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240 watching from the window the destruction that had been wrought in the garden, whose paths were like running brooks, on which floated the smaller branches torn off by yesterday's fury, while the larger ones crushed the slighter shrubs on which they lay. Several trees had been blown down, one of which was a fine old laurel just opposite the casement.

"It was not for nothing," said Lawrence Aylmer, entering the room, "that the storm came—it arose round the death-bed of Cromwell."

"Is Cromwell dead?" was the exclamation from all.

There was no party spirit, no political hopes or fears, in that little chamber; so that the news was received in the silence of awe and dread. But the general rarely triumphs long over the individual feeling; and the young Italians naturally reverted to the probability of Lord Avonleigh's immediate release. Such anticipation was, however, to be disappointed, as the council of Richard exacted pledges which his lordship was unwilling to give; for, already calculating on the return of the royal family, he determined to take no steps that might then be recorded against him.

No such change in affairs as was expected,