this
illegitimate babe for the perpetuation of his name. Yet were there
preliminaries of no mean importance to be adjusted, as all men who have
wives may well conceive. The lady of Lathom must first be consulted; but
probabilities were strongly against the supposition that she would
tamely submit to this infringement on the rights of her child by the
interposition of a bastard. Nay, she had beforetime hinted that some
individual of the name, of moderate wealth and good breeding, might in
time be found for a suitable alliance. Still, the success of his scheme
was an object that lay deeply at his heart, and he grew more and more
anxious and perplexed. One evening, as he wandered out disconsolately in
the company of an old and trusty servant, to whom he had imparted the
secret, they came to a desert place in the park, nigh to where a pair of
eagles had from time immemorial built their nests. A project struck him
which promised fair to realise his wishes. After a multitude of schemes
subservient to the main purpose had been thrown out and abandoned, the
whole plot was finally unfolded in the following manner:--

A message was conveyed to the mother overnight, that betimes on the
following morning the babe, richly clad, should be held in readiness,
and a trusty servant would forthwith convey him to the hall. She was
peremptorily forbidden to follow; and in her great joy at this
announcement, naturally supposing that a more favourable posture of
affairs had arisen between Sir Thomas and his lady on the subject, she
cheerfully consented to this unexpected deprivation, confident that it
was to the furthering of her child's welfare and advancement. The
infant, smiling, and unconscious of the change, was taken from his
mother's lap, his swaddling clothes carefully folded together, and
committed to the care of the aged domestic.

Little was the anxious mother aware of the great peril he had to undergo
ere the goal which bounded her anticipations was won.

It was the soft twilight of a summer's morning, and the little birds had
begun to chirp their matins, and the lark to brush the dew from her
speckled breast, waiting for the first gaze of the sun. The old man
pressed the infant closer to his bosom as he drew nigh to the steep
acclivity, the solitary dwelling of the eagle. He kissed the babe; then
looking round, fearful of intruders, he laid the wicker cradle at the
foot of the precipice, and sprang into a dark thicket close by,