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520 shoulder. “If I keep my sons from the pleasures which are natural to their age and station, I am bound to satisfy them with the reason why.”

“This is private family conversation, my sons, understand,” said Mrs. Battiscombe.

“No fear of their being indiscreet,” their father averred. “You see, lads, there have been four generations of the family of Stuart governing, or claiming to govern, this kingdom, and corrupting its religion more and more. And there have been four generations of the Lord’s people who have striven to cause the true religion to prevail. The season has arrived when men generally are persuaded that the end is at hand; and in these times all faithful men and women, and their sons and daughters, are more than ever bound to bear a clear and true testimony.”

“But why should there be an end very soon?”

“Because,—I will trust my boys as Christians in their own persons,—because the royal race has become more prone to the wrong, and the chosen people to the right. The third Stuart was a concealed Catholic: the fourth is an open one: the scandal can go no further; and at the next change we shall have a Protestant king. Why do you ask ‘When?’ The times and seasons rest with God: but King James is old: we shall need all our patience while he lives: but those who are steadfast shall have their reward at length.”

“David’s thoughts are among the bustards,” Judith remarked. “He does not see why he should not go coursing on the downs, because King James is a Papist.”

“O yes, I do,” David declared. “To-morrow is a great feast of the Tories: and we are not Tories.”

“There is something more,” said the mother. “These gatherings on Restoration Day, on pretence of making holiday, are used to test the people, all over the country. All who are not present are marked down as disloyal, though it is not true that all who are present are loyal. There are cowardly conformists; and we should not wish our sons to be registered as such.”

This satisfied the lads entirely. But their sisters were troubled; they did not like the word disloyal. In their family service the life of the King was daily prayed for, in order to his conversion: and nobody had been more indignant than their father at the late conspiracy to murder the Stuart princes. They believed he would lay down his very life to bring the King and Court to the true Light.

“I would,” said their father: “but this would be considered anything but loyalty by the King and Court. Now, my sons, you see?”

“O! yes; we cannot go to-morrow.” It was impossible to say this very cheerfully.

“But we will all go another day,” their father promised. “If the run to-morrow finishes those bustards, there are more beyond Farmer Lecky’s. There is a wild bull, too, in the waste which will certainly have to be looked to before Restoration Day comes round again.”

Little Joanna ran in to announce that she heard the horses, for which she had been listening from the summer-house.

One of these horses was bringing Elizabeth Bankshope, Christopher’s betrothed; and another bore a relation of hers, very unlike herself: an aged aunt who was on her way to pay visits in Somersetshire, and who used the rare opportunity of taking a journey to see various friends, from point to point, between her home at Winchester and the palace of her old friend, Bishop Ken, at Wells. Lady Alice, as Madam Lisle was called, had lived in close intimacy with the Battiscombe family while her husband was in the Long Parliament, and in the Commission of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth; and if the dangers which scattered their party after the Restoration had kept them asunder, from mutual consideration, they were not the less anxious to meet when favourable opportunities arose. The engagement of Christopher and Elizabeth, which filled the old lady’s heart with joy, was such an occasion. The loyal repute of the Bankshopes was a protection, in these troubled days; and it had really seemed for some time past that the enemy had forgotten the scandal of John Lisle the Republican having been made a lord by the Protector. When the Winchester people called his widow the Lady Alice, it was passed unnoticed as a token of respect to the Lady Bountiful of her neighbourhood. She, for her part, had no enmities in her heart, and was aware of none among all the people she knew; yet she was attached to her own faith, and the customs of her church and party; and this was the reason why she and Elizabeth were arriving this eveningevening. [sic] The young niece did not care for losing the festival of Restoration Day; while the aged aunt did desire to avoid the celebration in which her host, as High Sheriff of Dorset, must bear a conspicuous part.

“Do tell me how you fast!” said Elizabeth to her future sisters, when they were in her chamber that night. “Stay, and tell me a little about it; for you know it is all strange to me; and I am afraid of behaving ill, and doing something which may shock your feelings.”

“That is exactly what we feared about your feelings,” Judith answered. “My mother means to offer that you should spend to-morrow ”

“O! nowhere but with you! I cannot think of leaving you,” Elizabeth declared; “And I have to learn your ways for another person’s sake; and I am sure he will be pleased that I am here, instead of parading at the games and among the guns in the morning, and dancing at the county ball in the evening.”

“No doubt he will: but I am sure he would be far from wishing that you should feel compelled to listen to such a way of speaking of the last and present kings as is the custom among us in our Restoration Day services.”

“Do you imagine that I and my brother, and our party, like these kings?” exclaimed Elizabeth. “Is it possible that you do not know how we hate them?”

“Hate them! What then are the rejoicings for, to-morrow?”

“I am sure I have no idea. I suppose it is something about the Church; or, that it was: for that is all over now, and the Papists are uppermost. But why on earth should we be thankful for these princes? You know our park,—my