CHAPTER VII.
Forest Lea that night was a house of sorrow: the mother and two sons
were prisoners in their separate rooms, and the anxieties for the
future were dreadful. Rose longed to see and help her mother,
dreading the effect of such misery, to be borne in loneliness, by the
weak frame, shattered by so many previous sufferings. How was she to
undergo all that might yet be in store for her--imprisonment, ill-
treatment, above all, the loss of her eldest son? For there was
little hope for Edmund. As a friend and follower of Prince Rupert,
he was a marked man; and besides, Algernon Sydney, the commander of
the nearest body of forces, was known to be a good deal under the
influence of the present owner of Woodley, who was likely to be glad
to see the rightful heir removed from his path.
Rose perceived all this, and her heart failed her, but she had no
time to pause on the thought. The children must be soothed and put
to bed, and a hard matter it was to comfort poor little Lucy, perhaps
the most of all to be pitied. She relieved herself by pouring out
the whole confession to Rose, crying bitterly, while Eleanor hurried
on distressing questions whether they would take mamma away, and what
they would do to Edmund. Now it came back to Lucy, "O if I had but
minded what mamma said about keeping my tongue in order; but now it
is too late!"
Rose, after doing her best to comfort them, and listening as near to
her mother's door as she dared, to hear if she were weeping, went to
her own room.
Pages:
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97