Arabella Stuart. G. P. R. James

girl laughed. "That's the great black barn," she said. "It does look like a castle by night, with the trees round it. No, madam: the only large house we have near is Sir Harry West's."

      "I must have passed it as I came," answered the lady. "Undo this knot, good girl. I know Sir Harry West well. He showed himself a gallant gentleman in the Irish wars, though as mild as he is brave. Which was his house?"

      "If you are journeying from London," said the girl, "you passed it two miles hence, on the left up the valley, by the side of the stream. But I doubt if you could see it by night."

      The lady made no reply, and the moment after her maid re-entered the room, and took the place of the landlady's daughter in assisting the Lady Arabella at her toilet. The dress was soon changed--at least as far as she would suffer it to be; for the long riding-skirt, in which she had come thither, she retained over her other garments, though it was soiled, and somewhat wet. In this plight, however, she returned to the kitchen of the inn, where she found the strange cavalier ready to receive her, and was by him led, with courtier-like formality, into an adjoining chamber, where a table was placed, groaning under the abundant supper which had been prepared. But only one cover was laid upon the board, apparently intended for herself. To this place the stranger conducted her, and seemed literally about to take upon himself the office of carver, as he had proposed; but Arabella paused, without sitting down, saying,

      "Nay, my good sir, I should surely be wanting in courtesy to let you stand and carve, while I, like the wild beast, which loves to feast without company, devour your supper. You have more gentlemen, too, I think, with you--though I know neither their name nor yours, to ask you to be seated."

      "Oh, my followers, madam, will find supper without," replied the stranger; "and as to my name, lady, I am called the Baron de Mardyke,--a foreign name, as you will see, but having been born in England, in King Edward's time, I am more than half an Englishman."

      "Pray, then, be seated," said the Lady Arabella; and the stranger, drawing a stool to the table, did as she bade him.

      Before he took his place, however, he crossed himself reverently, in rather an ostentatious manner, very different from that which he had used in making the same sign before the landlord. The lady could not help noticing the gesture; but she took no notice, and, after a brief grace murmured to herself, sat down at table.

      The gentleman, as in duty bound, carved for her; and, as she made no observation, the meal was silent for several minutes, while the landlord and one of the stranger's servants came in and out, and caused a bustle amongst the plates and trenchers.

      "In Spain," said the stranger, breaking silence, with a smile, "the host of an inn so near the capital as this, would have been ashamed to send up capons of last year to a lady's table."

      "You have been in Spain, then," said the Lady Arabella. "It is a fair country, is it not?--rich in song and romance?"

      "Rich in everything," replied the baron; "beautiful to the eye, delicious in climate, full of splendid cities and courteous gentlemen--a land of princes, lady."

      "Good truth, then, it must be but a dull place," exclaimed Arabella, with a gay laugh. "I have seen some princes since my birth, and I must say that they are the dullest specimens of mortal man I ever met with."

      "You have known few Spanish princes, madam," said her companion, "or you would judge differently."

      "No," answered the lady; "the only one I ever met with, who bore his dignity with modesty and elevated it by grace, was a German."

      "True," rejoined the Baron, "some of the Royal and Electoral Houses have produced men not easily to be banished from a lady's memory--or her heart."

      "Nay," said Arabella, with a careless smile, "my little heart is all too narrow to take in so great a thing as a prince."

      Her companion cast a quick glance around the room to see that no one was near, and then replied in a low but emphatic tone, "I hope not--I hope not."

      The blood came up into the lady's cheek, and after gazing in his face for an instant, she cast down her eyes again, and remained silent. Several of the dishes were removed, now others put upon the table; and then, as if accidentally, both the landlord and the serving-man quitted the room.

      "How strange are the events of life," said the Baron de Mardyke.

      "They are indeed," answered the Lady Arabella, "almost as strange as man's own heart."

      "Here was I," continued her companion, not appearing to heed her words, "riding on an errand of much importance to visit a fair and noble lady, whom I should have missed seeing till it was too late, had it not been for a shower of rain."

      "If you mean me, sir," said the fair girl beside him, "you must have made some mistake in your errand; for I am a being of so little consequence myself that nothing of importance can have reference to me."

      "You may in a few weeks be of much more," replied the Baron.

      "Nay, heaven forbid!" cried Arabella, resuming the gay and jesting tone which she had laid aside for a moment. "I can conceive no fate more perverse than that which would make me of any consequence at all. I never knew a bird that cared, so that his wings were tied, whether the threads that tied them were golden or hempen. Greatness is a snare from which one never escapes, once having fallen into it.--But, good truth, I am curious who you can be, sir," she continued, stopping him as he was about to speak; "I am shrewd at divining; but yet men take such disguises now-a-days, a poor woman can hardly discover them. Nay, tell me not, tell me not! I love to puzzle out a mystery, and I would fain guess for myself who and what you may be."

      "Who think you, madam?" asked the stranger.

      "Baron de Mardyke!" said Arabella, thoughtfully; "that may be some assumed title of a great man who would fain appear less than he is,--you may be one of those Spanish princes you talk of."

      "Or his envoy," answered the other.

      "Hush, hush!" cried the lady in the same tone of raillery, "let me see,--Baron de Mardyke! That, on the contrary, may be a name taken by some lesser man who wishes to seem greater than he is,--you may be a Jesuit in disguise, a disciple of Loyola, or Lainez," and she looked keenly at him as she spoke.

      There was a slight contraction of the lips, and a passing shade upon the brow of the gentleman whom she addressed; but he replied in an unaltered tone, "You will guess right ere long, madam; for when you have exhausted conjecture, you will come back to simple truth, and leave the Baron de Mardyke just what he was before.--But ere we are interrupted, let me say that I have matter of much importance for your private ear after this meal be over,--secrets of great moment!"

      "Trust them not to me then!" cried the young lady, "for I have a strange habit of dropping jewels by the way. I never could keep anything that was precious in my life--'tis but yesterday I lost a diamond; and as for secrets, I am so conscious of my carelessness, that I always give them to the next person I meet with, being quite sure that any one will preserve them better than myself."

      The stranger bit his lip; but the host entering the moment after, stopped him in his reply. When the supper was over, however, he kept his eyes fixed upon the lady, while the host and the servant were clearing away all that encumbered the table: and it was evident that he was waiting impatiently for them to be gone. But just as the landlord was about to retire, Arabella addressed him in a quiet tone, saying, "Send my girl Marian hither, mine host; I wish to speak with her."

      The Baron made him a quick and scarcely perceptible sign; and by some accident the landlord quite forgot to obey the lady's behest, taking the opportunity of scolding his daughter for something that had gone amiss, and then aiding the rest of the party who were assembled in the kitchen to consume the remains of the supper which he had brought out of the neighbouring room.

      In that chamber the Lady Arabella and the Baron de Mardyke, as we must call him for the time, remained for nearly twenty minutes, while the host and the Baron's followers talked loud, and passed many a joke and many a cup of good strong ale round the table. The girl Marian and one of the Lady