said the earl.

"This trick beats my sliding panel; you'll be pulling ribbon out of your jaw like a jack-pudding next! In the name of all that is miraculous, how came you by this treasure?"

In a few minutes Mr. Troutbeck recounted the singular accident by which he had recovered the precious box and the deed it contained. Before slipping on the loose riding coat which the king had courteously flung into his boat as the galley pushed off, he had felt something like a parcel of letters pressing against his side; and on pulling it out soon discovered from its contents that, by some fortunate occurrence, he had become possessed of the black box so long talked of among his fellow-conspirators.

"Prime minister of mine," said the earl, unable to conceal the exultation of his triumph, "behold the Pandora's casket which shall let out all evils upon our enemies, but retain eternal hope at the bottom for ourselves! Now, go set the clubs buzzing like hornets,

to chafe the aldermen who have been lend

ing money at court. Now to issue out the dusty pikes and the unsunned doubloons. Now for unresting couriers, to rouse the provinces to set Bristol on fire, and Wales by the ears."

"And what day do you fix for the great rising?"

"The thirteenth the anniversary of the day Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was found with his stupid throat cut on Primrose Hill. On that day, we assemble at the Calves'Head Club in Crane Court, set the business going, arrange the subsidies, draw up the levies, and appoint our leaders. I must begone; a heavy night awaits me but, halloo ! what is that? Be kind enough to look, for I am still somewhat lame with that old hurt of mine at Breda."

It was a sudden clash of swords in the courtyard below that had arrested the earl's attention. He had now risen from his chair, and thrown his cloak about him. Troutbeck

opened the window, and looking out, was surprised to see a medley of two or three persons, apparently dressed in livery, fighting with the utmost impetuosity. They tilted round the courtyard, exchanging thrust after thrust, and suddenly disappearing through the stable-door, which shut after them.

"Only a drunken brawl," said Troutbeck, shutting the window and turning round, but the earl was gone; a slight noise below the floor only indicating the trapdoor by which the arch-plotter had descended. "His last trick," said Troutbeck, stamping on the floor over the square door, which he now distinguished; and as he did so, he thought he could hear a faint laugh far below.

169

CHAPTER XVI.

THE CALVES'-HEAD CLUB.

ABOUT ten o'clock of a September evening, various groups of muffled-up men might have been seen making their way by dim winding alleys and obscure lanes to the door of a small, smoke-dried, dingy-looking tavern, with an inn-sign much like a gibbet, situated in a narrow court not many streets from Westminster Abbey. They could not well be what they looked most like-a congregation of conventiclers gathering for a prayer-meeting-because the locality was of ill repute, and not very attractive to the strict members of any sect and party; because also the hour was far

too advanced a one for the purpose of any religious assembly, unless, as was too often the case at the time of which we write, fanaticism were only a cloak for treason, and the meeting house were a magazine for French powder and Protestant pikes.

About the persons of the men thus apparently assembling for a common, and probably mischievous, purpose in a secret parlour of the "Angel and Trumpet," in Covenant Lane, Westminster, nothing, however, could be discerned to peculiarly excite the suspicion of even the keenest spy. All wore the low-crowned hat and feather common to the period, though some favoured more of the old, greasy, steeple crown, that indicated the nonjuror; while others flaunted a gayer plume, and donned the beaver with a cock and air indicative of higher birth and a better presence. While some slunk into the narrow doorway—where a sour-faced landlord received them with a whispered word and a peculiar gesture previously agreed upon-others pushed in with a