ts, and had
entered into negotiation with the French king for that purpose. The
plot having been discovered, he had with other noblemen been sent
to the Tower, and had continued in disgrace until a year after the
death of William.

Anne appointed him one of her ministers, and made the duchess her
most intimate friend. In fact, in politics the Duke of Marlborough
took no very strong part. He was attached to the Stuarts, for under
them he had at first risen to rank and honour; but he was a strong
Protestant, and therefore in favour of the maintenance of the Act
of Succession, fixing the reversion of the throne on the Elector of
Hanover, who, although not the nearest in the line of succession,
had been selected because the nearest heirs to the throne were
Catholics.

At the Chace things have gone on as before. Rupert has worked hard
at his lessons and his fencing, and Monsieur Dessin allows that,
save for his extra length of reach, he should have no advantage now
over his pupil. In the afternoon the lad spent his time with his
hawks, or practised firing with pistol or carbine, or roamed over
the country with Hugh.

Nevertheless, things had somehow changed. Colonel Holliday had
become gloomy and silent; and although he and his daughter-in-law
were studiously ceremonious and polite to each other, it was clear
that a cloud had risen between them. Rupert saw but little of this,
however, and was surprised one day when, as he was going out for a
ride, his grandfather said to him gravely:

"Take a turn in the garden with me, Rupert. I want to have a talk
with you.

"I think it well, Rupert," he said, after walking for some time in
silence, "to prepare you for what, if you have not guessed already,
you will be told ere long. Madam will no doubt herself inform you
of it; and it is as well, my lad, that you should be prepared, for
you might in your surprise say something hasty, and so cause a
breach which it would take long to heal."

Rupert looked in astonishment at his grandfather. He had not the
most remote idea of what was coming.

"You have doubtless noticed," Colonel Holliday went on, "the
frequency of Sir William Brownlow's visits here?"

"Yes, sir, I have noticed that, but I do not often see him. I keep
out of his way, for in truth I like him not, nor that son of his,
who, on the strength of his three years' seniority, looks down upon
me, and gives himself as many airs as madam my mother's peacock."

"And you h