who were all on the qui vive when informed of the gentlemen gypsies, who were provided with a cook, butler, and footman, for so they designated poor little Jacob, and such in fact he was, footman and running boy to the whole establishment, every member of the party having full employment for him; and each secretly repented not having stipulated for his own servant. It was all very well at a distance to talk of being independent and above the cares and trouble of domestics, but they felt it a torment to have no apparatus spread for them on their first rising; Jacob was really clever, but he could not supply the place of five well-trained servants. Occasionally a congratulatory feeling occupied the mind of each that it was only for two months, and as no one chose to forfeit the penalty, nor acknowledge they had engaged in a mad frolic, they forbore expressing the half-formed wish of returning to their brick and mortar houses. But the curiosity of the Benturn people was intolerable; something must be done; they must

apply to the Magistrates to prevent all the grocers, bakers, and butchers of the town from surrounding their encampment every Sunday evening.

"I tell you there is no possible way of preventing these annoyances," said Philip Deverel. "This forest is as free to the whole world as it is to ourselves. You cannot compel the worthy burghers of Benturn to take the right path, when they are inclined to pursue the left; trust me, I have studied law long enough to find out there is no respect paid to lord or lordling in forest laws, unless they happen to be rangers, deputy rangers, or some way connected with them. You must either move your camp, or submit to be stared and gazed at, every day, and every hour of the day."

"But this is intolerable," observed Walter; "I am sure there were some hundreds yesterday peeping and prying as if we were wild beasts. I am not quite certain that their impertinent curiosity may not have the effect of turning me into some outlandish monster, ready to fly at

and bite the first person who may again annoy us by penetrating our solitude."

It would have been better," said Delaval, "if you had taken my father's side of the forest. You might there have been ten miles. or more from a town any way, scarcely a house within a mile or two; and if we were to proceed quietly, I'll engage you should have none of these nuisances, besides having a haunch occasionally from some of our keepers."

"But your lady mother, Mrs. Delaval?"

"She is far away, Rayland. I told you so before, only you would not attend. Beech Park will be deserted this summer, and there we may procure fruit and such like matters without raising any curiosity."

"I give my vote for an adjournment," said Deverel; "a camp is not like a walled city."

"True," replied Trevallian; "and my advice is, to depart at break of day; but, if we penetrate still deeper in the forest, we shall do well to dispense with some of our luxuries."

No sooner said than done. The mid-day sun

saw the spot where the gentlemen gipsies had harboured clear of all but a few fragments of broken furniture, and the spaces bare of turf where the tents had been fixed. When the Benturn worthies next visited the spot, the birds were flown; and after some hours of wonder and conjecture, the whole scene faded from the remembrance of those who had been amused by the merry gentlemen.

There is nothing like experience," said Delaval, when they were again settled. "Now we know what we are about: this spot is fifteen miles or more from our last sojourn, and I'll for it we shall have no visiters-the few

engage

inhabitants are miles apart."

“But there is something like a park-paling beyond those shrubs.”

“I believe we are near an old manor-house, belonging to a Mr. Penruddock; he is a singular character. I have heard my mother speak of him as suffering much grief from the loss of his wife, who died when I was a little boy. I

remember hearing of Mr. Penruddock's sorrow -almost distraction; but he will not interfere with our comfort; he seldom, if ever, goes beyond his own grounds. I never saw him, nor do I recollect having heard of any person who has within the last ten years."

Our young gentlemen had at last fixed on a spot suitable to their wishes, in the most retired part of the forest, where there were only a few straggling huts and a solitary farm-house within a circuit of ten miles, with the exception of the lone mansion of Mr. Penruddock, which was so surrounded with plantations as not to be visible from any part of the low fence by which the domain was surrounded; the inhabitants of the scattered dwellings were too much occupied with their daily avocations to bestow more than a passing thought on the encampment that had raised so much wonder and astonishment in the neighbourhood of Benturn.

Their present situation was no great distance from the sea, which would vary the scene as well