honour of knighthood was bestowed was John; he received it in the field, at the hand of Edward the Third, under which prince he signalized himself by his bravery at the famed battle of Cressy, in which battle the earl of Flanders fell by his hand; and on his return to England, he was farther rewarded by being created a baron, and receiving from the crown the gift of an extensive domain in Cumberland.

From this time the family of De Mowbray was constantly about the court; its character was that of wariness rather than depth of understanding; and it was a quality which it so used as to protect itself from all the storms of court intrigue, and to hold itself in favour with each succeeding monarch.

At the period of the death of Edward the Sixth, the situation of the De Mowbrays, for the first time, seemed in a state of doubt: fate appeared undecided whether to place the crown on the head of the ambitious Mary, or that of the placid Jane Grey; and during this indecision trembled the house of De Mowbray, who being universally known and acknowledged as adherents, and firm ones too, to the Protestant religion, dreaded the accession of Mary to the throne; but the wariness of lord William's father, Thomas, exerted itself with success to reestablish their safety.

Convinced that a hasty change from the Protestant to the Catholic religion would not impose on the keen-sightedness of a princess like Mary-that

though she might appear to tolerate them for such a change, still the natural fire of her temper might only be smothered till an oppportunity should present itself for her to revenge on them the religious persuasion which she would believe them in their hearts still to follow; he wisely conceived that some effort must he made, some step taken, by which he should purchase her favour, without any obligation to ideas of religion.

Accordingly, perceiving that Jane was too coldly neceived as queen, to be likely long to hold her seat upon the throne, he kept himself retired from all public observation of his opinions, till he should see her established upon it, or Mary in her stead fixed upon the seat of power; and no sooner had the unambitious Jane resigned all pretensions to the sceptre of royalty, than lord Thomas de Mowbray, with every display of zeal in the cause of the new monarch, joined the party who arrested the duke of Northumberland and several of his adherents at Cambridge; and having assisted in conducting these objects of Mary's inplacable hatred to the Tower, and taken steps that it should be understood by her that he had been thus active in her cause, he contented himself with retiring for the remainder of her reign into his native county, where he had the good fortune never to be disturbed by the bigotry of the queen, as he believed, and as probably was the case, in return for the shew of service he had made to her on her accession to the throne of England.

In the same year that was marked by the death of queen Mary, died also lord Thomas de Mowbray, and his successor was his son William, to whom our readers are already introduced, and who was then in his twenty-third year. Lord William's person was rather commanding than handsome; his complexion dark, and his eye keen, though it conveyed neither the intelligence of a depth of understanding, nor a conciliating disposition; his mind was formed in the true mould of his predecessors, the nursery of wariness and craft; and with the re-establishment of the Protestant religion, stepped forth De Mowbray, vaunting himself not a little on being the head of a family which had not swerved from its religious tenets, during the whole period of the last reign of persecution.

Elizabeth, although possessed of a solid and refined judgment, had a foible, which opened a way to her heart for lord William de Mowbray; with her it was a sin in those whom she permitted about her person, and these with her were intimates, for confidants she had none, to arrogate to themselves the slightest degree of that authority which she considered, and was resolved to maintain, hers alone and indivisibly; and lord William possessed both the art of flattery, and the meanness of licking the dust she trod on, with an ingenious policy, that concealed his views, and displayed only his humble sentiments of adoration and loyalty.

Thus placed amongst the favourites of his queen, lord William dreamt not of love, his thoughts

being solely placed upon the aggrandizement of his power and wealth, till Elizabeth recommended to him to wife Ann Cecil, a woman of exquisite beauty and accomplishments, the orphan niece of her favourite minister, Cecil, afterwards lord Burleigh. To this proposition no man could return a negative whose heart was disengaged; here was the double inducement of person and fortune for it to fix upon, and the queen herself became the negociator of the marriage: it was solemnized at her court with the utmost splendour; and after the ceremony, she hung upon the bride's neck a chain of diamonds, adding, that she pledged herself to become the sponsor for their first child, if a female.

Lord William now hugged himself indeed, in the reflection of the use he had made of that policy so truly the talent of his family; and Elizabeth, if ever she perceived the colours of self-interest shining through the veil of loyalty which he hung over them, had too good a knowledge of administerial economy, to confess a discovery which, for the credit she owed to herself as queen, if confessed, must rob her of so valuable an assistant at the helm of state.

Lady Ann de Mowbray was all gentleness and virtue; more attached to the solitude of her castle, its gardens, and adjoining woods, than to the gaities and festivity of the court.

Lord William's time was divided between his sovereign and his wife; and Elizabeth was satisfied that he had hers and his country's interest too

much at heart, ever to be absent, when either called upon him for his services.

About a year after her marriage, lady de Mowbray became pregnant, and at the accustomary time she gave birth to a daughter. Again fortune smiled upon lord William, and he flew to bear the information in person to the queen.

Elizabeth reminded him, in the most flattering terms, of her promise in regard to the child; and bidding him not delay the christening longer than was necessary to the health of the mother, as she was eager to visit Cumberland, which was a new country to her, sent him back without delay to attend the recovery of his wife.

The baron returned home, where he was busied not less in assuring himself that every care was taken of the babe on whose head honours, undreamt of by its infant brain, were going to be poured, than in those preparations which he conceived it necessary to have made against the royal visit.

In the chapel of the castle was erected a canopy of purple velvet, fringed with gold, under which the queen alone was to have her place during the ceremony of the baptism; and into the most superb chamber of the castle, was introduced a bed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with the royal arms in gold and jewels; the hangings of the chamber were of tapestry, purposely worked for the occasion, and in the centre compartment, opposite to the foot of the bed, was this device.-" Rejoice, ye walls which have entertained her people's blessing,