family
stanch to the doctrines and traditions of the Church of Rome, and
they had won for themselves that kind of reputation which clings
tenaciously to certain families even when it has ceased to be a
fact. The present Sir Richard's father had broken through the
traditions of his race in marrying a lady of the Reformed faith. It
was a love match, and all other considerations went to the winds.
The lady was no theologian, and though believing all she had been
taught, had no horror of Popery or of her husband's creed. They had
lived happily together in spite of their respective opinions; but
either through the influence of his wife, or through other causes
less well understood, Sir Richard the elder in his later life
became gradually weaned from the old faith, and embraced that of
his wife. Some said this was done from motives of policy, since
Elizabeth was on the throne, and the edicts against Papists, though
only rigidly enforced by fits and starts, were always in existence,
and had been the ruin of many ancient families. However that may
have been, the only son of this union had been trained up a
Protestant, and had brought up his own children as members of the
Established Church of the land.

But still the old tradition remained that all Trevlyns must of
necessity be rank Papists, and Nicholas had certainly done all he
could to encourage this idea, and had ruined himself by his
contumacious resistance to the laws. Both his brother and his
nephew had suffered through their close relationship to such an
unruly subject, and there had been dark days enough for the family
during the Armada scare, when every Papist became a mark for
popular hatred, and professions of loyalty and good faith were
regarded with distrust.

Now, however, the family seemed to have lived through its darkest
days. Peace had been made with men in high places. Sir Richard had
done good service to the State on more than one occasion; and
latterly he had felt sufficiently safe to retire from the
neighbourhood of the Court, where he had been holding some small
office, and settle down with his wife and family in his ancestral
home. His marriage with Lady Frances de Grey, the daughter of the
Earl of Andover, had given him excellent connections; for the
Andovers were stanch supporters of the Reformed faith, and had been
for several generations, so that they were high in favour, and able
to further the fortunes of their less lucky kinsman. It had taken