ild's welfare,--"Surely,"
he said, thinking, as it were, aloud, "there was no sin in the kindness
with which I then regarded that man."

Solsgrace, who was in the apartment, and guessed what passed through
his friend's mind, acquainted as he was with every point of his history,
replied--"When God caused Elijah to be fed by ravens, while hiding at
the brook Cherith, we hear not of his fondling the unclean birds, whom,
contrary to their ravening nature, a miracle compelled to minister to
him."

"It may be so," answered Bridgenorth, "yet the flap of their wings must
have been gracious in the ear of the famished prophet, like the tread of
his horse in mine. The ravens, doubtless, resumed their nature when
the season was passed, and even so it has fared with him.--Hark!" he
exclaimed, starting, "I hear his horse's hoof tramp even now."

It was seldom that the echoes of that silent house and courtyard were
awakened by the trampling of horses, but such was now the case.

Both Bridgenorth and Solsgrace were surprised at the sound, and even
disposed to anticipate some farther oppression on the part of the
government, when the Major's old servant introduced, with little
ceremony (for his manners were nearly as plain as his master's), a tall
gentleman on the farther side of middle life, whose vest and cloak, long
hair, slouched hat and drooping feather, announced him as a Cavalier.
He bowed formally, but courteously, to both gentlemen, and said, that he
was "Sir Jasper Cranbourne, charged with an especial message to Master
Ralph Bridgenorth of Moultrassie Hall, by his honourable friend Sir
Geoffrey Peveril of the Peak, and that he requested to know whether
Master Bridgenorth would be pleased to receive his acquittal of
commission here or elsewhere."

"Anything which Sir Geoffrey Peveril can have to say to me," said Major
Bridgenorth, "may be told instantly, and before my friend, from whom I
have no secrets."

"The presence of any other friend were, instead of being objectionable,
the thing in the world most to be desired," said Sir Jasper, after a
moment's hesitation, and looking at Mr. Solsgrace; "but this gentleman
seems to be a sort of clergyman."

"I am not conscious of any secrets," answered Bridgenorth, "nor do I
desire to have any, in which a clergyman is unfitting confidant."

"At your pleasure," replied Sir Jasper. "The confidence, for aught I
know, may be well enough chosen, for your divines (always under your