CHAPTER VIII. Case ye, case ye, on with your vizards. Henry IV. THE Company whom we had left in Victor Lee's parlour were about to separate for the night, and had risen to take a formal leave of each other, when a tap was heard at the hall door. Albert, the vidette of the party, hastened to open it, enjoining, as he left the room, the rest to remain quiet, until he had ascertained the cause of the knocking. When he gained the portal, he called to know who was there, and what they wanted at so late an hour? << It is only me," answered a treble voice. said Albert. « Spitfire, sir," replied the voice without. Spitfire!» said Albert. << Yes, sir,» replied the voice; « all the world calls me so, and Colonel Everard himself. But my name is Spittal for all that. » << Colonel Everard! arrive you from him?» demanded young Lee. " No, sir; I come, sir, from Roger Wildrake, esquire, of Squattlesea-mere, if it like you," said the boy; «< and I have brought a token to Mistress Lee, which I am to give into her own hands, if you would but open the door, sir, and let me in—but I can do nothing with a threeinch board between us." << It is some freak of that drunken rakehell,>> said Albert, in a low voice, to his sister, who had crept out after him on tiptoe. « Yet, let us not be hasty in concluding so,» said the young lady; « at this moment the least trifle may be of consequence.-What token has Master Wildrake sent me, my little boy?» Nay, nothing very valuable neither,» replied the boy; «< but he was so anxious you should get it, that he put me out of window as one would chuck out a kitten, that I might not be stopped by the soldiers.» « Hear you?" said Alice to her brother; << undo the gate for God's sake.»> Her brother, to whom her feelings of suspicion were now sufficiently communicated, opened the gate in haste, and admitted the boy, whose appearance, not much dissimilar to that of a skinned rabbit in a livery, or a monkey at a fair, would at another time have furnished them with amusement. The urchin messenger entered the hall, making several odd bows and congés, and delivered the woodcock's feather with much ceremony to the young lady, assuring her it was the prize she had won upon a wager about hawking. " « I prithee, my little man," said Albert, « was your master drunk or sober, when he sent thee all this way with a feather at this time of night?»> « With reverence, sir,» said the boy, «he was what he calls sober, and what I would call concerned in liquor for any other person." « Curse on the drunken coxcomb!» said Albert. << There is a tester for thee, boy, and tell thy master to break his jests on suitable persons, and at fitting times.» « Stay yet a minute, » exclaimed Alice; must not go too fast-this craves wary walking." « A feather!» said Albert; «all this work about a feather? Why, Dr Rochecliffe, who can suck intelligence as a magpie would suck an egg, could make nothing of this.>> <«< Let us try what we can do without him then," said Alice. Then addressing herself to the boy,-«So there are strangers at your master's?» « At Colonel Everard's, madam, which is the same thing," said Spitfire. << And what manner of strangers?» said Alice; "guests I suppose?»> " « Ay, mistress," said the boy, «a sort of guests that make themselves welcome wherever they come, if they meet not a welcome from their landlord-soldiers, madam. >> «The men that have been long lying at Woodstock?» said Albert. «No, sir," said Spitfire, « new comers, with gallant buff-coats and steel breast-plates; and their commander-your honour and her ladyship never saw such a man—at least I am sure Bill Spitfire never did.»> « Was he tall or short?» said Albert, now much alarmed. << Neither one nor other," said the boy; «< stout made, with slouching shoulders; a nose large, and a face one would not like to say No to. He had several officers with him. I saw him but for a moment, but I shall never forget him while I live. » «< You are right," said Lee to his sister, pulling her to one side, « quite right-the Archfiend himself is upon us!» « And the feather," said Alice, whom fear had rendered apprehensive of slight tokens, << means flight—and a woodcock is a bird of passage.» «You have hit it," said her brother; «but the time has taken us cruelly short. Give the boy a trifle more—nothing that can excite suspicion, and dismiss him. I must summon Rochecliffe and Joceline.>> He went accordingly, but, unable to find those he sought, he returned with hasty steps to the parlour, where, in his character of Louis, the page was exerting himself to detain the old knight, who, while laughing at the tales he told him, was anxious to go to see what was passing in the hall. << What is the matter, Albert?» said the old man; « who calls at the Lodge at so undue an hour, and wherefore is the hall door opened to them? I will not have my rules, and the regulations laid down for keeping this house, broken through, because I am old and poor. Why answer you not? why keep a chattering with Louis Kerneguy, and neither of you all the while minding what I say?— Daughter Alice, have you sense and civility enough to tell me, what or who it is that is admitted here. contrary to my general orders?»> « No onė, sir,” replied Alice; « a boy brought a message, which I fear is an alarming one.» << There is only fear, sir," said Albert, stepping forward, «< that whereas we thought to have stayed with you to-morrow, we must now take farewell of you to-night."> « Not so, brother," said Alice, «< you must stay and aid the defence here-if you and Master Kerneguy are both missed, the pursuit will be instant, and probably successful; but if you stay, the hiding-places about this house |