THE REGICIDE .
"His harmless life Does with substantial blessedness abound And the soft wings of peace cover him round." COWLEY.
CHAPTER I .
Ir was in the reign of Charles the Second, that there dwelt at the village of Cheshunt, in the county of Herts, two families, both revered and loved by their neighbors, although they each differed in political opinions from the other. At the head of the first of these families was Sir Frederick Davison. He had been, from habit and from conviction, attached to " the good old cause of the monarchy," which he had defended with his sword both at Durham and Worcester. His loyalty was more like fanaticism than the mere result of reason, or of wellregulated feeling. He was as full of frankness, as of honor and of truth. He had, when our story commences, been long separated, by death, from a wife whom he had adored, and now all his affections and all his tenderness were centered in his daughter.
Brought up with the most constant care, and guarded by the most unceasing solicitude, Clara had become a most worthy object of the pride and parental love ofthe old cavalier. Regarding her merely on account of her beauty, she might be said to be perfection itself; and as respects her mind, her talents, and her education, she was amongst the most accomplished ladies of the time. Her imagination was lively and active, her conversation always as full of charms as it was of genuine poetry ; for she was deeply read in the old bard Chaucer, in the elegant poet Spenser, and in the immortal author Shakspeare. But a time came when her mind and her heart were to be occupied with other thoughts than those of mere study.
The gentleman whose desmesnes adjoined those of Sir Frederick Davison, was a Mr. Clarke-and of him it was said that he was good-natured, benevolent, but a little uncouth in his manners. He had been only an inhabitant of the county of Hertford since the year 1680, and no one knew anything very certain either about his descent or his past life. The general opinion, however, was that he must have been a man of some weight and celebrity amongst the Roundheads. There was, too, it was said, at times, something curious in his demeanor, which was in direct contrast to the simple and tranquil manners of a country gentleman. Perfectly indifferent to all that was passing in the luxurious court of the then existing monarch, he passed his life in the most perfect tranquillity, with his wife, his daughter, and his only son, exclusively occupied with the amusements of hunting and fishing, or the occupations of agriculture. Never, in their many associations together, as neighbors,
had he voluntarily trenched upon the dangerous ground
of politics. In case that they were referred to, he, sombre and silent listened to the discussion, and never
attempted to take any part in it. The most constant
prayers that were made to him, joined even with the
consciousness of the danger to which he exposed himself at that epoch of monarchical re-action, could never
induce him either to drink the King's health, or to take
part in the maledictions with which Sir Frederick
Davison covered the memory of Oliver Cromwell. If
it happened, as it sometimes did, that he was too
urgently pressed upon both points, he replied with a
melancholy dignity, that although he felt hatred against
no one in the world, yet he could not pray for the
prosperity of the Stuarts ; and as to " the Protector," so
far from joining with his enemies to curse, he prayed
that Heaven might, for the sake of his greatness, his
genius, and his love for England, pardon him the faults
of which he had been guilty, and the errors into which
he had fallen.
The son of Mr. Clark, Richard, imitated his father, in
the veneration he always entertained for the memory of
Oliver Cromwell ; but this veneration was nourished in
secret. It had in it something of the solemnity of religion, and he could not bear to expose it to the vulgar
and the profane. Richard was not more than twentytwo years of age ; but the fire inherent to his youth was
tempered by a wisdom that appeared to be almost precocious. Already had he been in love with Clara, and
that love did not trouble the calm and tranquil progress
of his life ; but events soon arose that made him pay to
that passion the unavoidable tribute of agony that it
always exacts. A marked coldness grew up between
Sir Frederick Davison and his old neighbor, and the
two lovers could then only see one another but in secret
or by chance- with scarcely time to exchange a vow of
affection, or manifest a passing mark of old feelings.
The restraint that they were compelled to impose upon
themselves was increased by the arrival at the house of
the Colonel of a Royalist, named Sir Charles Luttrell,
and who was en route through the county of Hertford,
on a secret mission from the Earl of Shaftesbury.
Sir Charles Luttrell, was at the same time, bold, *
insinuating, tricky and courageous. He soon won the
entire confidence of Sir Frederick, who, like all other
enthusiastic men, had in his nature an immense fund
of credulity, and was never capable of distinguishing
between cunning and sincerity ; between that which is
true and that which is merely assumed. The newcomer
so often and so complacently tossed off bumpers " to
the health of his Majesty Charles the Second," "the
glory of his reign," "to the continuation and solidity
of his dynasty," and he flattered the prejudices of the
old cavalier with so indefatigable an adulation , that he
completely won the good man's heart, who, one evening
