will I accompany my lord to the scaffold: we will cry 'God save
King James!' with our dying breath, and smile in the face of the
executioner." And she told her page, a hundred times at least, of the
particulars of the last interview which she had with his Majesty.

"I flung myself before my liege's feet," she said, "at Salisbury.
I devoted myself--my husband--my house, to his cause. Perhaps he
remembered old times, when Isabella Esmond was young and fair; perhaps
he recalled the day when 'twas not I that knelt--at least he spoke to me
with a voice that reminded ME of days gone by. 'Egad!' said his Majesty,
'you should go to the Prince of Orange; if you want anything.' 'No,
sire,' I replied, 'I would not kneel to a Usurper; the Esmond that would
have served your Majesty will never be groom to a traitor's posset.' The
royal exile smiled, even in the midst of his misfortune; he deigned to
raise me with words of consolation. The Viscount, my husband, himself,
could not be angry at the august salute with which he honored me!"

The public misfortune had the effect of making my lord and his lady
better friends than they ever had been since their courtship. My
lord Viscount had shown both loyalty and spirit, when these were rare
qualities in the dispirited party about the King; and the praise he got
elevated him not a little in his wife's good opinion, and perhaps in his
own. He wakened up from the listless and supine life which he had been
leading; was always riding to and fro in consultation with this friend
or that of the King's; the page of course knowing little of his doings,
but remarking only his greater cheerfulness and altered demeanor.

Father Holt came to the Hall constantly, but officiated no longer openly
as chaplain; he was always fetching and carrying: strangers, military
and ecclesiastic (Harry knew the latter, though they came in all sorts