to enter into conversation with me; and as his discourse chiefly turned on sporting matters, I was at home with him at once, and he presently grew so familiar with me, that I almost forgot the presence in which I stood.  However, his Majesty seemed in no way offended by my freedom, but, on the contrary, clapped me on the shoulder, and said, ’Maister Assheton, for a country gentleman, you’re weel-mannered and weel-informed, and I shall be glad to see more of you while I stay in these parts.’  After this, the good-natured monarch mounted his horse, and the hunting began, and a famous day’s work we made of it, his Majesty killing no fewer than five fine bucks with his own hand.”

“You are clearly on the road to preferment, Nicholas,” observed Richard, with a smile.  “You will outstrip Buckingham himself, if you go on in this way.”

“So I tell him,” observed Sherborne, laughing; “and, by my faith! young Sir Gilbert Hoghton, who, owing to his connexion by marriage with Buckingham, is a greater man than his father, Sir Richard, looked quite jealous; for the King more than once called out to Nicholas in the chase, and took the wood-knife from him when he broke up the last deer, which is accounted a mark of especial favour.”

“Well, gentlemen,” said the squire, “I shall not stand in my own light, depend upon it; and, if I should bask in court-sunshine, you shall partake of the rays.  If I do become master of the household, in lieu of the Duke of Richmond, or master of the horse and cupbearer to his Majesty, in place of his Grace of Buckingham, I will not forget you.”

“We are greatly indebted to you, my Lord Marquess of Downham and Duke of Pendle Hill, that is to be,” rejoined Sherborne, taking off his cap with mock reverence; “and perhaps, for the sake of your sweet sister and my spouse, Dorothy, you will make interest to have me appointed gentleman of the bedchamber?”

“Doubt it not—­doubt it not,” replied Nicholas, in a patronising tone.

“My ambition soars higher than yours, Sherborne,” said Richard; “I must be lord-keeper of the privy seal, or nothing.”

“Oh! what you will, gentlemen, what you will!” cried Nicholas; “you can ask me nothing I will not grant—­always provided I have the means.”

A turn in the road now showed them Hoghton Tower, crowning the summit of an isolated and conical hill, about two miles off.  Rising proudly in the midst of a fair and fertile plain, watered by the Ribble and the Darwen, the stately edifice seemed to command the whole country.  And so King James thought, as, from the window of his chamber, he looked down upon the magnificent prospect around him, comprehending on the one hand the vast forests of Myerscough and Bowland, stretching as far as the fells near Lancaster; and, on the other, an open but still undulating country, beautifully diversified with wood and water, well-peopled and well-cultivated, green with luxuriant pastures,