A TALE OF 1688. 5-7025 BY THE AUTHOR OF "BRAMBLETYE HOUSE," &c. &c. HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. TO WILLIAM HESELTINE, Esq. OF TURRET HOUSE, SOUTH LAMbeth. DEAR HESELTINE, THERE might be some boldness in inscribing a Historical Novel to so correct an antiquary as the Author of "The Last of the Plantagenets," did I not feel assured that in perusing the following pages, your kindness will invariably prompt you to merge the critic in the friend. Under this impression, I venture to prefix your name to my little work, not only as a trifling token of my respect for your talents and your virtues, but that I may have the pleasure of subscribing myself in public, as I have done for so many years in private, Your sincere friend, Brighton, March, 1830. THE AUTHOR. WALTER COLYTON. CHAPTER I. Now I pray thee, shepherd, tell it not forth, SPENSER. ABOUT five miles to the south-east of Bridgwater is the village of Weston-Zoyland, a place of little note in the present day, but which in the time of James the Second derived a transient celebrity from its immediate vicinity to Sedgemoor, where the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth was defeated by the King's troops under the command of the Earl of Feversham. On the morning when our history commences, the slow, deep tone of the passing-bell an |