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AN

HISTORICAL ROMANCE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"WHITEFRIARS," "CÆSAR BORGIA,"

ETC.

"Who can control his fate?

An old thing 'twas, but it express'd her fortune."

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

OTHELLO.

LONDON:

HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER,

GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1849.

LONDON:

GEORGE WOODFALL AND SON,

ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET.

OWEN TUDOR.

CHAPTER I.

THE LULL IN THE STORM.

OWEN TUDOR was destined to render only destructive services to the cause he had espoused. The intelligence he brought into the Bastille drove the Armagnac leaders assembled there on a desperate attempt to relieve their friends from the menaced danger. To win Taneguy's belief to the dreadful atrocity meditated, Owen was obliged to confess, under solemn promises of secrecy, the means by which he was assured of the reality of the project he divulged the dishonour of Huéline! The character of de Giac abundantly supported the information; and Owen urged the ex

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pediency of a sudden attack on Paris, before succours could be sent to the stormers, with a vehemence that carried away all men's convictions. So much time only was lost as was absolutely necessary to the gathering of a force at all adequate to the attempt; and, on the third day after the surprisal of Paris, sixteen hundred Armagnac combatants poured like a torrent from the gates of the Bastille into the very heart of the city.

At his own passionate request, Owen obtained the command of a select body of knights and mounted archers, destined to rush on the Louvre, and endeavour to rescue the king and the Princess Catherine from their Burgundian capturers. The dauphin was already placed out of danger by the cares of Taneguy Duchâtel, who conveyed him safely to Melun, whence he continued his flight to the central provinces of France.

But even Owen had not calculated the energy of the passions he left roused in the Boucherie. The discovery of his flight destroyed almost the last hope of Huéline, and enlightened the revengeful madness in her heart to all that was to be feared. The dread of an attack from the Bas

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