Deborah, who most truly loved her young mistress, now entered upon the subject of her confidence with the strongest assurances of fidelity and prudence, and having secured the lock of the door, to prevent interruption, she seated herself by Arabella's side, and gave an attentive ear to her tale. This was soon told, since her young mistress dwelt but slightly upon the previous interviews she had held with Edward Wilford before Morgan was forced upon her acceptance, and she finished her narrative with a particular account of the inhuman treatment Rose Wilford had experienced from Harpsfield and Thornton, say ing, that it was in order that she might procure some aid for his unhappy sister, that had induced Edward to request that she would grant him the interview which had so lately taken place at Wellminster Church.

Deborah listened with an expression of the deepest attion, and seemed to feel a lively interest in every part of her tale. She shook her head and sighed when she heard of Edward's renewed claim on the hand of Arabella; uttered a few brief exclamations of anger and indignation when she was told of Friar John's interference with Sir Richard to advocate the cause of Morgan; looked dejected when the young lady mentioned the tomb of her mother; but when she heard of Rose's cruel sufferings, and that the poor girl was cast into a dungeon, while lingering under the effects of a savage torture, the old housekeeper burst into an agony of tears,-she even groaned at the recital; and suddenly throwing herself on her knees, she raised her hands and eyes to Heaven, as she exclaimed, "O Lord God, have mercy upon thy servants; do Thou arise with Thy rod and Thy scourge to cast out their cruel enemies, for the honour of Thy name, that Thy truth may appear in the sight of all men, and Thy glory be no longer concealed by these wicked followers of Satan !"

Arabella was astonished. "Deborah!" she said "what is this I hear? for God's sake! what do you mean, tell me? Are you mad! Think, if any one should hear you but myself."

"I should, in that case, be known for what I am," replied Deborah; "I should be led to the stake. Well, God's will be done, if that must be the end of it.—I am

not mad, my dear young lady; and if I have heretofore appeared to be to others what I am not at heart, it was all along for your sake that I dissembled. I did not wish to

get myself turned out of doors, in the hope that, if I stayed within them, I might one day open your eyes; and that God would make me, as he can do, though but a simple woman, a means to confound the wise. I only stayed till a time should come to give me the occasion, and I have found it now.-Your mother, too, on her death-bed, left a solemn charge about you to me, dear young lady."

"Did she?" said Arabella; "I will most gladly hear it, but not now; for I must instantly set off for Canterbury to assist poor Rose: will you go with me Deborah ?"

"I dare not," replied the housekeeper. "If we both go, something will be suspected; it will come to the ears of Friar John; but if I stay behind, I could manage to hide your absence some way or other, as you have of late shut yourself up so much in your own chamber. But how will you get into Canterbury Jail, and without the Friar's knowing it ?"

"Leave that to me, Deborah," said Arabella; "I shall take with me a purse well filled with gold, and, if I am not mistaken, that will open the gates of a prison to let me into it, though it might fail to get me out if I were a prisoner. And I know a man in Canterbury who never resists money, let who will offer it. You, Deborah, have knowledge in hurts and in medicines; you must prepare me something to apply to poor Rose's wound, and a drug proper to keep down fever."

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I have a receipt for a burn," answered Deborah, "that was used by your late mother among the poor; it will cure the worst burn or scald that ever was known, if applied in time. I always keep it ready prepared, to guard against accidents in the family. Gammer Plaise even has the stuff of me for her patients in the village. And as to medicines, I have the great Doctor Butt's receipt for "a fever and you know that he was chief physician to King Henry the Eighth; so you shall go well furnished, and may God give a blessing to your pains!"

:

"I believe I am sure he will," said Arabella; "for Rose is a most simple-hearted, good girl; and Providence

will not, I trust, suffer her to sink under the hard hands of her cruel oppressors. I shall instantly set off."

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"But you must not go alone," replied Deborah ; your father left you under my charge, and indeed I would not let you go out to Canterbury for a less cause than this, is. I would, as it is, leave you behind, and go myself, only I am sure that I should not be able to manage to get into jail so easily as you will. I must stay here, and somehow or other hinder its being known you are away, else Friar John would ruin me with my old master, though I don't fear Sir Richard a pin's point, if he be left to himself. He might huff me, but I am sure he would not dare to turn me out of my place, for the sake of my long service to his late lady."

"There is not one of the servants that, I dare venture to trust," said Arabella; "for they are most of them creatures that have been recommended to my father by the Friar. But I know what I will do: you, Deborah, shall lend me your sad-coloured cloak and hood,—that will quite disguise me; and so I will set off in your garments for Gammer Plaise's cottage; and blind Tommy, who can find his way to every corner of Canterbury, as well as if he had his eyes, shall be my guide and my companion; so, you find, Deborah, I shall avoid going there alone in my father's absence.

"Poor blind Tommy is not a fit person to take care of you, Mistress Arabella," said the housekeeper; "but as

it is, I know of no one else who can be trusted; and he is so fond of all Master Wilford's family, and especially of poor Mistress Rose, that he would go to the world's end to serve them."

"But hark!" cried Arabella; "what noise is that in the court-yard? Dear Deborah, do go and see ;--I am sure somebody is coming into the house, and I do not wish to go to the window; since, if it should be Friar John, I will plead, what is indeed but truth, that I am too ill at ease to meet him."

"I will let you know in a minute," replied Deborah ; and she left the room instantly, and soon after returned to inform Arabella that the person arrived really was the Friar, and, as ill luck would have it, he was going to stay

at the Hall till towards the evening. "I am sure it is so," said Deborah; "for I heard him tell the varlet who came with him, that he should be employed in looking out some papers in his closet here till the afternoon, and to take the horses to the stable till then, when he should want them again to go back to Canterbury. So there is no stirring for you till he is gone away."

"How unlucky is this!" exclaimed Arabella; "it must occasion so many hours' delay, and when Rose too is in such a state of suffering."

"God help her!" cried Deborah; "but there is no remedy; for, if you attempted to move from the house while the Friar is here, and he should espy you, or find it out, all would be over; he would make use of Sir Richard's name even to lock you up, for he does what he likes with poor old master."

"It is too true, indeed," said Arabella; "I must be patient. Do you, Deborah, let the Friar know I cannot see him. Give what orders you need in the house, that there may be no suspicion of any thing out of the common way; then prepare what is necessary for Rose, and come back to me, and pass away the time with me till I set out, for I have now told you all my cause of unhappiness, and I cannot bear to be alone with my own thoughts, while I am held in this state of anxiety and suspense."

Deborah obeyed her young lady; and after dinner was over in the family, and Friar John had shut himself into his own closet,--a place held sacred at the hall, and not to be approached without his order,--the old housekeeper returned to Arabella. She shut the door with caution.

"There," said Deborah," is a little parcel that contains all that I can think of for poor Rose. Take care of it. I have done your message to the Friar; he is well content with it, and is going back again to Canterbury, after he has made an end of rummaging his papers. His man said in the hall, that the Friar came over to hunt out some papers of evidence, I think he called it, against some poor creatures charged with heresy, that have escaped to London. And so he is going to send up the matter of their offences to Bonner. These are terrible times; my heart aches when I think upon them."

"They are terrible, indeed!" replied Arabella; "and, as you say, Deborah, that I must not set out till the Friar has departed, do you employ the intermediate time by telling me what you hinted I was to learn from you respecting my mother. It will be some ease to my mind to know it, and it will take off my thoughts, though but for a while, from a subject that is terrible to my feelings during this state of suspense.

"Friar John is in the house," answered Deborah.

"Yes," said Arabella; "but you told me he was shut into his own closet; and if he is, or is not, he shall not dare to enter my chamber while I am in it; so I will lock the door, and then do you speak freely, and never fear any friar, either Spanish or English."

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Well, if you will take upon yourself to lock the door," said Deborah, "I have no right to hinder you, and so then I will speak.

Arabella did lock, and double lock, her chamber door, and, drawing the housekeeper apart to the very end of the room on the opposite side, she bade her sit down and fear nothing, since it was impossible she could be overheard even by a listener."

Deborah began, by asking her young lady if she had the key of her mother's cabinet that stood in the room. Arabella answered, "Yes; but you know, Deborah," she continued," my spirits have been so weak, that, though my dear mother expressly left that cabinet to me, I have never yet found the heart to examine it entirely, so that I am not acquainted with all its contents."

"But I know something of a part of them," replied the old housekeeper; " and so shall you before we part. Now attend to me, for what I have to say concerns you deeply."

"I am all attention," said Arabella; time, and tell me all I am to learn."

"take your own

"I will," answered Deborah. “You must know, then, that your poor mother was, in early life, of the Reformed Church, and, as I have heard, was promised in marriage by her parents to one of their own faith. But before the marriage was accomplished, your mother, who was very beautiful, attracted the eyes of your father, Sir Richard