domestic chaplain of the new lord, who was of his faith. We have seen little of each other, but we are good friends and brothers in affection; our creeds have not separated us. And now, John, I have strange news to tell you, which I have been longing to tell to some one. I have seen my adopted son; he is more than worthy, he is noble in every way. He is here under the name I gave him. He has served with great distinction in the army. My heart went out to him on the first moment I saw him, but then I did not even know his name.'

'I know all,' said John, and I came to tell you I have found out this too-me and Bridget together, and what my mother said, and so we made it out.'

'Is Bridget alive?' said Mr Temple. I have quite lost sight of her for many years. She knows more than any one.'

'She lives in the cave cottage,' said Dingrose, 'and has done for many years. Father Philip, I mean Master George, likes her to live there, and she has always been kind to any of our men as has been sick and ailing. She nursed him when we took him. You would hear about that, Master Arthur.'

'Yes, John; and the misery of those few days was unbearable. That foolish lad brought me a note from the cave-I expect through Bridget. She may have seen his likeness to his father then. I see it now, although I have only once seen him, and I am longing to claim him as my son; but until this matter

is over-this attack upon the smugglers-I dare not declare him.'

'He knows who he is himself by this time, or he may guess,' said Dingrose. I sent him word by the sergeant that I could not fight against my fosterbrother.'

'I heard you had left the smuggling. This was the general subject of talk in the village some days ago, and is still. But I can tell you what you do not know. After you released the sergeant he was again seized by your successor, so that my dear boy would never have your message. How strange it is, John, that he, of all men, should have been chosen to put down this smuggling adopted son!'

my own

'And my foster-brother,' added Dingrose. 'Cannot we do anything, sir, do you think, to bring a settlement without bloodshed? You might persuade our fellows, and if you told the Captain who he is, he would feel he was under great obligation, like.'

'I think something might be done,' said Mr Temple. 'It is worth trying, at all events. Anything to save unnecessary bloodshed among the people. Oh, John, why have you for so many years been mixed up with them?'

'Well, sir, I hardly know. It went on and on. I took the public, and the smugglers came there, and we got to trade, and then they chose me head man just as it were without choosing. I began to arrange

and order, and so they went on doing what I said; and I did a good deal to keep order, and make less harm come out of it; and then it enabled me too, sir, to look after the old lord and my mother.'

'The old lord! You do not mean to say he is alive?'

'Don't you know, sir, he's Mr Spenser, and lives in the Glen Cottage?'

'I never heard of it until this moment. Has he recovered his senses? Is he all right in his mind?' 'Oh yes, and has been a long time.'

The next question was, 'Does he know of his grandson's existence ?'

'No,' said Dingrose; and that's what I have come about.'

'I must see him; I must tell him immediately— poor old man!' replied Mr Temple, much moved. 'And all these years he has been living alone, and I not knowing it; but perhaps he would rather not disturb his brother now, after so many years' possession of the property. What joy it will be to show the old man his noble grandson, Arthur, again, and something more-Arthur's and Clara's son. But then there is this horrid business to be passed through unless we can stop it. When will it be, do you think?'

'In three days now,' said Dingrose.

'How do you know?'

'Because the schooner is coming then, and the

But do,

cutter has been over to Ostend to look after her, and Tim is coming, for I have been over, and all to tell him I have given all up. I thought it right to do this, sir, as an honest man, as I told the others here.' 'You are a noble fellow, John, indeed you are.' A tear gathered in John's eye as he said,— 'Thank you, sir, that's the best reward I have had. I know I am right now, and do not care. sir, try to stop the matter and bring all about peacefully. The men respect you. Your brother, sir, might do something if he would, and I think he would. But I will go now, sir. I am going away until all is over. If I am here I shall be suspected by both sides—an enemy to all and a friend to none. I have got a friend up in the moors, twenty miles away, and there I will wait until you send for me.'

W

CHAPTER XXI.

HEN Mary Carfax was in possession of the information given to her by Father Philip, she found herself, after the first pleasure was over, in a dilemma which appeared to her much more serious than the former one. She was bound by a promise to reveal her relationship to Latimer to no one without exception. She desired to visit both Mr Temple and Gertrude, and knew how difficult it would be to speak of Latimer in the position he occupied, as she supposed, in the minds of all others. Pondering all this over in her mind, she remembered all at once Mr Temple's anxiety about Latimer, which she had strangely forgotten, and of course she wondered why he should be so exceedingly interested in her cousin. For a long while she was completely puzzled. She was not aware that Mr Temple and Father Philip were brothers. That they mutually regarded each other with much esteem she did know, but not more. That Mr Temple was the actor in the tragic story