y son over his father's sovereignty!"

"And could not your firmness, in a case where hope seemed lost, induce
them to be generous and dismiss you without conditions?"

"They knew me better than thou dost, wench," answered the Countess;
"once at liberty, I had not been long without the means of disturbing
their usurpation, and Christian would have as soon encaged a lioness to
combat with, as have given me the slightest power of returning to the
struggle with him. But time had liberty and revenge in store--I had
still friends and partisans in the island, though they were compelled to
give way to the storm. Even among the islanders at large, most had
been disappointed in the effects which they expected from the change
of power. They were loaded with exactions by their new masters, their
privileges were abridged, and their immunities abolished, under the
pretext of reducing them to the same condition with the other subjects
of the pretended republic. When the news arrived of the changes which
were current in Britain, these sentiments were privately communicated to
me. Calcott and others acted with great zeal and fidelity; and a
rising, effected as suddenly and effectually as that which had made me
a captive, placed me at liberty and in possession of the sovereignty of
Man, as Regent for my son, the youthful Earl of Derby. Do you think
I enjoyed that sovereignty long without doing justice on that traitor
Christian?"

"How, madam," said Lady Peveril, who, though she knew the high and
ambitious spirit of the Countess, scarce anticipated the extremities to
which it was capable of hurrying her--"have you imprisoned Christian?"

"Ay, wench--in that sure prison which felon never breaks from," answered
the Countess.

Bridgenorth, who had insensibly approached them, and was listening with
an agony of interest which he was unable any longer to suppress, broke
in with the stern exclamation--

"Lady, I trust you have not dared----"

The Countess interrupted him in her turn.

"I know not who you are who question--and you know not me when you speak
to me of that which I dare, or dare not do. But you seem interested
in the fate of this Christian, and you shall hear it.--I was no sooner
placed in possession of my rightful power, than I ordered the Dempster
of the island to hold upon the traitor a High Court of Justice, with all
the formalities of the isle, as prescribed in its oldest records. The
Court was held in the open air, be