shown herself at Court, was sufficient to vindicate
the honour of her house; and that it was her wisest course, after having
done so, to retire to her insular dominions, without farther provoking
the resentment of a powerful faction. She took farewell of the King in
form, and demanded his permission to carry back with her the helpless
creature who had so strangely escaped from her protection, into a
world where her condition rendered her so subject to every species of
misfortune.

"Will your ladyship forgive me?" said Charles. "I have studied your sex
long--I am mistaken if your little maiden is not as capable of caring
for herself as any of us."

"Impossible!" said the Countess.

"Possible, and most true," whispered the King. "I will instantly
convince you of the fact, though the experiment is too delicate to be
made by any but your ladyship. Yonder she stands, looking as if she
heard no more than the marble pillar against which she leans. Now, if
Lady Derby will contrive either to place her hand near the region of
the damsel's heart, or at least on her arm, so that she can feel the
sensation of the blood when the pulse increases, then do you, my Lord of
Ormond, beckon Julian Peveril out of sight--I will show you in a moment
that it can stir at sounds spoken."

The Countess, much surprised, afraid of some embarrassing pleasantry on
the part of Charles, yet unable to repress her curiosity, placed herself
near Fenella, as she called her little mute; and, while making signs to
her, contrived to place her hand on her wrist.

At this moment the King, passing near them, said, "This is a horrid
deed--the villain Christian has stabbed young Peveril!"

The mute evidence of the pulse, which bounded as if a cannon had been
discharged close by the poor girl's ear, was accompanied by such a loud
scream of agony, as distressed, while it startled, the good-natured
monarch himself. "I did but jest," he said; "Julian is well, my pretty
maiden. I only used the wand of a certain blind deity, called Cupid, to
bring a deaf and dumb vassal of his to the exercise of her faculties."

"I am betrayed!" she said, with her eyes fixed on the ground--"I
am betrayed!--and it is fit that she, whose life has been spent in
practising treason on others, should be caught in her own snare. But
where is my tutor in iniquity?--where is Christian, who taught me to
play the part of spy on this unsuspicious lady, until I had well-nigh
delivered her int