their arms to receive me; and hark! I hear their rejoicing welcome and their hymns of liberty! Oh my glorified predecessors, I come, I come !" In this strain of transported feeling he continued to apostrophise the departed champions of freedom, and to stimulate the spectators to an imitation of their heroic virtue, until he reached the prison, when he was re-committed to the room he had previously occupied, with the unpleasant accompaniment of a turnkey, who was ordered to remain with him, as an additional security until the time of his execution. During the remainder of the day his temporary excitation subsided into a calmer fortitude, and he employed himself in praying, in mentally arranging the dying address that he should deliver to the multitude, or in occasionally turning his thoughts to the generous and heroic attempt of his friends Agatha and Edith, and the agonizing state of distress in which he had seen them borne away from his presence. Only when he reverted to this latter subject did he feel his heart sink, and his firmness threaten to desert him; but the emotion was momentary, all his courage and magnanimity returning when he reflected how all-important it was that in the last crisis of his fate he should preserve a perfect self-possession, discharge his great duty in a becoming manner, and offer to the eyes of his assembled countrymen the example of a calm, a fearless, and even a cheerful devotement in the cause of liberty. Far different was the scene exhibited at the lodgings to which Agatha and Edith had returned, after their expulsion by the gaoler. The result of the trial, and the tidings that the execution had been ordered for the following morning were quickly made known to the former; but Edith's disordered faculties were no longer susceptible of any distinct impressions, and in her light-headed wanderings she did but rave wildly about Forester, launching vain menaces against his persecutors, and insisting with cries and struggles to be permitted to fly to his rescue. Agatha's feelings, witnessing the delirious misery of her friend, whom with the assistance of a female attendant she was obliged to restrain by force, and knowing that every hour, as it fled rapidly away, brought nearer and still nearer the public execution of her lover, we will not attempt to pourtray. Such mental torture cannot even be referred to without pain; to describe it is impossible. CHAPTER VIII. Here's a strange alteration in the Court; The False One. You heavens, give me that patience, patience I need ! Lear. MR. SHELTON, upon his arrival in London, soon learnt from his kinsman, one of the officers of the Court, that a pardon had already been dispatched for Walter Colyton, through the intercession of the Countess of Dorchester. In one object of his journey he was thus happily anticipated, and it only remained to obtain, if possible, an interview with the King, that he 66 might confess the participation of himself and his family in Forester's escape, and implore the royal clemency. Although I am so immediately about his Majesty's person," said his kinsman, "it may be difficult to procure you an audience at this precise juncture, when he is not only out of health, both mentally and corporeally, but harassed with public business of the most anxious and distracting nature. A letter was lately presented to him by a special messenger from the French King, who was ordered to deliver it to no one but himself. sooner had he perused it than he turned pale, No he stood motionless, the paper dropped from his hand; as he picked it up he strove to conceal his perturbation, which only rendered it the more conspicuons, while I fear that myself and my companions in affecting not to observe him, betrayed that we did. We have since learnt that this letter conveyed intelligence of the Prince's great armament being indisputably destined for the invasion of England. The King, as he hastily left us, was seized with a violent bleeding at the nose, a malady that has |