f
thou conjure with it at thine own hand, it may raise a devil who will
tear thee in fragments."

"Enough said," replied Lambourne; "I will not exceed my limits."

The travellers then resumed the rapid rate of travelling which their
discourse had interrupted, and soon arrived at the Royal Park of
Woodstock. This ancient possession of the crown of England was then very
different from what it had been when it was the residence of the fair
Rosamond, and the scene of Henry the Second's secret and illicit amours;
and yet more unlike to the scene which it exhibits in the present day,
when Blenheim House commemorates the victory of Marlborough, and no less
the genius of Vanbrugh, though decried in his own time by persons of
taste far inferior to his own. It was, in Elizabeth's time, an ancient
mansion in bad repair, which had long ceased to be honoured with the
royal residence, to the great impoverishment of the adjacent village.
The inhabitants, however, had made several petitions to the Queen to
have the favour of the sovereign's countenance occasionally bestowed
upon them; and upon this very business, ostensibly at least, was the
noble lord, whom we have already introduced to our readers, a visitor at
Woodstock.

Varney and Lambourne galloped without ceremony into the courtyard of the
ancient and dilapidated mansion, which presented on that morning a scene
of bustle which it had not exhibited for two reigns. Officers of the
Earl's household, liverymen and retainers, went and came with all the
insolent fracas which attaches to their profession. The neigh of horses
and the baying of hounds were heard; for my lord, in his occupation of
inspecting and surveying the manor and demesne, was of course provided
with the means of following his pleasure in the chase or park, said to
have been the earliest that was enclosed in England, and which was well
stocked with deer that had long roamed there unmolested. Several of the
inhabitants of the village, in anxious hope of a favourable result from
this unwonted visit, loitered about the courtyard, and awaited the great
man's coming forth. Their attention was excited by the hasty arrival of
Varney, and a murmur ran amongst them, "The Earl's master of the
horse!" while they hurried to bespeak favour by hastily unbonneting, and
proffering to hold the bridle and stirrup of the favoured retainer and
his attendant.

"Stand somewhat aloof, my masters!" said Varney haughtily, "and let the
d