She kneeled, and saintlike

Cast her eyes to heaven, and pray’d devoutly¹.

KING HENRY VIII.

Colonel Everard’s departure at the late hour, for, so it was then thought, of seven in the evening, excited much speculation³. There was a gathering⁴ of menials and dependents in the outer chamber⁵ or hall, for no one doubted that his sudden departure was owing to his having, as they expressed it, “seen something,” and all desired to know how a man of such acknowledged courage as Everard, looked under the awe⁶ of a recent apparition⁷. But he gave them no time to make comments; for, striding through the hall wrapt in his riding suit, he threw himself on horseback, and rode furiously through the Chase, towards the hut of the keeper Joliffe.

It was the disposition⁸ of Markham Everard to be hot, keen, earnest, impatient, and decisive to a degree of precipitation. The acquired habits which education had taught, and which the strong moral and religious discipline of his sect⁹ had greatly strengthened, were such as to enable him to conceal¹⁰, as well as to check, this constitutional violence, and to place him upon his guard against indulging it. But when in the high tide of violent excitation, the natural impetuosity of the young soldier’s temper was sometimes apt to overcome these artificial obstacles, and then, like a torrent¹¹ foaming¹² over a wear, it became more furious, as if in revenge for the

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