“And the good man, I am sure, has your welfare too much at heart to withhold it,” the Countess replied.  “But follow me to the palace, and we will confer further upon the matter.  Inquire for the Countess of Exeter’s apartments.”  And with another gracious smile, she rejoined the cavalcade, leaving Lord Roos behind.  He thanked her with a look for her complaisance.

“O Gillian, I am sure ill will come of this,” Dick Taverner exclaimed.

“Wherefore should it?” she rejoined, almost beside herself with delight at the brilliant prospect suddenly opened before her.  “My fortune is made.”

“You are right, my pretty damsel, it is,” Lord Roos remarked.  “Fail not to do as the Countess has directed you, and I will answer for the rest.”

“You hear what the kind young nobleman says, grandsire?” Gillian whispered in his ear.  “You cannot doubt his assurance?”

“I hear it all,” old Greenford replied; “but I know not what to think.  I suppose we must go to the palace.”

“To be sure we must,” Gillian cried; “I will go there alone, if you will not go with me.”

Satisfied with what he had heard, Lord Roos moved away, nodding approval at Gillian.

The cavalcade, as we have said, was once more in motion, but before it had proceeded far, it was again, most unexpectedly, brought to a halt.

Suddenly stepping from behind a large tree which had concealed him from view, a man in military habiliments, with grizzled hair and beard, and an exceedingly resolute and stern cast of countenance, planted himself directly in the monarch’s path, and extending his hand towards him, exclaimed, in a loud voice,

“Stand!  O King!”

“Who art thou, fellow? and what wouldst thou?” demanded James, who had checked his horse with such suddenness as almost to throw himself out of his high-holstered saddle.

“I have a message to deliver to thee from Heaven,” replied Hugh Calveley.

“Aha!” exclaimed James, recovering in some degree, for he thought he had a madman to deal with.  “What may thy message be?”

And willing to gain a character for courage, though it was wholly foreign to his nature, he motioned those around him to keep back.  “Thy message, fellow!” he repeated.

“Hear, then, what Heaven saith to thee,” the Puritan replied.  “Have I not brought thee out of a land of famine into a land of plenty?  Thou oughtest, therefore, to have judged my people righteously!  But thou hast perverted justice, and not relieved the oppressed.  Therefore, unless thou repent, I will rend thy kingdom from thee, and from thy posterity after thee!  Thus saith the Lord, whose messenger I am.”

CHAPTER XXI.

Consequences of the Puritan’s warning.