tle
master?"

"A thousand thousand times," said the boy, colouring; "and how the Queen
of Man defended it six weeks against three thousand Roundheads, under
Rogue Harrison the butcher."

"It was your mother defended Latham House," said the Countess, "not
I, my little soldier--Hadst thou been there, thou hadst been the best
captain of the three."

"Do not say so, madam," said the boy, "for mamma would not touch a gun
for all the universe."

"Not I, indeed, Julian," said his mother; "there I was for certain, but
as useless a part of the garrison----"

"You forget," said the Countess, "you nursed our hospital, and made lint
for the soldiers' wounds."

"But did not papa come to help you?" said Julian.

"Papa came at last," said the Countess, "and so did Prince Rupert--but
not, I think, till they were both heartily wished for.--Do you remember
that morning, Margaret, when the round-headed knaves, that kept us pent
up so long, retreated without bag or baggage, at the first glance of
the Prince's standards appearing on the hill--and how you took every
high-crested captain you saw for Peveril of the Peak, that had been your
partner three months before at the Queen's mask? Nay, never blush for
the thought of it--it was an honest affection--and though it was the
music of trumpets that accompanied you both to the old chapel, which was
almost entirely ruined by the enemy's bullets; and though Prince Rupert,
when he gave you away at the altar, was clad in buff and bandoleer, with
pistols in his belt, yet I trust these warlike signs were no type of
future discord?"

"Heaven has been kind to me," said the Lady Peveril, "in blessing me
with an affectionate husband."

"And in preserving him to you," said the Countess, with a deep
sigh; "while mine, alas! sealed with his blood his devotion to his
king[*]--Oh, had he lived to see this day!"

[*] The Earl of Derby and King in Man was beheaded at Bolton-on-the-
Moors, after having been made prisoner in a previous skirmish in
Wiggan Lane.

"Alas! alas! that he was not permitted!" answered Lady Peveril; "how had
that brave and noble Earl rejoiced in the unhoped-for redemption of our
captivity!"

The Countess looked on Lady Peveril with an air of surprise.

"Thou hast not then heard, cousin, how it stands with our house?--How
indeed had my noble lord wondered, had he been told that the very
monarch for whom he had laid down his noble life on the scaffold at
Bolton-le