poor services to which you allude were rendered to your Highness as the future Liberator of England, in which capacity I still willingly hold my life at your disposal." After remaining for some time closeted with the Prince in consultation upon the subsequent measures to be adopted, Forester accepted a confidential appointment, which placed his services in instant requisition, and then hurried into the town, to inquire whether Agatha and Edith still remained at their lodgings. Finding that they had not yet departed, he rushed into the room where they were seated, and a scene ensued of tenderness and transport, of vehement agitation and ineffable ecstasy, such as we shall not attempt to describe. Edith, who, up to this period, had been either in an unconscious lethargy, or a state of mental alienation, was electrified at his sight, and uttering a loud scream of joy, welcomed him with recovered sanity, and a passionate burst of tears; while Agatha's delight, though less ecstatic, was scarcely less intense than that of her friend. In mutual congratulations, in reno vated vows of indelible gratitude on the part of Forester, and in that delicious intercommunion of heart and sentiment, which may be supposed to be shared by three persons thus suddenly snatched from the abyss of despair, and raised to the pinnacle of immediate felicity, some hours passed rapidly away, when Forester declared that he was compelled, however reluctantly, to tear himself from their society. "Supreme and exquisite as is the happiness I am now enjoying," he exclaimed-"I must not, cannot sacrifice to it a single hour of my public duty. I have set my hand to the plough; I have solemnly dedicated myself to the regeneration of my degraded country; every thing must give way to the accomplishment of this sacred vow. The Prince has commissioned met to precede the army, that I may confer with his partisans in the interior, and arrange the plan of his advance. England's liberation achieved, not a moment shall I lose in speeding back to renew this delightful intercourse, and to claim from one of my fair preservers, if the hope be not deemed presumptuous, the surpass ing reward of all my dangers and anxieties."Looking tenderly at Agatha as he spoke, he pressed her hand to his lips, and bade her an affectionate adieu; after which, he took leave of Edith in the same manner, and invoking a fervent benediction upon both, hurried out of the apartment. CHAPTER IX. I treated, trusted you, and thought you mine; OTWAY. They will not hear me speak, but fling dirt at me, and call me tyrant. Oh! run, dear friend, and bring the Lord Philaster; speak him fair, call him Prince, do him all the courtesy you can, commend me to him. Oh my wits, my wits! PHILASTER. THE King's incessant engagements, harassed as he was by the perpetual arrival of couriers from all parts of the kingdom, each bringing still more disastrous intelligence than his predecessor, coupled with the intriguing, the bustle, and the consternation, that made the whole Court one scene of confusion, had prevented Mr. Shelton from obtaining an interview. Never had Whitehall been so thronged with nobility and gentry, both from town and country; never were professions of loyalty so fulsome, so abject, so impassioned; never were oaths of fealty more solemn; never had there been exhibited a corruption, a baseness, a falsehood, an hypocrisy, so concurrent and so shameless. As the Prince of Orange advanced towards the capital, the great, who had been intriguing with him, employed themselves in burning the papers that might compromise them, and then hurried to the throne with the most lavish professions of unshaken and immutable attachment. They who were deepest engaged in the treason were loudest in swearing they would shed the last drop of their blood in the Royal cause; many had the effrontery to send up proffers of service, who were actually levying recruits for the Invader; and several of the military officers, who, when they kissed hands on departing to their respective commands, swore to drive the invader back, or to perish in the attempt, were the very first to desert to him. To such an |