paths of peace; to abjure all foul alliances; to reconcile himself to Heaven. Upon this subject he was never a patient listener; his mind was made up, whether right or wrong, too firmly to be diverted from its course by reasoning or advice, and his pride revolted from the idea of being catechised by his wife. Even her recent service, vital as it was, could not reconcile him to such degradation; and though he would not hurt her feelings by any harsh dismissal, he pleaded the necessity of hastily leaving her, that he might thank his numerous adherents, who were still loudly huzzaing around the building, and give orders for their being treated with the best ale that the cellar would supply.

Under the influence of this potent liquor, which was liberally distributed to all comers, the precincts of the Tor Hill exhibited an uproarious scene of riot and revelry, until the moon had arisen to light home the wassailers; many of whom had especial need of her assistance, to save them from ponds and pitfalls. Captain Basset was in all his glory, toasting his noble master, and filling the flagon, and roaring scraps of Bacchanalian songs, till he began to brawl in his cups, and drew his rapier upon one of his own party; when a mutual friend kindly knocked him down with the black jack; and rolling him into the woodhouse, left him to sleep himself sober, and reconcile himself to his bruises as he best might. As was customary upon all occasions of unusual resort to the mansion, Cecil had been conveyed to his prison in the tower, where he remained for some time deprived of his sleep, and as unable to account for the tumultuous merry-making beneath him, as he had been upon occasion of the royal visit.

A very different scene was being acted in the town of Wells, where the self-styled Mrs. Bohun had taken up her abode. Violent and vindictive as she was, she had not been so exclusively actuated by revenge in her late proceedings, as she had stated in

her interview with Lady Fitzmaurice. This mo tive had doubtless influenced her conduct for a long time past; and would ultimately have led her to make a public attempt upon her husband's life; but her long-cherished design had been accelerated by the addition of another passion, not less powerful than her thirst of vengeance. She had become violently attached to a young man of desperate fortunes but of noble family, who, in the hope of advancing himself by her high connexions, was willing to marry her if she could become disengaged from her first nuptials. No method appeared so simple or so feasible as to procure the death of Sir Lionel by the hands of justice; no pains were spared to accomplish an object which all her family desired as earnestly as herself; and according to the opinion of their legal advisers, not a doubt could be entertained of their success. To have all her hopes thus suddenly dashed to the ground in the very moment of anticipated victory,-to be at the same instant robbed of the revenge upon which her heart had been so long feeding, disappointed in her love, humiliated by the defeat of herself and all her proud relatives, and stung to the innermost soul by the triumph of the man she most hated upon earth;-all this was more than a woman of such ungovernable passions could endure. In a transport of sudden rage she swallowed poison on the very night of the trial, and next morning was found dead in her bed!

It were needless to state Sir Lionel's gratification upon learning these tidings, which effectually relieved him from all future apprehensions. Delicacy towards a family who had so recent sought his destruction, was of course entirely out of the question, and he therefore proposed to Lady Fitzmaurice that they should be immediately and publickly re-married. That he should be influenced to this proposition by any wish to secure a legal claim to her fortune, never entered into the thoughts of this

single-minded woman, who judged other hearts by the generosity of her own. Lowered as she must be in the public estimation, by having confessed herself, however falsely, and with whatever magnanimous motive, to be Sir Lionel's mistress, she saw nothing but an unexampled condescension in his now coming forward to make her indeed his wife, to confirm her station in society, to uphold her character, to restore her to her own approbation, as well as to that of the world in general. After the celebration of her second nuptials, her humble though devoted attachment to her husband, exalted by a feeling of gratitude, became even more fervent than before. Sir Lionel himself, unaccustomed as he was to any compunctious visitings, had the decency to abstain for some time from open outrage upon her feelings; so that the harassed and care-worn Lady Fitzmaurice was allowed to enjoy an interval of comparative tranquillity. And thus was the fortunate King of the Hill once more victorious over all his enemies, left to the unmolested enjoyment of his triumph, and to the increased homage which was excited by the belief that his human or infernal abettors would carry him with equal success through every future difficulty, and entail inevitable destruction and death upon all those who should dare to struggle with his power, or even question his supre

macy.

178

CHAPTER X.

In Sanctuary may be sought
Protection from the evils wrought
By fellow-creatures;

From foes it may preserve our life;
But what can save us from the strife
Of our own natures?

It is time now, that we should revert to Dudley, whom we left just entering the Sanctuary of Westminster, where he took care to have himself registered in the books as a sanctuary-man, and to pay the fees which entitled him to all the privileges of the place. When he had first agreed to betake himself to this asylum, it had merely suggested itself to his mind as a refuge for political offenders, or for· those men who having been reduced to poverty by fire, tempests, the chances of the sea, or other inevitable misfortunes, might seek protection from persecution or cruel creditors, under the wing of the church—and such probably was the original purpose of the institution. But it had long been converted into an abuse more abominable than that of the money-changers in the temple, who turned the house of God into a den of thieves. In Edward the Fifth's reign, the Duke of Buckingham had been justified in exclaiming "Now look how few sanctuary-men there be, whom necessity or misfortune compelled to go thither! and then see on the other side, what a sort there be commonly therein, of such whom wilful unthriftiness hath brought to naught; what a rabble of thieves, murderers, and malicious, heinous traitors they be, and that in two places especially,the one at the elbow of the city, and the other in the

very bowels.* I dare well avow it, if you weigh the good they do with the hurt that cometh of them, ye shall find it much better to lose both than to have both. And this I say, although they were not abused, (as they now be, and so long have been,) that I fear me ever they will be, while men be afeard to set their hands to the amendment; as though God and St. Peter were the patrons of ungracious living. Now unthrifts riot and run in debt upon boldness of these places; yea, and rich men run thither with poor men's goods; there they build, there they spend, and bid their creditors go whistle. Men's wives run thither with their husband's plate, and say they dare not abide with their husbands for beating: thieves bring thither stolen goods, and live thereon. There devise they new robberies nightly, and steal out, and rob, rive, and kill men, and come again into those places, as though they gave them not only a safeguard for the harm that they have done, but a license also to do more mischiefs. "t

Since this period the abuse had been in some respects limited, but still enough remained to render the above description, not very inapplicable to the present condition of the place; and Dudley, on retiring from the office where he paid his fees, was clamorously assailed by a mob of untried malefactors, runaway spendthrifts, and loose women, whose appearance and manner indicated that it might not be very safe to resist their demand of a contribution equivalent to the garnish money of our modern prisons.

This donation, or rather extortion, was placed in the hands of a collector, and when it amounted to a sufficient sum, was devoted to the laudable purpose of a banquet, which, by the assistance of the potent Lambeth ale operating upon such unscrupulous

* Westminster Abbey and St. Martin's le Grand. † Hall's Chronicle, p. 354.