e?"

"Marry, thus it is," said the Earl: "I need not bid you remember
the affair of Colonel Christian. That man, besides his widow, who is
possessed of large property--Dame Christian of Kirk Truagh, whom you
have often heard of, and perhaps seen--left a brother called Edward
Christian, whom you never saw at all. Now this brother--but I dare say
you know all about it."

"Not I, on my honour," said Peveril; "you know the Countess seldom or
never alludes to the subject."

"Why," replied the Earl, "I believe in her heart she is something
ashamed of that gallant act of royalty and supreme jurisdiction, the
consequences of which maimed my estate so cruelly.--Well, cousin,
this same Edward Christian was one of the dempsters at the time, and,
naturally enough, was unwilling to concur in the sentence which adjudged
his _aine_ to be shot like a dog. My mother, who was then in high force,
and not to be controlled by any one, would have served the dempster with
the same sauce with which she dressed his brother, had he not been wise
enough to fly from the island. Since that time, the thing has slept on
all hands; and though we knew that Dempster Christian made occasionally
secret visits to his friends in the island, along with two or three
other Puritans of the same stamp, and particularly a prick-eared rogue,
called Bridgenorth, brother-in-law to the deceased, yet my mother, thank
Heaven, has hitherto had the sense to connive at them, though, for some
reason or other, she holds this Bridgenorth in especial disfavour."

"And why," said Peveril, forcing himself to speak, in order to conceal
the very unpleasant surprise which he felt, "why does the Countess now
depart from so prudent a line of conduct?"

"You must know the case is now different. The rogues are not satisfied
with toleration--they would have supremacy. They have found friends in
the present heat of the popular mind. My mother's name, and especially
that of her confessor, Aldrick the Jesuit, have been mentioned in this
beautiful maze of a plot, which if any such at all exists, she knows as
little of as you or I. However, she is a Catholic, and that is enough;
and I have little doubt, that if the fellows could seize on our scrap of
a kingdom here, and cut all our throats, they would have the thanks of
the present House of Commons, as willingly as old Christian had those of
the Rump, for a similar service."

"From whence did you receive all this information?" said Pe