up, to the subaltern at their head, desired him to take Captain Colyton prisoner, to march him to the guard-house, and place a sentinel over him night and day until farther orders, a command which was instantly put in execution.

The still infuriated Walter, who knew that resistance would be madness, and expostulation vain, obeyed with a silent, sullen resignation; in half an hour he was disarmed and immured in the guard-house, before the door of which a sentinel was mounted; and as his wrath slowly subsided, he began to reflect seriously and sorrowfully upon the probable consequences of publicly striking his superior officer when upon duty.

CHAPTER XI.

If he have reached the noble worth of Captain,
He may well claim a worthy gentlewoman,
Though she were yours, and noble.

I grant all that too, but this wretched fellow
Reaches no farther than the empty name

That serves to feed him.

A King and No King.

GREAT was the astonishment of the family at Orchard Place, when Edith's return from Hales Court apprised them of Walter's arrival in Somersetshire, and the probability of their shortly seeing him. "What, Walter! Captain Colyton, I mean, coming home!" exclaimed Hetty, colouring deeply in her sudden surprise and joy-"How extraordinary that he should quit the camp at Hounslow, when his

last letter announced- "she checked herself, blushed violently at the recollection that she was about to betray her clandestine correspondence, and endeavoured to hide her confusion by playing with Ponto the spaniel.

"Body o' me!" exclaimed the Squire―"I recollect nothing in his last letter that should prevent his following orders, and marching with his troop whithersoever it may be commanded; and by the flasks and flaggons! I shall be right glad to have a peep at the boy, just to see how he looks in his dragoon uniform. Troth! I was a pretty fellow myself at his age, and have had bright and leering eyes cast at me from many a balcony and window, as I marched through the country towns, though I had no better gear in those days than a buff jerkin with brass bosses, a plain iron cap on my head, and a rapier, with a chain rattling against my high boot-tops. But then, look you, I sat upon my horse like a centaur, with such a hollow and easy-playing back when he caracoled and curveted, that the donzellas used to point

me out to one another, and cry-'od's life, my dear, saw you ever such a pretty fellow, and such a graceful young cavalier ?”

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Tush, Sir, tush!" cried his spouse, scandalized at these vainglorious boastings" have you no shame that you thus recall the sinful pleasures of your reprobate and unregenerate days? Though you are still a wanderer from the saving doctrine, and the paths of righteous and holy living, methinks you might at least recollect that you are now an old man.”

"Mort de ma vie, Becky! say middle-aged, or elderly at the worst. I wish I could forget it, for though I can still sit a horse passing well, and carry myself somewhat like a soldier"-here he drew up his fine figure, and thrust' out his chest-" yet do I feel that I am no longer what I was. Nay, look not so glum, mistress mine; thou knowest that I was once a comely spark, or else how camest thou, seeing that he was such a graceless caitiff, to bestow thy fair hand upon the gay, tippling, love-making, song-singing. varlet, Jaspar Colyton ?"

Not being provided with a satisfactory answer to this question, the lady contented herself with a shake of the head and a sigh, which might rather be interpreted into an expression of regret at the step she had taken, than an explanation of her motives; when suddenly changing a subject that seemed to be an unpalatable one, she exclaimed,

"You only wish, then, to behold your son Walter that you may be reminded of yourself in your younger days, and admire his dragoon uniform. The boy will not resemble you in one respect, for I have not brought him up like a Moabite or a Canaanite, but have given him a good and godly education; and as for his regimentals, they may well be handsome, seeing what they have cost us, and that we have had to pay twice over for his outfit."

"Thanks to your usual good management, which sewed up his money in a saddle instead of entrusting it to his proper keeping, and which was much of a piece with the forethought that