“Make way for the drum!” ran along the avenues, as though he were passing through a numerous array of guards and soldiery.  At length he was safely deposited in a spacious hall used as a guard-room; where his conductors delivered him to Captain Ogle, the officer in waiting that morning upon her ladyship.  Being informed she was at prayers, for, as we are told, “her first care was the service of God, which in sermons and solemn prayers she daily saw performed,” Gideon lifted up his hands and said—­

“Their new moons and their fasts are an abomination.”  He then desired to be conducted near the fire, for the double purpose of drying his threadbare red coat, and relieving his extreme length by a change of position.

He had not waited long ere the signal was given for an audience.  Still blindfolded, he was led by a circuitous route into a little wainscotted chamber lighted by a single bay-window.  Here the bandage was taken from his eyes, and when the dimness had a little subsided, he beheld that heroic lady for the first time whom he had often compared, in no very moderate terms, to Jezebel, and many other names equally appropriate.  A very different person she appeared from what his heated and morbid fancy had suggested.  Indeed, if she had been the personification of all evil, with a demon’s foot and a fiend’s visage, he had been less surprised than to find her with the outward form and attributes of humanity.

She was sitting with the children, before a narrow table covered with papers.  She wore a black habit, with a white kerchief on her head, and a long Flanders veil of rich open work.  This she threw back, and Gideon beheld a countenance not at all either commanding or heroic, but one to which smiles and good-nature would have been most congenial, though a shade of anxiety was now thrown over the natural expression of her features.  Her eye seemed to have forgotten its bland and benevolent aspect, and was fixed sharply upon him.  For a moment his spiritual pride was daunted, and that natural and inherent principle, not extinct though often dormant,—­a deference to superiority, whether of intellect or station—­rendered him for a while mute and inoffensive.  It is even said that he made a sort of half-conscious obeisance; but his mind misgiving him during the offence, which smote him on the sudden as an act of homage and idolatrous veneration, he breathed out a very audible prayer.

“Pardon thy servant in this matter, even if I have bowed in the house of Rimmon.”  As he said this, he threw himself back, lifting his narrow eyes towards the ceiling; then thrusting out his hand with the despatch at arm’s length, he was striding forward, but Ogle intervened ere he had made his way to the Countess.

“With all courtesy, friend,” said he, “these communications must proceed from the officer on duty.”

With great gallantry and respect the captain presented it to his mistress.