| Chapter I: | A Mysterious Visitor. |
| Chapter II: | The Household At Chad. |
| Chapter III: | Brother Emmanuel. |
| Chapter IV: | The Travelling Preacher. |
| Chapter V: | A Warning. |
| Chapter VI: | Watched! |
| Chapter VII: | An Imposing Spectacle. |
| Chapter VIII: | Hidden Away. |
| Chapter IX: | The Search. |
| Chapter X: | From Peril To Safety. |
The great house at Chad was wrapped in sleep. The brilliantbeams of a June moon illuminated the fine pile of gray masonry witha strong white light. Every castellated turret and twisted chimneystood out in bold relief from the heavy background of the pine woodbehind, and the great courtyard lay white and still, lined by adark rim of ebon shadow.
Chad, without being exactly a baronial hall of the firstmagnitude, was nevertheless a very fine old house. It had beensomewhat shorn of its pristine glories during the Wars of theRoses. One out of its original two quadrangles had then been laidin ruins, and had never been rebuilt. But the old inner quadranglestill remained standing, and made an ample and commodious dwellinghouse for the family of the Chadgroves who inhabited it; whilst theground which had once been occupied by the larger outer quadrangle,with its fortifications and battlements, was now laid out interraces and garden walks, which made a pleasant addition to thefamily residence.
The seventh Henry was on the throne. The battle of BosworthField had put an end to the long-drawn strife betwixt the houses ofYork and Lancaster. The exhausted country was beginning to lookforward to a long period of prosperity and peace; and the householdat Chad was one of the many that were rejoicing in the change whichhad come upon the public outlook, and was making the most of thepeaceful years which all trusted lay before the nation.
Several changes of some importance had passed over Chad duringthe previous century. The wars had made gaps in the ranks of thefamily to whom it had always belonged. There had been sundry edictsof confiscation--as speedily repealed by the next change in thefate of the day; and more than once the head had been struck downby death, and the house and lands had passed either to a minor orto some other branch of the family. There had been the confusionand strife betwixt the various branches of the family which was acharacteristic of that age of upheaval and strife; but the presentowner of the estate, Sir Oliver Chadgrove, seemed firmly settled inhis place. He had fought on Henry's side at Bosworth, and had beenconfirmed by that monarch in the possession of the estate of Chad;and since that day none had tried to dispute his claim; nor,indeed, would it have been very easy to do so, as he wa