384 Esther WharncUff; [Oct. 



duration. Ere many minutes had elapsed^ sounds of tumult proceeded 

 from the lower part of the building, the tread of heavy feet was heard 

 ascending the stairs, and the door suddenly opening, the officers of jus- 

 tic6 stood before its startled inmates. Esther, instantly conjecturing 

 that they came in pursuit of her husband, received them, and internally 

 offering up thanks for Wliarncliff's escape, calmly demanded their bvisi- 

 ness. 



" This paper. Madam, can best inform you," replied the officer, hand- 

 ing her a small scroll as he spoke. She unfolded it ; and vain would be 

 all attempt to describe her horror on perceiving it to be a warrant for 

 the immediate arrest of herself and her child on a charge of heresy. It 

 was a terrible moment. She well knew that the secret of her faith was 

 known only to her husband ; and the frightful idea that he had sacri- 

 ficed her to the vengeance of the law^ came over her like the shadow of 

 death. 



" My child ! my child ! must he too perish ?" were the first words she 

 uttered, and springing towards the infant, she flung herself beside him 

 on the ground, and clasped him again and again in her arms, as if to 

 assure herself that he was yet left to her. She kissed him wildly, she 

 wept over him, she called on him by every tender appellation, amidst 

 bursts of hysterical screams, till, totally exhausted, she suffered herself 

 to be torn from him, and placed on the miserable pallet ; whilst her ter- 

 rified child, though scarcely comprehending what was passing around 

 him, kept his hand closely locked in her's, and wept because his mother 

 wept. 



A deep stupor followed this burst of agony, Avhich the officer, touched 

 by her affliction, forbore to interrupt. But it was not long till the 

 unfortunate woman recovered her senses, and with them a consciousness 

 of the conduct befitting her situation. " Gentlemen," she said, as she 

 arose calmly from her seat, " I am ready to follow you. I am well 

 aware that it is only before a higher tribunal defence will avail me : 

 nor will I ask indulgence for this poor boy, whose tender age might 

 Avell exempt him from imprisonment. I thank Heaven rather that we 

 are not to be divided. He has not a friend on earth but myself, nor 

 where to lay his head when I am gone." 



" You will not leave me, mother," said the affrighted child, clinging 

 still closer around his unhappy parent. 



" Never ! never ! but for the grave," she replied. 



" Methinks, jMadam," said the officer, looking around on the apart- 

 ment they were about to leave^ " you change to ad\antage from this 

 chamber to a prison." 



" It may be poor. Sir," replied Esther, sternly ; " but it is my 

 home." 



" Is there nothing you would wish to take with you ?" he inquired. 



" Nothing," was her answer ; and casting one mournful glance around 

 as she departed. 



A gaol, during the sanguinary reign of Mary, might well have borne 

 the inscription of Dante's Inferno; and Esther felt, as she entered its 

 gloomy precincts, that for one accused of heresy there was indeed small 

 hope. She knew not, it was true, the evidence likely to be brought 

 against her, but she knew and gloried in her own delinquency. But 

 Avretched as was a prison in those times, she gave no tokens of despair 

 or terror. On the contrary, her mind appeared lightened from a load 



