masked by false book backs. I followed her into a
room of moderate size, and evidently of much earlier date than the rest
of the house. "It is the only room left of an older mansion," said the
steward in answer to my remark. "I have heard it was spared on account
of the chimneypiece. But there is a Latin inscription which will tell
you all about it. I don't know Latin myself."

The chimneypiece reached to the ceiling. The frieze of the lower part
rested on rude stone caryatides; the upper part was formed of oak panels
very curiously carved in the geometrical designs favoured by the taste
prevalent in the reigns of Elizabeth and James, but different from any
I had ever seen in the drawings of old houses,--and I was not quite
unlearned in such matters, for my poor father was a passionate antiquary
in all that relates to mediaeval art. The design in the oak panels was
composed of triangles interlaced with varied ingenuity, and enclosed in
circular bands inscribed with the signs of the Zodiac.

On the stone frieze supported by the caryatides, immediately under the
woodwork, was inserted a metal plate, on which was written, in Latin, a
few lines to the effect that "in this room, Simon Forman, the seeker
of hidden truth, taking refuge from unjust persecution, made those
discoveries in nature which he committed, for the benefit of a wiser
age, to the charge of his protector and patron, the worshipful Sir Miles
Derval, knight."

Forman! The name was not quite unfamiliar to me; but it was not without
an effort that my memory enabled me to assign it to one of the most
notorious of those astrologers or soothsayers whom the superstition of
an earlier age alternately persecuted and honoured.

The general character of the room was more cheerful than the statelier
chambers I had hitherto passed through, for it had still the look of
habitation,--the armchair by the fireplace; the kneehole writing-table
beside it; the sofa near the recess of a large bay-window, with
book-prop and candlestick screwed to its back; maps, coiled in their
cylinders, ranged under the cornice; low strong safes, skirting
two sides of the room, and apparently intended to hold papers and
title-deeds, seals carefully affixed to their jealous locks. Placed on
the top of these old-fashioned receptacles were articles familiar to
modern use,--a fowling-piece here, fishing-rods there, two or three
simple flower-vases, a pile of music books, a box of crayons. All
i