The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-27


 scent would lie and when it would not indulged in the milder sports of hawk ing, cock fighting, otter hunting anything to take them out of doors and keep them there.
 They breakfasted early and dined until late, carousing in the great stun hall"- of their ancestral mansion and consuming huge quantities of beef, mutton and venison washe down with floods of claret.
 Sir Hildebrand had received his title from James, last of his name and line upon the British throne, and in his youth had known something of courts and camps. He was a stout partisan of the old royal house and professor of the old religion naturally.
 His hall was the center of all the intrigues in Northumberland which had for their purpose the restoration of the Stuarts and rife indeed were these intrigues. Almost openly servants and tenants were being drilled and armed with a view to the forclble restoration of the well-b eloved royal family. All the Northumberland gentry were for IL, land there was a stirring of the old country families to the end that the King should enjoy his own again.
 In spite of the severe laws against Catholics, mass was openly celebrated in the chapel of Osbaldistone Hall, and a certain Father Vaughn came and went on mysterious errands.
 It was with feeling of keen interest and a glow of ancestral pride that young Frank Osbaldistone, son of the great London merchant, gazed for the first time upon the gray stone gables, the clustered chimneys and the battlemented turrets of the spacious and ancient home of his fathers as he rode down the avenue in the early morning.
 Franks father was the elder brother of Sir Hildebrand but he had been disin- herited by their stern old parent because they differed in politics, religion and worse than all-in ideas of the sort of life obligatory on a country gentleman of many descents.
 The disinherited one had gone up to London and waxed great and rich in the trade Osbaldistone & Tresham the firm was named, but in reality it was all Os- blackstone. Being a merchant prince, he dealt as an equal with princes-when princes happened to be in need of money. But Francis, sole child and heir of his father, was romantic, adventurous, slight ly self-conceited-and wrote poetry When the old merchant discovered this last crime he felt that the ultimate i'll with which an unkind fate could afflict him had been bestowed.
 No longer did he urge and command Frank to take his place in the counting room and devote his talents and his life to the noble cause of trade He packed him off to Osbaldistonef hall, a place which he himself had sworn he would never enter. The boy was consigned to Sir Hildebrand to be ''bitted;" and from among the sons of the old knight the mer- chant swore he would select one for the place which Frank had not only rejected, but of which he had proved himself un- worthy by his infamous habit of poetry writing.
 Suddenly, as Frank neditated upon all these things and upon the scene before him, he was aware of the sound of ap- preaching hoofs, Of winding horns and the paying of hounds. Then across the avenue darted fox and behind him swept along like whirlwind the pack and the soarlet-coated huntsmen. My cousins" Frank thought as the hunt swept by.
 The next instant his whole attention was attracted by the sight of a young lady dressed in riding habit resembling in many respects that of man and guid- ing her horse with superb skill over the rough and dangerous ground through which the chase sped.
 Her course brought her nearer to Frank than any of the other followers of the hunt. Her hair was floating in the breeze, having escaped from the ribbons which bound 1t, and a glance at her fine face and person, to which an inexpressible charm was added by the wild gayety of the scene, caused Frank to stare with strange and new emotions one instant and the next to ride close up to her, slight stumble of her horse being an excuse for an offer of assistance.
 The fair huntress thanked him with a frank smile, but kept her horse at the same pace, and Frank put spurs to his steed to ride beside her.
 one or lDe nuulSIuef WdS seen return ing, waving the brush of the fox in tri- umph Soon the others came up. Old Sir Hldebrand and his big, rough sons welcomed their London cousin after fashion to Osbaldistone Hall. They seemed civil enough in their rude way except Thorncliffe, the second son, who scowled at Frank and gave him to un- derstand at once that between them there could be on good feeling.
 It was not until later than Frank real ized that this was because he had been greeted too cordially by Diana Vernon, the huntress who had so dazzled the wandering youth. A niece of Sir Hilde- brand by his wife's side. she had been doomed by family contract to marry one of the sons of the old knight or else to enter a convent. Diana never thournt of questioning the decree. But she A chosen the convents though Sir brand had picked out Thornie '1