Heiress of Haddon

by W. E. Doubleday

PARNELL.

Sir George's first care upon his arrival at Haddon was to send off a number of his retainers to capture, if possible, the gang which had entrapped him; but after searching for nearly a couple of days they were obliged to return and communicate their failure to their lord. The villains had all made off and left not a clue behind them.

His next care was to calm the overwrought feelings of Lady Maude and his daughters, to whom the suspense of the last few hours had been painful in the extreme; and then after he had refreshed his inner man, he retired to seek that repose for which he was so well prepared.

Time sped on; the days soon passed into weeks, and the lovely spring had merged into a still more lovely summer. John Manners' visit had come to a close, and he was longing for an invitation for another visit and seeking to find some decent excuse for becoming a self-invited guest.

At last, much to his relief, he received the long-wished-for invitation. He and Crowleigh were invited together to one of the numerous feasts of Haddon's hospitable Hall, and De la Zouch, whose wounds were now fast healing, was wishful that a reconciliation should take place between them, and professed himself even anxious to make some advances towards his late adversary.

Without loss of time the two guests sped on their way at the appointed time, and were amongst the very first of the visitors. Disappointment, however, awaited them. Father Philip was dying. The Derby leech had done his best to restore the injured man, and although he had succeeded in prolonging the patient's life for a little while, all his efforts to save the unfortunate confessor failed, and seeing the father suddenly begin to sink, he had, the night before John Manners arrived, given up all hope of saving his life, and announced that the end was nigh at hand.

Under these circumstances mounted messengers were at once despatched to inform the invited guests that it had been found necessary to postpone the feast, and asking them to defer their visit until they should hear again from Haddon. This, in almost every other instance, had succeeded in staying the visitors; but Manners and Crowleigh had started at the break of day, and were well on their way before the messenger had found his way to stop them.

A little manoeuvring on Dorothy's part gained, to Margaret's qualified delight, an invitation for them to stay from no less a personage than the dying man himself. Father Philip had taken kindly to Crowleigh from the first, and was grateful to him for the skill and patience he had bestowed upon him on his previous visit, and he was ready enough to accede to any request, whatever it might be, that his Dorothy, his beloved Dorothy, thought well to ask.

Not a brother of the cloth could be found to take the father's place, and this loss proved exceedingly awkward to all at Haddon at this juncture.

The Reformation had come in with so much vigour; the enactments against the Roman Catholics were so stringent, that not even another priest could be found to shrive him. The pendulum of fortune had indeed swung back again with a vengeance. From one extreme the religious laws had gone to the other; and so it befell that the father, to his exceeding great regret, found himself dying with never a minister of his own persuasion near at hand.