silence, only occasionally broken by murmured exclamations in French, when her feelings became too much for her.

'Madame St. Aubert knelt on one knee before the Duke, kissed his hand, and presented him with a Bible, splendidly bound in crimson and gold.

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“Ah! qu'il a l'air noble et gracieux! C'est un vrai roi!" cried Pauline below her breath, as the Duke took her mother's hand to raise her from the ground, bowed profoundly over it, and said as he took the gift she offered: "Madame, I have come to defend the truths contained in this book, and to seal them, if so it must be, with my blood."

'I heard these words quite distinctly, in the sudden silence which had followed the cheers; but, after the Duke had finished speaking, the noise grew more deafening than ever. A great many people were sobbing, too, besides Lucy Fordyce, though it could not have been with fright, like her, for they were quite grown-up.

'Dr. Power rubbed his hands together and said, "Right, right: those are the best words that have been spoken yet," quite out loud. And Eleanor Page whispered to Pauline, "I wish Henrietta was here: she would be convinced now."

'And now, at a sign from Madame St. Aubert, the whole school began to move forward, and we all fell into our proper places in the procession. Bessie did not change colour now, nor falter in the least, as she knelt before the Duke and gave the banner into his hand, with

the few words which had been arranged beforehand for Will your Grace deign to accept all we have

her to say: 66

to offer you

the best work of our hands, with the best wishes of our hearts ?"

""When you see these colours again, fair mistress," said the Duke, as he clasped the staff in his hand, "I trust they will have waved over a conquered field. We cannot but be victorious who fight under a flag worked by so many fair hands, and accompanied by the wishes of so many kind hearts. In the name of my followers as well as my own, I thank you, and all people of the good town. of Taunton, for their faith in me and in my cause. I ask them to keep their faith only a little longer, and it shall be justified. We are in arms for the liberties of England, and for the Protestant religion, and therefore can say, without the shadow of a doubt or scruple, 'May God defend the right!'"

'Bessie's earnest "Amen " was repeated in a sort of shout by many voices, for the Duke spoke in tones clear enough to be heard by all around him. Dr. Power was just going to rub his hands again, but changed his mind, and rubbed one eye instead-very hard indeed-and then looked about him with such a triumphant smile, that I felt exactly as if he was saying, "I told you so. Did I not use almost these very words, young ladies? Let this be impressed upon your minds till the latest hour of your lives." Certainly the impression was made upon mine. I can recollect even now all that happened on that day, down to the most trivial particulars, with a minuteness

that would satisfy even Dr. Power himself. But, anxious as he was that it should be so, I am quite sure that he never dreamed what terrible reason we should all have for remembering that twentieth of June to the latest hour of our lives.'

HE next day we watched the Duke of Monmouth's troops march out of Taunton on their way to Bridgewater. File after file of soldiers passed under our eyes, and yet there were more behind.

""Thousands and thousands of them!" Camilla Fanshawe said, with a look of awe. "How can anybody doubt that the Duke will get back his rights, and win the crown which belonged to him, with such an army as that to fight his battles ?"

'And yet we all agreed that its leader looked very melancholy. Though "Long live King Monmouth!" was echoing all down the street as he passed, he did not smile, but merely bowed mechanically, without caring to glance up at the faces which filled every window and balcony on both sides of the way.

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"Why does he look like that?" said Camilla, quite disappointed, like the rest of us, at the change which had come over the Duke since yesterday.

"Perhaps he is sorry to leave Taunton," suggested Agnes. "You know every one seems to like him so much here, and maybe they will not in other places."

"Perhaps he is thinking how many of the men who are marching with him now may never come back to Taunton," said Eleanor Page gravely.

'Henrietta sighed, and turned away from the window; and though the rest of us stayed there till the last strain of music died away in the distance, and the last straggler of the rabble who followed the army had vanished from our sight, yet it was with very sober faces that we gazed, for this was the first time that we really began to think what must be some of the consequences of the scene we had witnessed yesterday.

666

""Will they fight a battle, and all be killed ?" asked Lucy Fordyce anxiously.

'Nobody answered. But I am sure that we were all thinking the same thing, and were wondering how long it would be before we should hear news of the men who had just marched away from before our eyes, leaving the streets of Taunton to look duller and emptier than they had ever done before.

'We did not hear anything at all for about a week, and then only that the Duke had been well received at Bridgewater-that he had marched from there to Glastonbury, Wells, Bristol, and other places whose names I forgot as soon as I heard them. After this, reports became extremely vague. "The Duke was marching straight for London," we were told, "with the King's army flying be