miled more than was his custom. His first care on
his return was to announce to the clergyman and his congregation the
compromise which he had made, and this not as a matter for deliberation,
but one upon which he had already resolved; and such was his authority
among them, that though the preacher longed to pronounce a separation of
the parties, and to exclaim--"To your tents, O Israel!" he did not see
the chance of being seconded by so many, as would make it worth while to
disturb the unanimous acquiescence in their delegate's proposal.

Nevertheless, each party being put upon the alert by the consequences
of Major Bridgenorth's embassy, so many points of doubt and delicate
discussion were started in succession, that the Lady Peveril, the
only person, perhaps, who was desirous of achieving an effectual
reconciliation between them, incurred, in reward for her good
intentions, the censure of both factions, and had much reason to
regret her well-meant project of bringing the Capulets and Montagues of
Derbyshire together on the same occasion of public festivity.

As it was now settled that the guests were to form two different
parties, it became not only a subject of dispute betwixt themselves,
which should be first admitted within the Castle of Martindale, but
matter of serious apprehension to Lady Peveril and Major Bridgenorth,
lest, if they were to approach by the same avenue and entrance, a
quarrel might take place betwixt them, and proceed to extremities, even
before they reached the place of entertainment. The lady believed she
had discovered an admirable expedient for preventing the possibility of
such interference, by directing that the Cavaliers should be admitted
by the principal entrance, while the Roundheads should enter the Castle
through a great breach which had been made in the course of the siege,
and across which there had been made a sort of by-path to drive the
cattle down to their pasture in the wood. By this contrivance the Lady
Peveril imagined she had altogether avoided the various risks which
might occur from two such parties encountering each other, and disputing
for precedence. Several other circumstances of less importance were
adjusted at the same time, and apparently so much to the satisfaction of
the Presbyterian teacher, that, in a long lecture on the subject of the
Marriage Garment, he was at the pains to explain to his hearers, that
outward apparel was not alone meant by that scriptural ex