanist. His
love, therefore, for the family for whom he had fought and expended his
fortune had greatly waned of late years, and he therefore agreed more
nearly with the opinions of his brother-in-law than formerly. This
change of sentiment permitted him willingly to receive young
Battiscombe, who was of a Puritan family, at his house, though at one
time he would not have admitted him within his doors. He also lived on
friendly terms with other neighbours holding the same opinion as the
owner of Langton Hall. Still, the Colonel did not altogether abandon
his Cavalier habits and notions, which, without intending it perhaps, he
instilled into the mind of his young nephew, who, although his father
had been a supporter of Cromwell, was ready enough to acknowledge
Charles as the rightful king of England. He and Stephen often had
discussions on the subject, but as neither held his opinions with much
obstinacy, they never fell out on the matter, and generally ended with a
laugh, each asserting that he had the beat of the argument. Stephen, if
not a bigoted Puritan, was a strong Protestant, and never fai