A narrow table ran nearly the length of the room, and, at each
end of it, there was a large chimney, in both of which logs of wood were
burning cheerfully. What are now termed _chaises longues_, were drawn to
the sides of the table, or leaning against the walls of the room, which
were without ornament, and neatly coloured with yellow ochre.
The company assembled might have been about thirty in number, of which
half a dozen, perhaps, were in the ecclesiastical dress of the time;
while the others wore the habiliments then appropriated to cavaliers or
gentlemen, with very little difference from those as worn in the times
of the Charleses in England, except that the cloak had been discarded,
and the more substantial roquelaure substituted in its place. Most of
the party were men who had not yet arrived to middle age, if we except
the clericals, who were much more advanced in life; and any one, who had
ever fallen in with the smuggling lugger and its crew, would have had no
difficulty in recognising many of them, in the well-attired and
evidently high-born and well-educated young men, who were seated or
standing in the room.
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