Page:Ethel Churchill 2.pdf/121

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ETHEL CHURCHILL.
119

comfortable, with as little the appearance of conspirators as possible; then they were (by their own account) the most oppressed of individuals, and the most devoted of partisans, ready to die, so that their wrongs were redressed, and the rightful king restored. There was a great show of gaiety; for the neighbourhood, being a dull and scattered one, any thing that wore the semblance of festival was doubly welcome.

Again Ethel felt how little sympathy was there with her sadness. A thousand wild plans of escape even now flitted across her mind; but they were vague and confused fancies, which she lacked the energy, even if she had had the power, to execute. A dull sense of suffering weighed upon her heart. She heard voices, she saw faces, but they produced no impression upon her; and she allowed herself to be handed into the carriage, almost without knowing what she did. The long and slow procession, at length, reached the church; and it took up almost as much time to range the different friends in their appointed and proper