standing forward and snatching the paper from the soldier's hand.

"Mercurius Redivivus, London, 8th of May. "Yesterday the Commons, to the universal joy, appointed a committee to invite his Majesty to return and take possession of his dominions;' and here follows a line more to my own purpose, which may save a bullet or two at Caernarvon: The king's letter, received yesterday from Breda, promises an amnesty to all persons whatsoever,' and therefore to me and my friends here, Mr. Magistrate."

The magistrate looked petrified as he sat; the soldiers, lowering their pistols, shouted, with all the ardour of sudden proselytes, "Long live the king and Sir Richard Salisbury!"

"Peace to all," cried Sir Richard; "up with the 'Rose and Crown,' down with the 'Covenant;' set the beer barrels going," he added, throwing a handful of silver to the soldiers. "All shall be Cock-a-hoop to-night,

VOL. II.

E

for the meanest Christian shall this eve, ere the sun set, see two moons rise over the mountains, and every loyal man shall let his braius reel, in honour of his blessed majesty. Shout, my masters, God save the king, down with his enemies ; and God bless the bridegroom and his bride!"

And they did shout, such a shout that made the welkin ring, a joyful sound that started the owl in the belfry, and drove him forth hooting into the dazzling sunlight.

A merry night they had of it, too, at the great bridal feast; at the "Rose and Crown" many a health was drunk to the lusty pedlar and his pretty bride; and the knight was the merriest of them all, for he pledged every one, and took especial delight in proposing toasts expressive of extravagant and flaming loyalty, and in making any suspected semi-Puritan go down upon his marrow bones and empty a mea

sure to prove his truth. To judge from the lip-zeal, never were so loyal a band as the quondam adherents of the landlord-justice and the fallen Rump; they must have been perpetually burning to rush into arms for Charles.

On the morrow, to the universal sorrow of the whole village, and more particularly of two we know well, Sir Richard departed on his way to his own estate in Pembrokeshire, to rouse the dormant loyalty of that county. Within the week, Mabel's father, in spite of her tears, attended by the notary, the minister, and our worthy friend the ostler, converted their goods into broad pieces and departed for the Plantations.

Need we say, dear sympathising reader, that Griffith and Mabel lived happily; and that by the vigorous exertions of the former in the copper-mine, their family rose to great importance in Merionethshire? If the reader visits Llanllyfni, he may be sure that the rosiest-cheeked child in the groups

of players, and the most ingenious architect of mud-pies in that broad meadow near the church, are youthful descendants of Griffith Owen, the lucky pedlar, and Mabel Llewellyn his bride.

53

THE CORPSE HOUSE.

CHAPTER I.

THE "Vale of Waters" is one of the fairest spots in North Wales. If it is not so sublimely wild as Llanberris, it is more peaceful and pastoral; if less beautiful than Llangollen, it possesses more of legendary interest. It is hemmed in on one side by the black, precipitous walls of the "Eagle's Mountain," as the Welsh call Snowdon, long since divested of those forests, the shelter of the wolf and boar, that once covered the peaks of Yr Wyrdfa, or "The Conspicuous," to use the language of the bards. Behind it lies Nant Glas, or the Blue Valley, with it stream