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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59873 ***
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+[Illustration: Cover art]
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+
+  THE SWORD OF
+  THE KING
+
+
+  BY
+
+  RONALD MACDONALD
+
+
+
+  NEW YORK
+  THE CENTURY CO.
+  1900
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY
+  THE CENTURY CO.
+
+
+
+  THE KNICKERBOCKER PRESS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+It is matter of no small difficulty and hesitation for a woman to
+tell a story--in especial, her own story--from the beginning of it
+even to the end, and to hold, as it were, a straight course
+throughout.  The perplexities, I say, are many, and among them not
+the least is found in these same words, _beginning_ and _end_.  For
+where truly his story has its inception, and what will be its
+ultimate word, might well puzzle the wisest man of this age, or any
+other.  It has been well said, indeed, that the history of a man is
+the history of his troubles--but that fashion of considering will
+bring us, by no devious road, to the latter days of the Garden of
+Eden and the Fall of Man.  Now either I have somewhere read, or my
+own heart has privily told me, that the story of a woman is the story
+of her love.  And this I take to be truth, and do therefore resolve
+that the first chapter of my story shall be the first of my heart.
+
+But, lest my book itself should lack apology, I will first tell how
+it comes that I, the mere wife and daughter of country gentlemen, and
+of learning, as will be seen, wholly insufficient to the undertaking,
+should write a book at all.
+
+I write, it is true, but for my own people--for the family that I
+pray may be long in the land.  But in these days, fortunate indeed,
+yet full of swift and dubious change--these days when every second
+man, it would seem, must print a book--these days when all the
+presses in London are not enough to set before us the tithe of what
+is committed by ink to paper--in these days, I say, none can be
+assured that what he now pens shall not by some chance hit of fortune
+attain the resurrection of print.  And if this thing befall my work
+of love, and if the book then prove, not the cere-cloth of the
+embalmer, but a second and perpetual life to the thoughts of a most
+happy daughter, wife, and mother long departed and forgotten, I would
+stand well with my reader.
+
+If any stranger, then, do read, let him believe that I have no taint
+in me of that _scabies scribendi_, mentioned by Horace, and mightily
+inveighed against last Sunday in the pulpit of Royston Church by our
+good vicar.  This itch must be spreading fast, I thought, if there be
+danger of it here, where scarce a full score of the good man's
+hearers can spell in a hornbook.  And now, lo!  I am in dread lest I
+be thought infected--I, a woman, with all good things that come to
+women, and one to whom the holding of the pen is soon a weariness.
+
+There hangs yet (and long may it so hang!) in our great hall at
+Drayton a sword--not in its sheath, but naked, and broken some two
+parts of its length from the hilt, but shining bright as on the day
+it was first drawn by the great prince that once used it.  Beneath
+it, also against the wall above the hearth, is the scabbard.
+
+It was on a fine morning of the fall of last year, as I was tending
+Ned's new Dutch garden, that I heard loud and childish altercation
+proceeding through the open windows of the great hall above me.  And
+there in a window arose the fair gilded head of my seven-year Mary,
+my first and best gift to Ned, and his best to me.
+
+"Pray, madam, come up to the hall," she cried, "for Will is ever
+doing things of naught, and he will not be gainsaid by me."
+
+"Nay, child," I replied, loath to lose the sweet air of the morning
+and my labor below.  "Nay, child, but you must take means and learn
+cunning to control him."
+
+"I cannot do so, madam," says poor Mary, well-nigh in tears; "and he
+is even now about dismounting the broken sword from the wall.  But if
+you will come, madam, I will hold his legs while I may."
+
+And with that I ascended in great haste, yet but just in time to save
+the relic from desecration and the heir of Royston and Drayton a
+backward fall of great peril.  For the noise of my entrance caused
+his most unserene Highness to turn quick on his heel and to miss in
+part the footing, already precarious, that he had attained upon the
+mantel.  In short, he fell into my arms and into tears with one and
+the same movement; tears shed for no danger run--such is not his
+habit--but of grief for the plaything that was but now within his
+grasp; for, though but rising five, Master William Maurice Royston
+would have the broken sword to fight battles with--against King
+Lewis, forsooth, and the wicked Frenchmen, in the garden.
+
+"It is but a bwoken old sing, madam-muvver," he cried between his
+sobs, "and of a fit length for me, lacking the pointed end, which I
+did purpose leaving upon the wall."  And so I must needs tell him how
+dearly I do prize that shattered weapon, thinking the while of the
+shame that was averted, in part by its means, from our houses--and of
+the honor, too, that came thereby.
+
+Then Mistress Mary would have the tale of the sword, and Will, his
+grief forgot, and joyously bent on touzing my hair to the image of
+his own, made instant demand for the fullest narration--"Every word,
+madam-muvver--from _onceuponatime_ to _happyeverafter_."  Yet the
+attempt to bring my tale to the measure of childish apprehension did
+lead me into quagmires of question and answer so vexing to our
+diverse ignorance, that dinner and Colonel Royston found us scarce
+advanced beyond Will's _onceuponatime_.  At meat the children
+demanded and obtained permission to lay the matter before their
+father--the promised history, and the obscurity of word and idea
+found necessary by the historian at the very commencement.  At last
+Ned made as if he would speak, when "Madam," cries Mary, as one big
+with a great thought, "madam, will you not write it all down, that we
+may read when we have learned the long words?"
+
+"Wise maid!" said her father.  "And indeed, Philippa, it is worth the
+doing.  But, Mistress Wisehead," he continued to the child, "when the
+long words are spelt from thy mother's head upon the paper, they will
+cry aloud to be spelt back into thine, if you will have the tale."
+
+Now these words did make my poor maid to blush hotly, who had little
+love to her book.  Yet she answered well, saying: "I know, sir, that
+I have been a poor scholar, but, if madam will write the tale, I
+purpose to be diligent to the end that I may read well and fitly
+against the time it is written."
+
+"'T is plain, Phil," says Ned merrily, "that here is your one hope to
+make a scholar of your daughter.  And, indeed, sweetheart," he went
+on, with more of gravity, "'t is a book I should like well to read
+myself."
+
+"And that, sir," said I, "is a compliment you pay to few.  For,
+beyond M. Vauban's work on fortification, I vow I have not seen a
+book in your hand since we were wed."
+
+So, what with a reluctant daughter to be tempted into the path of
+letters, and a husband to please,--as I knew by his face his heart
+was much set on this enterprise of little Mary's suggestion,--I found
+myself committed to the task.  Yet, though I have thought much and
+uneasily of my promise, I know not indeed when I had begun the
+fulfilling it had not Mary this very afternoon brought ink and paper,
+while Will followed close with a new pen.
+
+"Write now, madam," quoth the maid.
+
+"Write now, madam-muvver," says Will in faithful echo.
+
+"If I begin now," said I, hard driven for yet a new plea to postpone
+the first plunge, "William Maurice Royston will not be able to read
+the book when it is done."
+
+"William Maurice Royston," said he, "does not purpose reading.  Sis
+says reading is irksome.  But, when the tale is wrote, madam-muvver
+is going to read it to him."
+
+And so it is that I begin.
+
+
+
+
+THE SWORD OF THE KING
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+I was a child of five years when I first saw my lover, and a gallant
+sight I thought he made, the more that he found me in sore trouble,
+and drew me out of it, as is ever his way.  Colonel Royston, indeed,
+in these latter days, holds that what I call my memory in this matter
+is but the light of his after instruction thrown backward on the dark
+screen of childish oblivion.  Whether or no (though I take much pride
+in the memory, and still will so call it), between him and me the
+reader shall not lose, but shall know that on that day my nurse,
+weary and petulant with the great heat and our long ramble afield,
+was leading me, Philippa Drayton, no less petulant and even more
+weary, by the hand, or, rather, was hoisting me by the elbow, up the
+great avenue of elms that leads to Drayton Hall.  And, fain as I was
+for home, her rough speed was too great for my little legs, and her
+grip pained my arm, so that I cried out.  And then I heard the thud
+of hoofs upon the turf by the roadside, and I looked up to see the
+little horse pulled well-nigh on his haunches by his rider, whom,
+from his own mouth, I soon knew to be Master Edward Royston, of
+Royston Chase.  As he pulled up, Betty let go my arm, whereupon, for
+the greater ease of my legs and the freer exercise of my voice in
+weeping, I incontinently sat me down in the road.
+
+"For shame!" says Master Ned, looking down from his galloway upon
+Betty, with a frown that had sat well on thrice his years.
+
+"Ay, shame indeed," says Betty, yet blushing to the color of a
+well-boiled beet; for she well knew it was at herself his words were
+aimed; "ay, 't is shame indeed for a great maid like little mistress
+here to sit in the road and weep."
+
+Now Betty spoke in the broad fashion of our parts--the _Doric_, as
+Mr. Telgrove calls it, that I have heard is well-nigh a foreign
+language to many.  For the not giving this outlandish speech to my
+readers there are two reasons: the one, that, though I do well
+understand it myself, as is but natural, and do love the sound of it
+at times, and can even, at a pinch, shape my own mouth to it as well
+as my ear, I yet have by no means the skill to set it down, knowing,
+indeed, no combination of letters able to convey its sounds; and the
+second reason is, that could I make shift so to write, none could
+read what I had written--which perhaps, by the well-disposed at
+least, might be held a blemish in my book.
+
+But Master Ned, brushing aside her endeavor to hand on her shame to
+me, at once declared himself my champion.
+
+"You do not take me," he said, the dark cleft of his frown growing
+deeper between his brows, so that it was a marvel to see so much
+austerity on so smooth and young a face.  "When little maids weep, my
+lass, 't is most times the blame of the great ones."
+
+I know not indeed if Colonel Royston yet hold in this belief; but
+from that point did I love Master Ned, if, indeed, I had not begun to
+do so some seconds before.  And I was glad that he sat upon his
+horse, that raised his head some few inches above Betty's cap, for
+she was indeed a great lass, and twice his age, and his reproof had
+in great measure lost its force had he stood dwarfed beside her great
+body.
+
+From Betty he turned to me, as I sat in the road, and--"Thou art
+tired, little one," he cried, with a great tenderness in his young
+countenance, that to me seemed so old.  "If you will ride before me,
+sweetheart," he said, patting the pommel of his saddle, which was new
+and fine, as all about his person, "I and Noll will take most gentle
+care of thee."
+
+At which kind words I rose to my sore feet, stretching out my arms,
+and crying to him that I would go with him.  And, while Betty stood
+aghast, yet with never a thought her timid and sickly nursling would
+venture such a deed, I had reached his down-reached hands, had
+scrambled or was pulled into the saddle before my knight-errant, the
+little horse had plunged beneath his double burden, and we were away.
+As I swayed and bounced on the pommel in the first strides of that
+gallop along the sward that lies between the elm trees and the road,
+where the air rushed by so cool and green in the shade, he seized me
+with his right arm, fetching me round against his body so that my
+chin lay on the arm above the elbow.  As my eyes, close shut in the
+first shock of our flight, came wide in the great comfort of this
+security, I was gazing back over the way we had sped, and I laughed
+aloud to see the vain pursuit of Betty.  For all but her great self
+seemed streaming behind her in the wind of her going--cap, hair, and
+petticoat, while the fatness of her trembled as she ran.
+
+For all this, long as it has been in the telling, happened, as it
+were, in a single stroke of time, and we were yet little parted from
+the pursuer.  And, as I laughed, Master Royston, between his chidings
+of his nag for so serving us, would know the reason of my mirth--so
+"Do but see," I cried, "how Betty runs, and you will laugh too."  But
+he could not, till he had tamed and admonished little Noll to a
+better pace for my ease.  And when it was time for him to laugh at
+the quaint figure Betty did cut, I had already begun to pity her.
+But Master Royston would none of it.
+
+"She is very well served," he said, "for her rude manners to thee,
+little one.  I have a mind to give her some more of it.  She is
+weary, is she not?"
+
+"Ay, indeed, poor Bet!" I answered, "else had she not so handled me."
+
+Upon that he drew rein, saying we should wait till she drew near.
+After a while, as Noll did crop the grass at his feet, Master Royston
+asked me if I could sit astride.  "It is no shame," he said, "thou
+art so small a maid."  And when I was so set, grasping a double
+handful of the pony's mane, he said: "When she is close I shall run
+to the house.  Hold thou fast, little love, for Betty must run as
+never before if she would catch us."  And as I would have pleaded she
+drew near, all spent and blowing, and I felt his knee move, and
+little Noll did also feel it, and was gone.
+
+Oh, that I had a pen to tell of that ride!  This time I was not
+afraid.  This time there was no starting aside, no uneasy casting of
+my poor small person from side to side in grievous oscillation.  And,
+oh!  I say again, for the pen of some poet (yet I cannot tell whose
+to wish) in order to describe this my first taste of the joy there is
+in a horse when he is between us and turf good and plenty!  Many a
+mile and many a beast have I ridden since that summer afternoon, and
+I hope so to ride, by the goodness of God, many a year hence; and yet
+that long, clean, resilient flight through an air that seemed of
+liquid green, flecked with the gold of the sun dropping here and
+there through the elms; the soft, fresh thud of hoof meeting turf but
+to part anew with the impact--that meeting with the soil that gave so
+lively assurance that Mother Earth was yet kindly and strong beneath;
+the strong rushing of the wind cooling my face and lifting the
+tangled curls back over the close cap; the new-born trust, moreover,
+in the arm that held me--all these things are with me now, distilled
+into one golden drop of life's very elixir, being, indeed, one of
+those gems of memory whereof the sweetness can as little be set fast
+by words as the stamp of them can be erased from the mind so sweetly
+and strangely impressed.
+
+So much for my memory rather of a frame of being than of an ordered
+consecution of events.  The curtain of childish oblivion here
+descends, as it is wont to fall, swift and dark, on these pregnant
+spoils of recollection.  I think my dear and honored father's arms
+were those that lifted me from the saddle.  I have since heard that
+Betty was saved by my new friend from the rating Sir Michael had
+ready for her, receiving privily from that youthful master of craft a
+mint-new crown in earnest of future subsidies, did she prove
+thenceforth tender to the little maid.  And, indeed, I think she did
+deserve whatever wage of kindness the future may have brought her.
+For I have of her no further memory of harsh entreatment.
+
+For Philippa Drayton there now began a new life of the happiest.  I
+had found what all, at one time or another of life, will look for,
+yet find most often, I truly believe, when they seek him not--I mean
+a true friend.  And there is none but his children and mine that can
+tell what a friendship it was my friend did give me.  He was my
+playmate, yet of age and wit to control.  He was at whiles my tutor,
+for I would learn of him when none else had the art to keep my eyes
+five minutes fast on the book.  He was my master of equitation, and
+did teach me in such manner not only to sit upon a horse's back, but
+also to understand what the animal would be at, that I learned in
+time to back many a beast that some could not mount with impunity.
+Before the five years of our early comradeship were past I would ride
+the colts round the paddock, often without bridle or saddle, and
+seated astride, as in my first ride with Ned, which I have described
+above.  And he would blame me for a madcap, and yet, if none else
+were by to see, would laugh at the frolic, and praise my sitting of
+the nag, and my tricks of control.  With his coming into my story,
+which before was none at all, my old dread of animals, along with the
+ill-health of my earlier days, had vanished, to be replaced by a pure
+confidence in all that breathed, which in itself, maybe, was to the
+full as childish, but, without controversy, far safer for the child.
+Anon, Ned was himself my steed, to be guided by tuggings of the hair
+and ears often, I doubt me, little merciful.  And, if not the
+swiftest, he was surely of all I have ridden the most willing.  It
+could not fail that, thus together, we should quarrel often.  I mean,
+it could not fail where such a child as I made one of the pair.  But
+Ned would bear my poutings, my bickerings, and every wayward mood
+with a smile when he might, and without it when he must.  But did
+some act of mine wrong some other than himself, as when I would cuff
+Betty, or strike dog or horse for the easing of my own passion rather
+than the fit correction of the animal, then would he show the sterner
+mettle that was in him.  Then he would not forgive till confession of
+wrong or pardon was asked.  And, was I stubborn, he would stay away,
+even days together, but I must submit.  Once it was a week--seven
+days, most long and dark for erring Mistress Philippa.  For he said:
+"You are my friend, little Phil, and some day I shall wed thee, and
+it is not for my honor that you do thus, or so."
+
+Thus Master Edward Royston, aged some fourteen years.  Yet was my Ned
+no untimely saint, fitted but for the fatal love of the gods.
+Passion and frolic were in him, laughter, and--no, not tears--only
+twice have I seen them in his eyes, heard them mar the government of
+his speech.  Boyish escapades were plentiful enough with him to give
+his mother and my father some knowledge of the unbending nicety in
+the point of honor which was yet seen in his most boyish prank or his
+strongest passion of anger.  For the power also of anger was in him,
+growing, indeed, in its outburst less frequent as he grew in stature,
+but gaining rather than losing force with its rarer manifestation.  I
+touch on this note of his character designedly, inasmuch as it was
+the cause of the great change that was soon, I mean at the end of
+twelve years from our first meeting, to come into my life.  But of
+that in its place.
+
+Sir Michael Drayton, of Drayton Manor, in the southward part of the
+county of Somerset, was already well on in years when I, the second
+child of his second wife, was born.  And that was in the eighth year
+of the second Charles.  For he, my father, first saw the light in the
+year of grace 1609, and thus, at the time of my meeting with Ned,
+which was in the summer of the year 1673, and in the sixth year of my
+little life, he had fulfilled sixty-four years, of which number some
+five and forty had brought him trouble sufficient, on moderate
+computation, to furnish out a fair portion of strife and affliction
+to six ordinary men.  For, ardent and devoted Cavalier though he was,
+'t was not the outburst of the great war of the Rebellion that marked
+the worst point of his troubles.  Often in his old age have I heard
+my dear father tell how, after the tedious and ever embittering
+doubts and hesitations of that civil strife that had endured in
+England since the coming of the first Stuart, to him as to many
+another the resort to arms came as a clearing of the vexed mind and
+settlement of conscience perturbed.  Of the momentous action of the
+Long Parliament, in the year 1642, I have heard him say: "Then at
+length our duty was plain.  I, for one, slept better o' nights
+thereafter than I had done since the meeting of the Short
+Parliament."  For Sir Michael had been elected of the shire for that
+hapless assembly, as subsequently for its successor, the Long
+Parliament; of his seat in the latter he was illegally deprived when
+he withdrew from Westminster to join the King at Oxford, which he did
+in the late spring of that same year (I mean 1642), in the excellent
+company of my Lord Falkland and the late Lord Chancellor Clarendon,
+then Sir Edward Hyde.  And thenceforth his life was war, and raising
+of money in order to its prosecution; in both which perilous and
+comfortless means of assisting his sovereign and of hurting his foes
+Sir Michael Drayton was ever forward, to the most lamentable
+detriment of his own person and estate.  He raised on his own land,
+and maintained at his own expense, a troop of horse that were ever
+with him throughout the first period of that long and evil war, I
+mean until the fight at Naseby in Yorkshire.  There he lost great
+part of his following upon the field, and was himself grievously
+hurt.  Yet with that scent, as I may say, which led him in all those
+years ever where the work was hottest, he was found again in the
+Welsh rising three years later, whence, escaping after the fall of
+Pembroke Castle, he joined himself with his little remnant of
+troopers to the Scots, in bare time to share their overthrow at
+Warrington by the late Protector (although he had not then that
+title).
+
+Sore in mind, sick in body,--for he was never wholly healed of his
+great wound in the right thigh which he took at Naseby,--he reached
+home only to hear of his King's terrible end.  'T is perhaps strange
+to tell that this awful deed of murder and sacrilege put a new heart
+in that much-buffeted and enduring gentleman, my father.  That
+Martyrdom, I think, went far to atone, in Sir Michael's mind and
+heart, for certain wrongs and fickle veerings of purpose, proceeding
+as much from the complexion as the misfortunes of that pious Martyr
+and unhappy King.  No word did he ever utter to asperse the royal
+memory; yet once in the passage of these more recent transactions of
+state, which have brought into my life, as into that of the nation at
+large, so much of betterment, did I hear him murmur (though but as
+for his own ear alone), "Ay, ay--he served us best, when they served
+him worst."  Be that as it may, from that hour until the happy
+restoration of King Charles the Second, all that he had--the remnant
+of health, much of his land, the lives of his sons, the thoughts of
+his mind, and the prayer of his heart, were given to forward that
+happy end, which was achieved, as all men know and many remember, in
+the year 1660--but, for the house of Drayton, at what a cost!
+
+But my father's story I must not make overlong, lest I never come at
+my own.  In brief, then, all his money and much of the Drayton
+timber, with here and there a fair slice of his land, were gone while
+the head of the royal Martyr was yet where God had set it.  From that
+fatal day, however, he set himself to the husbanding what God and the
+rebels had left to him.  Here again was disaster in wait for him; for
+when, by dint of living as a peasant, and by help of his breeding of
+horses (for which he was already famous in the west, and, in the
+early years of the war, well known to the farriers of Prince Rupert's
+Horse), he had begun to lay by the means of one day aiding the cause
+to which his life was given, he was, through the lust and malice of a
+certain Puritan neighbor, denounced as a Malignant, and most heavily
+fined by the despotic rule of the late Lord Protector Cromwell.
+Through Mr. Nathaniel Royston (of whom more in good time), he was
+warned of this instant spoliation, and was so enabled privily to
+convey his store of gold into France, and to lay it in the hands of
+his exiled sovereign, to be spent, no doubt, in far other fashion
+than the earning of it.  And though he proved to the commissioners
+sent down upon that proditorious information to be less worth the
+plucking than had been supposed, yet his acts in the late troubles
+being known, and somewhat, perhaps, of that sending of money into
+France leaking out, the blow fell upon him even as his psalm-singing
+but ungodly neighbor had designed.  So, the gold in France, land must
+be sold.  And sold it was, but not as that godly brewer of Yeovil did
+intend--to wit, into his own hand; for here again Mr. N. Royston did
+us great service, buying of the land which adjoined his own a small
+portion at so high a price that the great fine was paid with the loss
+of a few fields.
+
+Yet none the less was the work all to begin again.  So begun again it
+was, and that most stubbornly.  And it was well the land was fat, and
+the breed of horses unmatched in the west country, for, when our
+western discontent grew to a head in the year 1655, Rupert, his
+youngest son by his first lady, was with Penruddock at Salisbury,
+whither he carried and left, on his own undertaking, most of that
+painful saving.  Some few of his following drifted back to Drayton,
+but Rupert had spent the gold and himself for his King, even as Sir
+Michael had now spent all his family.  For Henry and Maurice, the
+elder sons, had fallen, the one at Worcester fight, the other in duel
+with a Frenchman at The Hague, whither he had followed his sovereign,
+his opponent, it was said, being a spy of Cardinal Mazarin, and
+suspected by my brother of some ill intent to his exiled prince.
+Over and above all these troubles, that same affair of Penruddock's,
+so foolish and ill-devised, cost Sir Michael within the year the life
+of his wife, after a union with her of six and twenty years of that
+nature as to soften much the sting of his many afflictions, though it
+could not keep her own heart from bursting with the loss of the last
+child of their love.
+
+His thereafter speedy marriage with my own dear mother, whom I do but
+faintly remember, had in it no token, whatever the show may have
+been, of disrespect to the former Lady Drayton.  But here again is a
+story to excel, perhaps, in the right telling of it, the length of my
+own.  Yet I do not purpose a full relation of so much sorrow, holding
+that the strong hand only of a master in letters should essay the
+portraiture of such tragedy as was in those days often enacted in the
+houses of many an old Royalist family.
+
+Mr. Denzil Holroyd's only surviving child, the lady who afterwards
+became my mother, had passed a jejune childhood in a house
+impoverished by her father's loyalty to the Stuart cause, and
+persecuted in the latter days, even to bitterness, for its stanch
+adherence to the faith of Rome.  She had been the close and tender
+friend of the first Lady Drayton.  Following hard upon the death of
+that lady came fresh ill-fortune upon the Holroyd family, of which
+the death of Denzil, its head, was a part; and Mistress Alicia
+Holroyd, left without a natural protector, and stripped by cruel laws
+and wicked informers of her last acres, flung herself late of a
+bitter winter's night against my father's door, begging shelter from
+the inclemency of Nature, and protection from the baseness of her
+Puritan cousin, who, not content with the filching her inheritance,
+would have added her person to his plunder as the price of food and
+lodging, hoping thus to make sure his title against future turns of
+fate.  Silas Holroyd pursuing, found her clinging as some frightened
+child to my father.  Silas soon returned the way he came, but after
+what words with my father was never known, since he dared tell no man
+what passed between them, and none dared question Sir Michael.  Yet
+Alicia could not dwell in the house where now was no mistress, so out
+of this difficulty, as of so many another, my father must needs find
+a way; which indeed he did, as the words he used in telling me of the
+matter shall now inform any that has read so far in my narrative.  "I
+told your good mother, little daughter Phil," he said, "that I had
+little power or credit in the land to help my friend.  'But,' said I,
+that bitter night that she came to me, 'if you will wed an old man
+and a broken, there is yet left in Drayton the strength to make some
+show of cover for the mistress of his board and the partner of his
+bed.  'T is a poor thing to offer, but it will serve to make a fool
+of that knave Silas, when he shall try, as well I know he will, to
+recover the custody of your person by a process of law, charging me
+with your abduction.  I will cherish you well, if you will have me
+for husband.'"  And if the poor lady let gratitude usurp the place of
+love who shall blame her, being in such straits?  Not I, her most
+happy daughter.  Were it but for the father she gave me, I will thank
+her next in order only to her God and mine till I die, and after, I
+do firmly trust.
+
+And so out of hand they were married, nor do I think either found
+cause of regret.  For the lady found peace, and license to practise,
+as far as might be, the duties of her faith, with now and again the
+comfort of its holiest offices at the hands of some wandering or
+hunted priest.  For my father's old and loud-spoken hatred of Rome,
+now indeed much softened by the mellowing of his own temper and the
+fellow-feeling of a common persecution, was yet so well fixed in the
+memory of that countryside, that Mistress Alicia Holroyd was
+generally held to have abjured the errors of Rome in committing the
+error of becoming Lady Drayton.  Certain it is, that none ever
+discovered the secret chapel so cunningly hid among the wine vaults,
+devised by Sir Michael, and painted and floored, dressed and
+furnished by no hands save his and those of Simon Emmet.  I have
+heard that Simon would grumble as he worked, predicting ill to come
+of this idolatry.  For his own soul, he would say, he cared not so
+greatly, in the pleasing of so sweet a lady--but, for Sir Michael's,
+his same sweet lady's, and their children's to come, he would the
+cursed job were not to do.  But, if bidden then to lay down his
+tools, "Nay," he would say, "you cannot do alone in the business.
+And if it be sin, as I verily think it, I will not hand it on to
+another."
+
+From the few and petty memories of my infancy, antecedent to my first
+encounter with Ned, there stands out the vision of my mother's face,
+as she would ascend the stair that led, as I understood then, and for
+many a year thereafter, but from the cellars; the vision of a face
+shedding upon all a shining calm, so tender, and withal so glorious,
+as no cunning of the greatest painter's brush, I think, has ever
+coaxed into the nimbus of his saint.  It is how I recall her face in
+my dreams, sleeping or waking.  And when I learned at length the
+secret of the chapel I understood many things that each must find for
+himself.
+
+Her first child was my brother Philip, born in the year 1658.  Ten
+years later she gave my father his only girl and last child,--me,
+Philippa, to wit,--and died herself in the first days of the year
+1673, some five months before my rescue from Betty at the hands of
+Master Royston, to which, in this opening chapter, as in my life, I
+will yet be referring all things, as it were an Hegira.
+
+And all this time, though I am ever dinning this Master Royston, this
+Ned, this time-worn but, I hope, sempiternal lover, in your ears, as
+yet introduction of him into these pages does as much lack formal
+ceremony as did the beginning of our friendship.
+
+Mr. Nathaniel Royston, of Cheapside, in the City of London, was of a
+well-known and highly respected west-country parentage.  Apprenticed
+in London at an early age to a merchant of repute, he had soon
+displayed considerable sagacity, not only in the intricacies of the
+Turkey trade, but also in the more perilous and no less subtile
+labyrinth of matters political.  As in the first, after winning his
+way to a large share in the undertakings of him who had been his
+master, he had devoted himself to the patient amassing of a large
+fortune, so in the second he had used his judgment and foresight to
+the one end of retaining intact what he had so laboriously gathered.
+I would not be understood to throw anything of blame on his conduct
+of his life.  Ned hath often told me that to his father all
+governments were alike, for all, he would say, were equally at fault,
+and that it became a man of his temper and estate to make in each
+case the best of a bad business.  The Turkey trade thriving, Mr.
+Royston continued to increase by this means of regarding affairs of
+state, in despite of King and Parliament, Army and Protector,
+Presbyterian and Independent.  And this in so great measure that, in
+the year 1653, he acquired by honest purchase those lands of the
+family whose scion he was, which lay in the county of Somerset.  So
+he came to live among us, but it was not until two years after the
+Restoration that his son Edward was born, that being six years after
+his marriage to the Lady Mary Harlowe.  He was wont to say that it
+was indeed strange that the sole precarious venture in the life of a
+solid and cautious merchant should prove his most profitable,
+referring in this to his marriage with a lady whose family had been
+proscribed for its affection to the royal cause.  In this
+circumstance, indeed, there would appear to be some resemblance
+between the fates of my mother and Ned's; with this difference,
+however, that in Mr. Royston's case love impelled to the single
+hazardous act of a lifetime, while in my dear father's, duty and the
+very danger itself brought about a union ultimately rewarded with
+affection.
+
+This Mr. Nathaniel Royston, after some twenty years spent mostly at
+his estate of Royston Chase in our neighborhood, during which time he
+had much endeared himself to my father by many acts of a thoughtful
+and temperate goodness, which his wealth and general esteem well
+enabled him to perform, died quietly in his bed in the same winter as
+my dear mother.
+
+Of my own brother Philip, my early recollection is most slender.  His
+was, I believe, ever a studious and contemplative complexion of mind,
+which had led him at an early age to adopt, against the earnest wish
+of his father, the erroneous opinions in the matter of religion
+pressed on him, I am sure, far more earnestly by his mother's
+spiritual advisers than by herself.  I have neither wish nor ability
+to expatiate on this subject, and will only say, in justice to both
+sides, that it was more on account of the sorrow I had seen deeply
+graved upon my father's face when Philip's adhesion to the Church of
+Rome was mentioned, than from any ecclesiastical predilection of my
+own, that I found means to resist certain assaults by Philip and
+others on my own acquiescence in the position and authority of the
+Church of England as by law established.
+
+It fell shortly after the Restoration that the death of the childless
+Silas Holroyd much simplified the process at law whereby the attempt
+was making to recover my mother's property.  The matter being brought
+to a successful issue, the revenues of our family became so vastly
+improved that in the year 1676, when I was eight years of age, and
+Philip eighteen, he was sent travelling on the continent of Europe
+with a governor.  I heard my father murmur, as he returned to the
+house after bidding his son farewell: "Pray God it drive some of the
+folly out of him!"
+
+This, in my father's view of it, was far from the result of that
+foreign tour.  After a while he ceased to tell me of Philip and his
+letters, reading them ever in a clouded silence; till at length I was
+bidden not to speak of my brother, and I knew some bad thing had
+befallen, but what, for many years, I did not learn.  Nor did I see
+him after that departure for a space of twelve years.  And when at
+length I did see him--but that I will tell in its place.
+
+I had thought clearly to lay, as it were, the groundwork of my
+narrative in far fewer words than these that stretch already behind
+me like a dusty and winding road at the traveller's back.
+
+Now, when as a child I would read a tale or history (after that Ned
+had coaxed and driven both desire and skill of reading into my little
+head), I did use to pass over the early pages in scorn, and "to come
+to the part," I would tell the chiding Ned, "where things fall to
+happening."  Since many in graver years do keep lively this desire of
+action and movement in what they read, I am now resolved to reach, as
+quickly as may be, the place "where things begin happening."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+I have said above of this early friendship between a lad of eleven
+and a maid not half that age, that it endured five years.  For at the
+end of that period the comradeship indeed was broken, and a term was
+set to the habit of community in all things that was to me at least
+so comfortable.  The day that took my companion to reside in the town
+of Sherborne, there to attend the King's School, brought on my small
+mind its first remembered sorrow; wherefore I wept greatly, and would
+not for many days be comforted.  At the time I did not understand (as
+how should I, being but ten years of age?) the reasons of this so
+sudden change in his mother's intention.  But I have since learned
+that two causes, of which I myself, poor maid, was one, determined
+the Lady Mary Royston to take her son from the hands of the learned
+and pious governor who should have led him in the path of learning
+and conduct even up to the gates of the University of Oxford.  Thus
+her late husband had intended, but, the tutor growing lazy and
+overeasy perhaps, while Ned would ever more frequently take the bit
+of control fast between the teeth of stubbornness, she was minded to
+subject him to sterner authority.  She was moved, moreover, like many
+another parent of an only son, by some measure of jealousy, directed,
+in her case, toward "the wild little maid of Drayton," as she would
+call me; for, with all his duty to his mother, no words or wishes of
+hers could shake that notable and constant affection that Ned did
+then, as ever, spend upon me.  Knowing, too, by her late husband, of
+the papistical bias (as she would say) of the Drayton family more
+than others of those parts had learned, she was ever in dread
+(pursuing Mr. Nathaniel Royston's policy of caution) lest our
+acquaintance should lead her or her son into some seeming of
+complicity with traitors.  For we were then in the year 1678 and the
+full tide of the Popish Plot.  But I have always believed that I was
+far more in this matter of sending Ned to Sherborne than Dr. Titus
+Gates or the whole College of Cardinals.
+
+By this and by that, certain it is that go to Sherborne he did, and
+that my days had been from that hour very cheerless but for a notable
+addition to our family, bringing some measure of solace to a mighty
+sore little heart.
+
+When he heard that Ned was gone, and that the tutor knew not where to
+turn himself for a living after his dismission by the Lady Mary, my
+good father mounted his horse and rode over to Royston, leaving me
+marvelling greatly at the courage and hardihood of a man that dared
+encounter a woman so formidable as I then held Ned's mother to be.
+For only twice had I been with him to Royston Chase, and the second
+time even happier to be gone than the first.  So it was that I deemed
+my father a very St. George that could face cheerfully this dragon.
+
+He had along with him a mounted servant, leading a quiet pad-nag,
+which returned after sundown sorely burdened with the great person of
+the Rev. Joshua Telgrove.  I stood on the steps for my father's
+embrace (always my privilege on his return), and when the little
+party was dismounted with no small difficulty to Mr. Telgrove and the
+assistant groom, "Mistress Philippa," says Sir Michael, with
+something of ceremony in his manner of speech, "this is Mr. Telgrove,
+who hath taught your friend, Master Royston, these many years."
+
+"That I know well, sir," I replied, trembling; for I feared the old
+man greatly, having seen him but thrice, and ascribing great
+austerity to him that had ruled a being so great as my friend and
+idol.
+
+"And now," he continued, with a little grim smile that was yet not
+unkind, "Mr. Telgrove has a mind to teach my little half-broke filly"
+(for so the dear and tender gentleman was wont to pun upon my name),
+"and I have a mind he should at least make the endeavor."
+
+At this I trembled yet more, and was abashed to a stubborn silence,
+resolving with a mighty vow in my heart that from none but Ned would
+I learn.  And I finding in the days that followed that my tutor was
+the mildest of men, and in face of childish wilfulness the most
+indolent, it was like to have gone mighty hard with my advancement in
+learning had he not discovered a rod to rule me as by some charm of
+magic.  For coming very soon, with the keen insight of childhood, to
+fear him not at all, I would in no manner give him rest nor ease,
+neither by learning my task nor by sitting mumchance, which at first,
+mayhap, had pleased him near as well, unless he would be talking of
+Ned.  Now Mr. Telgrove had a great and tender affection to his late
+pupil, and perceiving that I even surpassed him in this, he came, I
+think, to some measure of love for his new one.  With that rose in
+him the wish that I should do him credit, even as Ned had done; and
+he made an ordinance that the name, so dear alike to master and
+scholar, should not be breathed until the task of the day was not
+only conned but fairly committed and recited.  To this rule he did so
+constantly, for a nature of his softness, adhere, that before six
+months were past I was much advanced in wisdom, and grown to love my
+lessons only next in order to their reward--those long colloquies, to
+wit, in which he would tell me every adventure, escapade, and other
+act, good or bad, of Ned's childhood.  These stories, indeed, soon
+grew old, but to me and my tutor never trite nor stale.  Then from
+time to time he would read aloud to me, in part or at length, the
+letters received from Sherborne.  But to me Ned did not write.
+
+Thus the months went by, and grew into years less heavily than I had
+thought.  Mr. Telgrove was well content, having found, as he would
+say, a refuge for his old age.  For the Act of Uniformity and the
+Oath of Non-resistance being against his conscience, had deprived him
+of his living, while the Five-Mile Act had well-nigh forbidden him to
+find another.  Mr. N. Royston, in the performance of one of his
+politic acts of charity, his house of Royston Chase being neither
+near Mr. Telgrove's former incumbency, nor within the proscribed
+distance of a corporate town, had obtained a good teacher for his
+son; but I think the good man's power of struggling with a
+persecuting world was exhausted in his one act of renunciation, and
+he was left with little desire for aught but a peaceful abode and the
+leisure to study the great writers of antiquity in a cloud of smoke
+from his tobacco pipe.  His opinions in matters theological and
+ecclesiastical had, with the passage of time, so softened, that Sir
+Michael would playfully attack him for a Latitudinarian, an Arminian,
+or what not, while I on winter evenings would search among my tutor's
+books that I might plague him with accusation of strange heresies.
+
+But this was after Mr. Telgrove had resided with us some four years,
+and young Mr. Royston had proceeded from Sherborne to Corpus Christi
+College, in the University of Oxford, having in the meantime but once
+visited Royston--one happy summer for me, in my fourteenth year,
+during two months of which he would ride over to us, not indeed with
+the frequency of the past, but often twice, and sometimes even three
+times, in the seven days.  Yet, though I say I was happy, it was not
+as it had been.  Something of the distance that had grown between him
+and me would force itself upon the mind, now of one, now of the
+other.  Pondering the matter from the watch-tower of my present
+content, I hold that the child in Mistress Phil was ever crying out
+for the older terms of alliance, with their reckless mirth and
+unchecked license of jollity, while the woman, unheeded, but waxing
+ever stronger within, would as often clap stern hand upon the
+clamorous lips of youth, and so produce that outward show of
+petulance which is as baffling to the youth in his twentieth as it is
+alluring to the man in his thirtieth year.  Then, too, it was that I
+first gave thought to the manner of my appearance in the eyes of
+others, and would ask my glass, I knew not why, for evidence of grace
+and beauty in person and countenance.  And the mirror was a stern
+arbiter, showing only gaunt length of limb and sunbrowned uncouthness
+of feature, overhung by heavy brows, and supported, when mirth would
+display them, by a regiment of very white teeth.
+
+"Dear Ned," I would say, "I would I were fair!"
+
+"Some day you will be so," he would answer.
+
+"But you have grown to the stature of a man, while I----"
+
+"Be content, sweetheart," he would answer.  "You are like a yearling
+colt--nay, 't is filly I mean.  How dost spell that same word _filly_
+now, Mistress Scholar?  With the 'P' and the 'h' it should be, in the
+Grecian manner.  But indeed you will overtake my growth soon enough.
+When I did first know you, my age to yours was as two to one and
+more.  When I have done with Oxford, it will be but as four to three,
+and thou older for a woman than I for a man."
+
+"Tell me, then," I said to him one day, after some such talk, "when,
+last summer, you were at the Court with madam your mother, and I saw
+you not at all, did you not see many fine ladies and women of great
+beauty?"
+
+"Ay, many," quoth he, "but none such as you will be.  Do but give the
+colt time."
+
+And when he was gone I would marvel why I cared for the beauty I had
+not.  And since I found no clear answer to the question in my own
+mind, and ventured to seek it from no other, it was well, maybe, that
+Ned's long absence at Oxford and in London with the Lady Mary,
+extending as it did over the better part of four years, put the
+matter in time clean out of my head.  Indeed, even in our quiet
+corner, we had other matter to consider in those days than the vanity
+of a half-grown maid.
+
+Now it is only in later times that I have come even to the most
+partial understanding of the many twists and turns in the fate of our
+perturbed island, that were then succeeding each other with so
+bewildering rapidity.  This is no public history, or my ignorance
+would make of it a worse book yet than it promises, and I shall but
+recall the memory of those unquiet events that affected at this time
+our quiet life.
+
+That same year of Ned's coming again to Royston, between his leaving
+Sherborne and going to Oxford, was the time of the late Duke of
+Monmouth's progress through England, wherein he did take upon himself
+so much of the state of his royal ancestry as to encourage greatly
+the fond belief of the common people, particularly in the west
+country, in that vain story of a certain Black Box, where should be
+found (did one credit these mystery-mongers) proof indisputable of
+the marriage of the Duke's mother, Mistress Lucy Walters, with his
+acknowledged father, King Charles II., then upon the throne.  Of the
+merits of the matter I know nothing, but remember well how Sir
+Michael would say the wish was father to the thought in the minds of
+such as dreaded most the coming to the throne of the Papist Duke of
+York.  He had no patience, he said, with those that went after these
+idle tales; yet he showed much in exhorting, threatening, and
+persuading those of his own people that seemed most in peril of
+misleading by these errors.  In especial, I do recall something of a
+disputation between him and Simon Emmet, our steward.  This good man
+was in a measure privileged in his intercourse with Sir Michael,
+being an old trooper of the first force my father had raised and led
+for King Charles the Martyr.  He was, though Cavalier and Royalist to
+the marrow, a Protestant of an earnestness well-nigh fanatical.
+
+Simon stood beneath the open window of my bedchamber, on the sward
+that there sweeps up right to the walls of the house from the park,
+so that I have often dropped bread to the deer grown bold in their
+feeding.  My father leaned from the window beneath me, smoking a pipe
+of Virginia tobacco, while I sat gazing over the trees and busied,
+till my ear was caught by their words, with thought of Oxford and the
+Court at London.  And this is what I heard:
+
+Said Sir Michael Drayton: "Ill will come of this madness, Simon.  To
+uphold the claim of a bastard to the throne you and I have fought for
+is not the work of a wise man nor a good."
+
+"'T is not so sure the Duke is that," answered Emmet.  "I, for one,
+hold him as well born as the other Duke" (meaning the Duke of York),
+"and, at any rate, my lord of Monmouth is no Papist."
+
+"I had not voted for the Exclusion Bill had I been at Westminster,"
+said my father, yet as if he had a doubt in the matter; "for I do
+think a Catholic may be no bad king--if he will but uphold the law."
+
+"If--ay, if!  I do not say a Papist must needs be a bad man nor a bad
+king.  Not but what they all are so--for the most part," said Simon
+as in fear of overmuch concession.  "But this is a Papist for sure,
+and as surely a bad man.  'T is pretty work he has had the doing of
+in Scotland, sir; and that not for his own superstition, but for a
+faith he doth not hold.  Give him power and the time to use it, and
+what will he not attempt for the Scarlet Woman?  Moreover, if the
+Duke of Monmouth be the King's son, born in lawful wedlock, as this
+same story of the Black Box would show----"
+
+"No more, Simon," interrupted my father angrily.  "Say not another
+word of that.  It is rank blasphemy and treason, and I, being a
+faithful subject of His Majesty, and on his commission of the peace,
+and holding command in the train-bands, may not hear repeated what
+His Majesty has denied.  And most of all, Simon," he continued more
+kindly, "I do fear this sort of wild talk will get thee into trouble.
+Leave it to Republicans and Fifth Monarchy Men, old friend.  I fear
+you have been running after sectaries in your old age, Simon."  He
+knew it well, for the old steward, like the poor land that had asked
+and taken many years and much blood of his youth, had passed through
+many contrarious fits of thought and sentiment.  In religion his
+politic fear of Rome had well-nigh driven him out of the back door of
+the Church into the arms of the Puritans.  As he hovered between
+respect of his ancient captain and present master, and the
+enticements of controversy, "Go, Simon!" cried Sir Michael; "bid
+Parson Greenlow pray with you, and read you a lecture on Passive
+Obedience and the Duty of Non-resistance."
+
+"Humph!" muttered the old malcontent, as he walked toward the stable;
+"the parsons will be mighty ready to eat their sermons when the
+Duke's Scottish boot is on their leg.  They 'll resist then, Sir
+Michael, even as we resisted Old Noll."
+
+And so three further years went by, and Ned came not, but did spend
+such time as he was not in Oxford with Madam Royston in his father's
+noble house in Basinghall Street in the City of London.  Twice did he
+send me a letter in those days, with no word, indeed, of love in
+them, but so breathing the constancy of our old terms of alliance,
+and bringing me so much joy, that I cannot endure they should run the
+risk of the cold monument of print, and so will not here set down
+their words.
+
+And I grew in length and thickness, and, I hope, in other things
+beside, and had almost forgot my mirror but for the kinder and more
+pleasing glance it would now and again, toward the latter part of my
+seventeenth year, begin to throw back upon me, as I would pin a
+collar, or struggle to twist into some show of order the stubborn and
+difficult blackness of my hair.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+And then, one Sunday morning of late winter, we heard from the pulpit
+of Drayton Parish Church how the King was dead, when was read to the
+congregation there assembled the speech to his Council of the new
+King, James, in which he did fairly promise to uphold the laws, and
+in especial to respect the rights of the Church of which he was the
+head, though no member.  And my father was cheered, and Emmet was
+sombrely downcast, and the country people murmured of King Monmouth
+under the breath.  Later came the news of the late King's apostasy in
+the very article of death.  If these things were true of Charles,
+whom in some sort they had contrived to love, what should be looked
+for, said Emmet and those of his kidney, from him who, as Duke of
+York, was but lately the most hated and hateful of all in the three
+kingdoms?
+
+And then came the rumors of the late King's doing to death by his
+brother now on the throne.  The truth, grave as it was, would not
+content our more turbulent and hot-headed spirits of the west, but
+they must even mix falsehood, none being too scandalous, to
+overseason a dish already too heavy for stomachs unused to high fare.
+And so there followed an indigestion--I mean the mad and wicked
+insurrection of the Duke of Monmouth.  To this day I cannot think,
+and much less write, of the summer and autumn that followed the death
+of King Charles II. without some return upon my spirits of the horror
+and gloom that the doings of those days engendered.  So I will pass
+over our share in these things as quickly as may be.
+
+When we heard of the Duke's landing at Lyme Regis, in the county of
+Dorset, and not more than twenty good miles from our little village
+of Drayton, it was already late on the eleventh day of June; yet that
+very night did my father set himself to the task of getting at once
+under arms his small company of the yellow-coated Somerset
+train-bands.  Receiving the next morning instructions from Sir
+William Portman, the colonel of that force and a near friend of his
+own, he was enabled to despatch them out of hand on their road to
+join with the red-coated militia of Dorset at Bridport, saying that
+thus the poor hinds might at least die cleanly, if die they must;
+while staying at home they had, like enough, taken the rebel
+infection and ended on a gallows.  His old wound and other
+infirmities, to my great joy, kept him with me at Drayton.  But, not
+content with what was already done, he made during the week that
+followed a visitation of the neighborhood, exhorting all and sundry
+to loyalty, and with so good result that our Drayton folk suffered
+less in the cruel days so near at hand than any other village for
+forty miles round.
+
+And these cruel days came upon us but too quickly.  In the latter end
+of June Simon Emmet did one day make off, and we had great fear that
+he was gone to join the rebel mob that of its friends was flattered
+with the name of army.  On the seventh day of July came the news of
+the battle fought at Sedgemoor, near the town of Bridgewater; and
+then of the great slaughter on that field, to be followed day by day
+with yet more grisly tales of the cruelty of the royal troops, in
+especial those of wicked Colonel Kirke and his regiment of soldiers
+from Tangier, as wicked and ruthless as himself.  This bad man, whose
+later service in a nobler cause I can never hold as atoning for his
+acts at this time among us, began, after some days of butchery in the
+town of Taunton, to send out small bodies of soldiers to spread his
+horrid work in the smaller towns and villages in the southern parts
+of the county.  And then there came in a party of the militiamen on
+their way home, having passed through Taunton, with word that some of
+Kirke's Lambs would next day visit Drayton, having with them a batch
+of prisoners belonging to our part, in order to hanging them, with
+all customary foulness of detail, on their own village-green, the
+better to encourage the loyalty of those on whom no faintest breath
+of suspicion could be raised.
+
+It is said that when Will Blundell, the young gentleman that had in
+my father's stead taken our company of the militia to Bridport, had
+begged Colonel Kirke to give our village at least, as untainted in
+its loyalty, the go-by, that coarse and evil-minded man had replied,
+with many foul words and blasphemous oaths: "Are we then so loyal in
+Drayton?  God's blood!  I will keep them so, if a few bleeding heads
+and mouldering quarters may in Somerset do so hard a thing.  And if
+my lads hang a few beyond the number they take with them, why," he
+said, "'t will but physic the land to a better habit."
+
+Now Simon Emmet had in the village a son, Peter, who was by trade a
+blacksmith, and by custom a prudent fellow that kept to his anvil and
+never vexed his head in these ill times to fever heat by opening too
+wide his mouth.  And this Peter had a daughter, Prudence, the
+prettiest maid of the village, and afterward, as you are to hear, my
+handmaid, and, indeed, my very dear friend.  These two (for her
+mother was dead) had all that day a sore time of it, fearing that
+Simon was one of those who should be brought and put to death.  Well,
+the party of soldiers came in that night with their three prisoners,
+but too late of a clouded evening, as the ensign in command did say,
+with a most vile levity, "for the good and loyal folk of Drayton
+fitly to enjoy the sight of six traitor legs performing a saraband
+upon nothing."
+
+And so they quartered themselves upon the village, and their victims
+in a barn, "until," said this same worthy follower of Kirke, "on the
+morrow they should be quartered for good and all."  Moreover, with a
+more exquisite touch of that cruelty in which they were so skilled,
+they had concealed the faces of these three poor fellows from the
+public gaze, in the hope that anxiety for the morrow should be the
+more widely spread over the sleepless pillows of the village.
+
+Now during that night, when few slept, but terror reigned more silent
+than sleep, a strange thing happened.  For many a year after, the
+matter was known in full to few but myself, and to me not till little
+Prudence Emmet had come to trust and confide in her new mistress.  So
+much narrative I have of my own to unwind, that I will waste little
+space upon hers, telling but in brief that the third of these men,
+taken in arms and condemned without judge or jury, was indeed her
+grandfather; that she and her father had come to know it; that in the
+dead of night she had contrived with liquor and flattery, and mayhap
+by implicit proffer of kindness she purposed never to grant, to keep
+the sentry busy, and even a little to draw him off, while her father,
+after forced and secret entry at the hinder part of the barn, had
+privily withdrawn that old hothead Simon (now like to pay so dear for
+his besotted enthusiasm) from his prison, and had carried him upon
+his great shoulders, an inglorious Anchises concealed in a sack, five
+miles across country, and there fairly buried him alive in a secret
+cave or hole in the hillside by well-nigh walling up the mouth
+thereof, and bodily transplanting a young tree to conceal all signs
+of his labors.  Yet was he back in his cottage before the ensign and
+his men had slept off the fumes of their wine.
+
+Thus it was not till near upon noon that they discovered their loss,
+whereat the greatness of the ensign's fury passes any power of
+description that is in my pen.  He said the two remaining should hang
+twice or thrice ere they died, to make of the spectacle as good
+entertainment as he had promised to the folk of that most loyal
+village of Drayton; but, proceeding to the execution of this cruelty,
+and having, to the enhancement of his wrath, but a small band of
+spectators, the most part keeping their houses in fear and sorrow,
+before he had ordered the hapless men, already in the agony of death,
+to be cut down the first time, his evil work was interrupted by the
+coming of that soldier who had on the previous evening been so
+cunningly cajoled by Mistress Prue and her cozening flatteries.  This
+man had been threatened with the anger of Colonel Kirke and the most
+terrible military punishments unless he succeeded in discovering his
+escaped prisoner.  Failing in this, he had, on encountering Prudence
+in a back passage leading to her father's forge, thought at least to
+display his zeal in hauling her by the hair before his officer, there
+to denounce her as his seducer from duty.  In so doing he gave those
+two poor rebels a quick and easy death of their first hanging, while
+Prue shortly found, to the great altering of my after-life, a
+champion with a strong hand--no other, indeed, than him of whom is my
+book and my thought while I live.
+
+Two days before this time Mr. Edward Royston was about leaving Oxford
+to visit Lady Mary at her house in London, when he was apprised of
+the sufferings of our western folk subsequent to the battle of
+Sedgemoor.  Being now of a man's estate (for his entrance at the
+College of Corpus Christi was at an age much beyond the common) and
+of a nature graver than his years, he was impelled by his love for
+his people of Royston, and his pity of the dangers their misleading
+might bring upon them, without delay to set out for his home in
+Somerset, resolved to do what he might to order things fitly.
+Warning his mother by letter of his purpose, he took the road by
+Reading and Salisbury, in which city, arrived late at night, he heard
+what did but increase his desire to be at Royston, so that with
+moonrise he was again in the saddle, riding all that night alone; for
+his servant's horse had reached Salisbury clean foundered, and, nags
+being mighty scarce from the needs of two armies lately in the field
+at no great distance, he was forced to leave the man behind until he
+could be mounted.  Thus it was that he came riding through Drayton
+village just in the last struggles of those two poor rebels, and amid
+the lamentable cries of Prudence in the rough grasp of her outwitted
+redcoat.
+
+Of what here immediately followed I have received no account of that
+fulness which would enable me to give a narrative in detail.  For
+Prudence was so mortally in fear, she says, that she remembers little
+but a quarrel and the noise of a great blow, from the moment of her
+seizure until she found herself coming again to her wits from a fit
+of fainting, in her father's arms and cottage.  And Ned, when at
+length the occasion for talking of the matter could be had, did show
+a reluctance so great to speak of that which he has called the most
+painful spot in his memory, that even for the purpose of this book I
+forbear to question him with any particularity.  But this much is
+sure, that in the winking of an eye Mr. Royston was off his horse,
+the frightened and brutal musketeer was stretched in the dust, and
+Prudence freed from his clutch only to be seized, with a coarse jest,
+into a lewd embrace by the officer of the party.  There is little
+reason to doubt that he would shortly, in his anger and with his
+power at the moment so unbridled, have brought my life's joy to an
+end by the shooting or hanging of the gallant lad for his resistance
+to the military authority.  But poor Ned's passion, so terrible, as I
+have said, in certain moments of just anger, was in a moment out of
+the cage where it had slumbered, and, before the vile words were well
+cooled upon the wicked lips, the handle of a heavy riding-whip had
+cut short the sentence with the life of the speaker.  It must indeed
+have been a blow of fearful force (for in those days Ned's strength
+was growing great even beyond his own knowledge of it), and, falling
+as it did on the right temple, no other was needed.  It was more than
+an hour before they had sure knowledge that the man was dead, and in
+the meantime all was confusion; for Ned, seeing Prudence borne off in
+the arms of her father, leapt upon his horse, and clattered down the
+village street.  Three harmless musket-shots were discharged after
+him, of which indeed we heard the report up at the house, and then
+followed a babel of questions and oaths.  Some demanded horses,
+others the name of the miscreant and rebel that had stricken their
+officer.  Now "young master of Royston," as they did use to call him,
+was as well loved as known in Drayton village; yet on this day there
+was found, of those that saw his deed, no man, woman, or child that
+could put a name to him.  Nay, I am wrong, for two indeed there were
+did name him, but so diversely both from each other and from the
+truth that little was gained, even when, for the better convincing
+the sergeant, they came to blows over the difference.  And on this
+matter of the death of that poor young ensign, hot, as it were, from
+his sins, I will say at once that you should have searched our west
+country for ten years and never found a man to blame his slayer.  I
+am no Papist, nor do I know if this be sound in any theology, but
+certain it is that in our eyes to this day the blood of one of
+Kirke's Lambs upon his hands was held fit to wash many a sin from a
+man's soul.
+
+Now, knowing his life not worth a hoof's paring if he fell into their
+hands, and unwilling to lead those men of blood to Royston, Ned did
+lie all that day in some deep woodland near Crewkerne, trusting his
+knowledge of the roads should give him by night the greater advantage
+over his pursuers, and hoping to obtain privily a fresh horse, when
+the sun was well set, for his journey to the coast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+Now all this day I had been keeping the house, at my father's strict
+command, he being most solicitous that for their safety none of his
+household should meet with the gang of cutthroats he knew to be then
+in the village.  Being thus cut off from news, we had no knowledge of
+what was toward, conjecturing, however, some wickedness from the
+sound of those three musket-shots that I have mentioned.
+
+About nine o'clock of the evening, then, I went to my chamber, sad,
+indeed, and anxious for the fate of the Drayton folk, and with many a
+shudder of horror as the things I had heard tell of that regiment,
+called at one time of Tangier, at another, Queen Catharine's, came
+unwelcome to my mind.  And I remember that, as I put off my clothes,
+I marvelled how a woman high and gently born as that lady of Portugal
+could take pleasure to have such men bear her name.  But, with all my
+perturbation, my mood was mild and peaceful to what it had been had I
+known at whom those same shots had been fired.  Yet was there on my
+spirit a sense of unrest, and (as it seems to me now, perhaps in the
+light of after knowledge) of foreboded evil that would in no manner
+let me sleep.  So it was that, about half an hour after I had bidden
+good-night to my father and Mr. Telgrove, I extinguished my one
+candle, and, it being a warm but clouded night, sat at the open
+window in my night-robe, trying idly to bring my eyes to pierce the
+darkness, and as idly considering when I was like again to see Ned.
+Here I sat, but for how long a period of time I know not.  Yet I do
+remember that I heard all those sounds that indicate the closing in
+of night and sleep over a great house.  And last came the drawing of
+bolts and setting of bars below, and the slow and halting step of my
+father's ascent of the stairs, and, with the closing of his chamber
+door, a stillness as of the grave was over all things.  I thought it
+was such a stillness as I had never known; and then there grew upon
+my spirit (or, at least, it now seems to me that it was so) a
+foreknowledge that something, I knew not what, but
+something--something--something was coming out from this silence to
+break it.  And with a slowly growing horror I did then fall to
+speculating upon the nature of this so certain interruption; would it
+be some ghastly vision of another world, or a cry of wrath, or some
+more horrible scream of terror?  As one grown suddenly cold I arose
+from my seat by the window, with a shudder at the creatures of my
+imagination, gently drew to the casement, and got into my bed, as I
+should have done an hour, perhaps, before.  But I found there no
+refuge from the silence that should be broke, but was not.  And this
+sense of loneliness brought me in mind of the forgotten duty of
+prayer, so that I was quickly again out of my bed and on my knees by
+its side, hoping, childlike, great solace to my oppression of spirit.
+And then it came,--not the solace, but the breaking of the silence.
+And, though it was not such as I had looked for, being but the slight
+click of a pebble upon the glass of my window, yet did it send, as
+they say, my heart into my throat, and my whole body was a-tremble,
+as it had been a harpstring overstrained.  It is a thing for which I
+can never to the day of my death sufficiently thank the goodness of
+God, that my terror took from me the voice in which I would have
+cried aloud upon the house.  And so I gasped for breath, and clutched
+the clothes of the bed in a fear quite out of reason; and had I been
+upon my feet instead of my knees, 't is sure I could not have kept
+them.  And then I heard the jingle of a bridle and the thud of an
+impatient hoof falling soft upon the sod, so that even in my passion
+of fear I knew it was under my window, or I had not heard it, for the
+grass was soft with the rain that fell at sunset.  Upon that strange
+thoughts of our bugbear Kirke and of those devils that he ruled crept
+in my mind; but surely, I thought, my father's good affections to the
+throne should protect us; and, some movement of curiosity stirring in
+my breast to combat its army of terrors, I made shift to creep with
+knees and hands to the window, whence, with caution raising myself
+and peering through the lower panes, I espied dimly the shape of a
+man standing beside his horse.  Thereupon, perchance having seen the
+whiteness of face, hand, or sleeve at the window, though the light
+was almost none, the man below uttered that whimsical little whistle
+of three notes that was a signal and warning of childhood to me, and
+I knew it was Ned.  And my joy was so great that I forgot the hour,
+the place, the strangeness in him to come to my chamber window, and
+the unseemliness of my attire.  Indeed I thought but of him as I
+gently flung back the casement, and cried, but softly: "Ned, dear
+Ned, is it indeed thou?"
+
+Whereupon he replied, in a voice, as I thought, strangely altered
+from that I had known (but indeed it was but the day's anxiety and
+alarms that had so changed its sound): "I indeed it is, dear Mistress
+Phil.  But, I pray you, speak low and secretly, for I do think they
+will be even now upon me."
+
+"And who are 'they'?" I asked, lightly enough, having as yet no fear
+that any would harm such as he.
+
+"Kirke's mercenaries, that, because they bear upon their flag the
+Lamb that doth signify our blessed Redeemer, and because they do
+never use to show mercy," he said bitterly, "they do call Lambs.  'T
+is not likely they will show me the mercy of sword-thrust or
+musket-ball if there be a rope handy where we meet.  And hanging is a
+death I have little love to, Phil."
+
+"But, Ned, O Ned!" I cried, leaning from the window the better to
+speak low, "what hast done, dear, to be out with these men?  Surely
+you did not fight with the Duke."
+
+"Nay, mistress," says he, "but I have this day struck down, and maybe
+worse, one that did fight against that same poor foolish man.  He was
+their officer, and I doubt he is not yet risen, for I struck him as I
+never struck man before.  All this day have I lain hid, and should
+now be on my way to Bridport if my life be worth the saving.  But I
+thought, even now as I was starting on my way, sink or swim, live or
+swing, I would see Phil once again--I would say, Mistress Philippa.
+So I rode hither five miles from Crewkerne woods to bid you good-by.
+And now I am sorry that I did so, for, as I leapt the hedge down
+there from the lane into the hollow, I saw one on a horse that made
+for the village, and I doubt he was some picket set to watch after
+me.  'T is certain they have gotten horses enough by this, and I do
+fear my rashness may bring them hot foot about this house."
+
+He now mounted his horse, pushed him close to the wall, and went on
+speaking; "I wish I could come at you," he said.  "Would you give a
+kiss to take over the sea with me, Mistress Phil, an I could reach
+your lips?  I have not felt their touch of velvet since I was a lad."
+
+Now we were indeed very foolish there, with danger so instant upon
+us, to pause for such a matter.  But I, remembering how I had wept
+because he had not taken, when last we met, what I was ashamed to
+offer unasked, and being filled with joy at his words, did answer,
+bold as brass: "That indeed would I, dear Ned, if you were three feet
+taller than your six."  And with that he must again urge his nag
+close in to the wall, steady him with voice and rein, and then climb
+to his feet upon the cantel of his saddle; and there, resting one
+hand upon the ledge of the window, he did take what he had asked and
+I was not minded to refuse.  And whether there were more kisses than
+one, or whether one did last much longer than the wonted time of
+such, concerns but two persons in the world.
+
+But, on a sudden, passing athwart my new joy, a newer fear entered my
+heart; for I heard the sound of many hoofs coming breakneck up the
+avenue to the house.  For the passing of one brief heart-beat that
+yet seemed the time of an age I felt cold and sick of an awful dread,
+when there sprang a picture on my brain of import so appalling, that
+I was flung by recoil from that depth of despair into as excellent a
+degree of courage.  For as in a flash of light I saw a gallows, and
+thought of a rope clinging yet closer where my arms now clung.  And
+as the courage thus sprang to life in me, and I whispered, "They
+shall not have thee, Ned," the beat of hoofs drew near with that
+pulse in the stroke of them that tells of the sharpness of the
+rider's spur and the wrath in his heart.  And that which next
+followed was a plain effect of Ned's rashness, and of the folly of us
+both at such a conjuncture to play with the moments that should have
+been used to his escape.  For the horse, on which he precariously
+stood to reach me, hearing the quick and stirring approach of his
+kind, did incontinently fling his heels in the air, and, with a
+shrill nickering, started away across the park at a good round pace,
+leaving his master hanging by his hands, and partly to a great stem
+of the ivy that on this side covers the most part of the stonework of
+the house.  After a little struggle he did contrive some sort of
+footing among the lower branching knots of the ivy, and with a
+whispered adieu would have made his descent, very hazardous for a man
+of weight, had I not clutched him hard.  For I heard the voices of
+some that were coming round the house, drawn, doubtless, by the
+neighing of the faithless nag.
+
+"Come in, Ned, an you love me," I said.  "If they see thee here all
+is done."  Now I can give no good account of how it was achieved,
+remembering but confusedly that I did get my hands beneath his arms,
+and thereby pulled at him with a strength raised, I do think, for
+some few moments of time, by the mercy of God and my great fear, much
+above what by nature was in me; and he, as he was able, helping me, I
+did, in spite of the greatness of his shoulders, and the narrowness
+of the casement, with great silence and speed haul his long person
+head foremost into my chamber; and that was done but just as three of
+his pursuers, mounted on the horses they had pressed for the service,
+did gallop round the corner upon the grass.  And I thanked God that I
+was burning no light within, else had they spied the soles of his
+great riding-boots, which yet rested upon the sill, while his head
+was on the floor, and I crouched beside him to hide the whiteness of
+my bedgown.  To this day there is the mark of his spur upon the sill
+of that casement--a sort of dotted line, made as he did twist himself
+over on the floor the better to drag the long legs of him to the same
+level.  Of the three that rode by beneath, it was afterwards supposed
+that they did further scatter the deer that Ned's horse had roused
+from sleep, each pursuing in the darkness a quarry of his own, which
+he took for the nag that was now well on his riderless way to Royston.
+
+Now my first motion was to laugh loud and long, which with some
+wisdom I did check.  Then I would have wept, but that desire too was
+speedily overcome, as for the first time since the pebble struck my
+window I remembered how I was clad, and again thanked God there was
+not even a rushlight in the chamber to show me so unmaidenly.  But we
+were not quit of Kirke's men for the three that were so vainly and
+unseasonably chasing our deer; for, as I turned to a closet to take
+down a long cloak to throw over me, there arose a clamor of knocking
+and shouting at the great door below.  For all that has been told
+since first we heard their horses was the happening of seconds fewer
+than the minutes spent in reading it.
+
+"Where are you, mistress?" said Ned, now risen to his feet, and so
+standing between me and the window that I could make out the
+blackness of his shape against the thinner darkness without.
+
+"You must not speak, dear Ned," I answered, laying my hand on his arm
+to show him where I stood.
+
+"I cannot see you even yet," said he, as he felt my hand.  "But now
+you were all white."
+
+With which I was speedily all red with shame, and whispered: "Hush,
+Ned, hush!  Even now you are in great peril."
+
+"'T is no matter for that," he said.  "The peril is for you,
+mistress.  I did wrong to enter here, and must go, one way or the
+other."
+
+And with that he looked warily from the window, but speedily drew
+back, having seen in that brief moment, by a faint gleaming of the
+moon through a thinness of the clouds, a sentry that moved to and fro
+beneath, musket on shoulder.  And when he had told me in the lowest
+whisper what he had seen, he said: "So it must needs be by the door."
+And as he spoke we heard the clatter of bar and chain below, telling
+that the enemy was admitted among us.  So he would have leapt from
+the window to take his chance with the sentry, rather than he should
+be so found closeted with me.  But I would not, and ran between him
+and the window, saying low and quick that I would call aloud if he
+persisted.  And since he knew me and the manner of voice I used to
+threat the thing I would surely do (for my crying out in such case
+had made things no worse for him, but only full of shame for me that
+called), he yielded, asking me, What, then, should we do?  Which
+before I could answer, I heard them striking upon a door in the same
+gallery where stood the room we were in, and the slumberous
+expostulation of Mr. Telgrove, who there inhabited.  There was but
+one room between, and I felt our turn was near and that the
+bitterness of death must soon take hold on me unless I could think of
+a thing.  And truly I think that never before, and but once since,
+did my mind think so many thoughts in so short a space and to so much
+purpose.
+
+Press, closet, and chimney--nay, even the space beneath the bed--were
+swiftly tried in my mind, and discarded as harborage too little
+secure to shelter what in all the world I did best love.  But at last
+the thought came, and with it I was no longer a maid shaking at
+approach of danger, but a general with a device of strategy that
+should repel the invader.
+
+"Ned," I said, low and sharp, "will you do what I bid?"
+
+"Ay, sweetheart--mistress, I would say," he replied, and in all my
+passion of fear and purpose of action I marvelled, as I had done
+since he came under my window, why he would ever style me _mistress_.
+
+Now, while we spoke beneath our breath, I had tied my handkerchief
+over his head, and knotted it under his chin.  Then I pushed him to
+the side of the bed that was farther from the door, guiding him with
+my hands, and bidding him lie down while I should pull the covers
+over him.  But, "Nay, that will I not," he said, with a perilous
+raising of the voice.  "Had rather swing than save my neck by these
+means."  And I, in despair, did clap my hand over his mouth, and said
+with great fury of passion I scarce knew what, and beat him with my
+fists, till he was sorry to see me so moved, and suffered me, of his
+old gentle kindness, to force him down, and, trembling, to drag
+blanket and quilt over him, which in the dark did so fall foul of
+sword-hilt and spur, that I had laughed had I not been heart-sick
+with the fear of his life.  When he was covered I sat me upon his
+chest, and, as best I might in the dark, twisted his long curls,
+which, in the fashion of his father's youth, he would still wear in
+place of peruke (and I think there is not a beau in London that has a
+wig from Paris so fair as what grew on his dear head), into some sort
+of womanish knot to thrust up beneath the handkerchief that must
+serve for night-cap.  The sitting on him was to keep him there till
+they began to knock at the door, when I knew the desire to shield my
+fame would keep him quiet to the end.
+
+Heavy steps now drawing near, I spoke my last word to him: "When they
+come lie thus, with thy face from the door, and, prithee, Ned,
+breathe hard and heavily, as you were Betty after a great supper."
+
+"Nay," said he, "I will not stay to play the fool like a mummer in a
+play-house."
+
+"If you but so much as stir a finger," said I, "you will put me to
+open shame before the servants of the house and those wicked
+soldiers.  I think you will not so use your old playmate, Ned."
+
+And then, to set my heart beating yet more horribly, so that it
+seemed I should never be able to speak when the need came, the
+searchers reached our door and knocked upon it, yet, from something
+more of gentleness that was in this knocking than was used upon the
+door of my tutor, I gathered a little hope.  At once I threw off my
+cloak and held my breath in eagerness of hearing all that passed
+without.
+
+"I say my daughter lies in that chamber," said my father's voice,
+growing more clear as he limped painfully up the gallery after his
+unwelcome visitors.  "She is sleeping, and it will serve no purpose
+to arouse her."
+
+"That's my business," said a harsh voice in surly reply.  "I will
+rouse whom I please, since I am master here."
+
+Sir Michael's voice rose somewhat higher, while his utterance became
+slower and more severe, as he answered this fellow.
+
+"You mistake," said he, "for none is master here save I alone.  And I
+will tell you, Master Sergeant, that, though I have admitted you to
+my house in the hope to do His Majesty the King a service, I do not
+purpose to endure in this house any show of ill manners such as your
+regiment is commonly noised to show toward helpless yokels and
+misguided rebels."
+
+The sergeant's voice was still surly, but had in it a degree more of
+respect, as he replied that Sir Michael talked a deal of doing His
+Majesty a service, but when they came hot on the track of a rebel who
+had slain one that held His Majesty's commission, and was not yet
+well cold, he fell at once to putting obstacles in the way; that he
+was informed by his scouts that the man was seen not half an hour
+back making for this house; that he did but wish to make thorough
+search for the young murderer, with all fit observance of respect for
+His Majesty's loyal subjects, and search every room in that house he
+would before he left it.  And inside the chamber, when he heard that
+the man was indeed dead, poor Ned shuddered beneath the bedclothes,
+and I, sitting on the other side, did lay my hand upon him for
+comfort.  At that time, when I knew nothing but the man was dead, I
+thought no ill of my friend for the killing.  If Ned Royston should
+slay a man, why, to me, the man was better dead.  Later, hearing the
+whole tale, I was like to have been jealous of little Prudence Emmet,
+for whom the man was killed.  Yet I wondered not that he shuddered,
+for I had heard my father say that it does take an old soldier long
+years to forget the first shedding of blood.
+
+I heard one tearless and hard kind of sob from the dear lad, while my
+heart was sore that I could not speak in consolation, and then gave
+ear to my father's answer to the sergeant, which was very calmly
+delivered: "That we shall see, Master Sergeant.  I have held no mean
+rank in the armies of his late Majesty, King Charles I., from wounds
+received in whose cause I shall not be recovered this side the grave,
+from which you are to understand what manner of bearing I am wont to
+receive from inferiors in rank.  Moreover, I am greatly at fault if I
+have not still some credit at Whitehall--enough, at least, Master
+Sergeant, to make me a safer friend than enemy.  I shall thank you
+for a sight of your search-warrant."
+
+To which the sergeant: "Indeed, Sir Michael, I have none.  In these
+ill times, with so much treason abroad, we do not think much of a
+warrant.  But I am under a great necessity in what I do.  Our colonel
+is no man to take soft words as atonement for the death of an officer
+after his own heart.  I must report in the town of Taunton at noon
+to-morrow, and I dare not take thither this story of murder without
+the murderer.  You talk well of warrants, sir, but there is none of
+us but fears Colonel Kirke worse than the law."
+
+And on the other side of the door I did most heartily agree with this
+sergeant of Queen Catharine's Regiment of Foot.  But my father
+continued: "I perceive, sergeant, that you are a man of some parts
+and education.  Let us meet each other thus--I to summon my daughter,
+and, after a space, you and I alone of all these to enter the
+chamber."  At which words my heart did sink to the place where the
+shoes had been but for my resolve, at any cost to nicer feeling, of
+showing unprepared.
+
+And, the sergeant heartily consenting, Sir Michael himself rapped
+upon the door, and I still keeping silence (knowing I must open, yet
+not thinking it to be wise too soon to hear him, when I had been deaf
+to the sergeant), he next tried the latch, and, finding the door
+fast, knocked louder, and very gently called my name.  Whereat I
+groaned, sighed, and cried, as one waking from sleep, "What is to do?
+Who is it, and what is wanted?"
+
+And my father answered, "It is I, your father.  Cloak yourself,
+Philippa, and open to me."
+
+Whereupon I made my first mistake; for, to the end they might think I
+had heard nothing but my father's summons, I left my cloak lying upon
+the bed, and ran in my white gown, and barefoot, to the door, and
+suddenly flung it wide, when the glare of the lights that several did
+carry gave me the appearance of blinking with sleep the most
+naturally in the world.  Then, putting a hand before my eyes to keep
+off the suddenness of the light, I said, with a little sharpness:
+"Well, sir, why am I roused?  Does the house burn, or are Kirke and
+his Lambs at the door?"
+
+And my father replied, with the first note of trepidation in his
+voice that I had ever heard, "Hush, child!  All is well.  There is no
+fire."
+
+But I, resolved to show no dread, and now well launched in my comedy
+of deceit (for which, indeed, I was little fit, being reared in the
+utmost strictness of truth-telling), made answer I had rather the
+fire than Kirke, who would be the harder to sate.  Then, taking my
+hand from my t eyes, and feigning now first to perceive the soldiers
+and other company, cried out as one mightily abashed to be so looked
+upon, and swiftly part-closed the door, and, in a voice whose shaking
+was easy to compass, asked who were all these with him.  And he told
+me that I need not fear; that they were but some of the King's
+soldiers in search of a murderer, and that none should enter my
+chamber but himself and the sergeant of the party.  So I left the
+door, seeing that they must enter, and ran to the bed and lifted my
+cloak, flung it over my shoulders, and turned again to face them;
+when I perceived that the sergeant, on my leaving the door, had
+thrust it wide to watch my movements.  So I bade him and my father
+come in, begging at the same time that they would have a care not to
+arouse Betty, who was that night sharing my bed.
+
+"And why," asked Sir Michael, "is Betty here?  You do use to lie
+alone."
+
+Nor were the words out of his mouth before I saw that he regretted
+them, and that he knew, whether from my face, or from the unwonted
+presence of Betty in my chamber, or from another cause that I did not
+then understand, that all was not well.  He sat him down heavily upon
+the little settle at the bed's foot, with a countenance full of
+perplexity and astonishment.  But the mischief was done, and I must
+find a reason for the presence in my bed of her who was safely
+snoring in her own above our heads.  So I told him that I had been
+loath to sleep alone this night for the fear I had of the things that
+were afoot in Drayton village, and had begged Betty to keep me
+company.  And with that the sergeant, who had, while we spoke, been
+peering about the dark corners of the room, turned and sharply
+enquired of me why this Betty that lay there in the bed must not be
+aroused.  "Because," said I, taking refuge in the unreason of a
+woman's anger (for indeed I knew not what to say, and all seemed to
+go awry from what I had intended), "because I will not have it done.
+Is it become a custom with officers of the King to invade by force,
+and at dead of night, the sleeping chambers of ladies?"
+
+"Madam," he answered, somewhat abashed as I thought, "I am only a
+poor sergeant that would do his duty to his officer.  If you will
+answer my questions, I will the sooner be gone."
+
+In this gentle manner of taking it I saw some hope, and answered him
+thus: "Poor Betty was my nurse, sergeant, and I love her dearly; and
+she hath all day been afflicted with a most violent toothache, and 't
+is but a little while since I gave her a great draught of a most
+sovereign remedy--an electuary of poppy-seed--by which she is eased
+of her pain and now fallen asleep."  And in the manner the most
+imploring I could compass I did here raise pitiful eyes to his face.
+"I do perceive, sir," I continued, "I had no need to be angry, but
+oh!  I do pray you will not waken the poor woman; for a sudden waking
+from a slumber procured by that drug is very harmful.  Search all the
+place--the closets, presses, and beneath the bed; though, in good
+sooth, I do not know how you should think to find here any murderer."
+
+The sergeant smiled with a certain grimness, and asked was it not
+strange I should seek comfort for my fears in the company of one that
+was sick of a toothache; whereon I replied that Betty sick was better
+than many another whole.
+
+"And were you sleeping, madam, when we first called upon you to
+open?" says the sergeant.
+
+"'T was my father's voice aroused me," I answered, wondering whither
+he would lead me with his questioning.
+
+"And had you then slept long?" asked he.
+
+"Since ten o'clock, I do suppose," I replied.
+
+"Yet your cloak, that you now wear, lay, until we were about
+entering, there upon the bed," said he, with a meaning glance of
+which the significance was wholly hidden from me.
+
+"Well, what if it did?" said I.
+
+"It lay, madam," he replied, "above the turned-down bedcover."
+
+I now was near at an end of my strategy, but my dear father came at
+once to the rescue, saying that the sergeant was a clever fellow, but
+what in the devil's name did he argue from that?
+
+"That young Mistress Drayton has lately risen from her bed and
+covered herself with that same cloak she now wears, but wore not when
+she did now open to you, Sir Michael," said the man, with some
+acuteness, indeed, but not before I had my answer ready for him, and
+something over and above a mere answer.
+
+"Why, indeed, you speak truth, sergeant," I said; and I had hope so
+great in what was next to come that I was enabled to laugh with much
+naturalness as I spoke; "you are a witch for certain, sir; for though
+I did forget the thing for a moment, having since slept, and being
+with sleep yet not a little confused, it is true that I did rise once
+before from my bed, when I fetched this cloak from the closet there,
+and did look from the window----"
+
+"To what end did you do that, madam," said the sergeant, interrupting
+me, "on so dark a night?"
+
+"That I cannot say," I answered, "for I was half in sleep when I
+rose.  But I think, sergeant, that I can tell you something of the
+man you seek.  For as I looked forth there came a man from the way of
+the deer park, and in a little gleam of the moon that did then shine
+out for a moment I saw him, and that he was mounted on a dapple-gray
+horse.  And as he came he stopped as if he heard a sound that he
+feared.  And then he turned his nag in such haste, and made off the
+way he had come with such speed, that I had no time to mark his face;
+but I saw that he did lose his hat in turning, nor stayed to recover
+it.  And not long after him came from the front of the house three
+men, mounted, who followed after him.  But as they passed the moon
+was again clouded, and I can tell nothing of them nor their horses.
+And after this I got to bed again, and I must suppose," I said,
+looking doubtfully at the bed, "that I slept again, the night being
+so warm, without drawing over me the covers whereon I had laid the
+cloak."
+
+"Truly, 't is warm," said the sergeant.  "But I ask your pardon,
+madam, for thus discussing private matters.  Your story is a plain
+one, and may help to the fellow's capture."  And then he took some
+steps towards the door, and I thought the danger was over, and I had
+much ado to keep my countenance from showing the sudden lightening of
+my heart.  But even as he was going some devil of raillery, or
+cruelty, prompted him to turn and say that in his company he was
+counted an excellent tooth-drawer, and that he would just have a look
+at poor Betty's mouth.  For a moment I could not speak, but turned to
+the bed as if to protect my old nurse, perceiving, as I turned, a
+movement as of a hand beneath the quilt; and I knew that Ned was
+feeling for his sword-hilt, and waiting to be discovered.  At that I
+laid my hand upon his shoulder, and, finding again my voice, "Be
+still, dear Betty," I cried, "there is no need of rising yet.  And I
+do pray you, Master Sergeant, that you will go now, when I have so
+fully told you everything.  Her poor tooth will again be raging if
+she be disturbed."  And this I said so pleadingly that the man was
+quite subdued, saying, with more of kindness than he had yet used:
+"Indeed, madam, I spoke but in jest, for which I ask your pardon."
+
+And so he left the room, closing the door behind him, and I turned to
+regard my father.  But before I could reach him to tell in his ear
+the reason of it all, and who it was indeed that there lay in the
+bed, he rose from the seat he had not left since his entering, and I
+at once knew why he had sat so close.  For he lifted from the settle,
+crushed out of all shape by his sitting upon it, Ned's hat, which,
+not finding to be on the floor, I had thought to be fallen upon the
+grass below.
+
+Then did we look hard and long in each other's eyes, and my father
+thrust out his thumb towards the bed with a gesture of questioning,
+and I answered him with one word, so softly breathed that his eyes
+must needs take the office of his ears.  Then he raised the hat.
+
+"He must find it below," he said, and, stealing to the window, of
+which the casement still stood open, he leaned out, and, seeing the
+sentry at the far end of his beat, flung out the hat softly with a
+skimming motion, so that it fell upon the grass at some distance from
+the house, and almost without sound.  And returning from the window
+he found Ned standing upright, freed from the kerchief I had bound on
+his head, bearing in his countenance the flush of a strong
+indignation; for he felt, as he has explained to me, that the shame
+of that ignominious concealment would never leave him.  But the flush
+died speedily away on my father's holding out his hand, in silence,
+indeed, but with his old frank and kindly smile.  They grasped each
+the other's with a great clasp, and then Sir Michael whispered: "We
+must get him out of this," and went out at the door.
+
+And as he closed it we knew, by the voices without, that he had
+encountered the sergeant in the gallery.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+Sir Michael carried with him the one candle he had brought into my
+chamber, so we stood in the dark as if turned to stone by the sound
+of the sergeant's voice without, most horribly dreading that he would
+again enter, and all our work be undone.  How long this lasted I do
+not know, but at last we heard him and my father walk together down
+the gallery to the stairhead, conversing in subdued tones.  Sir
+Michael told him, as I did afterwards learn, that I had been mightily
+frightened and disturbed, and was now at his desire composing myself
+again to sleep.  And the man replied that, as far as my chamber was
+concerned, he was satisfied, since he had discovered complete
+warranty of the tale I had told in the hat he then held in his hand,
+having found it where I had said it should lie.  He added that he
+well knew the stigma of cruelty lying upon his regiment, yet he, for
+one, was vastly sorry that matters had so fallen as to discompose a
+young gentlewoman that was, he believed, the most beautiful and
+kind-hearted in the kingdom.  And I have often thought of it as a
+thing passing strange that the first tribute I received in my life to
+the charms of my person did proceed from a man to whom I had most
+shamelessly lied, he being one of a company famed in all the world
+for wickedness and cruelty.  And I have prayed to God that what good
+there was in this man might not be utterly cast away.
+
+So, while we two, Ned and I, sat almost silent above-stairs in the
+dark, striving to smother the sound of the passion of tears that had
+seized upon me, my father descended the stair with the sergeant,
+thinking soon to be rid of him and his men; but was speedily
+disappointed in finding that the man had no intention to abandon his
+search, although he showed his altered temper in putting himself at
+my father's orders, whether to continue at once his visitation of the
+house from garret to cellar, or to set strict guard upon all its
+approaches till morning, then to complete his survey in the better
+light.
+
+"For," said he, throwing poor Ned's damaged hat upon the table of the
+great hall where they stood, "though we do know the rascal was
+without, and that your worship does not willingly harbor him, we have
+no testimony that he did not get in after he had lost his hat.  Some
+soft-hearted kitchen-maid might well----"
+
+"'T is enough said, sergeant," interrupted Sir Michael, resolving to
+put a good face upon his choice of the lesser evil; "I commend the
+acuteness of your judgment.  It is indeed as much for my honor as
+yours that suspicion of harboring this fellow should be removed from
+my house as well as from myself and my daughter.  Do you set at once
+a sufficient guard without to watch every door and window, and while
+you call into the hall here all that are not needed for that duty, I
+will rouse some of the fellows that sleep above, and see that you
+have good food and drink in place of the sleep you must lose.  And I
+doubt not," he added, turning at the door, "such of you as remember
+Tangier will find my old Burgundy, that has been much praised by good
+judges, a better substitute for the wines of Spain and Portugal than
+our west-country ale."
+
+Whereupon the sergeant, pleased with prospect of good cheer, went out
+to make disposition of his men, while my father again mounted the
+stairs, turning swiftly in his mind the subterfuge by which he
+purposed getting Ned Royston safely from the house.  And indeed I
+think he did devise a scheme as cunning as any of those happy strokes
+of adroitness and dexterity for which in the old wars he was justly
+famous.
+
+The soldiers being now below, and the few servants first roused sent
+to fetch food for the sergeant and his men, my father found the
+stairs and galleries deserted.  Pausing at my door, he gently opened
+it, and hearing the sound of my half-stifled weeping he bid me not
+check it, saying that it fell well with his scheme.
+
+"Do but as I bid you, my children," said he, "and in less than an
+hour the poor lad shall be on the road to Bridport; and with Skewbald
+Meg between his legs 't is pity of the horse and man that would catch
+him.  I can give you no light, for the sentry that is below the
+window, but you, my little Phil, must make shift to cut away from him
+those unfashionable curls; and it is little matter for the dark,
+since the more raggedly you play the barber the better for him; also
+pull off his great boots, with the gay coat and the waistcoat, and
+when I return with the real Betty to take his place in the bed,
+where, I vow, I think she will sleep better than he, I will so clothe
+him and so raddle his face that his mother would not know him again;
+and if you must speak in the doing all this, let it be little and in
+the veriest of whispers."  And at this my dear and most wise old
+father left us, saying aloud, as he shut the door, and with intent to
+be heard if any were spying upon him: "Get thee to sleep, child.
+There is no further cause of fear.  None shall harm thee."
+
+Silent as mice midway between cat and cheese we fell to doing all
+that he had bidden us.  I was bitterly sorry for the curls, and for
+the cruel fashion in which my small shears did lop them, but said no
+word till all was done.  And then we sat waiting in the dark, and Ned
+found my hand and held it, and whispered after a while that he had
+not yet seen my face; that he doubted it was greatly altered, even as
+he perceived my body was increased in stature.  And he asked me had I
+grown beautiful as he was used to predict, and I could only answer
+that I did not think I was fully so foul to look upon as I had been.
+And he was about getting hot in reply, and even raising his voice a
+little to vow that I was never that, nor thought he meant I was, and
+he had for the moment quite forgot to _mistress_ me, as hitherto
+since I had dragged him headlong through my window, when the door
+again opened to admit my father, dragging by the arm poor
+sleep-dazed, blanket-wrapped Betty, who was, I do suppose, from the
+brief glimpse I caught of her figure as my father did set his candle
+on the floor without the door, a strange and admirable spectacle.  In
+the darkened room she was mightily amazed, and we must needs thrust
+her into the bed almost by force, and had well-nigh to gag her mouth
+before we might check the wheezy thunder that she honored with the
+delicate title of whispering.  Indeed, all this part of our night's
+adventure had been vastly comical and mirth-provoking had not a life,
+tenderly dear alike to father and daughter, hung upon our secrecy and
+despatch.  Now Sir Michael had brought with him along with Betty the
+cast-off clothes of one of the grooms that slept in the garret.  And
+there, still in darkness, we contrived among us to habit Ned in
+them--foul old broken shoes, a mile too large, which I stuffed with
+such rags as would keep him from walking out of them; rough woollen
+stockings, none too clean; his own leathern breeches, which he said
+were much worn and covered with the dust of all his ride from Oxford,
+my father did let pass; but the fine long-cloth shirt he would in no
+manner concede, making him take in its place a filthy clout it was
+well we could not see as we pulled it over his shorn head.  "For,"
+said my father, "there is nothing will so play the traitor to a
+gentleman disguised as his own linen.  The very fabric will still
+tell tales when the fairness of it has disappeared under the dirt of
+long use."  And then all was done; Ned did take me for a little
+moment in his arms, when Sir Michael bade him to thrust a hand up the
+chimney to befoul it with soot, with which, he said, he would have
+him bedaub face and neck when they had again such light that it might
+be done in measure and fitness.
+
+"Good-by, Mistress Phil," said he, and "Good-by, dear Ned," said I.
+My father here slipping quietly out to spy up and down the gallery,
+and holding the door to behind him, in that last moment I seized
+Ned's hand, not knowing it was the sooty one, and whispered in his
+ear: "Why will you be ever throwing _mistress_ at me, dear?  Am I not
+your old friend Phil?"  And he: "I did but think, Phil, that so
+unceremoniously visiting your chamber at night-time, which you know
+is a thing I never purposed, did call for terms of address more
+formal than our usage of childhood."  Which before I could answer,
+Sir Michael, satisfied that he was not observed, had him swiftly out
+in the gallery, my door was closed for the last time that night, and
+I fell weeping on the bed as if the sun should never shine again.
+
+I slept none of that night, and much of it I wept.  But, rising in
+the sheer idleness of fatigue, when the dawn was well advanced, and
+chancing to see my face in the mirror, I perceived that I had most
+plentifully streaked and smeared a tear-wet countenance with the
+blackness of the soot that had passed in our last moment together
+from Ned's fingers to mine.  Now my eyes and cheeks presented
+doubtless a spectacle that had moved another to laughter.  But from
+the eyes that alone beheld the figure of ridicule that I was, the
+thought of how I became so besmirched brought fresh tears, plentiful
+enough, in all conscience, to have washed it clean of all the grime
+that face ever carried.  But I washed hands and face, and so back to
+bed, where, worn out, and by this tolerably secure of Ned's evasion,
+I fell asleep, nor awoke until I was roused somewhat past eight
+o'clock of the morning.
+
+Meantime to the tale of that same evasion which was, as I supposed,
+well accomplished.  To tell it briefly, my father bade him play the
+clown as best he could, and, after his face had been cunningly
+smeared with that same soot, had led him by the back stair to the
+kitchen; whence, after Sir Michael had joined the soldiers eating and
+drinking in the great hall, he was sent by the cook, who was in the
+secret, to bear a dish of some dainty to the company.  This, as
+before arranged, he let fall with a great clatter, bringing Sir
+Michael down upon him in pretence of anger; who did there, with many
+a curse on his clumsiness, so cuff him about head and ears, that it
+set all the redcoats laughing.  "Silly varlet!" quoth Sir Michael,
+"is the cook underhanded that such as you must be fetched from garden
+and stable to spoil our meat?  I warrant men are hanged for less in
+these days."
+
+To this the seeming yokel blubbered in reply that he did but wish a
+sight of the soldier gentlemen at meat, which he said in that broad
+and slurring speech of our country that he could ever from his
+childhood put on with exact faithfulness to nature.  And just here
+one of the strangers' horses, neighing wearily without, where he was
+tied to a tree, "Get out," said my father, "and see to those horses.
+Put them in the stable, and, if there be not room for all, turn some
+of your own cattle to graze in the park."  And as he was going out
+slowly dragging one loose shoe after the other, one of the soldiers
+flung a bone at him, and threatened to flog the coat off his back,
+and the skin to follow it, if he did not rub down and well feed and
+water each of their borrowed nags.
+
+So to this task he went, with a hundred pounds in gold of my father's
+in his one pocket that was sound.  And five horses he did groom and
+feed and lodge in that stable, turning three of Sir Michael's out of
+their places into the park.  But one of these, that is, Skewbald Meg,
+a mare of great hardness of limb and lasting power of wind, though a
+mean and ewe-necked thing to the eye, he tied, when out of hearing of
+the sentry on that side of the house, to a tree that stood handy for
+the direction he must take.  He then returned to the stable, and
+there contrived an appearance of business about the nags, while he
+concealed upon him a bridle, with which about his waist he at last,
+having left his lantern burning within, loitered down to Meg in the
+hollow, where in a trice she was bridled and mounted by as good a
+horseman and as ill-looking as ever bestrid her lean and mottled
+ribs.  And how he fared in that ride of near upon twenty-five miles
+to Lyme, and how he was taken safely out of the country by sea, you
+shall hear when I am come to the letter that came to me out of
+Holland.
+
+And here this episode of my life may be counted at an end.  For my
+father, having pressed upon his guests both bottle and tankard, until
+each man made a pillow where his head did strike in falling, and
+having sent out copious flagons until the sentries lacked little of
+being in the same case, did in the leisure thus obtained so drill and
+instruct every waking soul in the house that it was a sure matter
+that all, in case of need, would have the same story to tell: as,
+that Sir Michael had no horses but what might now be seen upon the
+place; that any who thought he had a skewbald mare was vastly
+mistook; that the scullion that was so roundly cuffed and rated was a
+half-witted thing from the stable that had now run off in terror of
+the beating promised him the night before by one of the sergeant's
+men; and so forth.  All that night, as I have said, my father came
+not near me, thinking there had been enough and to spare already done
+in that part of the house, and not wishing to arouse any suspicion
+that might, in the sergeant's muddled head, survive the fumes of the
+wine.  But between eight and nine of the clock Sir Michael knocked
+loudly at my door, asking, so that all might hear if they would, how
+I did, had I slept, and so forth.  Then in a little voice he bade me
+tell Betty to keep her bed, to remember she was yet very sick, and
+that I should hide Ned's boots, sword, and clothes betwixt the
+mattresses, where Betty's huge person should keep them safe.  All
+this, said he, merely as safeguard against another visit to my room.
+
+And very shortly thereafter arose a great cursing below, and a
+swearing of many horrible oaths by the sergeant, with low grumbling
+accompaniment of his men, as they rose from many a twisted posture of
+swinish slumber.  When with sousing, brushing, and breakfasting they
+were again brought to some semblance of men, the futile search after
+him that was by this well out of their reach was begun.  Nor did it
+cease till close on noon.  Now, as the sergeant and his file of men
+passed along the gallery, when there was left no further corner into
+which they might thrust nose, eyes, or sword-point seeking for hidden
+softness of human flesh, some spirit of bravado did seize upon me,
+and I flung open the door of my chamber, where all morning I had kept
+pretence of nursing poor Betty, sick only of an ill temper to be kept
+a lig-a-bed against her will; and I called to the sergeant that he
+had not searched here by daylight, and that all was at his service,
+even poor Betty, being now awake; and he came to the door, and stood
+upon the threshold, looking in upon us while Betty sat up in the bed
+and glared upon him, fear and anger struggling for mastery in her
+broad countenance, and rendering it grotesquely terrible.  Now I was
+clothed this time in fit manner, with gown and hair fresh and neat,
+and, spite of my sorrow at losing Ned and the terrors of the night
+just passed, I had a sense of triumph in my growing certainty of his
+escape that I think I scarce tried to keep from appearing in my
+countenance.  For a moment he regarded me doubtfully, and then there
+sprang into his eye a light as of days when he had been other than he
+now seemed, and I thought he would have spoken gaily and kindly.
+But, my father coming to the door, the sergeant checked his words,
+and, his eye lighting upon Betty, a dark cloud of suspicion passed
+over his face.  This was succeeded by a look of resignation truly
+humorous and comical, as he thanked me for the help I had already
+given him, which was indeed, he said, more than he had deserved,
+apologized for the disturbance he had caused, and so bowed himself
+out.  He straightway marched his detachment into Drayton, and, having
+failed by violent means to avenge the death of his ensign, he now had
+recourse to the law, summoning to him the coroner, and insisting upon
+a speedy inquest, in hope to discover--the few witnesses of the deed
+being put upon oath--the name of whom, if taken _flagrante delicto_,
+he would have hanged before it could be told.
+
+To a wiser head than mine I must leave to be decided the point in
+casuistry, whether it was to the honor or rather to the shame of our
+village folk that among them could not be found two to give a similar
+account of Ned's appearance, nor one that knew his name or had ever
+set eyes upon him before; and this in spite of their oaths and their
+long and kindly knowledge of him.  It may be they did all grievously
+sin in thus shielding him; for me, I can only say that, having myself
+done much the same the night before, in intent at least, I am glad
+they did what they did; and that I have always held those three men
+and two women in a most tender regard who did esteem the danger to
+his dear body of more account than the risk to their own souls.
+While this inquest was holding, and before its verdict of
+manslaughter by a person unknown had been delivered, there rode into
+the village with a small body of dragoons no less a person than
+Colonel Kirke himself, to whom our sergeant had sent a messenger
+immediately upon the death of his officer.  He came roaring and
+ruffling into the room at the little inn where the coroner sat, and
+'t is a hard thing to say what might not have happened to many
+innocent persons had he not there met with my father.  Sir Michael's
+knowledge of men, and, perhaps, some secret information of Kirke's
+character, taught him the true manner in which this hero, more deadly
+with the rope than with the sword, must be handled.  I need here say
+no more of the matter, but that Colonel Kirke did that afternoon
+march to Taunton, with all his Lambs and dragoons, the body of the
+dead ensign, and a sum of two hundred pounds of my dear father's
+savings as ransom for the village.
+
+Of Colonel Percy Kirke it was truly said that only one thing did he
+love better than blood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A little sidelong eddy, it seemed, from the great tide of public
+events had washed up into our quiet backwater or creek of country
+life, setting us all agog with the tragic issues of death and
+dishonor.  But the flutter and swirl of it had now drifted back into
+the main stream, leaving us, not indeed the same as we had been, but
+by contrast quieter than before.  During some three years, for us at
+Drayton it might be said, with a measure of truth, that nothing
+happened.  Yet of those things which I have recounted there were
+several consequences, so notable in effect upon our hearts and minds,
+that it were perhaps more true to say, in that same metaphor, that,
+after the first commotion, the tide maintained a steady though hourly
+imperceptible rise.
+
+When I knew that Kirke and all his men were safely on their way for
+Taunton, I lost no time in riding across country in a bee-line to
+Royston Chase, which I found shut up in charge of three old servants.
+From these I learned that Ned's gray had that morning been discovered
+cropping a breakfast from the grass about his own stable door, and,
+while assuring them of their young master's safety, beyond, perhaps,
+what I truly felt myself, I bade them keep quiet tongues both about
+the horse and his master, who lay for safety, I said, in these
+perilous times, at the city of Oxford.  Nor did I in truth lie to
+these good people, who from my manner of speaking did well perceive
+this was but the tale they must tell, I knowing what it were best
+they should not.  Of the chief among them I had the promise that on
+the expected arrival of the Lady Mary my father should at once be
+advertised of it.  And thence home, a little lighter in spirit to
+know that his horse was safe, and found my father musing heavily in
+his great chair in the hall, where the night before he had so feasted
+our enemies.  At first it was a hard matter to bring him to talk, but
+at last, under stress of coaxing and such tricks of blandishment as I
+have practised from a child to win him from this heaviness of spirit,
+he broke silence.
+
+"The times are hard when a Drayton must in his old age take to lying,
+little daughter Phil," he said.
+
+"And his daughter in the days of her youth," I answered merrily.
+"But in truth 't is little I trouble myself for the falsehood.
+Whose, sir, upon the Day of Judgment, will be the blame of those
+untruths that were told to save from a death both cruel and contrary
+to law so kind and Christian a gentleman as my Ned?"
+
+Sir Michael smiled and rallied me on that word of possession.
+
+"Ho, ho!" said he; "'my Ned,' indeed!  He is by this in Holland,
+little lass, and already, it is like enough, hath seen much that may
+put an unbroke filly out of his mind."  Then, growing grave, "'There
+is something rotten,'" he said, quoting from Mr. Shakespeare's
+tragedy of _Hamlet_ (for this play, and others of that writer, were
+his chief reading), "'There is something rotten in the state of
+Denmark,' when honest youths must needs kill soldiers of their
+sovereign, and old men and young maids must trump up a pack of lying
+tales to save a good lad from rope without jury.  I would I had died
+when the late King did come again to his own."
+
+"And what, then, of poor Philippa?" I piteously asked.
+
+"Why, then," said my father, smiling on me with a countenance of
+great benignity, "poor Philippa had not been, and poor Michael had
+missed his best gift of God.  So let us leave it to Him, dear maid,
+both for what is to be and for how much thy father shall see of it."
+And it was long thereafter before he would again talk to me of public
+matters; but I knew by his face, which to me was ever print of an
+open character, that he thought much, and that a strife was in his
+soul, waged between his life-long loyalty to the house of Stuart and
+the new thoughts born of his pity for the land that he loved as they
+had never loved but themselves.
+
+If my father had hated in his life any man, it was Oliver, the late
+Protector.  Yet thrice within the year that followed, when some
+neighbor would speak of the low opinion into which we were come upon
+the continent of Europe, or when the news-letter would drop some
+covert hint of the subservience of St. James to Versailles, he said:
+"It had not been thus, or so, if Old Noll were alive."  And once to
+Mr. Greenlow: "Say what you will, Parson, Cromwell was an Englishman,
+and a brave one.  I would he had been born of a queen."
+
+And if the circumstances of Ned's evasion brought some change to Sir
+Michael's way of thinking, they caused no less an alteration in the
+value set upon his daughter by one whose good opinion I had much
+desired and was now at last to obtain.
+
+Three days after that vain inquest upon the body of the dead ensign
+word came from Royston that my Lady Mary was arrived, and, thinking
+there to have found her son, and finding neither him nor his news,
+was fallen into great distress of mind.  Sir Michael, being now
+somewhat better of his indisposition, made shift to ride back with
+the servant, and straightway gave her, I think, full account of all
+that had been done by her son and for him.  But, his tale ceasing
+with Ned's departure upon Skewbald Meg, it can scarce be imagined he
+brought much of comfort to that proud lady and doting mother.
+
+He returned the same afternoon, telling me in words less of his
+converse with Lady Mary than his face had already betrayed ere his
+feet were out of the stirrups.
+
+Now, about the hour of ten the next morning, I was idling on the
+south terrace, feeding our doves and playing with the dogs, when my
+eye was caught by a strange fellow most uncouthly dressed that led a
+horse up the avenue.  Nor did it take long gazing to see from the
+large maculation of its sides that the horse was Skewbald Meg; the
+man proving, on closer observation and his own rough introduction, to
+be a petticoated seaman of Bridport.  But to our enquiries after him
+who had lately ridden the mare he would answer nothing.  He knew, he
+said, naught but that one who was no longer this side the water had
+told him the horse was owned at Drayton, in Somerset, and he would
+get twenty shillings for the bringing it home; that he had done his
+best to con the craft from the poop, but found she would ever move
+_starn_ foremost when he went on deck, and so had taken her in tow;
+and he hoped the lady would, an the patchwork quilt of a beast were
+indeed hers, not forget that he had walked all the way but two miles,
+which two were indeed the sorest of the road; had forgot (on further
+question) what town he was from, had forgot how far it was, but
+thought he could find his road again; had forgot the gentleman's name
+that sent him, and even, he thought, his own.  And Sir Michael
+laughed at the cunning of the fellow's folly, paid him well, and bade
+him go home and find his memory.  So, having drunk his ale, he
+trudged off with a sea bow and a twinkle in his eye more knowing than
+his words, but paused to twist his face over his shoulder and his
+thumb significantly toward the mare, saying he thought her mane in
+sore need of a good combing; and so off, leaving me sick at heart for
+news, that, pulling through the knots of Meg's matted neck-hair, I
+did speedily encounter in form of a letter securely tied beneath the
+tangled mass.  And, the string cut, seal broken, and paper unfolded,
+this is what we read within:
+
+
+"_To my very dear Friends and Saviors both, SIR MICHAEL DRAYTON and
+MISTRESS PHILIPPA, his most sweet Daughter_.
+
+"I write within thirty hours of leaving you, having already found a
+ship to set me beyond reach of harm.
+
+"Good Meg did carry me well, and is, I hope, little worse of the
+twenty mile she ran in her never-changing stride, with never a false
+step and scarce one sweat drop; and I do truly think she hath eyes of
+a cat.  'T is not her fault if her back be first cousin to a handsaw,
+nor mine that saddles grow not in the hedgerows hereabout.
+
+"It was two of the morning when I roused from his sleep old Jeremiah
+Soames, that I have known since Lady Mary did bring me, a sickly
+child, to Bridport for the sea-bathing.  His boat is now about
+sailing for the fishing, and in the meantime Meg has been well hid in
+his curing-shed, and I in his little upper chamber.  He would not,
+for caution, advance his hour to drop out of harbor, but once he has
+a fair offing will make a course for the French coast, or, if the
+wind serve, up Channel through the Straits for a Dutch port--Flushing
+perhaps, or Rotterdam.  I have yet no clear purpose for the future,
+but already some thought to obtain a commission to serve under the
+great John Sobiesky against the Turk.  It were some pleasure, in
+these days when Christians will be ever cutting each the other's
+throat for cause of heresy, to rise a little above the policy of
+dog-eating dogs, and to stand with men of all opinions for Christ
+against the Infidel.
+
+"To my mother I must not now run the danger of writing, for since I
+know not surely where she is, whether in London or at Royston, the
+letter might well fall into other hands.  So I will ask you, my two
+friends (the two best I do suppose that ever man had), by some means
+to advise her of all that has happened, and to convey to her my great
+love and duty.  To her at Royston I will write so soon as I shall be
+landed, and in certainty of what is best to be done.
+
+"To you, Philippa, my old comrade, the letter all for your private
+perusal that is in my mind must remain unwritten.  'T is not fit I
+should now ask more of you than the life I have received at your
+hands in the moment when my own were stained with blood.  For, though
+I do piously trust it is rather the stain that a soldier must bear
+than the murderer's, sinking through till the soul itself is spotted,
+yet will I now say no word but what your kind father's eyes may read
+in the same moment with your own.  Yet, even with a price, 't is very
+like, set on my head, let me be in thought your old comrade, that do
+in exile most bitterly regret I saw not your face of late, guessing
+from the mellow notes of your voice how fair it has become.
+
+"To you, Sir Michael, I would say, knowing not what report has run of
+the deed I did, that I truly believe yourself had done no less,
+placed as I was placed.  I meant not indeed to kill the man, but,
+when I remember, can scarce find it in my heart to be sorry that he
+died.
+
+"To both of you I am grateful beyond any proof of words.  If the
+chance come you will know I speak truth, and am indeed the true
+servant of you both till death and after.
+
+"E. ROYSTON."
+
+
+At another time the approach of a thing so rare among us as a coach
+had taken my mind off the most ingenious tale or history ever
+printed.  But the tale is not written, nor like to be, that could for
+me vie in interest with this simple letter.  Being then in my second
+reading of it, while Sir Michael, content with one perusal over my
+shoulder, had in kindness walked away along the terrace to the steps
+of the great door, leaving me to squeeze a second cup of sweetness,
+as it were, for my sole drinking, out of that letter, I neither knew
+that a coach had come, nor that my father was leading from it in my
+direction the Lady Mary Royston.  And I, looking up in great joy of
+the letter, encountered with my eyes, in which I doubt not the light
+of my happiness was plain, her noble and austere countenance frowning
+upon me in manifest displeasure.  But I was not dashed in my spirits,
+as perhaps she intended, by the gloom of her regard, partly because
+in serious things my father had long ceased to use me as a child, and
+partly because I guessed that, with his habit of kindness that was
+ever mindful of the small matters that do please women, he had left
+to me the pleasant task to tell of the letter.  So I dropped my lady
+the finest courtesy I was mistress of, very freely thereafter smiling
+in her face, the letter whipt behind my back.
+
+"Mistress Drayton seems but little cast down with all these terrible
+doings, Sir Michael," said her ladyship.
+
+My father smiled grimly, but left reply to me, who answered: "Nay,
+dear madam, for we have but now received this news of Mr. Royston,
+which I believe as much intended for your ladyship as for my father
+and me."  And, seeing by his face my father was willing, I handed her
+the letter.
+
+With little courtesy she seized, and with great greediness perused,
+the letter, and her face was the face of a woman that tears at food
+after a great fasting; yet midway, at that passage, as I suppose,
+wherein I was peculiarly addressed, she looked from the letter to me
+in a manner to call to my mind those words which, in my eagerness to
+give ease to the mother's anxiety, I had forgotten the son to have
+used.  With that memory, and under her gaze, the blood came hotly to
+my face, and I was glad when her eyes speedily fell again to the
+letter, which when she had finished, the heart of the woman within
+broke down the iron gates of pride and jealousy that had shut in the
+mother, even as they had so long shut out the friends of her son; for
+she now opened her arms to me, taking me to her bosom, and weeping
+over me tears of joy, while she blessed us, father and daughter, for
+the saving of her boy's life, declaring herself to be a jealous and
+wicked old woman, but, now she knew him safe, a very happy one, if
+her friends and Ned's would but forgive her.
+
+When after a while she was soothed to a calmer temper of mind, Lady
+Mary turned her regard to my person and countenance, saying to Sir
+Michael that I had grown out of all knowledge, which I thought little
+wonderful, since it was some eight years since she had set eyes upon
+me.
+
+"So this young madam," she said, patting me on the shoulder kindly
+enough, yet still with the grand air of the Court dame to a rustic
+damsel, "this is the child I have all these years envied and feared!
+I do trust, my dear, we shall be fast friends."  Then after a little
+pause she added, as if in fear she had said too much: "But I would
+not have you think too gravely, Mistress Philippa, of what is said in
+that letter."
+
+"That, madam, I could not do," I replied, leaving her in some doubt,
+it seemed, of my meaning.  For, after a moment's musing:
+
+"I will be plain with you, my child," she said.  "I mean, although I
+am much your debtor, and do desire your love, I would not have you
+look to marry my son.  He is yet but a lad, and I have a different
+purpose for him."
+
+"Indeed, madam," I said with a little courtesy, "that must be, I
+think, as he wills."
+
+"But you, my dear, who risked your good name of late to save his
+life, must be, I believe, of the mettle to deny your own happiness,
+were such denial plainly for his good," said her ladyship; and I was
+glad that the last week had taught me in some measure to conceal my
+thought.
+
+"Nay, dear madam," I answered, holding my anger close within my
+heart, "I cannot believe that you think any woman will deny your son."
+
+Whereat my dear father laughed softly, and my lady looked upon me
+searchingly, as wondering what animal this might be that looked so
+tender, and yet was not wholly innocent of claws.  Her good humor,
+however, was speedily recovered, although it was long before she
+spoke again on that delicate subject.
+
+But she kept her purpose of friendship, giving me constant and kindly
+welcome when I would ride over to Royston, and coming herself once or
+more in a month to us at Drayton.  And in the two or three years that
+followed her son's departure it was to her kind instruction and
+wholesome advice that I owed what advance I made in manner, bearing,
+and knowledge of a greater world than I had seen; she was, in short,
+just such a friend as my father's daughter had need of; for there be
+many things women learn only from each other; and, knowing by some
+intuition of nature the need I was in, I was glad indeed, for all her
+intermittent asperities, that it was Ned's mother that did take up
+the task of leading me from the way of the hoyden into something of
+the grace of womanhood.
+
+As a pupil, indeed, she found in me little food of complaint, but
+would be out with me for weeks at a time if Sir Michael received a
+letter from Ned out of his turn, as she counted, or one that covered
+more paper than her last.  But I fearing her not at all, and she
+being a lady of high courage and loving fearlessness in another, by
+degrees she came to love me, and to forego much of her privilege of
+unreasoning displeasure.
+
+The manners in which she was bred were more akin to the severer model
+of the reign of the first Charles than proper to this lighter age;
+but she had never been wholly cut off from the great world, and,
+knowing well what was doing and what changes making, she professed
+inculcating a judicious modification of old and new, that should
+leave a young woman open neither to the ridiculous charge of aping
+her grandmother nor to the censure of shaping herself upon the frail
+and beautiful women of a dissolute Court.  My wardrobe, too, at my
+father's desire, she took in hand.  And I confess that this was my
+favorite branch of study with my new teacher; and when I remember the
+gowns that were made in Taunton and the two that were fetched all the
+way from London, and the changing, turning, fitting, shaping, and
+trying done at Royston by my lady, her woman, and myself, I am free
+to admit that this matter of gowns was perhaps for more in bringing
+about our lasting friendship than any other thing that passed between
+us.  For here my lady was not, as in the more serious domain of
+manners, under a desire of reverting to the days of her own
+upbringing, displaying rather the perennial youth that, behind the
+deepening wrinkles of age, lurks ever fresh in the feminine heart.
+She was in the choice of my attire all for the newest mode, holding,
+she would say, each fashion as it arose right and seemly, if set out
+upon the person of one that had the wit and discretion to fit new
+forms to her own needs and the counsels of modesty.  I wish I may
+have done a little to lighten for Lady Mary the tedium of those days
+while Ned was from home, since I am deeply her debtor, as a maid must
+be to her who takes up, in how slight soever a manner, the office of
+the mother she has lost.
+
+During the months of September and October of that same year we lived
+in great horror and dread of my Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, whose
+terrible circuit, I thank God, it does not fall to me even in part to
+describe.  For this storm passed us in Drayton and Royston safely by,
+though we both saw and heard, as it were, the flash of its lightning
+and roll of its thunder.  The doings, however, of that wicked and
+shameless man, so terribly disgracing his high office and that of him
+from whom he derived it, seemed to hold a ghastly and irresistible
+attraction for my father.  Every report, printed, written, or spoken,
+that he could come at he devoured.  The concern he showed in all this
+cruel travesty of justice began with the report that reached him in
+September of the trial and execution in Winchester of the Lady Alice
+Lisle--a case too well known to need my telling, except in so far as
+it affected Sir Michael.
+
+John Lisle, a man high in the military service of the Protector
+Cromwell, had once done great kindness to my father, who had come to
+know both him and his wife, and to regard them with an affection
+saddened only by the part the husband had adopted in the affairs of
+the nation.  The news of what he called her murder moved him
+profoundly, and he pursued the Chief Justice in his mind, as it were,
+throughout his Bloody Assize, as one who waits to see a bolt fall
+from Heaven on a malefactor beyond the reach of justice merely human.
+Of that martyred lady I heard him one day speak in accents of deep
+sorrow to Madam Royston, who, though going with him heartily in
+abhorrence of the crime done in the name of justice, took quick
+exception to the title commonly bestowed on Mistress Lisle.
+
+"For I do marvel, dear Sir Michael," she said, "that you, being of
+such principles as you are, should make use of a title bestowed by
+Cromwell in blasphemous parody of that ennobling power which on earth
+is granted to the Lord's Anointed alone."
+
+"If God ever sent a lady on this sinful earth," said the old man,
+with a kind of holy exaltation in his countenance, "Alice Lisle was
+she.  And by this, Lady Mary, she bears higher title and brighter
+crown than the highest of her murderers.  And I pray that the fate of
+Gomorrah may not fall on the land where such things are done."  And
+Lady Mary, perceiving well who was intended by that word _murderer_,
+dared not reply, but marvelled much afterwards, as I knew by words
+she would from time to time let fall, whither my father's musings
+were leading him.  Which was, indeed, but to the same goal to which
+the tide of events was leading us all.
+
+Now ever since the hanging of those two men in Drayton village,
+although Peter Emmet had continued to heat and hammer iron in the
+usual way, nothing had been heard of Simon, his father, nor of
+Prudence, his daughter.  But one fine morning in mid-October, when my
+Lord Chief Justice was well back in London, receiving much honor and
+reward for the evil he had wrought and the grief he had left among
+us, but no thanks from any man for the only good thing he ever did by
+us in the west (I mean the leaving us), as I was going to the
+kitchen, my father being not yet out of his chamber, I passed by that
+little dark room we did use to call the steward's.  But whether it
+were butler's pantry, museum of weapons out of all date and fashion,
+or the place where a steward should hold his audits, pay his wages,
+and keep his books, a stranger had been hard put to it to tell.  I
+marked that the door stood partly open, a thing unusual since we had
+none to use it, and, peering within, perceived old Simon poring over
+a book of accounts the most naturally in the world.  Indeed, had it
+not been for some trembling of the hand that held the pen, and the
+great emaciation of his countenance, I might almost have forgotten he
+had been absent at all, so fit and proper was his presence there.
+And the thought of this put in my head, I think, the best and kindest
+manner of welcoming his return; for I just nodded my head to him, and
+said: "Ah, Simon, 't is a fair morning, is it not?  I trust the old
+Naseby wound and the rheumatism are better."  And the old man turned
+to me a face full of gratitude, that showed a fresh-healed scar upon
+the forehead and a shaking smile about the lips.
+
+"I am well recovered, pretty mistress," he said; then perceiving,
+perhaps, that in both dress and manner I was grown deserving of a
+more formal address, he added, "Madam Philippa, I would say."
+
+And so I left him in haste to persuade my father to accept this aged
+prodigal's return even as I had done.  And thus it came about that
+Simon Emmet slipped back into his old place among us without question
+asked; and I at least should never certainly have known he had been
+with Monmouth, nor that he was the man that did escape that night
+from the barn, if I had not, no long time after his return, taken his
+granddaughter Prudence into the house to be my handmaid, and in some
+sort, as it proved, my companion.  For she came to me, having
+returned to her father's house on the same day as Simon to us, and
+begged me, in pretty rustic manner, and with tears in her pretty
+eyes, that I would take her into my service, being determined, she
+said, to serve, if she might, her who had saved the brave gentleman
+that had so nearly given his life for her protection.  And she proved
+indeed a good servant, a merry companion, and afterwards, upon a
+great occasion, as will be seen, a friend not to be despised.
+
+In the month of November there came to Sir Michael a long letter from
+Mr. Edward Royston.  It was dated from The Hague, and contained
+matter of much interest to us all.  I see that I have here written
+his name in style more formal than I have hitherto generally used.
+And I let it so stand, to serve as a sign of the reserve to which I
+had by degrees found myself obliged, at least in speaking of him.
+For to Lady Mary, as was but natural after those words of hers which
+I have already given, I never mentioned him if it could in any way be
+avoided, while of Prue I was too proud to seek sympathy, although I
+loved best her prattle when it was of Ned.
+
+And I knew that Sir Michael had been hurt more than a little in his
+pride by that same speech of Lady Mary, and sought to make me forego
+all thought of her son by speaking of him only in the rare and
+painful manner that some use of the dead.  Yet when he saw my face,
+eager, I doubt not, against my will, as he looked up from the last
+words of this letter, he rose and left the room, the letter lying
+there before me on the table, muttering reluctantly some words to the
+effect that I should read it if I pleased, an the subject had
+interest for me.  So read it I very speedily and hungrily did,
+learning that after his safe arrival in Holland (of which we had a
+month before been advised through a letter to his mother) he had made
+his way to The Hague; that there he had sought out a good old
+merchant that had been a correspondent in business of the late Mr.
+Nathaniel Royston, and remembered him, as did many another, with much
+kindness, on account as much of his great sobriety of judgment and
+honesty of dealing as of the many successful ventures they had
+together undertaken.
+
+Now this Mynheer van Bierstenhagen belonged, in that country where
+party spirit runs so high, to the faction that was the more
+patriotically opposed to the influence and aggressions of His Majesty
+King Lewis of France--to that party, I mean, which followed after the
+Stadtholder, who was that Prince of Orange that had married, when I
+was child of nine years, the Princess Mary, the eldest child of our
+reigning King James.  "And when it is remembered," wrote Mr. Royston,
+"that the Prince is himself the grandson of King Charles I., 't is
+little wonder that all the talk here among the exiled and malcontent
+English and Scotch is of the Princess Mary and her husband, she being
+next in succession to the throne and he so nearly allied."  And the
+letter went on to tell how he had secured, through the influence of
+Mynheer van Bierstenhagen, a favorable introduction to the Prince,
+had told him his story, and received from him a commission in one of
+his regiments of horse.  For this fat old Dutch merchant was held at
+the Court of The Hague in high esteem for his wealth, his zeal for
+the public good, and chiefly, no doubt, added Mr. Royston, for the
+reason that a wealthy burgher on the Prince's side in politics was
+not to be slighted, when most of his class were of French leanings,
+the Stadtholder's chief support being among the common people.
+
+But in all this not one word, beyond a civil message of regard, for
+poor Philippa, who spent some tears and much thought to come at an
+answer to the question, whether her old comrade began to forget what
+she must ever remember, or was but obstinately adhering to his
+resolve to say no word of those feelings which he held forbidden by
+the cause of his flight out of England.  No answer could I get to
+this for all my vexing of my mind with questions, till one day Prue
+did find me in tears, and contrived, my pride being a little weakened
+with a consciousness of swollen and blubbered cheeks, to get some
+part of my woes from me.  Whereupon she nodded sagely her little
+head, and asked if he was one wont to change.
+
+"For sure, Mistress Phil," she said, "you have by all accounts known
+him long enough to tell."
+
+In some indignation I answered he was not.
+
+"I thought he was not, indeed," says Prue; "and you may take my word
+for it, madam, he but waits to become a great captain in this army of
+the Dutch to come riding home and claim you, as great as a lord."
+
+At this I was at first much pleased, perceiving how likely a thing it
+was that Ned should so act; and next I was angry with Prudence for
+her wisdom.  But when I petulantly would know how she came to read
+him more justly than I, she said a little sadly that it was not her
+own case she was judging, and saw the clearer for being but an
+onlooker.  For which I kissed her, and so an end.
+
+There is no need for me to tell ill what others have told well; the
+history, I mean, of the three years before the coming of His Highness
+of Orange.  I suppose I had taken little note of the affairs of the
+country had I not heard much talk of them between my dear father and
+Mr. Telgrove.  And as time went on it was curious to note how both
+would make me a party to their discussion of public matters, the
+reason being at first, I think, that their differences required an
+arbiter, and an ignorant girl was better than none, having indeed
+this advantage when fulfilling the office of judge, that there was no
+need to abide by her decision; and later, when they had begun to
+approach, if not an agreement, at least a temporary alliance, they
+would still be drawing me in because it had become a thing of custom.
+I learned then in this manner more of the state of the nation than if
+I had read every word of the London _Gazette_ as it appeared in the
+capital; and when, in the spring of the year 1687, the country was
+deeply perturbed by the publication of the Declaration of Indulgence,
+which my father and Mr. Telgrove abhorred in common, I was able to
+bring the two old men at last to a position of sympathy--representing
+to my tutor that my father could never wish him to forego such
+liberties as the Indulgence offered; to my father that, in his heart,
+Mr. Telgrove scarce grudged the same to those of my dear mother's
+faith; and to both, that they were united to refuse a boon thus
+illegally offered, lest a door should so be opened to greater evils
+than the Indulgence pretended to cure.  They said I was a little
+stateswoman, kissed the one my face, and the other my hand, and
+joined their own in the closest grip of friendship.  Yet all this
+time my father neither let drop nor allowed one word of changing the
+head that wore the crown, while Mr. Telgrove was, I think, too wise
+to press him in that direction.
+
+And so, from London and all parts of the country, we heard week after
+week that things went from bad to worse; while at home I was riding
+new horses, prinking myself out in new dresses, and reading new books
+when I could get them, and the old when I must; till I began at last
+to fancy, I suppose, that I was grown a woman, and a person of no
+little importance and consideration.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+Christopher Kidd was a tenant farmer upon the Drayton land.
+Moreover, he was a suitor, earnest as bashful, for the hand of my
+little abigail, Prudence Emmet.  While, therefore, matter of business
+might bring him four times in the year to the Manor House to speak
+with Sir Michael, love was used to fetch him thrice in a week
+dangling about the place for the chance of being well snubbed,
+mightily put upon, and most truculently railed at by little Prue.
+And she, for all her cruelty, was not to be thought altogether
+indifferent to this stalwart yeoman (for he was of that stock, though
+himself but a tenant).  I at least could never think her intention to
+him unkindly after being witness of her distress when Mr. Kidd rode
+southwards on my father's behalf to seek news of the Prince of Orange
+more certain than the bare rumor that had reached us of his landing
+at Brixham.  For no sooner was he departed than Prudence, although
+saucy with him even in her last words, became much cast down in
+spirit, fearing he would not return, and I know not what beside.
+
+Now all the world knows that it was upon the fifth day of November,
+in the year 1688, that His Highness set foot on shore.  And I
+remember well that the fifth fell that year upon a Monday.  For ever
+since he had received by an unknown hand a printed copy of the
+Prince's Declaration, in which was set forth not only His Highness's
+purpose to come to the rescue of the liberties of England, but also
+at great length the reasons of this design, my father had resolved to
+throw in his lot with him; and, this resolve once made, he greatly
+desired to be among the very first to offer support, saying a Drayton
+should never be in the number of those that must wait to see how the
+cat would jump.  And so he was, through the last days of October and
+the first week of November, in a great excitement of waiting ever for
+news that did not come.  And, the first rumor of His Highness's
+coming reaching us on the morning after that landing in Torbay, Sir
+Michael came to the still-room, hobbling with his stick (for his
+wound was again troubling him) to find me, being in great hope that
+the news would prove true that the Prince had made choice of our
+coast, and not, as had been expected, that of Yorkshire.  Now I was
+busied with the brewing of our gooseberry wine, while Prudence and
+two of the maids were mending the house-linen under my eyes for the
+greater despatch and fineness of their work.  And it was of a Tuesday
+that this mending was always done, for Sir Michael had instilled much
+of the old soldier's order and system into my manner of housekeeping.
+But this day I do think the gooseberry wine had little thought or
+care, for to me the coming of the Prince meant the coming of Mr.
+Royston, that I had not encountered since I was a woman grown; it
+being indeed three years and over since he went out of the country,
+and near upon twice that space of time since we had so met that we
+might fairly perceive, the one what manner of man, the other what
+manner of woman, we were.  And I laughed softly in myself to think at
+what advantage I held him.  For him I should surely know among a
+thousand, while he--well, it would be as it should fall.  For,
+knowing as I knew him, I was sure that if at all he remembered me, he
+had doubtless all those years been holding still in his inner eye the
+picture of a little, ugly, and ill-kempt hoyden.  And I laughed
+again, and wondered why I laughed, finding my mind something of a
+puzzle to itself.  For, while I knew I was no longer ill to look
+upon, I found my face grow hot at the thought of Ned's eyes on me,
+which before I had never done.
+
+It was then upon the Tuesday that we heard the great news; upon the
+Wednesday that Mr. Kidd, at the instance of Sir Michael, rode off
+Exeter way to hear more.  And so, in suspense little relieved by
+further and growing rumor, we waited until the Saturday, when about
+five in the afternoon Prudence, ever on the watch, was the first to
+spy her lover as he rode up the avenue.  His horse was caked over
+with mud to the very girths, for the roads were foul with long and
+heavy rains.  Nor had the mud spared the rider; but the soil borne by
+the two was as nothing to the weight of mystery and the burden of
+importance that I marked in Farmer Kidd's bearing as he flung himself
+from the saddle, and, brushing by little Prue with the briefest of
+nods, strode big with news to the little parlor beyond the hall,
+where Sir Michael did use to sit of an evening.  And then, as I
+looked from the window of the hall where I sat, I knew from her face
+that Prudence would surely wed him some day, but first would make the
+rude fellow most bitterly repent that slight of counting her next to
+politics and warfare.
+
+For my part, since I was not Prue, I soon forgave the man, in return
+for the great story he had to tell of the Prince's entry into the
+city of Exeter.  For he had beheld that great pageant, with news of
+which all the west was soon to be ringing, and, indeed, in no great
+space, the whole country.  And, if it gained as much in many mouths
+as I have since reason to suppose it gained in Farmer Kidd's, 't is
+little wonder it was soon believed an army of giants and magicians
+had crossed the sea in aid of the Protestant religion.  The Earl of
+Macclesfield, who had come out of Holland with the Prince, leading a
+band of English gentlemen, two hundred strong, was with his following
+an object of wondrous admiration to Mr. Kidd, who would never tire, I
+thought, in telling of their great Flanders horses, their glittering
+armor, and their negro slaves, one to each man, in white and
+feathered turbans.  And then it was the bridge of boats laid across
+the Exe in the twinkling of an eye to give passage to the wagons; the
+twenty pieces of ordnance--great brass cannon, only to be moved by
+teams of sixteen horses to each; the stature of the men; the new sort
+of muskets; the order of the discipline, so that none would so much
+as steal a hen from a cottage garden, but all things were as
+willingly paid for as supplied.  Then Kidd must draw comparisons
+between these military manners and those of Kirke's and Trelawney's
+Regiments of Foot, as seen in the troubles of three years ago; and
+all this time poor I waiting on his words but half interested, and
+satisfied not at all, until I could lead him, too full of his own
+great importance to perceive the guidance, to some description of the
+Prince's Swedish Regiment of Horse.  For it was to this body that Mr.
+Royston had, it was now some months, been transferred, receiving at
+the same time promotion to the rank of captain.
+
+So as long as our messenger, between the draughts of his ale fetched
+him by Prudence with hands as willing as the pouting mouth would fain
+have shown her reluctant, would descant of the black chargers, the
+black armor, the great broadswords, and the furred cloaks of this
+same Swedish cavalry, I listened as eagerly as my father had done to
+it all.  And as the man dwelt on the gallant show they did make I was
+plotting to bring him to some mention of what I doubted not was among
+them the gallantest figure of all, but was prevented by my father
+asking if Mr. Kidd would ride the same road again, and carry a letter
+to His Highness of Orange.  "With the best meal we can make you on
+short notice, Mr. Kidd, to comfort you within, and the best nag in
+Drayton stables between your knees?" said Sir Michael, in conclusion
+of his request.
+
+Christopher Kidd was ready enough not only to oblige Sir Michael, but
+also, I believe, to return to the great sights and doings of which
+his mouth was so full; so, he being despatched in care of Prudence to
+be fed, I was left with my father.  And when I had given him his
+writing things he opened his mind a little to me.
+
+"I had gathered from Kidd, before you entered," he said, "that the
+common people are ready to do all and risk all for the Prince, but
+that since he landed no man of substance and gentry has joined his
+army."  And here for a moment he did bite the feather of his pen, and
+looked in my face, so that I knew that the mind that was now long
+made up still felt pain to tell its resolve.  Then he went on thus:
+"You that know me so well, little daughter Phil, have guessed, I do
+not doubt, this many a day how my mind was going in these matters.
+And seeing that it was decided, contrary to the use and belief of my
+life, in favor of His Highness before ever he came, I cannot now in
+honor hang back.  It cannot be recruits for rank and file, raw
+soldiers at the best, that he needs, with such an army at his back;
+but I believe it is rather the countenance and support of the solid
+men of the country he asks, to take from his presence the odious
+seeming of invasion.  And I am in great fear it may all miscarry,
+even as Monmouth's wicked business, on account of the behavior of
+those who, willing to bring, yet fear to welcome His Highness.  You
+have, I do think, partly seen what it has cost your old Cavalier
+father to adopt a part against his old master's son.  But it would
+cost me more if my hand were not as good as my thought.  Yet, if I so
+make it, I risk all that is yours who but enter upon life,--little
+for myself whose sands are at the last falling grains.  Sedgemoor,
+Kirke, Jeffreys, were summer-evening ripples on a mill-pond to the
+storm that is coming, if His Highness meet defeat in the field or
+abandon his undertaking, which last I take it he is like enough to
+do, if forced to the appearance of a foreign enemy.  I did purpose
+now writing a letter to His Highness.  The act will be mine, but the
+danger, my daughter, will be yours.  How shall it be?"
+
+I pushed the inkhorn to him over the table.
+
+"Write, dear sir," I said.  "Your hand shall not fail your thought
+for me.  And I would mine," I added, putting a hand in his, "were as
+strong for the cause my heart holds the better as yours has ever
+been."
+
+He looked in my face as he took it, and the old gleam flashed a
+moment in his age-saddened eyes.
+
+"My lass," he said, "there 's Drayton in you for two men," and began
+to write forthwith; but soon paused, saying: "Wilt run, child, to the
+stable, and choose for Mr. Kidd?  We have here no better head for
+horseflesh, and my old piece cannot keep these new nags well
+distinguished."  And as I reached the door he called after me that I
+should not give him Skewbald Meg, whose appearance would do little
+honor to his errand or His Highness of Orange.  And I cried back that
+poor Meg would break her heart with the weight of the man, and so to
+the stable.  For, since her midnight ride to Lyme, I was never
+pleased that any but I should mount the mare.
+
+And when I returned to my father the letter was written, which he
+would have me read.  As I remember, it ran in this way:
+
+
+"YOUR HIGHNESS,--I have within this hour in which I write received
+the certain news of Your Highness's coming into England.  Without
+delay, then, I do myself the honor to inform Your Highness that I
+have attached myself and my household to his party and interest.  The
+reasons that have led me to this are for the most part set out in
+that noble declaration published by Your Highness before his coming
+among us.  Yet it is not without great pain that I, an old servant
+and soldier of Your Highness's grandfather of blessed memory, King
+Charles I., find myself inditing an epistle that sets me in a manner
+at war with his son.  It is written with a hand that now finds the
+pen heavier than the sword was wont to be.  I am too old and too
+infirm to pay to Your Highness in person the respect I feel.  And I
+am too old a soldier to embarrass Your Highness's encampment with
+even my small body of men; it is possible they are not needed.  Yet
+Your Highness is to know that they are to the number of a dozen, at
+his command, living meantime at free quarters, and getting such drill
+and practice in arms and evolutions, both men and beasts, as two
+old-fashioned soldiers can give.  May God use Your Highness as you
+shall use this unhappy land.  Your Highness's most respectful and
+obedient servant,
+
+"M. DRAYTON."
+
+
+And this letter, somewhat proud in its tones, as I thought (but not
+one word of it would Sir Michael change), reached the hand of the
+Prince by that of Christopher Kidd early upon the following morning,
+which was Sunday.  It seems, from what I afterwards heard, that being
+deep in affairs His Highness did not break the seal until after the
+great and solemn service in the cathedral that was that morning held.
+
+Now the bishop had fled to London before the gates of Exeter were
+opened to the Prince.  The dean had followed him, and from this
+service the canons of the chapter carefully abstained themselves.
+Even the prebendaries and the singers of the choir fled from their
+stalls on the first words of Dr. Burnet's reading from the pulpit the
+Prince's famous Declaration.  So, for all the pomp and the noble
+sermon of that great divine, it was in no mild or pleasant humor that
+His Highness returned to his lodging at the Deanery.  Here chancing
+to open my father's letter, he took great pleasure in it, remarking
+to Mr. Bentinck that there was, after all, hope that he had not come
+in vain, when so stanch and famous a Cavalier as Sir Michael Drayton,
+of whom he had often heard, did so address him.  He sent at once for
+Christopher Kidd, and very graciously bade him thank Sir Michael for
+his promptitude, which, he said, had done much to console him in a
+grievous hour; adding that he would send in good time for his little
+band, and hoped himself to pass, within some days, so near to Drayton
+that he might thank him in person.  And with this message Christopher
+returned.
+
+I have been thus particular because I would have it known that my
+father was the first of that great and distinguished number of
+gentlemen and noblemen that soon began to flock to the Prince's
+standard.  I know it has been said that Mr. Burrington, of Crediton,
+was the first that came in, bringing with him a good company of
+followers.  Now it is well known that Mr. Burrington did not arrive
+in Exeter till the Monday.  But Sir Michael Drayton's adhesion to the
+cause being conveyed by letter, and his men kept a-drilling at his
+cost until they should be required, has put my dear father's name out
+of the histories, where it should stand as that of the man who first
+held out a hand to comfort a great Prince oppressed to despondency of
+mind by a backwardness that seemed ingratitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+At an early hour on Monday there were gathered on the level turf that
+stretched beneath my chamber window some five and twenty men, with as
+many horses, from whom Sir Michael, with old Emmet to help him, was
+now to select that twelve he had promised to hold at the service of
+the Prince.  And I thought it a clear mark of my father's nature that
+he did prefer furnishing a small number, but serviceable, when, had
+he measured his own importance by the rule that many gentlemen at
+that time did use, he might have sent a hungry and unruly band three
+times as great.
+
+From my window the humors of the scene were strange and various, and
+at first not a little laughable.  Simon bustled to and fro, urging
+and directing stable lads sweating under load after load of armor,
+and weapons from the hall, the armory, and the steward's room.  At
+last, all being in some manner armed and mounted, they were gotten
+into a semblance of order, and their instruction and weeding out
+began.  At first, I say, I laughed much at one man's hopeless
+perplexity in handling together sword and reins, or at another, being
+undersized and of even less strength than skill, to see him strive in
+vain to control a fat and lusty charger, fresh from the plough, and
+grown wanton to feel so little weight upon his back and none at his
+tail.  But, as one after another these were discarded and went their
+ways, some in evident dudgeon and others in as plain relief of mind,
+and as the dwindling number grew even more martial in mount, bearing,
+and accoutrement, the sight did begin to make some corresponding
+emotion in my heart; and I almost found myself wishing that I had
+been born a man, the more that my dear father had that same morning
+lamented there was none of Drayton blood to lead the little band.  He
+had let drop, too, some words, as bitter as few, of my brother
+Philip, and had told me then, for the first time, how my mother's two
+children did come to bear one name.
+
+"Your mother bore her first child, little Phil," he said, "in the
+early days of the horse-breeding that has brought us so much wealth.
+And I loved the beasts, spending once my last guineas and the price
+of a farm besides to bring to my stud the Barbary sire you remember.
+So when I knew it was a man child I called him Philip, saying he
+should love horses as his father, and do great things for the breed,
+and his name be famous in England.  And as he grew 't was harder to
+get him inside a stable than to keep most lads without it.  To this
+day I know not if he would distinguish your ugly Meg from the noblest
+charger of His Highness of Orange.  When ten years were gone, and
+there was again hope for us, I said, if it prove a girl, we 'll e'en
+try the name on her.  And give it you I did, with a little tag or
+handle to mark you woman.  Poor child," he added kindly, yet
+sorrowfully, "'t is not thy fault thou hast the wrong sex, and, Gad
+'s my life! you have been a better son to me than Philip."
+
+"And I love horses, sir," I answered, "and, indeed, many other things
+that my Lady Mary will ever say are not women's matters."  Whereupon
+we laughed at Lady Mary a little, and the matter dropped, as he went
+to the muster.  But I knew he felt in great need of a son that day,
+or he had never come so near throwing reproach on me that he loved so
+well for a fault that at another time he would not have had me change
+for a man's best virtue.  Yet, as I gazed from the window at this
+threshing and winnowing of men, to make of them soldiers, the memory
+of that reproach rankled a little in me, and a small plot began to
+take form.
+
+At the time when I commenced housewife at home I had in a disused
+chamber above found a closet filled with clothes once worn by my
+half-brothers of the elder family that I had come into the world too
+late to know.  These were the only relics, I believe, of three good
+and honest gentlemen that, in the strange and ghostly manner of a
+child as I then was, I reverenced much, and even contrived to love a
+little; I had therefore rescued many of these garments from the moth,
+and, deciding in my mind by the varying fashions and much guess-work
+to which brother the different pieces had belonged, bestowed them in
+three ordered piles in a wide shelf of my great oak press.  "So
+these," I would say, as I brushed and folded them once a month, "were
+Henry's; these Maurice used to wear."  And I always held that the
+morion and the back- and breast-pieces, which were all the armor
+found with the clothes, had belonged to Rupert.  For they were
+wondrous small for a man, and I knew he had been the least of them
+all in stature, and had scarce attained his full growth when he fell
+at Salisbury.
+
+Now, in my excitement with the martial sounds without, and a good
+part, I doubt not, in mischief that meant going no further than
+gently avenging his slight of my sex upon my father, I suddenly
+thought of this wardrobe so little proper to a young maid's chamber;
+and at once began with trembling hands to choose from my store such
+garments as I thought would best become the son my father wished me,
+giving, I doubt not, an undue value to color and to that size which
+nearest approached my own, and little to coherence of fashion.
+
+The troop were now reduced to eleven, for Christopher Kidd, making
+the twelfth, and having leave of absence after his services to my
+father in riding to Exeter, was expected to return from his farm but
+for the afternoon's drill; lacking whom, the rest had been dismissed
+for dinner at noon, which was the hour when I began so unmaidenly to
+dress myself out in my dead brothers' clothes.  It was a business
+that occupied me longer than I had thought for, and when it came to
+the boots and the armor I wished I had Prue's nimble fingers to help
+me.  But she, I knew, though she would never have confessed so much,
+was somewhere watching for the return of Christopher.  At last,
+however, I made shift to fasten together about me the back- and
+breast-pieces; for the boots, I stuffed the toes of each with an
+handkerchief, and so made them sit passably well, the practising
+which device called to my mind how in the dark I had done the same
+for Ned to the filthy brogues he wore in leaving us.  So, being
+dressed at all points to my satisfaction, the next thing was to
+contrive reaching the stables unobserved.  For this my reasons were
+two: I knew the men would soon reassemble, and wished, in my folly,
+to take part in their evolutions in such manner that none could
+forbid without openly chiding me before the yokels; which I knew
+neither my father nor Emmet would do, whatever their censures might
+be in private.  But far stronger was the other reason for privacy.
+Being now ready, I began to feel shame of what I was doing, and,
+being too petulant and obstinate to give it up, I felt that a horse
+beneath me and the necessity of handling him in unwonted movements
+would do near as much to cover my shyness as the skirt I lacked.
+
+Whether this be clear to a masculine reader or no, confident I was of
+a lessened sense of bareness, and so of greater boldness in the
+saddle.  Hearing, then, the bugle blown without, and seeing the men
+canter up by ones and twos from the stable, the few old soldiers
+among them roundly cursing the laggards, I opened my chamber door,
+peeped up and down the gallery, and made a bold run for the head of
+the great stair.  That it was before I reached it my sword, catching
+between my legs, did fling me prone, I must ever thank Providence.
+Had it happened in my descent with the same force, I had broken my
+neck at the foot of the stair.  For, though I could handle the
+small-sword, and even the heavier weapon of a soldier, "passably well
+for a maid," as Mr. Royston did use to say in the days when he taught
+me something of fence, yet never before, even in our games, had I
+worn one hung from my side.  I picked myself up more shamefaced than
+hurt, and made my way sneakingly and gingerly, holding my sword in my
+left hand, down the stair and into the great hall, making for its
+further door which leads to the kitchens.  I was already half-way
+toward it, walking most cat-like in that shyness so little fitted to
+my garb and action, when I heard the heaving of a great sigh.
+Turning my head, I saw, at the further end of the hall, standing with
+his back to me, and gazing from a window, a man dressed in
+sad-colored clothes.  More quickly, I suppose, than the stranger
+could turn to observe me, I was through the door and in the flagged
+gallery that leads to the kitchens and pantries.  Cutting across this
+gallery is a shorter one leading to a side door of entrance to the
+house, and as I drew near this I heard voices at the outer door.  At
+once I knew the speakers for Prue and Christopher Kidd, and now more
+than ever did I feel that the salvation of my plan was to get me
+astride of a good horse; I would not, even to save changing my mind,
+a thing always hateful to me, be seen walking thus dressed.  So,
+coming silently to a stand in hope that they would move away, I was
+for some minutes an involuntary eavesdropper.  The stables were
+opposite this same door, with a paved yard between, and I could tell
+by the sound of hoof on stone that Mr. Kidd was mounted and on his
+way to the muster on the other side of the house.  But I believe that
+he had learned since his first return from Exeter that it was ill
+policy to hide fresh news, good or bad, from little Prudence.  Yet
+did he make some show of resistance.  The first words that I clearly
+heard were his:
+
+"But where is Sir Michael?  I have news."
+
+"News good or ill, Mr. Kidd?" says Prue.
+
+"That is for him to say," replied Kidd.  "Are they at the exercises,
+mistress?"
+
+"Nay, but Mr. Kidd--Christopher," said the little rogue, in tones
+most winning and persuasive, "will you not dismount and stay a while
+to pleasure me?  Shall I fetch you a horn of ale?"  Then there was
+silence for a little space, and I could fancy her little red and
+pouting mouth turned up to the man in such wise that it could scarce
+be three heart-beats ere his spurs would ring on the flags.  Nor was
+it.  And then she continued: "And the news, Mr. Kidd?  Perhaps it
+would not taint it if my lips should sip it first."  And so a pause,
+and a little soft sound of kissing, with a small scream of formal
+hypocrisy.
+
+Then Christopher: "Faith, mistress, a kiss from you would win all
+things from a man, even to his soul's health, let alone a trifle of
+news."
+
+"I gave you no kiss," says Prue, saucily enough; "you did but take
+it."
+
+"Then take my news," quoth Kidd, with a stride, I thought, towards
+his horse.  And then, I think, she did buy his news, and pay in
+advance.  For although I cannot say that this time I heard the ring
+of the coin, yet Christopher's next words showed him proceeding to
+delivery of the goods.  "You know, mistress, that Sir Michael would
+have me lead these men to the Prince when he shall call on them.  So
+I have been to the farm to settle things for a long absence.  I
+thought my nag here well recovered of his last week's ride to Exeter
+and beyond, but find there is little spirit left in him, and was
+ambling gently down the old road by the water-mill about an hour
+back, and cursing both luck and horse to be late for the work a-doing
+here, when there comes by a great coach, with much foul speech and
+cracking of whips.  And whose face dost think I saw looking from the
+window, all drawn and wan?"
+
+"Oh, I know not," said Prue, in anger of impatience; "tell me, and
+quickly."
+
+"Well, 't was Madam Royston," says Christopher.
+
+"Lady Mary!" says Prue, with a little gasp.  "What did she there?"
+
+"'T is the very thing I would know, dear lass," replied Kidd.  "The
+fellows round her were ill-looking, and she was about calling to me
+when she was dragged back within the coach."
+
+"Well, you are a man," cried Prue, raising her voice in excitement.
+"What did you do?"
+
+"Little to purpose, sweetheart," answered Kidd; and, though I was as
+eager now as little Prue to hear more, I could have laughed to note
+how the man took advantage of her emotion to edge in these lover's
+terms unchecked; "I spurred after them, but a fellow on a sorrel nag
+turned and drew a great pistol and let fly at me.  Do but see the
+hole his ball made in my coat."  And here I heard a very genuine cry
+of fear from Prudence.  And Kidd went on, with a slight note of
+exultation in his voice, the result, I do not doubt, of her
+perturbation.  "It did me no hurt, though it wanted but little, as
+you see, of sending me where I could never again see the prettiest
+maid in three counties.  Well, that shot angered me, and I made at
+him.  But he was the better mounted, and leapt his horse over the
+hedge, and so away over the fields, while I pounded heavily after on
+my tired beast.  When I gave over, the coach was far and my nag
+well-nigh foundered.  But one thing I learned of him."
+
+"Ay," cried Prue eagerly, "and that was----"
+
+"That he was no true man, but a devilish priest of Rome."
+
+"O Mr. Kidd," says Prue, "how you will ever be frighting a poor girl!
+How knew you that?"
+
+"As he leapt the hedge," said Kidd, "being a bad horseman, he was
+near losing his seat.  Arrived the other side, he saved himself by
+clutching at the sorrel's mane, and in that had almost lost both hat
+and his red wig but for clutching at those in turn.  But as the wig
+shifted I saw his own hair, dark and short, and a little round place
+atop, bald and shaven.  A priest he is, and Sir Michael loves not
+such cattle on his land.  So indeed, dear Mistress Prudence, I must
+find and tell him what is doing.  Will you not grant me but one more?
+My news was worth it."
+
+Whatever it were he asked, I do suppose he shortly obtained it, for
+very soon I heard upon the stones the hoofs of his departing horse.
+Hoping that Prudence would follow him round the back of the house to
+see him join the little troop at exercise, I thought this was the
+moment for pressing on to the stables.  So, wisely tucking my sword
+again under my arm, I made a run for it, which took me round the
+corner and fairly into the arms of Prudence, whom I clutched firm and
+close in my own to save us both a fall.  At first her fright to be so
+suddenly seized in the arms, as she thought, of some ruffling gallant
+was luckily too great to let a sound escape her; and when I loosed my
+hold and clapped my hand upon her mouth, it began slowly to dawn upon
+the terror-struck eyes raised to mine in mute appeal that 't was none
+but I; whereupon, being released, she fell to laughing most
+consumedly, pointing at me the while a most derisive finger, till I
+could not but think all was not well with my unaccustomed attire, and
+shrank together and cringed from her in fashion most unmanlike.
+
+And, when she could for laughing, "Oh, dear Mistress Phil!" she
+cried, "whatever your plan in this pretty masquerade, none will take
+you for a man if you do stand so."
+
+Which did but add anger to my desire of carrying through my plan; so
+that, drawing my body most martially erect, and seizing her by the
+shoulder with my left hand, I raised the other as if to cuff her, and
+threatened as much if she did not hold her peace and immediately lend
+me her aid.  And this did mightily sober the girl, who, seeing me so
+terrible, ran out at my bidding to the stable, returning quickly with
+the news that there was not a man about the place, all being gone to
+see the drilling.  Very bravely I then swaggered across the yard and
+in among the horses that were left.  And there Prudence followed,
+panting with excitement and, as soon appeared, not without admiration
+of my assumption of manhood.
+
+"Oh, but indeed I ask your pardon, dear Mistress Phil," she cried,
+"for so laughing at the figure you made.  If you but carry it thus
+none who does not know you for Mistress Philippa Drayton will know
+you are not a man.  Do but let me set your beautiful hair more in
+fashion of the great wigs Mr. Kidd tells me are worn by the
+gentlemen, even on horseback and in armor."  And with a great coarse
+stable comb she pulled and twisted till she had my hair, which for
+the first time I was glad grew not so long as thick, to hang evenly
+round the shoulders behind, and over them in front in two heavy
+curling masses.
+
+"And now for a horse," I said, when this was done.  It took no long
+time to see that my choice lay between Meg, that I have already told
+of, and Roan Charley, a gelding of no great size but great beauty of
+proportion.  He was grandson of that Barbary sire my father had
+purchased so dear to enrich his stock.  Roan Charley had to the full
+the spirit and much of the fleetness of the Drayton barb, with more
+bone and greater power in the hinder part; whence it came, I suppose,
+that he was the best leaper I ever sat, while his grandsire would
+not, or could not, clear so much as a fallen tree-trunk.  He was
+generally accounted difficult and contrary in handling, but he and I
+were seldom long in coming at an understanding.
+
+Now for the work I had been watching all morning from my window I had
+certainly preferred Old Meg, as we had come to call the mare, more
+from her sure and trusty manners than her years.  But, for the odd
+and elfish look of her, my vanity bade me pass her by and clap my
+father's best saddle on Charley.  At first he gave me some trouble in
+this, thinking, said Prue, some strange gallant was about stealing
+him.  When he fidgeted a little with his heels Prue screamed, and
+would not come near to help.  The saddle was heavy and the sword
+mightily in my way, and each time I would have flung the first on
+Roan Charley's back, round would go his hindquarters, and, as I
+followed, the sword would again come between my legs and stop me,
+while he eyed me with teeth gleaming and ears laid back.  At last I
+was fain to set down the saddle and caress him with voice and hand,
+making love to him till he knew me again, and, indeed, well-nigh said
+as much.  After that, saddling and bridling were soon done, and
+Charley led into the yard, where, Prue being with much difficulty and
+in terror of her life persuaded to take him by the head, I was soon
+upon his back.
+
+Now here, as once or twice before, I must tell of things that I did
+not know till after they were done.  For even though it seem somewhat
+to break the thread of narrative to leave me running Roan Charley in
+the park to use him to my handling and my knees to my father's
+saddle, while I tell of events, some far, and others close at hand
+but beyond my knowledge, yet I hold it ever more easy for the reader
+to take his history, public or private, in order of occurrence, and
+so to hold in his hand all the threads that must knot together at
+that point for whose sake the story is told.  For in life all is so
+large and complicate as to seem, in the little eye of man, confused
+and purposeless; and great part, I think, of our joy and interest in
+living it is found in the unexpected nature of its events.  But in
+those pictures of life furnished us by drama, history, painting, or
+romance our pleasure is altogether of another kind.  Here the
+artificer, choosing out of the multitudinous mesh threads such only
+as lead to his particular nodule of the mighty tangle, concerns
+himself and us with the convergence and final meeting of these; so
+that, if he but tell and we read aright, we see step by step the
+working of his little providence.  And here our pleasure is not in
+astonishment, but in truth and sequence reasonably set forth.  "This
+thing is coming," we say; or "That could have fallen no otherwise";
+and we read on, and sometimes, perhaps, perceive some glimmer of the
+order lying in the greater skein.  But all this Mr. Telgrove would
+call plagiarizing; and it comes, indeed, in the first instance, from
+his head.  If he read it ever, he will confess me a better listener
+than he is wont to think.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+Captain Royston's troop was of that portion of the army which, after
+the pomp of entry into Exeter, had been quartered at Honiton.  There,
+waiting at an equal distance from his own home and the city of
+Exeter, and unable to get so much as an hour's leave of absence, he
+fretted not a little at his situation, seeing that the further
+advance might be undertaken at any moment, and he be carried on the
+martial tide past both those havens his soul was longing after (but
+it was one in especial, if what he now saith must be believed).  Upon
+the afternoon of that same Sunday whereon Dr. Burnet preached in the
+cathedral Captain Royston was surprised by a summons to report
+himself without delay before His Highness at headquarters.  The order
+was brought by M. de Rondiniacque, a young Huguenot gentleman who had
+been transferred from a lieutenancy in Ginkel's Regiment to the
+personal staff of the Prince, on account not only of the charm of his
+manners and the quickness of his parts, but also, it seems, for the
+esteem in which his family was held by the veteran Count Schomberg,
+who, with hundreds of other French gentlemen of high birth and the
+proscribed religion, had left his country and attached himself to His
+Highness of Orange.  M. de Rondiniacque and Captain Royston had long
+been fast friends, and both were glad of the ride together, and of
+such conversation as could be had in fifteen miles of wet and mud,
+travelled with the hard riding M. de Rondiniacque's orders enjoined.
+Arrived at the Deanery about seven o'clock of the evening, they were
+summoned at once to His Highness's presence, where they found beside
+the Prince none but Mr. William Bentinck.
+
+In regard to the conversation that here took place, I am the better
+able to give some account of it that I have two narrations to draw
+upon--Captain Royston's, namely, and M. de Rondiniacque's.
+
+As they entered the room, His Highness, seated at the table, was
+uttering the last words of a conversation, apparently of some
+earnestness, with Mr. Bentinck, of which, however, the only words
+that reached their ears were these: "No, William, no!  Where I must
+trust so much I will trust all.  The lad is true, and my interests
+are his."
+
+These words, spoken in the French language, which the Prince used
+always with greater fluency and a nearer approach to exactness than
+the English, showed to Captain Royston with some clearness not only
+that the talk had been of him, but also that Mr. Bentinck's words,
+which he had not heard, had been in the nature of a warning.  Knowing
+well that this faithful friend and servant of His Highness had never
+looked on him with the same favor shown him by the Prince, Captain
+Royston was as little surprised by the slight he guessed as troubled
+by the antipathy he knew.  And he, being too proud of nature to seek
+its reason, I was moved one day many months after, and in happier
+times, to enquire it myself of Mr. Bentinck, who very freely and
+kindly told me that they had been in Holland no little troubled with
+an inroad of gallows-birds and broken men seeking asylum under the
+cloak of persecution suffered for opinions political or religious.
+Hearing some talk of a man slain in anger, he had rashly (as he said
+to me he now perceived) classed Mr. Royston with these, and had on
+two occasions declared himself opposed to his advancement; all which,
+I can well see, had in it the makings of a very pretty quarrel but
+for the haughty indifference of Captain Royston, leading him, as it
+would often do, to contemn and eschew explanation in his own behalf.
+
+The Prince now turned sharply to Captain Royston, and at once
+informed him that he was chosen for a service of great secrecy.  "And
+I believe, sir," said His Highness, "that I have chosen well.  For I
+know you, Captain Royston, to be a brave man, a bold horseman, and
+acquainted with this countryside, and believe you a gentleman of
+honor."
+
+His Highness here pausing as one that asks a question, Captain
+Royston said very simply that the last head of His Highness's opinion
+was as true as the two former, as he would know if he saw fit to use
+him in a matter of delicacy.
+
+On which the Prince continued: "I do not doubt, Captain Royston, that
+something at least of the difficulty of my position in this disturbed
+country has been long clear to you.  Victory in a pitched field over
+a proud and unconquered people, to whom I come as a friend invited,
+will hurt my cause no less than defeat.  It is not every man that
+will act as this old Sir Michael Drayton, who, his mind once
+determined, is eager to take risk among the first."  And here,
+perceiving the pleasure in Captain Royston's countenance to hear his
+old friend thus singled out for praise, His Highness enquired did he
+know that gentleman, and, being answered eagerly that he did, cast
+upon Mr. Bentinck a little glance of triumph, as a man looks who
+says, "I told you so."  Then, "You have friends of the best,
+Captain," he continued.  "And as it is not given to all to act with
+the courage of your friend, while there is scarce one but wishes me
+success in some measure, 't is a plain duty laid upon me to use all
+means to draw them to me, and so secure a peaceful issue.  I have
+this night received a letter from one high in King James's favor,
+ennobled by his master, and holding in his army high rank, while he
+also exercises through his wife much influence upon our sister, the
+Princess Anne; and so, indirectly, upon her uncles, my Lords
+Clarendon and Rochester, her cousin-german, Viscount
+Cornbury--and--and--is it possible," he added, with an odd smile,
+"that I forget her husband, Prince George of Denmark?  Now, in this
+letter," said His Highness, tapping upon the table with a paper he
+held folded in his hand, "in which there is much of his attachment to
+the Protestant religion, but more between the lines, as I read it, of
+the high price he would have for a firm continuance in that faith,
+this noble officer proposes coming to terms with us.  We shall
+doubtless have him sooner or later, but sooner is my purpose, for the
+sake of his following.  He has left the royal army, now stationed at
+Salisbury, and while his escort in two divisions, each of which
+supposes my Lord C---- to be with the other, is on the way to the
+capital, he himself with one companion has by this," said the Prince,
+glancing at the clock, "with forced riding, reached the town of
+Sherborne, where, under the style of 'Captain Jennings,' he will lie
+this night at 'The King's Head.'  How far, Captain Royston, is this
+town of Sherborne from our present position?"
+
+For a little time Captain Royston pondered, and then replied that the
+distance was something over fifty miles.
+
+"And how long," asked His Highness, "would it take you to ride to
+Sherborne by night, Captain Royston?"
+
+"The roads are very bad, and heavy with the rain, Your Highness,"
+said Captain Royston; "but with a fresh horse from here, a remount
+from the stables of my troop at Honiton, and a third that I shall
+doubtless find at my own house of Royston, I will do it in ten hours.
+If the clouds should break, the moon might help me to better it by an
+hour."
+
+"And how far is this house of yours, Captain?" asked the Prince.
+
+"Royston Chase and the hamlet of Royston, Your Highness," he
+answered, "lie midway between Chard and Crewkerne: as the crow flies,
+some three and thirty miles from Exeter, and half as much, or
+thereabout, from Sherborne."
+
+"Is it at present inhabited?" says His Highness.
+
+"By my mother and a few old servants," said Royston.
+
+"Is the lady of your mind in politics?" continued His Highness; and
+being answered that she was, he then asked Captain Royston to do him
+the honor to be his host on the following day.  "I shall go to Chard
+with Count Schomberg and a troop of cavalry," he said, "to inspect
+the outposts that lie there, and ostensibly to take notice of the
+country for purpose of strategy.  About two hours after noon we shall
+arrive and ask hospitality of madam your mother--it may be for the
+night.  Meantime you, Captain Royston, will have conducted Colonel my
+Lord C----, with all secrecy and discretion, and by hidden paths and
+byways when possible, to your house, where we can privily accomplish
+that personal meeting he so much desires, and contrive, I doubt not,
+to fix the price of his treachery.  Mr. Bentinck, sir, considers that
+I err to trust you so far with my secret purposes.  But I intend
+employing an English gentleman in a service as much to the advantage
+of his country as of myself, and I would not have him think it is my
+habit to deal with traitors.  While, like yourself, Captain, I vastly
+prefer the open field to the dark ways of intrigue, yet, in this
+case, though I am, as the world knows, no Jesuit, I hold the great
+end in view to justify the means we are to employ.  And, when all is
+said, the private motives of his lordship are no more concern of ours
+than--than--" he said, pausing with a smile, "than his Protestantism.
+He is a good soldier, and, if I am any judge, bids fair to be a great
+one; so I would have him an instrument on the right side."
+
+His Highness then gave to Captain Royston a pass under his own seal,
+very comprehensive in its terms, laying also before him a like paper
+sent by Lord C----, bearing the signature, "James R."  M. de
+Rondiniacque has since told me of the lofty manner in which dear Ned
+would have declined this last.  But His Highness insisted with some
+sharpness, saying: "You will take no escort, Captain, and these
+scruples are petty.  And," he added more kindly, "let us hope that
+its use, if needed, will prove, after all, in the interest of His
+Majesty, my uncle.  It shall not be our fault, sir, if it do not."
+
+Now since the attempt of one Gerrard and others upon the life of the
+Prince, Mr. Bentinck had endeavored with a subtlety of precaution
+truly wonderful to protect his friend and master from such vile and
+hidden enemies.  For, however strongly the instigator might be
+suspected, the instigation was never proved, and the instruments had
+control of agencies to the full as cunning and secret as any that Mr.
+Bentinck, with all his servants and correspondents, could bring to
+bear.  Before Captain Royston, therefore, had gotten himself to
+horse, this gentleman took occasion to draw him apart, and, laying
+aside for the moment his wonted ungraciousness of demeanor, warned
+him privately and kindly that, many bad men being about, and the
+neighborhood of so large a force offering much opportunity of
+disguise and concealment to the evilly disposed, it was before all to
+be desired that no word of His Highness's purposed visit to Royston
+Chase should go abroad.  Captain Royston very civilly thanked him,
+saying that he was of a like opinion; that not even to that
+distinguished gentleman to whom his mission was would he impart the
+name of his destination; but only to madam his mother, should he have
+the fortune to speak with her that night while changing his horse,
+would he tell so much as should ensure His Highness a fitting
+reception.
+
+I am not to give a particular narrative of that tedious, rapid, and
+cautious ride, for the most part in the dark, from Exeter to
+Sherborne, but only to touch upon such incidents therein as may serve
+to throw a little light upon the events that ensued,--events of which
+the result came so near the tragical that even now a shuddering will
+accompany their memory.
+
+At the door of the Deanery a fresh and powerful horse awaited him.
+He was as far as Honiton accompanied upon his road by M. de
+Rondiniacque, who was entrusted with an order to the colonel of the
+Swedish Cavalry.  As they rode from the Close, his companion pointed
+out to Captain Royston a fellow that stood at the corner with his
+back to the wall.
+
+"'T is the same we saw at the ale-house, half-way from Honiton," said
+M. de Rondiniacque.  He then turned his horse and enquired of the
+sentry that paced the Close a little higher up, did he know that
+short, stout, and red-haired fellow, or anything of his business; to
+which the soldier answered that he was something in the way of a
+sutler, or perhaps a dealer on commission in supplies, to the various
+messes.  And, while M. de Rondiniacque was thus out of ear-shot
+conferring with the musketeer, the man at the corner betrayed to the
+eyes of Captain Royston some perturbation of countenance.  As the
+friends continued their road to the left from the mouth of the Close,
+Captain Royston, turning in the saddle, perceived this loiterer, whom
+he suspected for a spy, to be already making off swiftly in a
+contrary direction.
+
+The tedium of the first ten miles was well beguiled by the gaiety of
+M. de Rondiniacque, and marked by no incident but the sudden passing
+at full speed of a fine horse mounted by a bold but, as appeared in
+the brief glance, an ill-seated and inexperienced horseman.  A sudden
+gleam of the moon shining upon this figure as it disappeared round a
+corner of the road a little in advance of the two officers, M. de
+Rondiniacque observed that he believed 't was the same fellow with
+the red head they had already twice that evening encountered.  A
+little later Captain Royston took note that, whoever the reckless
+rider was, he had either checked his pace or much increased the
+distance between them, since the sound of his flight was no longer
+heard.  And so for the time the matter passed out of their heads.
+
+The last five miles of the road to Honiton, being in fair condition,
+were accomplished at a good pace, checked only by an accident of a
+very trifling sort.  Captain Royston, ever a man of great knowledge
+and consideration in horseflesh, his beast having stumbled and partly
+fallen among some loose stones in a dark part of the way, dismounted
+to examine what injury the animal had taken.  Waiting beside him, M.
+de Rondiniacque continued, in tones audible enough, their
+conversation, which had reference to the Prince's intended visit to
+Royston, the words he used chancing to indicate both time and place.
+Before remounting, Captain Royston observed that the disposition of
+the stones of considerable size which had caused the mishap appeared
+rather of design than accident, and as he bade his friend hold his
+peace the ears of both could clearly distinguish a rustling among the
+bushes that here divided the sunken road from the adjoining fields.
+
+I have been thus particular over the early portion of Captain
+Royston's midnight ride because it afterwards appeared they had been
+spied upon to some purpose.
+
+Arrived at Honiton, and learning that the badness of the road that
+leads through the hamlet of Royston was through the long wetness of
+the weather grown extreme, he resolved upon taking another, with the
+chance of a remount at the house of a gentleman well known to him,
+who lived at a point fitly dividing the remnant of his journey.  So
+he sat him down while his best charger was a-saddling to write a
+brief letter to my Lady Mary, in which he did but cautiously inform
+her that his "honored master" would visit her on the morrow with a
+good company in attendance, and signed himself her "obedient E.R."
+This letter entrusted for conveyance to Royston Chase by the first
+light to a trooper of great fidelity, Captain Royston set out on his
+way to Sherborne by a road somewhat longer, indeed, than he had
+purposed using, but promising greater expedition and security at this
+hour and season.  Reaching "The King's Head" at Sherborne about six
+of the morning (it being that same Monday upon which the exercising
+of Sir Michael's little squadron of horse did begin), he was at once
+introduced to "Captain Jennings" in his chamber, who, having dressed
+and eaten, was soon mounted, so that, riding with the light, and
+freshly horsed, but with some expense of time for caution and the
+using of byways, they were safely housed at Royston Manor an hour
+before noon.  Nor is it wonderful that poor Ned, having ridden at
+least eighty miles upon five horses, with no sleep in thirty hours,
+and scarce a mouthful of food for fourteen, after noting with regret
+that there was not one among the servants whose face he knew, did
+fall asleep upon his bed in all his travel-fouled clothes.  Awaking,
+like a true soldier, an hour before His Highness and the escort
+should arrive, and asking of the servants why he had not seen his
+mother, he received from a very civil fellow, who seemed above the
+rest, a letter written by my Lady Mary in characters much shaken with
+some emotion, wherein it was set forth that, rather than compromise
+her loyalty in receiving His Highness, she had left the house free to
+her son, but herself, with the two old servants that were left of
+those he knew, had fled to the King's camp at Salisbury.  Although
+vastly put about by this ill news, and, as he thought, great
+discourtesy of his mother, he put the best face upon the matter, that
+he might in no manner seem to belittle her in her dependents' eyes,
+and set about preparation of hospitality.  Lady Mary was ever a
+notable housekeeper, and it was no long matter to load tables and
+dress beds, the less that it seemed much had been already begun
+before her unkind departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+With all this we have yet come no further than the noontime of the
+Monday; but I have yet one more thread to gather up before I come
+again to my proper part in this tale.
+
+That stranger, the sight of whose back so frighted me, foolishly clad
+in boy's garments, that I dared not risk encounter with the gaze of
+his eyes, was, though, alas! I knew it not, my brother Philip.  When
+I did pass through the great hall on my way to the stables, he had
+just come to an end of some talk with Simon Emmet, who was then gone
+to fetch Sir Michael.
+
+From his errand Simon hoped little good, fearing of the ills that
+might arise from Philip's return at this conjuncture, most of all the
+perturbation of spirit into which it was like to cast his master.  So
+much, indeed, he said, with such plainness as his old and unbroken
+affection for my brother would allow.  There is no little reason to
+suppose that, even more than the lad's father, Simon Emmet had been
+grieved by Philip's adoption of his mother's religion.  For Philip,
+upon his arrival and encounter with the old man, was no sooner
+recognized than he was asked if it were indeed true that he was
+become a priest: and when Simon was assured that so it was, he
+counselled a speedy departure, since no good would come, Sir Michael
+being minded as he was, of their meeting.  Being told, with that
+gentle severity which did use to sit very nobly upon my brother, that
+he must inform his master with no more ado, he yet in going must turn
+at the door to deliver a parting bolt through the man he loved at the
+creed he abhorred.
+
+"Now, I bethink me, Master Philip," says Simon, "there is, when all
+is said, some good come of your heresy."  And when Philip said gently
+that he hoped indeed it was so, but saw not how he meant it, Simon
+gave answer that, old man and sick though he was, Sir Michael upon
+that dire news had gotten a mind to live, and had lived ever since,
+in the firm intent that, as long as he might prevent, a Papist should
+never rule at Drayton.
+
+"But, Simon," says Philip, with a sadness political rather than
+religious, "there was surely a time when my dear father had preferred
+a Papist in his house to a Dutch Calvinist on the throne."
+
+"Ay, Master Phil," says Simon, with an old man's chuckle of much
+cunning, "but that was before the throne had tried a Papist," and so
+left him.
+
+And I do suppose it was while I listened unseen to little Prue's
+willing news from her lover on the flags of the stable-yard that my
+two nearest kin were threshing out, in the great hall behind me, a
+question that can never be settled.  There was no quarrel between
+them, but little that was common to their two minds.  And that day
+the little seemed altogether naught.  Yet in temper the two men were
+as like as unlike in thought.
+
+Now Philip's change of faith had but strengthened, and in a manner
+embittered, the old Cavalier devotion to the house of Stuart.  Being
+commissioned by that great religious society of which he was a
+member, and whose power is as far-reaching as its means are often
+hidden and subtile, to travel from London through the southern and
+western parts of England, exhorting, persuading, and commanding the
+Catholic gentry to remain constant in the royal cause, he had, at the
+end of two months so spent, at last arrived among us.  He now told
+his father that he held it within the spirit of his commission, if
+not of its letter, to use upon him, did he waver in that political
+faith of which his life hitherto was so noble an exhibition, the same
+arguments and modes of appeal he was daily employing upon those of
+the true faith.
+
+"You lack, however, in dealing with me, my son, one weapon--and that
+your strongest," said his father.
+
+"And that, sir?" said Philip.
+
+"The appeal to religious authority, my boy.  And yet I scarce see by
+what means you do bring it in use; for I hear that His Holiness is
+ever at war of one kind or another with King Lewis, and favors rather
+the cause of that alliance of the Empire with the Protestant Princes,
+of which His young Highness of Orange is the soul and spirit.  I
+warrant, lad," said the old man, with some grimness of humor, "you
+find the Pope but an unhandy weapon in your schemes and plots."
+
+"I obey orders, sir, but do not deal in plots," the son replied, with
+a pride that matched the father's.
+
+"Art not a Jesuit?" asked Sir Michael.
+
+And Philip answering, proudly and yet with much humility, that he
+was, Sir Michael would have known of him what he did when the bidding
+of the Society of Jesus ran counter to His Holiness's policy, or
+enjoined action inconvenient with the honor of a gentleman.  But
+Philip, avoiding the former question, was yet stung into reply on the
+second, saying boldly that the spiritual descendants of Loyola were
+much belied, and had no traffic in the plotting of underhand schemes.
+
+To this his father, with much warmth, but with a greater kindness
+than had yet appeared in his address, replied: "Truly, I think they
+do not--through such as thou, my son.  Believe your old father, lad;
+your superiors are men of a boundless statecraft and a subtile, and
+well know their tools.  Who that has knowledge uses an axe to do the
+office of a file?  But files they have, and augers even down to the
+finest gimlet; and these also work among us."
+
+"Be that as it may, sir," answered Philip, "my mission is honest and
+open.  I come to conjure you to hold faith with the cause in which
+you have so nobly spent your blood, your sons, your land, and your
+gold."
+
+"There is nothing left me but my daughter and the ragged edge of
+life, Philip," said the old man, with a great sadness.  "And these,
+too, would I spend, as I thought, God knows, to spend all that is
+gone,--for the good, I mean, of England.  But not as you would lay
+them out, Philip; not on James, his harlots, priests, and bastards.
+The King is the slave of priests as his brother was of women; and,
+Gad 's my life! the late King was more English in 's tastes.  Women
+may harm the king, but your priest in power is death to the kingdom.
+I have learned one thing, son Philip, in my nine and seventy years:
+that a man's king is much, but his country more.  But it is enough.
+Let us leave the matter, or, God forgive me, I shall end by lauding
+the man I have most hated--the one Englishman since I drew breath
+that was feared and honored by Pope, Emperor, and Kings.  And since?
+We have been laughed to scorn of the Spaniard, spat upon by the
+Hollander, and paid--God's blood! ay, paid by a filthy Frenchman!"
+
+"You have called a man traitor for less words than these, sir," said
+his son, mightily amazed.
+
+"Traitor!" quoth Sir Michael, with a great bitterness.  "We are all
+traitors now.  It is the curse of God upon a wicked and adulterous
+generation.  There is no man among us but some will say of him,
+'There goeth a traitor,' whether to his king, his country, or his
+God."
+
+Then Philip: "If I must choose, it shall be to all before my God."
+
+"Ay," said Sir Michael; "but in my plain English way of thought, Sir
+Priest, no man betrays his country but is traitor to his God."
+
+And so they made an end, and Philip mounted his horse and rode away.
+And all that day I knew not that my brother had stood in reach of my
+arms.  These things and the little more I have here to tell of Philip
+I learned after from his own lips.  Riding sad and thoughtful from
+the house he did meet, at the turn of the avenue where it opens upon
+the road, a short, fat man, with red hair that matched ill with his
+dark and oily skin.  His horse, though good, seemed but now painfully
+to recover from hard running.  The fellow's countenance being not
+unknown to him, Philip was the less surprised to be addressed by name
+as brother, and asked had he forgotten the speaker.  And when he was
+at length remembered for one Francis, that was in the time of
+Philip's novitiate a lay brother in no good odor of repute, he told
+with some boastfulness how he had received priest's orders and the
+conduct of a great mission, concerning which he was loftily
+mysterious, saying only it was a great work for the subduing the
+heathen; to compel a blind and unquestioning assistance in which he
+had powers granted him, he said, over any member of the Society he
+should encounter.  At present, he added, he was to be known and
+addressed only as Mr. James Marston of the city of Oxford.  He then
+commanded Philip's attendance upon him, and, on his demurring, showed
+him such writings as convinced my dear brother, rightly or wrongly,
+that he had no choice but to obey.  Which he did, riding with him
+sadly enough, and wondering, as he has told me, whether he were not
+soon about to give the lie to that proud speech wherein he told his
+father that he, no more than the Society of Jesus, did deal in plots.
+I will here say that grave doubt has since been cast upon the
+authenticity of the alleged commission of Brother Francis.  Philip
+has ever held that he was deceived by the man; that the papers were
+either forged, or used to ends far other than their purpose.
+
+Mr. William Bentinck, whose great knowledge of hidden affairs as well
+as his lack of bias in favor of that Society entitles his opinion to
+a greater value, thought it to be a case in which one had been
+employed that might, in event of failure, throw the fault upon a body
+of men as accustomed to be blamed as to do good.  However it may be,
+we shall never certainly know the truth of the matter, since the
+destruction of the papers and other accidents have put it quite
+beyond the power of any man to enquire further with hope of success.
+One thing at least is certain: that Philip was as ignorant as
+innocent of the purpose to which he was led.
+
+And so I find myself in the saddle, taming Roan Charley in the park,
+where I have, in a manner of speaking, patiently awaited my reader
+through the tedious course of two chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+With my horse reduced to some show of order, but yet champing
+fretfully at his bit and throwing back his head in such manner as but
+for my quick avoidance had endangered the soundness of my own, I
+cantered gaily to that part where the exercising was, with head erect
+and a firm hold upon the great war-saddle that seemed no longer too
+vast to grip between the knees.  There I perceived that Simon Emmet
+was at great pains to get the words of command and their significance
+not only into the heads of his troopers but also into that of
+Christopher Kidd, who there was sweating visibly in attempt at once
+to control a fresh horse he had gotten, and to repeat after Simon
+words of whose meaning he had less knowledge than the men that, for
+lack of a better, he was to command.  At once and without a word I
+fell into line, and, after a few mistakes, very successfully put
+myself and Roan Charley through the simple evolution in progress.  At
+first Simon did not mark me, being the more busied that the dulness
+of Kidd was much increased by his amazement at the sight of me.  But
+when at length Simon saw the direction of his awkward pupil's regard,
+he as quickly perceived his new recruit.
+
+Giving the command to halt in his great voice of an old sergeant of
+horse, he walked up to me, saying, with a rough petulance: "How now,
+young gentleman?  What have you to do among these?"  Then, at the
+laugh with which I answered him, he drew near and understood.  And
+mightily put about he was, and would have me at once return to the
+house.
+
+But, "Tush, Simon!" I said, smiling on him in the fashion I had used
+from a child when I would have my way rather than his, "do I not do
+it all fit and properly?  You are not to know who I am, but a young
+gentleman that would exercise with you."
+
+"You must leave the ranks," said Simon, gruff but wavering.
+
+"So I will indeed," I answered, "if Mr. Kidd will but take my place."
+
+And this Christopher, ever ready for Prue's sake to pleasure me, very
+readily did, without more said; whereupon I took his place, and,
+before Simon had well lowered his brows of amazement, I was giving
+out in the greatest voice I could compass all the words of command I
+had spent my morning in learning from my window.  The troop, falling
+in with the jest, acquitted themselves so well that Simon did not
+interfere; and I had halted them at length with intent to coax old
+Emmet to fetch my father, that he might see how good a man I was,
+when from round the corner where lay the front of the house there
+came a great and growing confusion of sound: the wheels of a coach,
+the hoofs of many horses, and a mixed murmur of voices.  And then the
+great voice of my father rang out, at the sound of which all was
+hushed; wheels stopped, horses stood, and men held their breath.
+Bidding Simon keep his men as they were, I cantered round the
+southeast corner of the house, and, checking my horse, stood for some
+minutes unmarked in the confusion, to observe a scene not a little
+curious.
+
+The coach was my Lady Mary's, easily recognized in our parts for the
+newness of its fashion.  By its side stood our friend and neighbor,
+Sir Giles Blundell, that instant dismounted, and opening the door
+that my lady might descend.  Behind him were two young gentlemen, one
+of whom held Sir Giles's horse by the bridle.  My lady, of a pallor
+very death-like, and stumbling as she stepped down from the coach so
+that she was like to have fallen but for the ready support of his
+hands, said a few words to Sir Giles, but all in a voice so low from
+weakness of fatigue and the faintness of terror as no word of it to
+reach my ears.  His answer, however, was given clearly enough.  And
+as he spoke my father, till now delayed in his descent of the steps
+by the lameness of his leg, drew near and stood beside my lady,
+leaning upon his stick.
+
+"Indeed, dear madam," said Sir Giles, "I will do no such thing.  I
+and my friends here are vastly pleased we were in the way to rescue
+you from such evil hands; 't was a small service we are proud to have
+rendered to so good a friend and neighbor.  But to ride further to
+Royston Chase on the mere chance of some danger to His Highness of
+Orange, that has an army to protect him, is but to mix ourselves with
+a game we are well resolved to watch at a safe distance."
+
+"Ah, Giles," says Sir Michael, who had known him from a boy, "your
+father had been of one part or the other.  What, in God's name, is
+coming to England, when Englishmen are found that cannot even take a
+side?"  Whereupon more words to little purpose ensued, Sir Giles and
+the two other gentlemen at length departing as they had come, after
+replying with much forbearance to some heated and scornful
+animadversions of my father upon the lukewarmness of their conduct.
+
+Gratitude for what these gentlemen had done in her behalf and the
+need of recovering her spirits from the great perturbation into which
+they had been thrown by the events of the morning kept my lady silent
+until their departure was accomplished, when she turned to Sir
+Michael with a great beseeching in her countenance, saying: "Surely
+you will help me, my old friend."  On which he gave her assurance he
+would do all he might, but told her he was yet ignorant what was her
+trouble and need.  And it is great wonder to me that all the time she
+was telling and he hearing her story neither did observe me sitting
+there on my horse, and but partly hidden from their eyes by the
+branches of a tree.  But her eagerness was well equalled by his
+interest; and there was a great bustling of our hostlers and her two
+servants about the coach.  For one of the horses had fallen when
+brought to a stand, and lay, it seemed, at the point of death, two
+more being in a very bad case.
+
+In brief, the tale she told him, of which I heard near every word,
+was this: that one had come at six o'clock of that morning with a
+letter from her son, announcing a visit, as she interpreted its
+terms, from His Highness of Orange; that by nine she was well
+advanced with her preparation for his fit reception, when all was
+thrown into confusion by the sudden arrival and enforced entry of a
+strange and ill-assorted body of men, acting, with a silent obedience
+truly wonderful to see in so unlikely a comradeship, under the orders
+of a little fat man with a dark face and red hair.  This fellow,
+after he had compelled her with the threat of death and a pistol at
+her head to write that letter to her son which I have already
+mentioned, did force her, with her maid and one man-servant, into the
+coach which the other was to drive, a ruffian of decent mien being
+seated beside him with a loaded pistol to quicken his obedience and
+despatch.  One other, in like manner persuasive, was in the coach,
+while Red-head and a fourth with a led horse rode beside.  This
+party, in the endeavor to reach Salisbury, but much delayed by the
+devices of my lady's coachman, after escaping the pursuit of Farmer
+Kidd, had fallen the more easily before the gallant assault of Sir
+Giles Blundell and his friends that they were weakened by the absence
+of their leader; he having, as I believe (though this came not in
+Lady Mary's narrative), lost his way in drawing off Christopher's
+attack, and, being minded from the first to return before the end to
+Royston Chase, and falling in with my brother Philip, was glad enough
+to enforce his attendance as a guide, if not also to vent an old
+spleen by making of him an unwilling accomplice in his wicked purpose.
+
+Of the three villains left with the coach, one was slain in the
+rescue and the other two escaped on their horses.
+
+My lady ended her tale by telling her fear that the life of His
+Highness was aimed at, and imploring Sir Michael with tears that he
+should at once send his men (for Simon had by this brought his troops
+in very fair order round into the drive) for the warning and defence
+of His Highness; adding most piteously that her fear was no less for
+the honor of her son and his father's house than for the life of the
+Prince.
+
+"Ay, madam," says my father; "but since there is none to lead them,
+and they are like a flock of sheep lacking a shepherd, they must wait
+the time of writing a letter."
+
+"Write!  write!" cried her ladyship, wringing her hands, "write!
+while even now it is perhaps too late!"
+
+"I would I had one left of them all," said Sir Michael, with a groan;
+"or anybody with a head-piece on a sound body.  You see what I am,
+and Simon is well-nigh a cripple these three years."
+
+And with that I cantered up to them; and, bringing suddenly my horse
+to a stand, and saluting very finely, _more militari_--"I will go,
+sir," I cried.
+
+"Who 's here?" cries my father, and "Mercy on us!" says my lady, like
+any milkmaid, in one breath with him.
+
+"Who but your son Philip?" I answered, laughing gaily, and, I think,
+blushing a little, as well indeed I might.  "And your son Philip is
+the best horseman in the country; your son Philip bestrides the best
+nag in three; and your son Philip knows the crow's-road to Royston,
+while it is of common knowledge that he has a very pretty head-piece
+on his shoulders."
+
+My father being past speaking for amazement, my lady breaks in with:
+"Thou 'rt a brave girl, but why this masquerade, dear child?"
+
+"To convince Sir Michael Drayton," I pertly replied, "that there is
+some use even in daughters, when they can hold a sword and sit in a
+war-saddle of Prince Rupert's time."
+
+Sir Michael here made to seize my bridle, but Roan Charley had caught
+excitement from my voice, and a little slacking of his rein with a
+pressure of the knee at once put him at the distance of three great
+bounds from any detaining hand.
+
+"Come back, Philippa!" cries my father.
+
+"Not so, dear sir," said I, turning in the saddle, "for I shall go,
+an you will allow it."
+
+"The roads and fields are not safe for thee, child," said he, "with
+so many bad men about, and an army close to hand, else were I willing
+enough."
+
+"Then let these men follow me," I cried.  "Simon will tell you, dear
+sir, that I can give and take the word of command.  Christopher has
+no wit to handle them.  Send the six best mounted, and let them come
+up with me if they can, and I will give Roan Charley to him that
+reaches Royston neck and neck with me."
+
+And if they answered me again I heard it not, for Charley was away,
+taking in his stride the fence of the paddock that lies behind the
+stable; and although that way did mean a leap-out at a point where
+the fence was high, with the ground falling sharply on the other
+side, we did the second jump as well as we had done the first, and so
+gained three hundred yards on the pursuing troop, whom I already
+heard pounding after me with many a hearty cry and much rattling of
+harness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Two years after it happened my husband and I did ride over the same
+course of my crow's flight from Drayton Manor to Royston Chase.  And
+it was matter of some surprise to me, and of more to Ned, ambling in
+cold blood over the fields and viewing the leaps that I and Roan
+Charley did that day take in company, that I had not only the courage
+for such feats but also the fortune to come through it all without
+misadventure.
+
+I must indeed suppose that I did myself choose my path and guide in
+it the gallant little horse; but, were I to trust merely to the
+memory of feeling, I should believe that I sat in the saddle like one
+in a dream, while Charley, with the inward knowledge of some homing
+pigeon, galloped straight for the place where lay all my hopes and
+fears.  'T was but twice that I had any sight of my escort--first,
+turning in my seat as Charley reached the level of the meadow-land
+below the hill that falls away from the home paddock, I beheld them,
+close massed in a body, rounding the bend of the fence away to the
+right above me, and just about commencing the descent; and once
+again, after the roan had leaped into, and well-nigh miraculously
+scrambled out of, an ugly and broken gully that lies near half-way
+between Royston and my father's house.  For as Charley heaved his
+body with a tearing, scratching, and clinging most wondrous cat-like
+upon the safe ground of the further bank, I looked back once more and
+spied them bearing off to the left for lower ground and easier
+passage; but by this they were a straggling rout covering much
+ground, so hardly already had the pace and distance with the
+differing weight of riders told upon the various mettle of the
+horses.  Indeed, the next two miles did tell not a little even upon
+Charley, being a rising stretch of ploughed land in condition very
+grievous for his smallness of hoof; but coming thereafter to grass,
+he was mightily refreshed, and cleared two fences and a little bank
+of earth with bushes atop in his old gay and light-hearted manner.
+
+And after this we were not long in coming to the road, which being in
+good condition for the season and weather that it was we made the
+remaining miles at a very pretty pace.
+
+Now the front of the house at Royston Chase stands but a little back
+from the road, behind great gates of wrought iron, hung upon mighty
+pillars of carved stone.  These stood wide as I galloped up, but the
+way was barred by two soldiers, of mien immovable as the brazen gates
+of Gaza.  By their black cloaks of fur I knew them to be of that
+Swedish Regiment of Horse in which Captain Royston held His
+Highness's commission.  They were, however, dismounted for sentry
+duty--an office for which I could but think them ill chosen when I
+perceived that not one word of the English language did they
+understand, and would neither let me pass through the archway into
+the inner court of the house, nor, when I had come to the purpose of
+moving further down the road and leaping both hedge and ditch into
+the orchard, would they let me depart.  For one of them did lay a
+great hand on Charley's bridle, saying something to his fellow in a
+manner easy of comprehension, though the words were to me without
+meaning.  And I truly believe that I was in that moment very near to
+discovery of my sex.  For answer to his jest I struck the fellow
+across the face with my loose gauntlet, at the same time with great
+quickness using both spur and rein, so that Roan Charley in a single
+movement reared himself almost upright and swerved aside.  This,
+coming right upon the blow he had received, caused the trooper to
+loose my rein; which before the other could seize we were away at the
+best pace we could make.
+
+Now, some three hundred yards down the road seemed the lowest part of
+the bank and hedge enclosing the little field that here divides the
+beautiful orchard of Royston Chase from the highroad.  But even at
+this point, I thought, the leap was hard for a horse that had already
+done so much; wherefore I had determined to pass on to that little
+cross lane that leads from the road to the gate at the lower end of
+the orchard.  But even as I was so resolving I heard behind me the
+cries and hoofs of mounted pursuers, and in front, coming from the
+very lane I had purposed using, a patrol of three men of this same
+Swedish regiment.  And so jump we must, or altogether fail, it
+seemed, in that for which we had ridden so far and so fast.  Charley,
+too, seemed to understand, and for a few strides we both steadied
+ourselves, taking deep breaths of air and watching the hedge for a
+thin spot.  And I have always thought 't was Charley that found it--a
+spot where the growth of bramble on the bank's top was so scarce as
+to let the narrow edge of the earth mound be clearly seen.  But
+whether the will were mine or his, the doing of the matter was
+Charley's alone, and very well, for a tired horse, was it done.
+Knowing he could not with sureness clear both ditch and bank in a
+single spring, and feeling that his mistress did leave the manner of
+this last and most difficult passage of his hard run wholly to his
+clever legs and wiser head, my little horse, as if he had been twice
+the age he was, most soberly took his leap from the roadside, and
+landed with his four hoofs bunched cat-like in a cluster on the
+summit of the bank in that place where I have said the growth of
+brush and bramble was thin.  Here, for the space of two heart-beats,
+he poised himself, in which time he judged so well both his own
+flagging powers and the wider and unexpected ditch on the further
+side, that he was able with a second leap to land us safely and
+gently beyond it on the rain-softened earth of the ploughed field.
+
+Now, even in the brief moment when Charley swayed on the top of the
+bank and gathered himself for that second spring, I had time (so
+swiftly works the mind in the tension of danger to be forestalled) to
+note two things: that my pursuers on their heavy chargers had balked
+the leap; and that in the orchard, across the little ploughed field
+and beyond the low fence, were many people, walking to and fro among
+the fruit trees; and I knew from their carriage, from the sheen of
+armor, and the gay colors of the various habits, that they were no
+common soldiers; and as Charley foundered wearily but with great
+courage through the heavy plough my heart was high with the thought
+that fortune had brought me the straight road to my end.  And then we
+reached the fence, which proved higher than I had thought; yet did my
+brave nag pass that too, very cleverly bursting with his knees the
+highest rail, which he was too tired to overtop, and though he took
+the grass among the trees beyond with a little stumble, it was his
+first and last mistake, from which quickly recovering, and, as it
+seemed, well aware that his work was done, he stood like an image of
+stone, with forelegs stretched in front and nose near down to his
+knees.
+
+And then I thought the whole world did heave and turn and swim before
+my eyes, and all that I saw through the mist of its convulsion was
+two long, shadowy arms reaching from opposite quarters for Roan
+Charley's bridle; all I thought, that little was the need to hold a
+horse that had turned to stone; all I heard, the sound of a voice far
+off, that said: "The Prince of Orange; there is a plot; look to his
+safety; search the house, the grounds, or they will slay him."  And
+then slowly the earth settled again to its place, the mist began to
+clear, and I knew the voice for my own.  And I saw, as one that wakes
+from a dream, that he who held my bridle on the near side was Captain
+Edward Royston, and straightway I was within a little of so
+addressing him, but bethought me in time, and, looking round, asked
+where was the master of the house.
+
+Upon which he replied: "I am Captain Royston; what is to do?"
+
+"Sir," I said, very solemnly (yet, for all the gravity of the case, I
+was at pains to keep back a smile when I so addressed him, and saw
+that he knew me not), "Sir, His Highness is in danger.  Madam your
+mother has been by force taken from home, but is now in safety; the
+servants that you find in your house are evil men, and of the plot."
+
+Then he that held my horse on the off side, whom I afterwards knew
+for that great person that for discretion I shall still call "Captain
+Jennings," took his hand from the bridle.
+
+"The lad speaks truth," he said; "a word with you, Captain."  With
+that he drew Ned aside, and while they spoke together ("Captain
+Jennings" telling, I think, how he feared unjust suspicion of his own
+connivance if aught befell His Highness) I marked that six Swedish
+troopers did approach, threading their way through the trees from the
+gate in the lane that I have above mentioned.  Also, between them and
+me, but nearer by no little distance to where I still sat upon
+Charley's back, I saw a man stand leaning against the wall of the
+granary that stands in the orchard, and thus hidden from the
+advancing soldiers that were still, as I supposed, in pursuit of poor
+me.  And this man, whether from description or from something high
+and noble in the aquiline countenance of him, I knew at once for
+William, Prince of Orange.  Now, even as I gazed in idleness of
+wonder on the man I held greatest in the world (for did not Edward
+Royston serve him with reverence and ardor?), I saw that a little
+door in the granary, on His Highness's left, was slowly, slowly
+moving back upon its hinges, and a moment later I had one glimpse of
+a fat face and a red head peering from the narrow slit of that
+opening.  I thought of Farmer Kidd's tale, and again of Madam
+Royston's, and straightway drew my sword and clapped heels to my
+horse.  Roan Charley, for all his fatigue, responded very gallantly,
+and in three of his long bounds we had been beside the Prince, but
+for a fellow, long, lean, and black-coated, that drew a pistol from
+under his breast, which he fired in my face in the same moment as he
+leapt at Charley's head, whereby he undid himself, for, as the horse
+reared in terror, I, in as much, struck spurs in his sides, and
+Charley leaping forward, we rode clean over our assailant, whom I
+struck at wildly with my sword as he fell.  Charley must have found
+foothold upon some part of his body, for I remember still with a
+thrill of sickness the softness under foot.
+
+Hereafter my recollection of the _mêlée_ that ensued has little
+clearness; all was noise and confusion, the band of conspirators
+having burst out from their hiding in the granary in desperate effort
+to achieve their wicked end even in that eleventh hour and very
+moment of discovery.  And even then they might have found success but
+for Roan Charley and his rider, which is to me ever a joy to
+remember; for, though I recall little and confusedly what befell
+around me, I know that after the fall beneath Charley's hoofs of that
+rascal (the same that Ned had supposed a very civil servant of his
+mother), we reached at once the door in the wall of the granary; but
+not in time to prevent the sortie of three men with sword and pistol
+in hand (the rest, I believe, came forth by a door on the other
+side).  With two of these His Highness was very speedily and coolly
+engaged, while the third was aiming a clean downward cut at his head
+with a great sword whose gleam seems yet burned in upon my eyes as I
+write and remember.  And then, in some manner, Charley and I were
+upon him, and my blade received the stroke meant for His Highness's
+unprotected head.  And after that I thought something did break (as
+indeed it did, being the blade of my brother Rupert's sword).  I
+heard the shouts and the running feet of friends closing round, and
+then all was darkness and nothing.
+
+The next I knew was a burning in mouth and throat, and awoke to find
+myself swallowing some liquid, very foul and ill-savored, held to my
+lips by a gentleman I did not know.  I afterwards learned the liquor
+was Dutch, and called _schnapps_, the man none other than the great
+Count Schomberg, late Marshal of France, and once high in favor of
+His Majesty King Lewis; but now chief in command under His Highness
+of Orange, having abandoned the highest of military honors and the
+favor of the greatest King upon earth for the cause of religion.
+
+So, opening my eyes and looking round, when I had done with coughing
+over that vile liquor, I saw not only that a numerous company stood
+around, but also that here and there upon the grass among the trees
+lay several men, in strange and twisted attitudes such as I had never
+before seen; and something told me that these were dead; and I knew
+that I was upon a little field of battle, and straightway was like
+again to have swooned, when one behind me said in the French language
+and kindly tones, but in manner of speech more guttural than men of
+that nation do mostly use: "Poor lad!  'T is like enough this is his
+first sight of blood."
+
+Which words, calling to my mind how I was habited, and the whole
+memory therewith of the part I played, did somehow stiffen my courage
+and arouse my spirit, so that I said, with what of hardihood I could
+bring into the words: "Indeed, I ask your pardon, gentlemen all.  'T
+was the fatigue, I do suppose, of riding fifteen miles at such a
+pace, and to the back of that my great fear for the life and welfare
+of His Highness of Orange.  I pray you, tell me," I continued,
+looking round among the company, "whether His Highness be unhurt?"
+
+And then one came from behind me, and spoke to me in that same voice
+that had but now pitied me in the French idiom for my first sight of
+blood-shedding.  And when I saw him I knew him for the great Prince I
+had ridden to defend.  This time, however, he spoke in English, using
+that language certainly with little ease and frequent errors, which
+yet I shall make no essay to reproduce in this my narrative, lest I
+should thereby bring something of ridicule into an address ever
+princely and dignified, and, on this occasion at least, full of grace
+and courtesy.  Much, I know, has been said and written of the
+harshness of his manner, the bitterness of his tongue, and even of a
+certain Dutch boorishness in behavior, of all which I saw nothing at
+our first meeting.
+
+Three months later, when our troubles were well past, Mr. William
+Bentinck did tell me one afternoon that we walked in St. James's
+Park, how to this great but somewhat phlegmatic nature the excitement
+of danger was a kind of stimulant necessary to the bringing forward
+the lighter and most pleasing qualities of his character; that he had
+never seen him gayer, more kindly, nor lighter of heart and
+countenance than in the press of a losing fight, himself dismounted
+and fighting hand to hand with an advancing enemy, merrily jesting
+the while his left hand wielded with deadly effect the sword that his
+right arm was too sore hurt to hold.  And I do suppose it was to this
+quality in him that I owed the sweet and noble charm of his first
+reception of me.
+
+"Young gentleman," said His Highness, stretching out to me his hand,
+"it seems that I owe my health and perhaps my life to your timely
+presence and your sword."  And I, here falling upon one knee to
+receive and kiss his hand, perceived that in my right I still held
+the hilt of Rupert's toledo, with the three inches of blade that
+remained to it.  "And I hope," continued His Highness, as I let it
+fall upon the grass, "that the sword has taken all the hurt to
+itself."
+
+"I thank Your Highness," I answered, as I rose, "I have taken indeed
+no hurt at all, and should ask your pardon for so unsoldierly
+swooning in your presence.  But indeed 't is the first time I have
+seen sword drawn in anger, and I had ridden near fifteen miles at
+extreme speed to warn Your Highness of the plot that was toward."
+
+"And from this good fellow I hear not only of that great and rapid
+riding, but that you come from my friend, Sir Michael Drayton," said
+the Prince, indicating with his glance Christopher Kidd, who stood
+by, loosing the girths of his steaming horse--the only one of my
+company that had yet overtaken his leader.  "Are you then Sir
+Michael's son?--or, perhaps, his grandson?"
+
+"Neither the one nor the other, sir," I said, glad that he did so
+form his question; "but I do use to live at Drayton Manor, and Sir
+Michael is my nearest of kin that lives."  And I was glad that
+Captain Royston was beyond ear-shot, being busy among the prisoners
+taken, whom very shortly he left in the hands of their guards, and
+approached the Prince, saluting as he came.
+
+"There are five slain upon the ground, Your Highness," he said, "and
+seven taken in the act, of whom six bore arms; one of these is even
+now, I suppose, at the point of death, and one other, I think, has
+made good his escape, he being the thirteenth, which makes, as far as
+we are informed, the full tale."
+
+"See that no more slip through your fingers, Captain Royston,"
+replied His Highness, with something of severity; adding more freely
+that he was indebted to them all for prompt and vigorous defence of
+his person; then, perceiving that Captain Royston lingered with
+further matter in his mind, he asked him what it was.
+
+"With Your Highness's permission I would speak briefly as Edward
+Royston of Royston, rather than as one holding Your Highness's
+commission," he said; and, the Prince nodding assent, he went on to
+express in words very simple and well chosen, the dismay he had felt,
+and the extreme regret and shame he had suffered, that so wicked an
+attempt on His Highness's life had been made on his land and under
+the very walls of his father's house.
+
+Now when the Prince had noted the honesty of his handsome and open
+countenance, and perceived the simple candor of his address, his
+heart--by no means the easiest, as I was soon to know, of such
+access--was a little touched; for, with much benignity, laying a hand
+on Ned's shoulder, he said very kindly that his satisfaction with the
+officer was only equalled by his obligation to the host; in proof
+whereof he then expressed his purpose to entrust to Captain Royston's
+keeping for the coming night the persons of himself and the seven
+prisoners.  His conference with "Captain Jennings" being but
+commenced, he purposed after dinner to continue in conversation with
+that gentleman until a conclusion should be reached; to send him on
+his way with two troopers as far as Sherborne that same evening; and
+to return himself to Exeter the following morning, going somewhat out
+of his way, did nothing intervene to forbid, in order to paying a
+visit to the venerable Sir Michael Drayton, to whom, said His
+Highness, he felt himself in much obligation.
+
+At this point he was interrupted by a very dreadful groan from the
+wounded prisoner, and--"I fear, Captain," he said, "there is one of
+our prisoners will soon be in stronger keeping than even your fine
+house and great loyalty can give him.  Let us see if anything may be
+done to lighten his pain."  Whereupon His Highness drew near the
+dying man, who had been moved a little apart from his fellows.
+
+Captain Royston and Mr. William Bentinck, who, with displeasure
+clearly marked upon his countenance, had followed the Prince's words
+to his host, joined him by the side of the dying man, of whom my
+view, as I stood modestly behind, was plainer than I could wish.
+Indeed it was a dreadful sight that I take no pleasure to recall.
+His Highness, bending down very tenderly, wiped the bloody foam from
+the tortured lips; the wandering eyes fixed themselves upon the face
+of the man they had watched to slay, and then: "The priest--the
+priest!" said the dying man.
+
+"Poor fool!" muttered Count Schomberg in French; "he fondly hopes a
+priest might yet bring him to heaven."
+
+"The priest--the priest!" repeated the sufferer, but more faintly.
+
+"A priest may at least smooth his passage from earth," said the
+Prince, very pitifully, when one stepped out from among the
+prisoners, saying: "I am a priest.  If he needs the comfort of the
+Church----"
+
+But the dying man interrupted his words.  With a last effort he
+raised himself a little, and said in a stronger voice, but broken
+with gasping sobs: "It was the priest--it was he that brought me
+here--brought me to this.  God's curse upon him!"  And so he died.
+
+But I marked that his eye had not fallen upon him that offered the
+comforts of religion.  This man was tall and dark, of a countenance
+marked by great nobility, and expressive of a great sorrow, of which
+I could not readily determine whether the cause were constant or
+occasional, so suitable did it appear to the lines of a face at once
+ascetic and severe.  There was that in his eyes, dark and deep set,
+moreover, that drew my gaze in a manner I could by no means account
+for--which is indeed little wonderful, seeing the man was my mother's
+son and my father's, and I knew it not.  To myself I had just said
+that the man was not wicked, and but suffered for his evil company,
+when the Prince addressed him in tones very different from those I
+had hitherto heard him use: "You keep ill company, Sir Priest," he
+said.
+
+There was a little pause ere the priest replied, while the two men
+gazed, each unyielding, in the other's eyes.  Then: "That I am not of
+the company you find me in," said the priest, "is less strange than
+to find a Prince of Your Highness's descent and marriage alliance
+consorting with rebels and traitors.  In good sooth, I took less
+pleasure in these misguided and hapless wretches," he went on,
+speaking with a scornful kind of pity, "than it appears Your Highness
+does make shift to find in his uncle's rebel subjects.  But I will
+tell Your Highness, more for the satisfaction of my carnal sense of
+honor than in hope or wish to obtain credence of him, that I had no
+part or lot in this attempt at wicked murder.  Your friends," he
+added, waving his hand in indication of the officers standing by,
+"will doubtless tell you that I neither struck blow nor carried
+weapon.  For myself I will add that I knew not the purpose of their
+gathering."
+
+"I do not believe you," said the Prince.
+
+"I do not expect belief," said the priest, unruffled in his calm.
+
+His Highness turned from him in a disgust I thought very
+discourteous, and at once directed Captain Royston to see them all
+under lock and key.  And so the prisoners were hurried off to the
+house, and I stood wondering had I ever before set eyes on this
+naughty priest, when the Prince approached me, saying, as if nothing
+had interrupted our conversation: "I am sorry you have broke your
+sword, my pretty lad."  And as he spoke there gathered around us some
+half-dozen of the officers and gentlemen that were there--Count
+Schomberg, to wit, and Mr. Bentinck, with him that we addressed as
+"Captain Jennings," and one that I was soon to know as M. de
+Rondiniacque, and some others.  "But that loss," His Highness
+continued, "is easier repaired than the cleaving asunder of my poor
+brain-pan had been, which was like enough to come about, gentlemen, I
+take it, but for the lad here and his horse and sword."
+
+"It is very true, Your Highness," said M. de Rondiniacque; then
+addressing me, he observed, courteously enough, but with something of
+raillery in his tone, that, if the guard I had used was not
+altogether of the schools, it had yet saved His Highness's life as
+surely as could the interference of a _maître d'escrime_.
+
+"You are a good Protestant, M. de Rondiniacque," said the Prince,
+"and therefore, I make sure, read your Bible well and often."  And at
+this the little company laughed as at an excellent jest.  "You will
+no doubt have observed in the course of that reading that the pebble
+and the sling of the son of Jesse were sufficient to the overthrow of
+a most mighty man of war, even as this youth's sword came between my
+person and death, while the _maître d'escrime_ was not in the way."
+
+His Highness here turned again to me, detaching at the same time his
+own sword from his side.  He then drew it from its sheath, and,
+laying that upon the grass, wiped the blade very carefully with his
+handkerchief.  And I do think the significance of that action would
+have made me well-nigh faint with sickness, with that poor fellow
+that had died in cursing some priest lying so near and so still, had
+not His Highness straightway handed me the hilt of the weapon that
+slew him.
+
+"I prithee, good lad, take this in place of that which is broken," he
+said.
+
+And then I forgot the dead man, and grew first hot and then cold for
+the great kindness shown to me.  I dropped upon my knee, and--"I
+humbly thank you, sire," I said, "for so great an honor."
+
+He reached out his hand to raise me.
+
+"Kneel not to me, boy," he said; "nor call me sire.  I am no king.
+But I hope you will keep the sword.  'T is a good blade."
+
+"'T is the same," said Mr. Bentinck, "that His Highness did use at
+the siege of Maestricht, the day he received the musket-ball in his
+arm."
+
+"You speak truth, friend William," replied the Prince.  "That was an
+unlucky siege.  I hope the sword will not bring you my ill-fortune,
+young gentleman; for I am at times an unlucky soldier.  But, indeed,
+it is Count Schomberg here must bear the blame of Maestricht."
+
+"Did he run, sir?" I asked with simple curiosity, as I gazed in
+wonder at the famous veteran.
+
+"Ay, that he did," said the Prince, with a smile of much amusement,
+and also with something, I thought, of bitterness in the little lines
+about his lips; "for he was on the other side and ran after me.  King
+Lewis has done me one good turn.  His breach of faith with the
+Huguenots has made us friends.  Is it not so, Count?"  With which
+words he stretched a hand to the late Marshal of France; and then,
+turning again to me, he raised and gave me the scabbard of the sword,
+saying as he did so: "If you ever need good office of me, lad, bring
+me that sword as pledge of the boon you would have, even as we read
+in the romances was the custom of the princes of olden time.  I have
+said it is a good blade, and I will buy it back with anything that
+lies in my power."
+
+"Your Highness makes too much of my poor service," I said, as I
+thrust the sword in its sheath.  "I did but what lay on me as a duty."
+
+"I could wish all men did so much," he answered.  "Will you have a
+commission in my army?"
+
+"Commission!" said Mr. William Bentinck, with a kind of grunting
+laughter.  "Commission!  Why, 't is only a boy!
+
+"I am no boy, sir," I replied.  "But, indeed I doubt I am not man
+enough."
+
+"Ah, well," said His Highness, "there is time enough.  Princes, my
+good lad, are of all men the most exacting.  Where we have
+encountered one act of good service we have ever an eye to receive
+more."
+
+But here an orderly officer approaching from the house cut short this
+interview, no little to my satisfaction, although standing apart I
+could not but hear his report, which he said he had been bidden by
+Captain Royston to deliver to His Highness.  It seems that, upon the
+noise of the fighting in the orchard coming to the ears of the
+troopers that were off duty and dining in the great kitchen of the
+house, they had turned out helter-skelter and run to our assistance,
+thus leaving for some minutes house and stable unprotected.  When all
+was over, and the men settled again to duty and leisure, it was found
+that one horse was gone from the stable, another man's cloak, and the
+helmet of a third; the conclusion being, in short, that the escaped
+conspirator had passed that way, and was the thief.  Which matters
+did afterwards prove not only true, but of much import to the
+fortunes of Drayton and Royston.
+
+And thereafter came Captain Royston himself from the house to bid His
+Highness and following to dinner.  To which His Highness bidding me
+with the rest, we left the orchard, and through the gardens drew near
+to the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+I was now soon to find that it may be easier to assume a part than to
+throw it off.  At His Highness's invitation I was no little dismayed,
+having at the moment but one desire--to get me home, I mean, without
+delay.  At thought of the feminine armor of a petticoat I was filled
+with a courage greater than any I had yet appeared to show.  So
+armed, I felt I could even, without overmuch blushing, confess the
+sex of Sir Michael Drayton's messenger.  But this greatness of heart
+did at once forsake me, falling away into my great boots, as it
+seemed, at first thought of standing up in them and their kindred
+garments to say, before all these soldiers, or any one of them, "I am
+a woman!"
+
+Seeking, then, for some means of evasion, I laid my hand, on our
+being come near to the house, upon the arm of M. de Rondiniacque,
+thinking his frank and laughing countenance to offer sure promise of
+a kindly nature.  On his then pausing to observe me, I did draw him a
+little to one side, asking if it were possible and convenient to him
+to make my excuse to His Highness, seeing I was much set on returning
+immediately home.
+
+He clapped a hand upon my shoulder, and looking down upon me very
+kindly, with yet a comical glitter of mirth in his eye,--"Why, my
+brave boy," said he, "I would very willingly do you a service,
+whether for your brave deed or your pretty manners.  But, if you will
+take an old soldier's counsel," and at this word he twirled his small
+and very black mustachios mighty fiercely, "you will not risk
+offending so great a man as William, Prince of Orange-Nassau, in so
+strongly rising a tide of your fortune.  _Mon Dieu!_" he cried,
+laughing and looking in my face too close and keenly for my comfort,
+"if the lad is not shy and timorous as any girl!"  And with that he
+thrust his arm through mine, and, "If you will ever bear that
+commission His Highness named," he said, "you must learn to sit at
+meat with soldiers without blushing.  Come, let us go in and contrive
+that we sit together.  I doubt not that and a bumper or two will give
+you courage!"
+
+After which I dared say no more, but, as he would have haled me by
+force into the dining-hall, I begged him stay a moment while I spoke
+with Christopher Kidd, to whom calling as he hung forlorn and
+hesitating on our rear, I begged him to ride out and pick up as many
+as might be of our straggling troop, and to send them one and all
+back to Drayton with news that all was well.  Some signs of mirth
+appearing upon Christopher's face, which in that predicament of mine
+I found very foolish and inconvenient, I continued in harder tones
+and with words of command in place of forms of request: "Though you
+are but a soldier of a day, Kidd, I believe you know very well under
+whose command Sir Michael Drayton's small body of horse left home.
+Find of them such as you may within the space of two hours, and see
+that they carry out my orders.  At the end of that time you will
+report here to the officer of the guard, and await my further
+pleasure to escort me on my return.  I dine with His Highness."
+
+Though little used to command, I was not unaccustomed to be obeyed,
+and Christopher, closing his mouth on his foolish grin with a jerk,
+saluted and marched off to the orchard and his horse with promptitude
+worthy of a veteran.
+
+"Well spoken, little soldier!" cried M. de Rondiniacque.  "These raw
+levies are the devil, and thrive on a diet of brimstone.  'T is true
+they need curses for the most part, but, _mort de ma vie!_ we have
+not all such eyes as you to flash lightning on our recruits."
+
+"He did begin his drill no earlier than this morning," said I, with
+assumption of much carelessness; for the anger that had, I believe,
+stayed Kidd from calling me madam, had left me so trembling that I
+feared M. de Rondiniacque holding me by the arm should perceive it.
+He but said, however, I should make an officer one day, whatever
+became of Kidd, and hurried me into the dining-hall.  As we entered,
+the Prince was about taking his seat, and in the slight bustle of the
+rest following his example, M. de Rondiniacque and I slipped into two
+vacant seats at the lower end of the table.
+
+On His Highness's right was seated "Captain Jennings," on his left
+Count Schomberg.  Captain Royston also and Mr. Bentinck were at that
+end of the table, while I found myself, to my great discomfort,
+surrounded by junior officers of various nations, and, for the most
+part, younger even than my friend, M. de Rondiniacque.  With at first
+great intent of courtesy, they hurried me from one embarrassment to
+another.  Now they would have me drink deep; then, by way, I do
+suppose, of enlivening my spirits, they plied me with polyglottic
+histories of amorous adventure, growing by steady degrees ever less
+pleasing; till at length, finding me grow shorter in reply and
+shrinking closer, as it were, into my shell, they abandoned the
+attempt to include me in their talk, and chattered among themselves
+as I wish, rather than believe, was not their custom.  Much, I thank
+Heaven, from the babel of the many tongues, I missed; yet did I
+perforce hear more than enough.
+
+After sitting no great while at meat, His Highness, to my great
+satisfaction, retired, requesting the attendance of "Captain
+Jennings" alone, and making Captain Royston, as their host, occupy at
+the head of the table the seat he was leaving.
+
+More than once before the Prince's withdrawing, I had found Ned's
+eyes fixed upon me, with the gaze of one that in vain pursues a
+memory intangible.  Now, although it had mightily pleased me to
+bewilder the man in baffling his pursuit had we been alone together,
+I yet, in that company I was in, found his enquiring regard not a
+little disconcerting; and, soon perceiving that his changed position
+at the table increased the frequency of the attack, I made shift to
+summon sufficient courage to ask his permission, on some plea of
+fatigue and indisposition, to retire.  Which request he very
+courteously granted, begging, however, that I would not leave Royston
+before he should find time and opportunity to speak with me.
+
+And so I found my way to the one chamber in the house that I knew;
+madam's withdrawing-room, to wit, which I had twice entered when Ned
+had taken me, a little maid, to see his mother; a large room, whose
+casement, broad, low, and heavily mullioned, looked out with a very
+noble aspect across copse and meadow, where the land fell away to the
+southward beyond the stream whose rocky channel had been one of the
+defences of the house in former days.  And, as I stood idly gazing
+from the window, and drumming upon the panes with idle fingers, and
+wondering when Farmer Kidd would return, I remembered how in the old
+days Ned had told me of some wondrous means of escape that there was
+from that old house, which he would one day, if I should grow wise
+enough, reveal to me.  And I wished that I had learned it then, that
+I might use it now, and so be quit at once of Prince, breeches, and a
+false position.
+
+The landscape fading into the early darkness of late autumn, I
+stretched myself, half sitting and half lying, on the settle near the
+fire that burned fitfully on the great hearth of the chamber; and
+here soon forgot the passing of time in a doze induced, as I suppose,
+by the warmth of the fire, and the fatigue of my ride and the
+subsequent excitements.  From this slumber I was aroused, how long
+after my falling into it I know not, by the entrance of a trooper,
+doing duty as servant, and bearing two heavy and branched silver
+candlesticks, filled with lighted candles.  I was yet rubbing my eyes
+to clear my head of sleep and dreams, and striving to sit upright,
+when I caught my right spur on my left boot, and straightway
+remembered who I was, and how little like it I appeared.  And then,
+close on the heels of the soldier with the candles, comes to me M. de
+Rondiniacque.
+
+"Aha, my toy soldier!" he cried, as his eye lighted on me, "so 't is
+here you have been hiding.  And sleeping, I see.  Well, you may sleep
+on, if you will, for His Highness bids me bring you his most urgent
+request that you will here stay the night, in order to accompany him
+in the morning on his intended visit to your kinsman, Sir
+Michael--something----"
+
+"Sir Michael Drayton," I replied.  "I do suppose, sir," I went on,
+"that the Prince's urgent request differs little from a command?"
+
+"Faith, you suppose well, young gentleman," said M. de Rondiniacque.
+"And therefore I made bold to send your man, when he returned from
+fulfilling your order, back to the place you named.  Captain Royston
+has already much ado to feed and bed us all."
+
+"And did Kidd obey your orders against mine?" I asked, rather that,
+saying something, I might cover my dismay than in any anxiety of
+discipline.
+
+"Having seen us together, I think he made little distinction, my
+little bashaw," said M. de Rondiniacque, laughing.  "I threatened
+him, moreover, with your displeasure, if he delayed.  And now I must
+to His Highness."
+
+And with that he left me, thinking very sadly I had enough of being a
+man.  Had there been a woman in the house, I had gone to her, and
+told her my story.  But to none of all these men did I dare to
+breathe my true name and state; unless, indeed, it had been to
+Captain Royston.  And I murmured over to myself that title, which did
+ring so strange, and yet so proudly, in my ear.  It went stiffly,
+too, upon the tongue that was once used to say: "Hither, Ned; not so,
+Ned; nay, Ned; but I _will_ have it so."  Well, Ned, I thought, was
+ever tender with me, and I might, indeed, at a pinch, make shift to
+tell him my name and troubles; but--and then in my mind there lifted
+up his head a little devil of mischief, and I vowed I would not so
+tell him till I should be enforced; but, having taken a vagary to be
+a man, I would hold fast to my purpose, that I might from behind this
+mask see more of the man and to what he was grown from the boy that
+had been my playmate and childhood's lover.  I was fain not a little,
+moreover, certainly, to discover with what complexion of memory he
+retained the thought of little Philippa Drayton.  And I thought it
+was mightily in favor of my plan that, although on that great night
+of his escape from Kirke's men, we had spoken together and our hands
+had met, yet since I was a little maid he had never looked upon my
+countenance.
+
+At last I heard his step in the gallery without, and, for all its
+weight and its jingle of sabre and spur, I had known that footfall
+among many, even had I not known him in the house.
+
+Captain Royston came into the chamber, followed by him that had but
+now fetched candles, but bearing this time an armful of wood and a
+blazing pine-knot.  To draw my old friend's gaze, I heaved a great
+sigh, and gazed sadly in the fire, and knew, though I scarce saw, his
+eyes to turn on me.  He crossed the room to the further corner, where
+I could well mark him without any show of particular regard, and
+threw wide a small door disclosing the foot of a narrow and winding
+stair.
+
+"Go up," said he to the soldier, "to the room above; kindle a good
+fire upon the hearth; light the candles, and when the fire is well
+burning, return hither and stand sentry over this door till His
+Highness come."
+
+And as the man ascended the stair, Captain Royston closed the door
+behind him, and turned to me, who kept my gaze fast on the fire.
+
+"'T was a heavy sigh you heaved as I entered, young friend," he said,
+in a most gentle voice.
+
+"Yes, faith," I answered, "it was heavy."  And again I sighed.
+
+He then asked me what it was did make me sad, and I replied I did not
+use to be from home, and was mighty lonesome.
+
+"Nay, lad," he cried cheerily, laying a hand of comfort on my
+shoulder, "'t is but till the morrow.  You have to-day borne yourself
+like a man; be not now homesick like a very maid.  There is company
+enough.  Why didst leave the table?"
+
+"I was near falling with fatigue, sir," I answered; "and--and--and,
+in truth, I liked not the talk at the table where I sat."
+
+"Poor lad!" said he, gently patting the shoulder where his hand did
+lie, and thereafter drawing the hand away; "poor lad!  Would you grow
+to be a man?  Harden your ears--your ears, mark me, not your heart."
+And I said nothing to him, but to myself that I feared both would
+need it ere long.
+
+And then there came to us M. de Rondiniacque in search of Captain
+Royston, crying jovially: "Aha! have I found you, truant Master Host?
+His Highness did but now ask for you, and wonders somewhat, I think,
+at your long absence."
+
+To which Royston replied: "I warrant His Highness knows that a host
+without hostess or servants is no little put to it to house, feed,
+and bed so many guests.  I will go to him, and make my excuse."  He
+then turned to me, saying: "Prithee, gentle friend, be of better
+comfort.  It is not to His Highness alone that your great service has
+been rendered, and I would not have you cheerless.  Godemar, hold the
+lad in talk a while.  All this is strange to him, and he is overborne
+with fatigue."  He then took some steps toward the door, but again
+turned to my side, and--"Speak your best English, Godemar," said he,
+"and your modest jests, if you have them.  None of your ribald
+tales,--'t is a home-bred youth."  Upon which, with a kindly nod to
+me, and a slap on the shoulder of a weight more suited to my garments
+than my sex, Captain Royston left the room.
+
+M. de Rondiniacque looked upon me with a merry twinkle in his eye.
+
+"_Ma foi!_" he said, "M. le Capitaine lays heavy commands upon me.
+Must I even do as he says?"
+
+"It were best," I answered, with some severity, and never turning my
+eyes from the fire.
+
+"I see not wherefore," said he; "I would gladly cheer you, lad, and
+he would take all the merriment from our jesting."
+
+"Indeed," I replied, "I had rather never laugh again than hear more
+such talk as did pass for wit around us at dinner."
+
+He flung himself with a movement of much petulance into a chair on
+the other side of the hearth, and--"My faith!" he cried, "'t is even
+as they did tell me: a sorry land and a sad!  A country, _mort de ma
+vie!_ where one must shift with beer for wine, mists for sunshine,
+and hags and hoydens for women."
+
+"Alack!" I cried, being vastly amused; "have the women also
+displeased your lordship?"
+
+"Gadso!" answered M. de Rondiniacque, "they have, and mightily.  _Mon
+Dieu!_ in all the days since we set foot ashore I have not seen one I
+would stand to observe a second time.  I begin to see it is easy to
+be a Puritan in such a land."
+
+And when I did not answer him, he peered curiously across the
+flickering twilight into my face.  Anon he rose and came to me, with
+one hand seizing me by the arm, and raising my chin, not over gently,
+with the other--"_Ma foi_" he said, laughing, "with laces and
+furbelows, and those great eyes, wouldst make a better thyself than
+any lass of them all."
+
+So I began to tremble for my secret, and saw no way out but in anger;
+knowing, indeed, so little of the ways of men, that I was ignorant of
+running a greater danger in that attempt to avoid the less.
+
+I straightway sprang to my feet, flinging off his hands, crying to
+him to let me be, or ill would follow, and laying hand upon and half
+drawing my sword.
+
+"What, pepper-box!" cried M. de Rondiniacque, "what, will you quarrel
+for nothing?  Nay," he went on, with a great laugh, "do but see it
+ruffle!  Come, boy, take your hand from your sword, or I will take
+the sword from you."
+
+By this, between his tone of contempt and my own fear that I made but
+a sorry figure, I was trembling with anger no longer simulated; when,
+on my making wholly to disengage my sword, the Frenchman did pounce
+upon me with the swiftness of a hawk, catching my wrists, one in each
+of his hands, in a grasp that seemed of iron.  I would have wrenched
+them free, but found each struggle to that end did bruise and pinch
+my poor flesh worse than the last.  Being very near the point of
+tears, while yet in my heart raging with anger, I called aloud on
+Captain Royston, who, to my good fortune, did enter the room even as
+I called.
+
+"Heyday!" he cried, "what 's the matter?  Do not hurt the boy,
+Godemar," he went on, when drawing near he saw how I struggled to
+free my hands.
+
+M. de Rondiniacque laughed again as he let me go.  "The little fool
+hurts himself with striving," he said.  "Had I not held him, he had
+run me through with the pretty sword the Prince did give him.  _Mon
+Dieu!_ he is anxious to flesh it."
+
+"How is this, Master----?" says Captain Royston, mighty sternly, till
+checked for lack of a name to give me,--"on my life, I know not how
+you are called."
+
+Now this was a question I had no wish to answer without some previous
+consideration; so, knowing I could scarce keep out of my voice the
+sound of tears, the pain of whose coming was now some minutes
+clutching at my throat, I resolved to use them as cover to my
+disregarding his enquiry.
+
+"He has hurt my hands," I said, with a little sob, rubbing my wrists
+the while in the manner of a spoiled and petulant child.
+
+"What, baby!" he cried; "I give you a friend to cheer you with his
+good heart and ready wit, and you must needs fall a-wrangling with
+him; and then, because he would curb your childish passion, must you
+weep like a very boy unbreeched?"
+
+"I do not weep," I said; yet could I not check the next sob and some
+few tears that fell for the pain I had had.
+
+"No more, lad, no more, for shame!" he answered.  "There was a bold
+spirit in you not many hours ago.  Be a man now, for the love of
+Heaven."
+
+"With all my heart I would," said I, "if I did know the way of it; to
+the end that I might make him smart," I added, wagging my head in the
+direction of M. de Rondiniacque.
+
+"Learn to take a jest as 't is meant," said Captain Royston, "and you
+may some day grow to it."
+
+"I am as God did make me," I replied pettishly.
+
+"It is rank heresy to cast the blame in that quarter," said M. de
+Rondiniacque.
+
+At which Captain Royston laughed a little, but gently bade him hold
+his peace, saying: "The boy is in my care, and we cannot make a man
+of him before the morrow."
+
+And now the entry of the Prince most happily put an end to the
+discussion of my shortcoming as a man.  His Highness was attended by
+"Captain Jennings," Count Schomberg, and Mr. Bentinck, with a few
+other gentlemen.  And as the doors were flung wide for them the
+trooper that had been about preparing the chamber above descended the
+little stair, closed the door behind him, and stood on guard
+immovable before it, with drawn sword.
+
+The Prince appeared in the best of humors; of which the reason was
+very soon made plain.
+
+"Captain Royston," said His Highness, coming over to the fire, "we
+are come to a happy end of our conferring, and 'Captain Jennings,'
+being pressed for time, must at once take himself again to the road.
+His escort is provided, and he would bid you farewell.  It should
+indeed be to us all a melancholy parting, for 't is little to be
+hoped any man here will again encounter _Captain Jennings_."
+
+When the laugh due to the jest of a prince had risen and died away,
+"Captain Jennings" held out his hand to his host, and said:
+"'Jennings' owes you much, Captain Royston, though you are like, as
+His Highness well says, never to meet him again, yet in your ear will
+I tell you that he has a kinsman that is his very double and his best
+friend.  I have reason for saying that this gentleman will in the
+happier days to come pass by no occasion of furthering the interest
+of so stanch a companion, and so generous a host, as Captain Edward
+Royston."
+
+To which courteous speech honest Ned replied with some words of his
+duty to His Highness of Orange; and I knew well by a certain
+stiffness of his manner, which was still clearly marked as he wished
+him a safe and pleasant journey, that the favor of "Captain Jennings"
+was not such as he wished to earn.
+
+That gentleman, after some other farewells of much grace and
+kindness, passed on to me where I stood apart, and with a very
+gracious smile on his noble countenance thanked me for the service I
+had done him.  On my asking what that might be, he was at some pains
+to explain, in a voice meant for me alone, that but for my timely
+warning and protection to His Highness, that plot might well have had
+a very different and terrible ending; in the blame of which fatal
+conclusion he himself, from the peculiarity of his position, would
+almost certainly have become implicated.  "I hope, therefore," he
+said, "that we shall meet again when I have thrown aside this _nom de
+guerre_ to which I have only a sort of left-handed right by marriage
+and necessity."  And then first I guessed who he was.  "But," he went
+on, "if I do seem to need a fresh introduction, young gentleman, when
+that day comes, I beg you will attribute my lack of memory to politic
+reasons."
+
+By which, thinking him little likely to encounter and less to
+recognize me, I was vastly amused.
+
+"I am ready to wager, my lord," I said, laughing a little, "that the
+fault will be neither yours nor the nation's, should you pass me by."
+
+He looked at me for a moment with a glance so keen that I found it
+hard to support; then, bidding me farewell, very shortly took leave
+of the Prince and departed on his journey to Salisbury.
+
+As the door closed upon him, His Highness crossed the chamber and
+tapped Captain Royston on the shoulder.
+
+"You act with little wisdom, Captain," he said, with a merry laugh,
+"in the moment when the Protestant religion has triumphed over all
+else, to receive with coldness an offer of favor from him that is one
+day to be the first soldier in Europe."
+
+"I trust, Your Highness," said Royston, with something of pride in
+his tone, "that I have not yet lost the favor of him that is."
+
+"I see we shall have a courtier in you yet, Captain," said His
+Highness.  "The day has been long, and I must needs ask my good host
+the way to my chamber.  Sleep is a fickle mistress to me, and she
+must be wooed in season, or she will have none of me."
+
+"Since the terrible danger Your Highness has this day escaped in my
+house but by the goodness of God and this young gentleman's courage,"
+said Captain Royston, "I am resolved to beg Your Highness's
+acceptance rather of its most secure than its most luxurious chamber.
+At the head of this stair," he went on, making the sentry stand aside
+as he threw open the door, "is a room neither very large nor finely
+furnished.  If Your Highness will, however, deign to make use of it,
+he will find the bed good and the chamber warm.  It has no other
+approach, and with Your Highness's consent I will myself watch here
+during the night, while Lieutenant de Rondiniacque takes my place as
+officer of the watch, which has been doubled, and commands every
+approach."
+
+"I thank you for your care of my safety, Captain Royston," said the
+Prince.  "If the bed be as good as the supper, we will ask none
+better between this and London.  But I believe you are over-cautious."
+
+On Captain Royston's explaining that the honor of his house was
+involved in His Highness's safety within it, all his dispositions
+were very kindly and freely accepted.  Not long after which His
+Highness, with some kind words to me on the service I had done him,
+and of his purposed visit on the morrow to Drayton, retired to the
+chamber already mentioned, being lighted by Captain Royston, and
+attended by Mr. Bentinck for some discussion of matters of state.
+
+Whereafter I very soon found myself again alone, the rest departing
+in charge of M. de Rondiniacque, commissioned by our host to show
+each gentleman where he should lie.  I say I was alone; for the
+sentry at the door of the stair to the Prince's chamber counted
+little as company, which I was fain to seek in the dancing of the
+flames upon the hearth and in my own thoughts.  These were not
+uneasy, for I knew that Ned must return as he had gone, and that a
+word to him would be my protection if aught inconvenient should
+arise; nor were they long, for he soon returned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The high back of the settle where I sat being between us, Captain
+Royston upon his return did not perceive me until, having dismissed
+the sentry and set his candlestick upon a table, he drew near the
+fire to warm himself; then, his eyes falling upon me--"Heyday, lad!"
+he cried, "I did think you abed and asleep by this.  I scarce know
+how I came to forget you.  Let me see--where should you lie to-night?
+The house is mighty full, and I would not put you with----"
+
+"Let me share your watch here an hour, Captain," I said.  "I am very
+wakeful, and it will be company for us both."
+
+"Will you do so?" he asked with some eagerness, and once more
+glancing at me with that same look, at once curious and shy, that I
+had before noted.  "Indeed I shall be glad of your company, were it
+only to help me keep open eyes."  And with that he flung himself
+wearily into a seat over against me, hitching round his belt so that
+his sword lay between the long legs that, to rest them the better, he
+stretched full before him.  "I was in the saddle all last night," he
+went on, "and indeed it seems a week since I was in a bed.  So here
+let us sit, you and I, with the fate of England in our hands,"--at
+which he pointed to the door of the Prince's stairway.  "Hast
+recovered of the spleen?"
+
+I answered him that I was recovered.
+
+"How came he to anger you?" he then asked me.
+
+"Why, sir," I replied, "he did give bad names to all things in
+England; and then he fell foul of the women--and--and I do not like
+him."
+
+"De Rondiniacque," said Captain Royston, "is a good comrade and a
+brave soldier; and, faith, I did think all women were fair to him.
+He will fall in love and again fall out thrice in a day.  But no
+woman is long fair in his eyes when his fortune has been ill.  There
+was a lass in Flanders--" and here he broke into a laugh, and I into
+a yawn of subterfuge, in hope to put him off his tale.  For I feared,
+unjustly enough, more talk of that kind that I had comprehended but
+sufficiently to dislike.  Whereat he asked if he wearied me, and I
+answered that he did not so, but that I would know if he were of a
+like complexion with M. de Rondiniacque in matters of women and love.
+
+"Nay, indeed, lad," he answered, laughing again; "De Rondiniacque and
+I are little akin in such matters.  I have, as he would say, the
+slower temper--perhaps the more constant."
+
+"Constant!" said I; and as I said the word I could feel the little
+tremor in my laughter which I hoped his ear would not detect.
+"Constant to what--to whom?  Ah, there is doubtless some lady that
+looks out over the endless canals and ugly windmills of flat Holland
+for your return, Captain Royston."
+
+"Nay, nay," he answered, "there is no broad Dutch face wet with tears
+of my causing."  And then the mirth died out of his voice, as with a
+very tender hesitancy he continued: "But there is, or there was, a
+little maid--a child--but, plague on me! what do I babble of?  And
+what does so young a lad as you know of these things?"
+
+"H'm-m-m!" said I, as one that could, if he would but speak, lay
+claim to knowledge enough and to spare.
+
+"What, what!" he cried, mocking me.  "Is your heart even as tender as
+your years?  Does the baby think he knows what love is?"
+
+"On my conscience, yes," I answered; "but I may know and never feel
+it, I do suppose."
+
+"What an outlandish boy it is!" said Ned, laughing; and, more
+gravely, "when you love, lad, and would have your lady look upon you,
+be as when you served us so well this day, and not the child that is
+disordered by the chance word of a jolly soldier.  I have heard tell
+that women do love one that is a man, be his vows, even as De
+Rondiniacque's, never so brittle."
+
+"Perhaps they do," I answered; and wondered, sickly a little in my
+heart, how it would fare with me if his were so.  "But," I continued,
+"if men's vows are so light, what of that little maid?"
+
+And my gallant Captain seemed to retire, as it were, again into his
+shell, saying he would speak of her no more, and that indeed he knew
+not wherefore he had called her to mind.  Whereto I said that maybe I
+could tell him.
+
+"'T is little likely," said he, smiling as one that suffers the
+gambols of a merry child, even to the peril of a wound but half
+healed.
+
+"But tell you I can," I persisted; "you spoke of her, not because she
+did come to your mind, but because she is never out of it.  Is it not
+so?"
+
+Again he looked at me with that glance of enquiry.
+
+"Indeed, I think it is so," he replied; "but how you should know it,
+Master----, by my life, here have I had all manner of converse with
+you, even to the telling things that have not passed my lips this
+three years, and yet I know not your name.  Prithee, tell it me."
+
+"My name is Drayton," I said.
+
+"Is it even so?" cried Ned.  "It is strange.  Where do you live?"
+
+"From here some five leagues on the great road, Salisbury way," I
+answered.
+
+"At Drayton Manor, is it?" he asked with great eagerness.
+
+"At Drayton Manor," I replied.
+
+"But old Sir Michael," says Ned, "had no son of your youth."
+
+"Nay," said I, "I am no son of Sir Michael.  But he is my nearest of
+kin, and in his house do I live this many a day."
+
+"Ah, so!  I have heard," said Royston musingly, "of other branches of
+the family.  But, if Drayton be your home, you can tell me of--of the
+child, your cousin; of Mistress Philippa Drayton, I mean, Sir
+Michael's daughter."
+
+"Aha! the little maid!  At last we come at his little maid!" I cried,
+clapping my hands together in a manner that suited but ill, as I
+suppose, with my boots and spurs.
+
+But he, like the man he was, being much occupied in attempt to
+conceal the secret he was about revealing, did not mark me, but
+sternly stiffened his face and made straight his back, and replied:
+"I said not it was she.  But I would have her news.  Is she well, and
+is she now at Drayton?"
+
+"Gad 's my life!" I answered, feeling very blusterous and naughty as
+I used my father's favorite oath, "it is so.  She is well, and she is
+at Drayton.  I would she were not.  She does keep her heart safe for
+me, the baggage!  Troth, I have little mind to her--a bouncing,
+overgrown country wench, of ill manners, loud tongue, and shrewish
+speech.  Pah!"  Whereat I twisted my mouth into a grimace very
+disgustful, and I saw the light of anger come into his eye.
+
+"You shall not so speak of that lady," he said, in a tone that was
+not loud, yet had in it that which made one part of me shake with
+fear, while the rest of the woman was singing a little inward song of
+thanksgiving.  Whereof it is like enough he saw in my face some sign,
+for he went on more gently to say he knew it was not so; that I but
+railed at her in mischief; that I mocked at him because, with
+something womanish that is in a half-grown boy, I had divined the
+secret of his love.  "My heart," he said, rising from his seat with
+eyes that looked afar, as if none was by him, "has never left her
+keeping since she did ride upon my shoulder, but her little hands
+ever hold me fast, even as they did use to cling and grip me by the
+hair."  With that he passed his hand over his head, as if he still
+did feel the clutching baby fingers.  Then he came back to me.  "You
+see, sir, I let you know at what it is you mock.  Yet if you own the
+words were but spoken in jest, I will pass the matter by."
+
+And then I knew that I had been playing with fire, and made all haste
+to quench it, owning with averted face that I had indeed but spoken
+out of mischief to anger him, and saying that the girl was well
+enough.  It was, I suppose, from pride that he took no note of this
+grudging opinion, yet it did not control his curiosity.
+
+"And does she keep me in mind?" he asked, as he sank again into his
+seat.
+
+"'T is like enough," I answered, as if I cared little for the matter.
+"I have heard her name you."
+
+"In what terms?" said he; "I pray you, tell me what she said."
+
+"Indeed, I do forget," I replied, mischief rising once more in my
+heart.  "And I will wager there have been times when you have forgot
+the minx as readily as I would, if you would but let me, Captain."
+
+"A fig for your wager!" said Royston lightly.  "Why, I have never,
+since I was out of England, entered a new town but I have bought some
+toy or jewel for her."  And I saw his hand steal to the breast of his
+coat, and, guessing that there was a pocket beneath, I began at once
+to be mighty curious to know what was in it, and to think my
+masquerade had lasted near long enough when it kept me from my rights.
+
+"Do you carry them?" I asked, striving to keep all eagerness out of
+my manner.
+
+"Nay, nay," he answered; and, had he been another man, I had thought
+his smile and the short and hesitating laugh that followed it
+well-nigh foolish: "Nay, 't is but a pair of the new kid-leather
+gloves that they do use in France."  And here he drew a small packet
+from the pocket I had divined, and added, with much tenderness: "They
+did make me think of her pretty hands, and I could no more put them
+away from me."
+
+And, as he regarded the packet and gently smoothed the wrapper, I
+snatched it from his hand, and--"Let me see," I said, and proceeded
+to unfold it.
+
+"Gently, gently!" cried Ned; "they must not be so handled."
+
+"Ay, they would fit me well," said I, measuring one against my left
+hand.  "And our hands are near of a size.  Will you give them to me
+in her stead, sir?"
+
+"That will I not, young Avarice," he answered, recovering the gloves
+with a snatch that took me by surprise.  "My lady's gloves, indeed!
+what next, monkey?  Do you think, because you have a small fist and
+handle a glove like a great girl, that you will get all you ask?"
+
+"Well," said I, pouting and growing reckless in my delight of the
+game I played, "well, I shall have them of her in the end."
+
+"No more, jackanapes," he answered angrily, and I scarce know how I
+should have fared had not the door at the foot of the Prince's stair
+at that moment opened to admit Mr. William Bentinck.
+
+"His Highness is retired, Captain Royston," he said.  "He renews his
+thanks to you."
+
+To which Captain Royston replied that he wished the fare deserved
+them better, and enquired whether Mr. Bentinck knew the way to his
+chamber.
+
+"I do," he replied.  "I wish you a good-night, Captain Royston.  It
+were well," he added, with a dark and significant glance, "that no
+further alarm befell--in your house, Captain."
+
+"I am so much of your mind, sir," said Royston, "that I have asked
+and obtained His Highness's consent here to watch the night through
+myself.  I wish you good rest."  Mr. Bentinck turned again as he
+reached the door, saying that His Highness had enquired of him where
+the prisoners had been lodged that were taken after the affair in the
+orchard.
+
+"They lie under lock and guard in the strong-room above," said
+Royston; "all but the priest, who is in the chamber that adjoins it
+on the left, for greater safety.  I did not think it well to leave
+his clever head to work among them."  And here M. de Rondiniacque,
+looking into the room as he went his rounds, very readily undertook,
+at Captain Royston's desire, to conduct Mr. Bentinck, that he might
+with his own eyes, as Captain Royston said, see how these prisoners
+were disposed.  They being departed on this business, Captain Royston
+stood gazing moodily into the fire.  It seemed he had quite forgotten
+me; and, since it did not fall with my wishes to be left out of his
+thoughts, I plucked him timidly by the sleeve, and asked if I had
+angered him with my freakishness.
+
+"No, lad, no," he answered, still gazing into the fire.  "I know not
+indeed why I told you as much, unless it be that the Drayton face of
+you did bring to mind old days, and made me think my thoughts aloud.
+I know my poor secret is safe with a Drayton."  And then he turned
+and looked hard in my face.
+
+And under his gaze I trembled, and had much ado not to throw my arms
+about his neck and cry "Ned" to him.  And yet I dared not, for shame
+of my clothes, and so, to change the color of his thought, I said:
+"That man does eye you with mistrust, Captain."
+
+"He is no friend to me," said Ned, "nor ever has been.  But His
+Highness has no more faithful servant and friend than William
+Bentinck.  He had of late warning from France that the Prince's life
+was sought after, and that a certain priest should lead the
+assassins.  To-day the attack is made, a priest is taken, and all in
+my house, and I one of the few that knew His Highness should come to
+this place.  I can scarce wonder if he look on me with suspicion, and
+would see himself how we guard the dogs above there in the
+strong-room."
+
+And then Mr. Bentinck and M. de Rondiniacque returned.  The first was
+pleased to approve all he had seen, but pointed out that the prison
+of the priest was the chamber to the right of the strong-room, and
+not on its left, as Captain Royston had said.  M. de Rondiniacque
+here explained that the prisoner had at his order been transferred
+from the room to the other, on the report of the sentry that two bars
+in the window of the priest's first lodging were rotten and might
+easily be burst.
+
+"It will serve as well, nay, better," said Captain Royston, still
+dreamily gazing into the fire.  And Mr. Bentinck, expressing himself
+satisfied that all was well, departed to his chamber in company of M.
+de Rondiniacque.
+
+Now as these matters had for me little of interest, and as my fatigue
+was great, I had been growing very weary and full of sleep; so it
+came that when these gentlemen left us I signified my pleasure
+thereat with a great yawn of weariness and a long sigh of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Poor lad!" cried Ned, with such tenderness as he was wont to use to
+the child that had so loved and hectored him, "poor lad, you are
+faint for sleep.  I will see where we may put you."
+
+"It is not sleep, Captain," I said, stifling a second yawn.  "But I
+take little interest in prisoners, and I am, oh! so thirsty."
+
+"'T is the long ride, and your dinner was naught," he answered.
+"Keep your eyes open, and watch a while here in my place, and I will
+bring you food and wine.  I pray you, do not close your eyes."
+
+And as he neared the door, I saw him start as hit by a thought
+forgotten, and--"The chamber on the right," he murmured.  "How came I
+to forget?  But he will never find the panel, even though he were a
+Jesuit."  And so, with yet another warning that I should watch well
+and not sleep, he went out into the gallery.  And I sat by the fire,
+wondering what those strange words should mean.  Open indeed I did
+keep my eyes, but I believe my mind was not very far from dreams at
+the moment when a thing happened so like to a trick of sleeping fancy
+that it awoke me quite.  I thought that I saw, in that dim light (for
+one great candlestick was above with His Highness of Orange, the
+other below in the hand of Captain Royston), a great piece of the
+stone wall that made the far side of the wide and lofty hearth slowly
+to draw back and recede from my eyes, as a door that is opened
+stealthily from behind.  I sat erect and rubbed my eyes, and still
+did it draw away from me, and made a noise of rusted grinding as it
+went.  And a nameless horror crept over my body till it reached and
+seemed to stiffen the roots of my hair.  I would have cried aloud as
+I sat and expected something to come whence the door of stone had
+gone; but before I could find voice there came from the gap in the
+wall the darkly clad figure of a man, who stepped from the hearth,
+and stood looking down upon me.  His face I could not clearly
+perceive, for the fire was behind him, but the sound of his voice I
+thought I had once already heard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"Hush!" he said gently, thinking me, I suppose, as indeed I was, at
+the point of calling aloud on the guard.  "I am unarmed, and would
+not hurt you if I could.  What is your name?"  And his voice, for all
+that it was young and sweet, sounded like my father's, for which
+there was reason enough, as I was soon to know.
+
+"My name is Drayton," I answered simply.
+
+"And the other?" he asked.
+
+"Phil--Philip," I answered; and then I leapt to my feet as one waking
+from a dream, saying, as I did so, "though, sooth, I know not why I
+tell you."  With my moving he so changed his position that the glow
+of the fire fell upon his face, and I knew him for the priest that
+had been taken in the orchard.
+
+"Nor I," he said sternly, "for it is false.  I am Philip Drayton."
+
+"What, what!" I cried, in much amazement.  "And is Sir Michael your
+father?"
+
+"Sir Michael is my father," he replied.
+
+"And mine also," said I, very joyfully, with yet no thought of the
+terrible meaning of his presence.  "I took but little from my name.
+Lay the falsehood on my clothes.  Brother Philip, I am Philippa."
+
+He seemed less pleased with the encounter than dismayed by my attire.
+
+"My sister!" he said; "my sister in this guise!"
+
+"Nay, trust me," I said merrily, "none knows me for a maid."
+
+And then he seemed to remember something, and, laying both hands on
+my shoulders, he held me off from him so that the light of the fire
+fell upon my face.
+
+"My little sister!" said he. "I saw you, then, in the orchard.  And
+was it you that saved the life of the Stadtholder of Holland?"
+
+"So they say," I replied, doubtfully, wondering at the joy I saw upon
+his countenance.
+
+"I am glad of it," he said, "right glad of it, indeed."  And with
+that he heaved a great sigh of relief.
+
+"Glad!" I cried.  "Glad, you say!  How can that be, when you yourself
+were one of those that would have slain him?"
+
+"With them indeed I was," he said; "but I had no part in the planning
+that foul plot, and took none in its attempted execution.  Had I even
+known the wickedness that was toward, I would not have obeyed what I
+deemed of all earthly commands the most terrible.  By the happiest
+stroke of chance they did move my lodging to the chamber where is the
+sliding panel that gives upon the stair by which I have now reached
+you.  Old Mr. Nathaniel Royston did show it me when I was but a
+little lad and you unborn.  But he brought me no further than this
+chamber.  I do remember," my brother continued, with a note in his
+voice that seemed to mark the man's sadness to recall a merry
+childhood, "I do remember that he said, with his kindly chuckle, he
+must not show the rest of the secret to one that like enough would
+some day prove a Jesuit in disguise.  Though he spoke in jest, he was
+a good prophet.  And now, child," he said, with rapid change to a
+manner more urgent, "you must show me what he would not."
+
+"If you mean the secret way from the house," said I, "I do not know
+it; nor I would not show it if I did.  I am here on guard duty till
+Captain Royston return."
+
+"Sister," said Philip, speaking with voice and words so solemn that
+heart and ear were enchained till he came to an end,--"Sister, King
+James and his cause are dear to me.  Holy Mother Church and her cause
+are yet more dear.  But dearest of all (God forgive me!), dearest of
+all to me now, little sister Phil, is our dear father's honor and the
+honor of his house.  It is no shame to him or to the Drayton name
+that I should work or fight for King James; none if I should spend my
+life to bring the dear land back to the true faith.  But what one of
+us will hold up his head again if the name must be made foul, and
+stink in the nostrils of men, for a base plot of treachery and
+assassination?  Therefore, child of my father, for the name's sake,
+let me go."
+
+With that he made to pass me and reach the door into the gallery, but
+I stepped between and took him by the arms.
+
+"Do not move," I said; "not one step, lest I call on the guard."  And
+he stood like a statue of stone, while for a few moments, stretched
+by the gravity and tension of my thought into the seeming of hours, I
+was silent, and then: "Philip," I said, "if you are innocent of this
+wicked thing, why are you in England?"  And in a few words he told me
+of the mission on which he was come.  Then said I: "Will you now give
+it up--this mission--and return at once into France, if I let you
+go?"  And, seeing that he shook his head, "Come," I said; "be quick.
+It is that or naught.  Swear it, and you may go for me.  The Captain
+will be upon us soon, and then it will be too late."
+
+"Yes," he answered.
+
+"It is an oath--a Drayton's oath?" I asked.  "It is," said Philip.
+
+"Then go, in God's name!" I cried.  "Though, faith, I know not the
+secret passage, and I do not see how otherwise you should pass all
+the guards."
+
+"I can but try," he answered; and again would have moved to the door,
+but in that moment I heard a footfall; and, being more sure from whom
+it came than whence, I bade Philip keep still, and ran as light as my
+heavy boots would allow to the door, drew it a little back, and
+peered into the passage.  Mightily eased in mind by what I saw, which
+was little enough, being but the back of the sentry disappearing
+round the corner of the gallery, I softly pushed-to the door,
+whispering ere I turned: "Quick! quick!  Go now.  'T is your one
+chance.  Thank God it was not Captain Royston; and the sentry is for
+the moment out of hearing."
+
+And uttering the last words I turned to find myself face to face with
+the man for whose absence I had just given thanks to God.  He was
+looking at me over the table where he had just set down his
+candlestick beside the meat and wine he had fetched for me.  And of
+all the terrible things of that night, none, I think, did send to my
+heart a pang so sharp as the sight of that flagon of wine and wooden
+platter of cold venison; verily, for a moment I felt, with his
+reproachful eye upon me, that I was indeed that base thing he could
+not choose but think me.
+
+"Thank Him not too soon, thou devil's whelp!" he said.
+
+Philip yet stood where I had left him.  To him I went quickly and
+whispered: "Go, while you may.  I will engage him.  He will not hurt
+me, for, if needs must, I will tell him who I am."  Then, going over
+to Captain Royston with strut and swagger much belying the trembling
+that was within me: "Sir," I said, laying hand to my sword, "you give
+me an ill name."
+
+"Less ill than your deeds," he answered with great bitterness.  "I
+went but to get you meat and drink, and, returning, thought of that
+secret way from the room above.  I stepped over the sleeping sentry,
+unbolted the door and closed it softly behind me, only to find the
+bird flown.  As I drew back the panel he had closed behind him and
+followed him down the stair, greatly fearing some mischance from his
+evasion, naught I imagined was so bad as the finding you together
+planning his escape.  Was it for this I did cherish you, little
+viper?"
+
+To all which, though his words did cut me to the heart, I but replied
+that I was no reptile, and that therefore he lied, hoping by such
+naughty words to provoke him to quarrel with me, while Philip was
+about escaping, purposing thereafter to tell him the truth, when that
+was accomplished for which I would not have him even in his own
+conscience held responsible.  Me they could not very heavily punish,
+since from His Highness of Orange I took no pay, nor had sworn to him
+any oath.  Nor was I altogether hopeless of persuading Ned to conceal
+his knowledge of what it would then be too late to prevent.
+
+"Let me pass, boy," he cried, "or I will whip you soundly with my
+belt."  But when he would have put me aside, as I stood between them,
+I held him fast to the utmost of my strength.  Finding I would still
+cling to him, he put his hand to the buckle of his belt.
+
+"Whip, then," I said, "for the man shall go free."  And, though my
+flesh did most prophetically shudder beneath the imminent stripes, I
+thought that here was no bad way of gaining time for Philip, when I
+should come to weep, in Philippa's proper person, for the pain of
+that whipping.  But he flung me off, muttering a plague on the
+Drayton countenance of me, and that the priest would make off if he
+did not seize him.
+
+"He shall!" I cried, half drawing my sword.  "What!  Art afraid to
+draw on a lesser than thy hulking self?"
+
+"False and ingrate though you are, I would not hurt you," he said;
+"and I will not call upon the guard; but I will have him again secure
+in his chamber, and so shield you, little devil, from all punishment
+but what I will myself administer when all is done."
+
+And as he advanced upon me and would have seized me, I lifted my
+cloak that was on the back of the settle and flung it over his head,
+where, for a brief space, despite his struggles, I held it.  And
+while his eyes were thus blinded for a moment, Philip, swift and
+silent, slipped past us and through the door of the stair to the
+Prince's chamber.  Royston, however, soon flung me off and tore the
+cloak from his head.  And I saw at length great anger in his face,
+and with a last essay at strategy did leap to the door that gives
+upon the gallery, as if indeed I defended Philip's retreat; and
+there, with drawn sword and taunting words, I defied him.  And then
+he came, and our swords met.  And finding, as well I had known I
+should find, that he was too strong for me, I was, after a pass or
+two, at the point of calling him by the old name and of telling mine,
+when he did something that had formed no part of the teaching he had
+given me with the foils, so that I found myself speedily at his
+mercy, and felt the sharp, cold prick of steel low down upon my neck.
+And then I thought my end was indeed come, and I tried to murmur:
+"Spare me, dear Ned," but could not.
+
+Now all these things--from Ned's return to my foolish fainting at the
+first blood--that have in the telling taken so long did happen so
+quickly that perhaps seconds rather than minutes were their proper
+measure.  And my enemy has since told me that what I have called my
+swooning seemed but the closing for a few moments of my eyes.  But,
+however that may be, I do think it endured sufficiently for his great
+concern.  For when I opened them I knew not at all where I should be
+until the white solicitude of his face bending close over brought me
+very soon to the consciousness of the strong and tender arms that
+held me.  So, seeing I was come to myself, he led me towards the
+hearth, and set me in a chair.  And then I began to feel a little
+smarting and a warmth of trickling blood.  Taking my handkerchief, I
+thrust it beneath waistcoat and shirt, and pressed it upon the spot
+that did so smart, whence withdrawing it and seeing the blood upon
+it, I shuddered.
+
+"Nay, nay," said Ned, while the lines of anxiety upon his face belied
+the little laugh he forced from his lips, "fret not for a little
+blood.  I thrust not hard.  Wherefore did you anger me, monkey?
+Come," he added, laying his hand to the breast of my shirt and
+fingering the buttons with that awkwardness that a man has ever for
+garments that are not his, "I will heal it."
+
+"No," I said, pulling away his hands, "you must not."
+
+"But I would see the hurt, lad," he said.  "I know not why, but I am
+sorry I have hurt you.  God knows, I have killed men and thought
+little of it, but this scratch to a child does mightily vex me."  And
+again he would have loosed the buttons.  "Come, open your shirt," he
+said.
+
+"I say I will not.  I am not the lad you think me, sir."
+
+But even then he did not understand, but took my two hands in one of
+his, so great and strong that mine might scarce writhe themselves
+about within it, while he set himself to do what I would not for all
+his asking.  And so it was that I came to the last line of my
+defences.  "Let be, dear Ned," I murmured, in that tone of pleading I
+had ever in the old days used when his will did offer to prove the
+stronger.  "Let be, dear; 't is--'t is thy little maid, Phil," I
+said, and dropped my eyes before him, and let my prisoned hands lie
+still.
+
+He stared upon me in an astonishment of wonder that discovered the
+white all round his eyes, and at first he would not believe.
+
+"Nay, nay," he said, "it is not so!"  And I lifted my eyes and so
+looked into his that he could no longer doubt.
+
+"Verily, Ned, it is I.  And I had told the sooner," I said, "but
+that--but that--" and, my words then failing, I again dropped my gaze
+before his.
+
+"Phil!" he cried.  "Is it even my little friend Phil?  'But,' you
+say--but what?"
+
+"But that I would not tell you--and could not--was ashamed, Ned, and
+did mightily desire to know had you forgot me."  And here, laying my
+folded handkerchief to my wound inside my shirt, and fastening all
+close above it, I did see his face so lose color at thought of the
+hurt he had given me, that I laid my hand upon his, saying: "Be not
+vexed, sweet Ned, 't is but a scratch."
+
+"I am right glad of it, Phil," he answered, "if it be so.  But indeed
+you should not run about in this guise.  How came you to be so
+dressed?"
+
+"That story must wait," I replied merrily.  "But 't is the first
+time, Ned, and shall be the last."
+
+"And if you must needs be a man," he went on, "but for a day, you
+should cleave like a man to one side, and not be so greedy of strife
+as to draw sword on both.  There will be trouble over this priest
+when he is taken, as he will be, by the guard without."
+
+"Listen, Ned," said I.  "That priest is my brother."
+
+"What!" he cried.  "Surely it is not Philip!"
+
+"Philip it is," said I, "and no other, though I did not know him
+until he told me even now in this room.  And also he did tell me,
+Ned, that he had no part in the assault upon His Highness."
+
+"So much," said Ned, "is true.  I marked him."
+
+"He told me, moreover," I continued, "that the business that brought
+him to England was fair and honest, though it was for King James.
+There was another priest did force or trick him into companying with
+the murderers.  Ned, dear Ned, I did mean letting him go for our
+father's sake and our name."  And here I found no power, and perhaps
+little will, to restrain the catch of a sob in my throat.  "Men must
+not say 'spy,' 'plotmonger,' 'assassin,' when they say Drayton, Ned.
+You do forgive me?"
+
+"Right gladly," he answered, and seemed to muse for a little.  And
+then, "'T is well," he said, "that I did not wake the sentry that lay
+sleeping at his door."
+
+"Why did you not?" I asked.
+
+"Because," he replied, "though I thought all was safe, I would not
+have it known that I had left my post."  With that he went softly to
+the door of the gallery and listened.  "It is strange," he said, when
+he was come again to my side, "that I hear no sound of his capture.
+Yet he could not pass the sentry at the stair-head."
+
+"He did not go that way," said I.
+
+"But it was to defend that door," he retorted, "that you drew on me."
+
+"Ay, dear Ned," I answered, "but that was to deceive you."
+
+"But why, cunning one," he said, "did you not at once tell me all?"
+
+"I feared you would be mighty stern," I answered; "also, I was loath
+to tell you who I was.  Moreover, Ned, I did think it best for you to
+have neither knowledge nor share in his escape, if I might procure it
+without your aid.  I was afraid for you."
+
+"And yet not afraid of your life?" he asked.
+
+"Nay, that too.  But I thought," I replied ruefully, "that I had
+enough cunning of fence to keep you off for a while; for I did often
+use to hold my own with the foils against you.  In extremity I was to
+cry: ''T is I, Ned! kill me not!'  But you were so fierce and
+strong."  Whereat he laughed a little, sheathing his own sword and
+handing me mine.
+
+"These are not foils," he said.  "But, if your brother went not by
+the gallery, where then?  Is he returned to the chamber above?"  And
+he pointed to the gaping mouth of the secret stair.
+
+And right upon his words Philip entered the chamber from the Prince's
+stairway, and, closing the door behind him: "I am here, Royston," he
+said.
+
+Royston heard, and, turning, grasped him by the hand.  "Ah! so it was
+there you did hide, old friend," he said.  "Faith, they did spoil a
+good man of his hands when they made you priest."  And then I saw
+Ned's eyes travel to the door just closed; and he dropped Philip's
+hand, and his face blanched.  "In the name of God!" he cried, "what
+did you up there?  Say that you were not in the Prince's chamber!"
+And for the first time and the last I saw Edward Royston shaken by a
+passion of fear.
+
+"It is from his chamber that I come," said Philip, speaking and
+bearing himself with great serenity.
+
+Poor Ned caught his breath with a sound sharp and hissing.  "Then, as
+there is a God above us," he whispered, "if any harm has happened, I
+will slay you and the maid your sister, though I do love her, only
+before I kill myself."
+
+"Go," said the priest, pointing to the stair, "look on your Prince as
+he sleeps."
+
+"Yes, I will go," replied Ned, flushing a little with hope born of
+Philip's calm.  "But I will not leave you free."
+
+I caught his great horseman's pistol from the table where Ned had
+laid it after escorting His Highness to his chamber.
+
+"Go up, Ned," said I; and to Philip, as I pointed to a chair, "Sit
+there, brother."  And to Ned again: "If he but rise from his chair
+before you return, I will shoot him, as surely as you shall kill me
+after him.  Is it primed?" I asked, for the pistol was of the pattern
+then coming into use, discharged by means of a falling flint.  And
+he, taking it from my hand, and raising the dog, and peering into the
+pan for the priming, I added: "But he will not move, for he has done
+no wrong."
+
+He put the weapon in my hand.  "You will not fail me?" he asked, with
+a countenance very awful to see.  For answer I looked once in his
+face.  He turned and went swiftly through the little door and up the
+stair.
+
+Philip, as I think, knew it was no vain threat that I had made.  But
+I, believing his conscience clean, had little doubt of a willing
+captive.
+
+The time passed unbroken with a word; hours it could not be, but
+whether minutes or seconds I do not know.  And somewhere in the heart
+of my confidence there throbbed a little pricking pain of doubt.
+For, brother as he was, to me the man was yet a stranger.  What if he
+were of those with whom all means are held lawful to the cherished
+end?  Had not I, but an ignorant girl, done for one end what I had
+held base indeed for another?  And for answer I clung to the stock of
+my weapon, and swore he should die if His Highness had suffered.  For
+not only Drayton, but Royston honor also lay in the hollow of my
+hand.  But I swore, too, that I would not long survive him; and, if
+Ned would do it, even death would not be wholly without sweetness.
+
+At last a step was on the stair, and my eyes went again to the little
+door.  And, when I saw his returning face, I laughed aloud.
+
+"You may well laugh, Mistress Philippa," he said, sheathing the sword
+that had not, I suppose, left his hand since it had leapt from the
+scabbard on his first doubt of Philip, "for I was indeed a fool to
+doubt him."  Then, turning to Philip: "I did you wrong, Drayton," he
+said; "the blame must lie on the evil company we did find you in."
+
+"I should myself, I fear, doubt any man in such case," answered
+Philip.
+
+With that they fell to considering what should be done.  Philip was
+at first for returning to his chamber above.  But Ned had already
+taken his resolution.  Sir Michael, he said, should not, in the sweet
+evening of a life of honor, see his house come to shame.  "You
+cannot, I do suppose," he continued, "bring proof or witness of your
+innocence in the matter?"
+
+"He that alone could clear me," replied my brother, "is escaped.
+Moreover, I do not think he bears me any good-will."
+
+"Then you must go," declared Royston, in accents very positive.
+
+And I could not find it in me, for all the risk to him, to say him
+nay.  So without more ado Ned went to the hearth, where, by means I
+did not till long after understand, he very quickly closed the
+opening in the wall whence Philip had entered.  He next caused to
+appear, on the opposite side of the fire, a passage that was the
+counterpart of the first.  He then returned to the table, and,
+pouring out wine from the flagon he had brought for me: "Drink," he
+said to Philip, "and listen.  There is little time to spare, for the
+officer of the watch will soon go again upon his round.  You found
+but half the secret.  There," he said, pointing to the grim aperture
+in the wall of the hearth, of which the dancing light of the flames
+served but to mark the deeper gloom, "there is the other half.
+Descend these stairs and follow the gallery.  You cannot miss the
+way.  It will take you out among the rocks below the bridge.  Thence
+follow the stream until you are come to the old mill, whence you may
+with ease reach the highroad."
+
+"From the mill," answered Philip, "I shall know my way.  God bless
+you, Royston!  It is for the old man's sake."
+
+He grasped Ned's hand, laid his own upon my head as if in
+benediction, and would have left us.
+
+"There is one word more to say," said Royston; and Philip turned on
+the edge of the hearth to hear it.  "I cannot let you go," continued
+the man who would not take the smallest risk of harming his master
+even in the moment when he was going open-eyed into the danger of
+branding as a traitor, "I cannot let you go to do further hurt, how
+honest and open soever, to the cause I serve."
+
+"As I gave it to my sister but now," answered Philip, "you have my
+promise to do nothing for the King, nor against him of Orange, until
+I have set foot in France."
+
+"It will serve," replied Ned.  "But--" he added, and then paused, as
+if with a hesitation of delicacy.
+
+"What?  Another doubt?" cried Philip, with a laugh.
+
+"They say--with what truth I do not know," continued Ned,--"but said
+it is, that those of your order have strange quirks and quibbles to
+ease the conscience of oaths and other matters."
+
+"Ah!" said Philip.  "On what, then, or by what, shall I swear to you?"
+
+"Swear me no oath," answered Royston.  "Give me your hand and your
+word as a gentleman of England to abide by the spirit of your
+promise."
+
+So Philip gave him his hand and a straight look in the eyes.
+
+"You have it, lad," he said, in convincing accents of simple truth,
+and so left us, disappearing into the dark chasm of the wall.
+
+Now Ned had but just closed behind his retreat the door of stone (by
+that means which I now know, but will not here set down; for who can
+tell if political trouble be even yet forever at an end in England?)
+when there came a hand upon the door.  Ned dropped into a seat,
+muttering: "But just in time!" while I, feigning sleep, stretched
+myself in my corner of the settle.
+
+"Is all well, Captain?" asked the cheery voice of M. de Rondiniacque,
+as he entered from the gallery.
+
+"All is well, Lieutenant," replied Royston, with a very fine
+assumption of carelessness.  And then the officer of the watch drew
+near, looking down upon me, as I suppose (for my eyes were fast
+closed), with curiosity.
+
+"_Ma foi!_" he cried, "the peevish youth leaves you not, Captain.  He
+is mighty pale in the face for one that sleeps."
+
+"He is little used, I think, to fatigue," replied Ned.  "Is all well
+without, Lieutenant?"
+
+"_Mon capitaine_," said De Rondiniacque, "not a mouse stirs."  And so
+saluted and retired as he had come.
+
+When the sound of his feet had died away,
+
+"Thank Heaven!" I whispered, "the danger is past!"
+
+"For your brother, yes," Ned answered softly.  "For us it is to come."
+
+"Nay, indeed, I hope not so," said I.  "And for him, how shall I
+thank you, Captain Royston?"
+
+"Dear child," he said, with a flash of eagerness lighting his eyes,
+"do not call me captain.  Were I not like ere long to be a man
+disgraced, I could ask you for thanks, but----"
+
+And I, who had ever wholly trusted him and desired nothing so much as
+that he should ask in payment what had long been his, made no parley
+with modesty, but at once replied: "Nay, but ask, dear Ned; do but
+ask.  You will never in my eyes be disgraced."
+
+But when he began to reply that it was a great thing he would ask, of
+which the granting would bear the balance well down on the other
+side, Dame Fate played the careful _dueña_ to the poor maid that
+thought herself in hands safe enough without any such protection.
+
+I mean that before Ned was well launched in that tale of what he
+would have of me, the door at the winding stair's foot did again
+open; and, of all the many times these divers doors had in the last
+few hours moved upon their hinges, this was the worst opening; for,
+wrapped in a great black cloak thrown hurriedly around him, there
+came His Highness of Orange.  And, but that I knew none other could
+then come that road, I do not think I should have known him for the
+man that had of late bid me so kindly good-night.  For over his face
+was a cloud of anger very awful to see.
+
+We sprang to our feet, and Captain Royston saluted.  Passing this
+military courtesy unacknowledged, the Prince at once addressed him in
+a voice so harsh and with a manner so cruel (as it seemed to me) that
+I fell into a great fear and assurance that he had by some means
+discovered both too much and too little; and my heart seemed to melt
+to water within me, so that I despaired of ever setting my lover
+right in the eyes of his Prince.
+
+"You watch well over my slumbers, Captain," was indeed all he said;
+but voice and countenance were more than words, and I felt as I have
+said.
+
+"It has been my endeavor, Your Highness," answered Royston, with much
+dignity, and a face the color of ashes.
+
+"A good watch: a mighty careful and anxious watch, Captain!" the
+Prince continued.  "I do not always sleep, Captain Royston, when my
+eyes seem closed, and I truly believe your care lacked little of
+prolonging my rest to the awful Day of Judgment."
+
+"I do not understand Your Highness's words," said Royston.
+
+The Prince crossed the room to the outer door, and, with his hand
+upon it: "I shall presently explain them," he said, and so went out
+into the gallery.
+
+"Ned," I cried, so soon as he was gone, "I will tell him all!"
+
+"That you shall not," he replied.
+
+"How much does he know?" I asked, trembling as I spoke.
+
+"I cannot tell," answered Ned.  "But to tell him all in this mood
+will but harm you and yours; perhaps lead to Philip's capture, and
+yet do me no service.  He will never pass over this one thing,--that
+I did let your brother go.  And he will know that soon enough,
+telling or none."
+
+And here the door opening again, we were perforce silent.  I could
+hear His Highness's last few words to the sentry, spoken in a tongue
+I took to be Dutch, because I did not understand it, but, among them
+occurring the names Schomberg, Bentinck, De Rondiniacque, I guessed
+he had summoned those gentlemen to attend him.  Then His Highness
+returned into the chamber, and for a while we stood silent, regarding
+one another as the footsteps of the sentry died away down the gallery.
+
+At last Royston would have spoken.  "Your Highness--" he began.
+
+But the Prince interrupted him.  "Be silent," he said, "and wait."
+
+So in silence we waited, but how long I do not know.  At length came
+M. de Rondiniacque, to be soon followed by Count Schomberg and Mr.
+Bentinck.  These two had, it appeared, resumed their clothes in
+haste, and concealed the disorder of their attire each in long
+horse-cloaks, even as His Highness had done.  And in these three
+stern figures of Prince, soldier, and statesman, close wrapped to the
+chin in dark and twisted folds of cloth, there was, I thought, an
+awful likeness to the bench of judges that sat in Hades.
+
+When the last had entered, the Prince thus addressed the three: "It
+seems, gentlemen, that in the master of this house I have an enemy."
+
+At which point Mr. Bentinck, without at all staying the flow of the
+Prince's words, ejaculated a deep and guttural "Ah!" as one finding
+but what he had looked for.
+
+"I therefore purpose, gentlemen, to question Captain Royston in your
+presence, and thereafter to take your censures in the matter of
+bringing him to fitting military trial for treason."
+
+"I am no traitor to Your Highness, nor to any man," cried Royston,
+with blunt indignation.
+
+"That we shall soon see, I believe," said His Highness.  "Did you not
+appoint yourself this night, with my consent, the innermost guard of
+my person?"
+
+"I did," answered Royston.
+
+"Then where is the prisoner; he that called himself priest?" asked
+the Prince, turning on him a gaze that called to my mind tales I had
+read of the Inquisitors of Spain, so piercing and ruthless was it.
+
+"He is escaped!" replied poor Ned.
+
+"By your aid?" asked the Inquisitor.
+
+"By my aid," replied the accused.
+
+"He was here in converse with you?"
+
+"He was."
+
+"By what means did he avoid the guard?"
+
+"That," said Royston, "I will not tell."  And his eyes flashed, and
+his head, never humbled, rose yet more erect; and I knew he was glad
+he could now use boldness where he saw he was to expect no mercy.
+And, of the three men that were listening to these questions and
+answers, one said: "Oh!" another "Ah!" while the third drew in his
+breath with a sound of hissing.
+
+"I see, gentlemen," said William, "that you mark him."  Then, to
+Royston: "To what end did you aid his flight?  Will you at least tell
+me that?"
+
+"Nor that neither," said he boldly, yet without insolence.
+
+"The priest," said His Highness, "did enter my chamber while he
+thought I slept."
+
+"'T is like enough that he did," replied Royston.
+
+"And afterwards you also," said the Prince, "with naked sword."
+
+"I did," said Royston, "but to no end but to be assured of Your
+Highness's safety."
+
+Now when Captain Royston had first declared the escape of the priest,
+I had marked M. de Rondiniacque step for a moment into the gallery,
+whence he soon returned.  It appears that he had in that moment's
+absence despatched one of the three soldiers that were on duty
+without the door to the room on the floor above, whence that escape
+had been effected.  This man now rapping upon the door, M. de
+Rondiniacque opened to him, heard his report, and returned to his
+place beside Marshal Schomberg.  His Highness observing these
+movements, and enquiring what was to do, M. de Rondiniacque replied
+that it was even as Captain Royston had said, the priest's door being
+unfastened and his chamber empty.
+
+His Highness acknowledged the news with a brief gesture, and
+continued: "Do I then, gentlemen, greatly err to suppose that this
+house has been a snare to us?  Do not the events of this night give a
+dreadful significance to those of the afternoon?"
+
+"It is plainly so," said Count Schomberg.
+
+"Your Highness," growled Mr. Bentinck, "knows well my opinion, from
+the warnings I have already given him."
+
+As it appeared now M. de Rondiniacque's turn to add his voice to this
+concert of his superiors, while yet no sound came from him, the
+Prince turned upon him a keen glance of enquiry.
+
+"I must agree, Monseigneur," he said, with a very lively distress
+appearing in his countenance, "unless, indeed, there be some reason
+behind it all, which Captain Royston may now disclose.  I have always
+found him a gentleman of the nicest honor," he continued, gathering
+courage, "and I observe that there is against him no proof but what
+his own word has afforded.  None saw the unfastening of the door,
+none saw the man's escape: it were more after the fashion of the
+vulgar traitor to deny all, and to ascribe his appearance in Your
+Highness's chamber--" and here the good Frenchman checked his speech.
+
+"To what, sir?" demanded the Prince, the gloom of anger growing, I
+thought, yet deeper upon his face.
+
+"To the disordered fancy of an uneasy sleeper," replied De
+Rondiniacque fearlessly.
+
+"Your advocacy carries you too far, Lieutenant," said His Highness,
+in tones that I feared must at once silence our only friend.
+
+"Your Highness will pardon me if I point out that I make no defence
+for Captain Royston," insisted De Rondiniacque, stepping a little
+forward with a graceful ease and a frank glance in His Highness's
+face that I think had taken by storm any woman's heart less strongly
+garrisoned than the only one in reach.  "I but point out the
+traitor's refuge, of which he has made no use.  If I err in saying as
+much, I will beg Your Highness to remember that the accused gentleman
+has been my friend and comrade."  With which words he saluted and
+retired to his former position.  And I think that what he had said
+and the way he bore himself were not wholly without effect upon the
+Prince: for he turned to Captain Royston, and asked him, with some
+slight approach to gentleness, had he any explanation to offer.
+
+"I can but assure Your Highness," said Captain Royston, "that
+throughout I have done nothing adverse to Your Highness's great
+cause, nor to his person, nor to the honor and faith I do hold them
+in."
+
+"And is this all?" asked William.
+
+"Before these gentlemen, sir," he replied, "it is all.  But I hold
+the true fulness of the matter ever ready for your private ear."
+
+"My private ear, sir," answered the Prince, "is like to be much
+abused if I give my closet for every traitor's subtile excuses."
+
+"I offer none," said Royston, with the rigid pride of despair.
+
+"And none," said His Highness, "save in this company, will I hear.
+Keep your tale, sir, for to-morrow's court-martial.  You are under
+arrest.  Your sword, Captain Royston.  Lieutenant de Rondiniacque,
+see to it that this one at least do not escape."  And then, as poor
+Ned slowly drew his sword, and tendered the hilt to the Prince, His
+Highness, waving it aside, signified to M. de Rondiniacque by a
+gesture that he should take it.
+
+"'T is not such," he said, "that I have need of."
+
+Which bitter speech came near to breaking down the restraint in which
+the man had held himself.  I saw the blood fly to his face, the
+half-step forward, the hands clenched by his sides; I heard the one
+dread word on his lips.  "God--!" he gasped, and again curbed himself.
+
+"No words of heat, sir!" said the Prince.  "I did once take you for
+my friend.  Is mine the fault that you prove an enemy?  Weigh well
+what defence you will make to-morrow; let me warn you that
+courts-martial in time of war are swift in procedure and deadly in
+sentence.  Should such court hear from your lips no more than we have
+now heard, make your peace with God."  And with that he would have
+left the room; but I, beside myself with terror, caught him by the
+arm, and tried to speak.
+
+The Prince, however, shook me off, bidding me roughly not to court
+his notice; saying that this was not a court of justice nor of favor,
+but a camp; and that I was happy not to come within the purview of
+its jurisdiction.
+
+But I found my tongue, and said: "Your Highness must in courtesy hear
+me."
+
+On which, with little enough, he bade me speak.
+
+"I do solemnly swear," said I, "before the God that shall judge us
+all----"
+
+"Beware, young man," interrupted His Highness, "lest you take that
+awful name in vain."
+
+"The more awful, great, and holy," I replied, "the readier my will to
+take it now.  And even so I swear that Captain Royston is no traitor.
+What he has done, I have done.  I will tell Your Highness all."
+
+"Be silent," said Ned.  "I do forbid it.  You harm my case."
+
+"Nay, then," I replied, "I will not.  But it is even as I say."
+
+The Prince looked in my face, and I thought that his did a little
+soften.  "I would I believed you, boy," he said, in gentler tones.
+"But I do not believe."
+
+And with that a great hope sprang into my mind, and--"Some day you
+must believe," I cried.  "But now I will ask no more than Your
+Highness has already granted."  And I drew forth from its sheath the
+sword His Highness had given me.
+
+"What is your meaning?" asked the Prince sternly, the frown coming
+dark again across his face.
+
+"They say that I came between Your Highness and great danger," I
+replied, with an inward prayer for the courage and the skill of words
+that I so sorely needed, "in recompense of which you have given me
+this sword.  According to the word that was given with it, I now
+render it again," and here I knelt before him, holding out the weapon
+by the blade, the handle toward the Prince, "praying that my friend,
+Edward Royston, Captain in Your Highness's Swedish Regiment of Horse,
+may stand in rank, duties, and honor, as he stood before this matter
+did arise.  And I ask, moreover, that, when there shall be an end of
+the present troubles, Your Highness will bring him to fitting
+examination and judgment, to the end that his virtue may appear to
+all men."
+
+"'T is a request of many heads and much length," said the Prince,
+with a smile of much sarcasm.
+
+"Indeed, it has but one head," I replied.  "I pray Your Highness to
+suspend his case till the war be done.  Is it granted?"
+
+"No," said the Prince; "it is not granted, and it shall not be."
+
+"And wherefore not?" I demanded, with a boldness that does at this
+present vastly astonish me to think on.
+
+"I gave the sword, with its pledge," he replied, "to one I thought
+loyal to my person and a friend to my cause, the liberties of
+England.  I am not, and may never be, a king; and I have not
+learned," he said, with irony very cynical, "to grant favor to
+traitors."
+
+"But you are a great Prince," I persisted; "a Prince, I have heard
+tell, that never departs from his plighted word.  This pledge I hold
+until it be redeemed.  Again I entreat Your Highness to return to
+Captain Royston his sword."
+
+"Give me that in your hand," he said, after a moment's thought, which
+had taken him, with a few pondering paces, to some distance from the
+spot where I yet knelt.  But as I rose to bring it to him, I believe
+he read in my face the joy that I felt within, for, raising his hand
+with a gesture that at once checked my advance--"Nay," he said, "I
+will not give him back the sword he has dishonored.  But, for my
+word's sake, he has his life and liberty.  Let him begone.  And if he
+cross my path again, to raise his hand by never so little against me
+or mine; if he be found after this night ever within my lines, he
+dies--as spies die, _Master_ Royston," he added, turning upon him a
+glance of keen contempt.  Then, after a little pause, he said, with
+great solemnity, "May the life I give serve unto repentance."
+
+In that moment I think poor Ned's heart was very near breaking.  In a
+voice slow and measured from the restraint he used, he said that he
+would not accept his life at such a price.  His Highness, replying
+that the choice did not lie with him, turned sharply to me and said:
+"Give me the sword."
+
+And then the sight of the stricken man's white and ghastly
+face--stricken for his faith to me and my people--inspired my heart
+to the most audacious act of my life.  I took the sword by the hilt,
+and, pressing hard upon it with both hands, bent down the lower part
+until a portion lay upon the floor.  On this setting my foot with all
+my body's weight to back it, I wrenched the hilt over toward the
+point, so that the blade broke some seven inches from the end.  M. de
+Rondiniacque, stepping forward to arrest my purpose, was too late.  I
+waved him back with a gesture I took to be mighty full of
+haughtiness, and, standing firm upon the fragment, I presented the
+hilt to His Highness of Orange.  On the snapping of the blade the
+Prince had started in anger; as I handed him the truncated weapon, he
+drew back and--"What is this?" he cried.
+
+"Your Highness grants no more than half my prayer," I replied.  "I
+render half the pledge."
+
+"The greater half," he said, and in despite of himself he smiled.
+
+Being by that smile much emboldened, I answered: "Then I am more
+generous than William, Prince of Orange.  For life," I said, lifting
+from the floor the broken point of the sword, "is less than honor.
+Yet, like His Highness, I keep the point that kills."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+When I try to write that part of my story that should here
+immediately ensue, I find the attempt at first more destructive of
+the feather than the nib of my pen.  If I close my eyes and seek to
+live again in memory the hour that followed upon what I have last
+related, the result is always the same: I find myself awaking, as it
+were, from a kind of inner dream to the outward consciousness of
+heavily pouring rain, the rhythmic jingle of bridles, and the
+discordant squeaking of wet saddle under wetter boots.
+
+For Ned and I are out in the foulest night of that foul November, and
+Roan Charley beneath me makes brave use of his tired limbs to come
+the sooner at his own stable.  And then the sound of Ned's voice
+speaking to his horse in some manner brings back to me a few
+incidents of our passing from my Lady Mary's withdrawing-room to this
+wet and pitiless night; things which at this time of writing I do not
+clearly nor directly recall, but merely remember that I did then
+recollect; how His Highness had turned his back upon us, and departed
+in company of Mr. Bentinck and Count Schomberg; how Ned had sworn he
+would not leave his own house, saying they should hang him in the
+morning if they would; how M. de Rondiniacque and I had between us
+well-nigh forced him from the house; and how, with the Frenchman's
+help, I had gotten the two of us to horse; and how this good friend
+had, ere we left, said many things; but not one word of his could I
+recall.
+
+So, having gathered out of my stupor the remnants of the nearer past,
+I was already again in my mind busily at work with divers plots and
+plannings to bring out of this dismal present a glorious and golden
+future.  This change had been indeed brought to pass; nor was Dame
+Fate's change of front tedious of accomplishment; but I feel it is
+due to any that reads me to confess at once that the passage from
+evil fortune to good was the work rather of the hand of God and the
+goodness of men, than brought about by any skill or wit of the poor
+maid that would gladly have foregone all merriment here and hereafter
+to see once more a smile on the lips of the man she loved.
+
+I have said that the present was dismal; to my companion, indeed, it
+could be no otherwise; yet to me the awful gloom of disfavor and
+disgrace was somewhat lightened by a little throb of joy, trembling
+and intermittent indeed, but growing in force, and of decreasing
+interval, as the horses swung, splashing through rain and mud, and
+their riders spoke never a word.  I was a woman; and I was out alone
+in the darkest night of our two lives with the man who to me was all
+men since God gave me memory; I had him to myself, to cherish, to
+comfort, and, if it might be, to serve; what else should I do, but,
+woman-like, yearn over him with bowels of compassion, and rejoice
+that I was the angler that should, if it pleased Heaven, fish his
+soul from the dark and turbid waters of despair?
+
+At length--"Ned!" I cried, but had no answer; and again, "Ned! dear
+Ned!" with no better luck.  So I pushed my horse over against his
+till our knees came together, and laid my hand on his arm.  And then
+somehow I knew, dark as pitch though it was, that he turned his head
+to me.
+
+"Though you be unhappy," I said, letting of set purpose the catch of
+a small sob come into my voice, "you do not need to flout your little
+friend.  'T is very like you think it all my fault, but all I could,
+since Philip left us, I have done,--all, I would say, that you would
+let me do."
+
+"More!" he cried in answer; "you have done far more than I would have
+had you do; for I believe you did save my life.  If I thank you now,"
+he added, with great bitterness, "I do fear my words will lack the
+ring of truth."
+
+"Nay," I said, as coldly as I might, in hope to engage his interest,
+"there is but one owes thanks for that; and it is not you."
+
+"Who then?" he asked, but languidly, as having little care for an
+answer.
+
+"Who but the person," I replied, "in whose sole interest it was
+saved?"
+
+"You speak in riddles, lad," he said, and then at once burst into a
+very hearty laugh at his own mistake; at which my heart danced within
+me to a tune very sweet; for laughter was at least a step in the way
+I would have him walk.  "My wits have gone browsing like sheep," he
+went on.  "Life is sweet, I do suppose, and soon I shall thank you.
+Even now I feel the savor of it coming back to me.  Let us push on,"
+he said, and put spurs to his horse.
+
+When I was once again by his side--"Ah!" he cried, "one is a man
+again with a horse between his knees."
+
+"I do not know," I replied.  "Was it for that you called me lad,
+Captain?"
+
+And so for a mile or more we talked.  There was indeed but a poor
+heart in what gaiety we used, but it served to lead at last to matter
+more important.  And then I found his purpose was but to escort me in
+safety to my father's house, and himself pass on; whither, he would
+not say, and at length confessed he did not know.  And I vowed in my
+heart he should go no further than Drayton, but bided my time.  There
+followed, in a bad part of the way, a little silence.  And now the
+rain, for some time slackening, ceased altogether, and a little pale
+light from the moon struggling through the clouds, we drew together
+again.  This time it was Ned did break the silence, and his words
+showed me he had begun to review that night's work.
+
+"That was bold juggling you did with His Highness and the sword,
+mistress," he said.  "Wherefore did you break it?"
+
+"Because I hold men should keep faith, even princes," I answered,
+"and I will make him fulfil his word, up to the hilt--I would say
+down to the point, which I keep until it is earned."  And I felt for
+the fragment of His Highness's sword in the place where I had it safe
+hidden.  And then I drew rein on Charley, catching at my comrade's
+rein with the other hand.  "O Ned!" I cried, "how am I to do all
+this, if you will leave me?  Take me and your story to my father, and
+among us we shall find a way."
+
+In the pale moonlight I could see his pale face, and on it I read the
+bitterness and sorrow of a conflict that he deemed finished.
+
+"Sweet mistress," he said, "you must not tempt me.  This thing is the
+fault of no man, but the hand of fate is heavy upon me.  Since we
+were children together, it is somewhere written that only in danger
+and disgrace may I meet you.  I do believe that in your heart you
+know much that, but for what has happened this day to part us, I
+would say to you.  I will not say it, and because I will not, I must
+leave you when I have brought you to your father.  Do not urge me
+again."
+
+"If all the world cried out upon Philippa," I replied, feeling in my
+heart as those must feel who take their lives in their hands to carry
+through some desperate enterprise, or to die in default of success,
+"and would have her guilty of all the crimes a woman could guiltily
+do, I would laugh them all to scorn while you held me innocent and
+dear."
+
+"Comfort you might find in my faith," he said, "even as I find much
+in yours.  But you would not company with me, nor let your name go
+with mine in men's mouths; and much less would you wed me before your
+name was cleared.  It is perhaps the last time we shall speak
+together, little Phil, and my despair shall bring me one good thing:
+because I have no hope, I will tell you now very fully and frankly
+what has been in my mind to say since my weight on a horse's back was
+less than is now your own.  When I left Oxford to come into the west
+in those days of Monmouth's trouble, my tongue was ready and my heart
+hot to tell you my love, and, having told, to ask yours, and with it
+the sweetest wife in all England.  Now, I must tell and not ask.  I
+say, then, Philippa, that I love you, that I shall love you, and that
+I have loved you, for how long it is hard to know, but truly I
+believe my love began when you sat in the dust and looked to me for
+comfort, stretching up your little arms, tremulous and appealing.
+Ah!" he cried, "with what an urgent and tender clinging they held me
+as we fled from pursuing Betty."
+
+"I did then think, Ned," I murmured, "that the little horse had
+wings, and that we fled together from Betty and all troubles forever."
+
+"It was only Betty then," he answered, with a little laugh that hurt
+me to hear.
+
+"And it is no worse than Betty now, dear," I cried, "if you will but
+keep me with you.  I have but just gotten you again.  Three years is
+very long and lonesome.  Do not leave me."
+
+Our horses were standing, and the moon showed me his face and the
+great struggle that there was in him between tenderness of love and
+insistence of duty.  And I saw the softness die out of his
+countenance, and the features grow set in resolve.
+
+"I forget," he said, drawing the reins short through his fingers.
+"Let us press on; 't is six good miles yet to Drayton."  At which his
+horse broke into a canter.
+
+But, when Charley would have followed, I drew rein, kicked feet from
+stirrups, flung my right foot over his neck, and so slipped to
+ground; let slip the reins, and so sat me down forlorn by the
+roadside.  So far I had acted of design, to the end that Ned should
+return, and I have my way to the full as the one price of proceeding
+further.  But, when Roan Charley, having twice snuffed at my
+crouching figure, set off whinnying in pursuit of his fellow, I burst
+into tears wholly devoid of affectation, weeping for the loneliness
+that was my own making, and the stubbornness of a man's will that I
+could not break.  And, the soft thud of hoofs on the wet and sandy
+road now seeming to die away with growing distance, I did begin to
+feel that the childish weapon I had taken in hand was indeed turned
+against myself.  To set the coping on my misery, there came a great
+and sudden gust of wind, and with it, across the moon, a thick
+storm-cloud, from which fell a driving slant of heavy rain, shutting
+out at once all sight and sound, as it were with a thick blanket of
+cold and turbid wetness; so that, drenched to the skin, I soon
+shivered as much from cold as from the sobs that shook my overwrought
+body.  Now that he could no longer hear my voice, I found some dismal
+comfort in leaping to my feet and crying aloud on Ned to come back;
+and, even as I called, fell to running with weary and staggering
+feet, in pursuit of him I believed far away, until I pitched
+well-nigh headlong, not into his arms, for they were stretched wide,
+holding a horse in either hand, but upon his broad breast, where I
+soon laid my head; crying, as I clutched him by the shoulders, that
+he had left me too long, and frightened me.
+
+"Why, Phil!" he answered, "I heard your nag following, and, even when
+he drew abreast, it was not at once I knew you were not in the
+saddle."  And here I felt his right arm move behind his back, to pass
+his horse's bridle to the left hand that already held Roan Charley's.
+"But when he pushed close," he continued, "and his swinging
+stirrup-iron struck my boot, I turned to find the voice and eyes I
+dreaded were no longer near.  And then, sweetheart, the rain was upon
+us, and in the darkness it was little speed I could make returning,
+but must needs dismount and go gingerly, for fear of riding over you.
+How came he to throw you, Phil?"
+
+Perceiving that alarm had brought back all his tenderness, for here
+his right arm came round my neck in an embrace most sweet and full of
+protection, I cast to the winds my facile repentance for the trick I
+had played him, and answered him thus, using what remnant of dignity
+I could muster: "'T was not my good Charley that did cast me off,
+Ned.  But when I found you would not heed my prayers; when I found
+that for some fancy of what the world should say of us you would
+again leave me alone, with, this time, perhaps, no hope of a return;
+when I thought how bitter three years of waiting have proved for a
+half-fledged maid, and perceived how much worse a thing were waiting
+without hope or limit for a woman grown, I dismounted and sat me down
+by the roadside.  For I said I would never return to Drayton to see
+go out again into the night, alone and unhappy, the man that has
+saved our honor, giving to us out of the abundance of his own."  And
+I waited for him, but even yet he would not speak.  "What! will you
+shame me, Ned?" I cried.  "Must I even say more?  Then I here
+solemnly vow that unless you now say to me all--ask of me all that
+you would were you now as famous as Marshal Schomberg, and as high in
+favor as Mr. William Bentinck, I will not budge from this spot."
+This, with voice and bearing no doubt vastly heroical, I said.  But,
+fearing it yet insufficient, I added shudderingly, in a manner I have
+since thought most humorously bathetical: "And I almost die for cold."
+
+Now, scarce even for my children, can I set down very particularly
+what followed.  But there was much rain, and now two arms about me,
+and my head lay where it is not yet tired of lying, while my lover
+let flow in words the passion of his love that had so long been pent
+and dammed up in his heart.  And I remember that when he kissed me,
+there came between his lips and mine a patch of mud, cast there
+doubtless by the feet of his horse in his flight from me; and also
+that we laughed together like children with no sorrow upon them, as
+he did try in the dark to wipe it away with his handkerchief, and how
+some of the soil did get in my mouth as I laughed.  So strong in
+memory is often a little matter of this nature that when, not two
+days back from the time I sit here writing, being abroad with Colonel
+Royston to see some sport with Sir Giles Blundell's hounds, I
+received full in the teeth a hoof-shaped clod of earth, I was, for
+all the pain and discomfort of it, translated at once from the free
+air and pale, sweet winter sun back to that foul and bitter night and
+its dear core of love, red and glowing with the fire that shall
+comfort and illumine us both to the end of our days.
+
+Now, how long we stood there, how long we talked, and how long we
+were silent I do not know.  But Dame Nature the stepmother had become
+Mother Nature our friend; and wind, cold, and wet were but the veil
+she cast kindly to wrap our sacred hour in holier secrecy.  And when
+again a little light showed from the moon, of course it was the woman
+that cried: "Why, Ned! where are the horses?"
+
+I will not dwell on the labor to pursue and catch our nags.  The
+charger, at length responding to a cry his master used, was caught,
+mounted, and ridden in chase of Roan Charley.  So I was again for a
+while left solitary, but in a state of mind how different!  Not now
+did I sit forlorn with my feet in the ditch, but tramped cheerily
+forward; for I had his promise not to leave me again, but to lay the
+whole matter before Sir Michael, and to abide by his advice.  For
+Ned, notwithstanding the anguish of his disgrace, did in his modesty
+set so low a price on the action which had procured it, that I think
+it had not yet become clear to him how wholly my very just and most
+noble-minded father must be engaged to counsel all things in the
+interest of Philip's savior.
+
+It was not long before I encountered all three returning to meet me,
+truant Charley grown reluctant and rebellious.  And thence into
+Drayton village the way seemed short indeed.  Only twice did Ned
+refer to his misfortune and the anger of His Highness of Orange;
+once, in saying it was strange a single night should hold the
+greatest joy and the greatest sorrow he had known; and again, when I
+said many hard things of the Prince, he would not hear me, saying he
+was not to blame; and then he asked me did I note the last words of
+M. de Rondiniacque as he bade us farewell.  'T was that gentleman's
+opinion, it appeared, that the Prince was in his heart not sorry to
+find in my importunity good occasion to avoid the scandal that must
+arise from a court-martial held upon an officer whose family was so
+well known in the neighborhood at present occupied by his army.  M.
+de Rondiniacque had added, moreover, that he believed His Highness's
+anger much exacerbated by a lurking doubt as to the substantial guilt
+of one he had hitherto highly esteemed.  All this I must have heard
+as one in a dream, and the narration of it now furnished me with
+material for the more sober thoughts that occupied the almost
+unbroken silence of our passage from the village of Drayton to the
+house.
+
+It was now more than an hour past midnight, so that it was with no
+little surprise we beheld, through the ill-closed hangings of the
+windows, the great hall bright with candles and fire.  As he lifted
+me, now well-nigh crippled with fatigue, from the saddle, I prayed
+Ned to enter quickly and engage whom he should find for a moment in
+talk, while I slipped quietly by to the refuge of my chamber.  In the
+morning I had trifled with the fancy that it were better to be born a
+man; now I knew it was best of all to be a woman; and thus I had no
+mind, while I could still by some sense of lingering contact mark the
+places where my lover's kisses had fallen, to be seen in the garb I
+wore by any man or woman whatsoever.  And Ned, acting most
+comfortably in accordance with my desire, I was soon fast in the
+haven of my room, of whose door I did that night but once again draw
+the bolt; and even then I do think it was rather from desire of the
+food and the posset that she carried, than from any need of her
+company, that I admitted Prudence; and of the torrent of questions
+with which my ears were assailed as she tenderly waited on me, I
+answered few and heeded none.  I would have been alone to think of
+Ned, and of the change of so strange a sweetness that I now began to
+discover in myself.  I was indeed in that temper of mind wherein a
+maid will find even the object of her thought a hindrance to the
+right management of her thinking; and so I got very quickly to bed,
+feigning sleep to escape little Prue's chatter, the while I hugged to
+my breast the memories of the journey homeward; cherishing the
+sweetest fragments for a perpetual possession.
+
+But feigning passed very soon into reality, and the last I recall of
+that night is my dreamy watching of Prudence, as she busied herself,
+with a bearing of no little pique, in hanging out poor Rupert's
+clothes before the great fire, and muttering dark sayings of the folk
+that had secrets, and how, if that were the way of it, she could,
+nay, would, keep her own to herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+In telling how we came happily through this trouble of Captain
+Royston's disgrace, I perceive that there is from this point a
+greater number of those incidents in which, although they are
+necessary to the proper understanding of my tale, I had myself no
+personal share.  While, however, my knowledge in such case is but
+second-hand, it is hearsay of the best quality, drawn from divers
+witnesses whose testimony I have found seldom divergent.  I therefore
+purpose in my remaining chapters (now happily few), for greater ease
+to the reader, to make of what I know and what I believe a narrative
+as plain and straightforward as I may, without further reference to
+my sources of information, which would but encumber those efforts at
+despatch that must, if my story cannot, earn me a reader's
+approbation.  Colonel Royston, coming fresh and crammed with law from
+the justice-room (he being of late on their Majesties' Commission of
+the Peace), tells me that hearsay is not evidence.  To which I can
+but reply that such as I give will be nearer the truth than much that
+he hears on oath.
+
+When Ned, covering my retreat, presented himself before my father in
+the dining-hall, he found Sir Michael seated in his great chair by
+the hearth; on his one side at respectful distance stood Farmer Kidd,
+while on the other, and close to his father, sat Philip.
+
+Now Kidd, much delayed by the foundering of his horse, had come in
+about midnight, bringing the first clear news of my safety.  He had
+found Sir Michael in some disorder, between the pain in his leg, much
+aggravated by his vigil, and anxiety for his daughter.  Poor
+Christopher was like to have suffered in consequence; for Sir
+Michael, while filling him with food and drink, rated him soundly for
+leaving me behind, and would have had him return at once to Royston.
+Philip, whose name and face had gotten him a good mount upon the
+road, arriving about half an hour later than Christopher, found him
+dulled with fatigue and feeding, and halting half-way between slumber
+and tears.  My father's mind was soon at rest about his errant
+daughter; for, when he learned that Ned Royston had me in charge, and
+knew that I was Philippa, he merely said that I could not be in safer
+hands, and thereafter addressed himself at once to the consideration
+of Philip's story.
+
+"And so, dear sir," said my brother, when his tale was done, "give me
+a horse and money, and I will make my way back to France, that I may
+keep faith with Royston, and set myself again to serve those that
+sent me into England."
+
+"Not so, Philip," answered his father, "for I will give you nothing
+to become once more the active enemy of the Prince of Orange.  If I
+do clip thy claws, thou must stay with me till these troubles are
+done.  I like not your faith; Gad 's my life!  I like not your cause,
+for all it was once mine.  But yourself I do love.  For the sweet
+sake of your mother, son of mine, stay with me whom all have left."
+
+"A Drayton, sir," replied Philip, "must do his part, on what side
+soever it has pleased God to set him."
+
+"You are right, lad," the old man answered; "and therefore will I
+give you neither horse nor money."
+
+Thus it was that upon his coming amongst them Captain Royston had but
+to tell the dreadful sequel of Philip's escape.  But, between his
+very cordial greeting of Ned and the hearing his story, my father,
+with a fine discretion, begged Kidd that he would attend to the
+Captain's horse, the grooms being all abed.  Which Christopher very
+willingly hastened to do, preferring a stable and a bed of straw to
+the dining-hall and Sir Michael's varied cheer.
+
+His story told, and they asking where was Philippa, Ned answered,
+between draughts from a great tankard of spiced ale, that he believed
+I was gone to my chamber.  On this Sir Michael himself hobbled to the
+room where lay my Lady Mary, whence he transferred Prudence from
+attendance on her ladyship to the duty she vastly preferred, of
+waiting upon me.  Alone with Ned, Philip at once declared the purpose
+of making his way to Exeter, and of laying before His Highness, in
+the act of surrendering himself, the true state of the whole matter.
+Sir Michael returning in the midst of Royston's objections to what he
+called so useless a sacrifice, the matter was debated among the three
+far into the morning, my lover concluding that ill was best let
+alone, for fear of worse; my brother, that he had no choice in honor
+but to give himself up; my father, that they were both fools, and
+that he himself was the person to set the matter in its true light
+before His Highness of Orange.  And so they separated for the night,
+which of them all being in most need of rest it would be hard to say.
+
+But my good father, before he slept, paid a secret visit to the
+stable, there leaving orders with Kidd, the sleepy chief of a sleepy
+band of agrestic warriors (for the squadron I had led out at noon was
+at length painfully gathered in and billeted in the hay-loft), and
+with the chief groom of his own establishment, that no man (adding
+hastily, "nor no woman neither") should take horse from their door
+without his own express command.  For he feared that either Ned would
+escape him, and so cut this knot of his own generous making; or that
+Philip would effect an early start to throw himself, with little gain
+to us all, into the hands of his enemies.  And so, after threats of
+the most terrible, which served at least, as the sequel shows, to
+keep his commands from mixing with their dreams, Sir Michael got him
+to his bed where, if the just indeed sleep well, he slumbered very
+peacefully till the unwonted hour of nine in the morning.
+
+I do not think that poor Philip found much sleep.  The choice between
+divergent duties, with harm to his family involved in one decision,
+to a brave and generous friend in the other, may well keep even the
+just awake.  The household being much belated, he was able between
+six and seven of the morning to let himself out unobserved.  On
+coming to the stable, however, he found that he could on no terms but
+Sir Michael's order be furnished with a horse; not even with that
+which had brought him to the house the night before.  After some
+minutes of deep thought, he hastily penned a few lines on a leaf of
+his tablets, which he then tore out and carefully folded, begging
+Christopher, as he loved the honor of the house, to keep it unread
+and undivulged until two o'clock of the afternoon, when he should
+hand it to Sir Michael.  But if, as he deemed by no means likely of
+occurrence, His Highness of Orange should before that hour honor Sir
+Michael with a visit, the letter must at once be delivered.  With
+which he left the yet sleep-ridden Christopher, willing, indeed, to
+do his behest, but so mightily astonished at the mystery in which he
+found himself involved, that he failed even to mark the road of
+Philip's departure.
+
+The letter, which I hold to be a notable example of my brother's
+forethought, I will give here rather than in its place of coming to
+light, for the better understanding of Philip's motive and action.
+
+
+"TO MY DEAR AND HONORED FATHER: Being resolved to do what I may to
+repair the great evil I have brought upon Edward Royston, and fearing
+hindrance at your hands or his, I have taken myself off while you are
+yet sleeping.  Finding, however, that you have laid a strict embargo
+upon the stable, I go first afoot to the Grange, where old Simcox
+will doubtless mount me with the best in his stable.
+
+"I call to mind some words of Royston's, however, of His Highness of
+Orange intending a visit to Drayton.  Now, although it is more than
+likely he has foregone this purpose after what ensued upon my escape,
+it is yet possible that some compunction of his own hastiness, or
+return of gratitude to Philippa, may bring him to your door.  From
+the Grange, therefore, I purpose taking the road to Exeter that runs
+by 'The Crow's Nest,' whence one may see the roofs of Drayton.  I
+shall be particular not to leave that point before the stroke of
+noon.  If, therefore, the improbable occur, and the Prince be come,
+or announced to come, to Drayton before that hour, I beg of you, my
+dear sir, to fly the old flag from the turret mast; which, if I see,
+I will make the best of my way back to you, knowing that you will not
+contrive from my plan a ruse to lure me home against my conscience.
+
+"If the Prince be gone to Exeter, and I there get audience of him,
+remember that even the failure of my plea for Royston will not injure
+your own subsequent representations, but will rather by corroboration
+of evidence strengthen them.  Your obedient son,
+
+"P.D."
+
+
+Thus it ran.  The Grange, I should say, is the old Holroyd house, and
+Simcox, my father's bailiff for the estate.
+
+So much for two of those that sat so late in the hall.
+
+As for Ned, neither joy (if, as I suppose, some joy was in him) nor
+grief, of which he thought never through life to be rid, was to
+prevail against the oppression of sleep long denied.  He slept as the
+dead sleep, till long after my father was abroad.
+
+But for a soporific commend me to a decoction of new-found love and
+great fatigue of body.  It was from the pleasant action of this
+sleeping-draught that I awoke to find my chamber bathed in the first
+sunshine of many dreary days.  And, as I lay with eyes half opened, I
+felt in my bosom a gladness answering to the sunshine without.  And
+searching in my mind for the threads of memory that should join my
+life with the day that was past, and tell me the reason why I was
+glad, I found that the answer was Love.  But a little cloud soon
+driving across the sun had also its inward response in my
+half-awakened spirit, and I asked myself was there then some evil
+thing in this sweet world of mine?
+
+And so I stumbled heavily upon the memory that Ned's love had in its
+fulness come to me in the very hour of disgrace.  And then I awoke
+from a maid floating blissfully upon the sweet sea of conscious
+repose to the woman fain to pay the price of love in deeds for her
+lover.
+
+Prudence was not far, and I was not long in dressing.  Having,
+however, more food for thought than use for my tongue, I by and by
+perceived that my little handmaid was very ready to make cause of a
+tiff out of my silence.  This might have passed, for I thought with a
+gentle word or two and a smile to turn aside the coming storm.
+
+Nor had I much doubt of success in this, when, after watching my face
+a while in the mirror, she exclaimed: "Why, madam, how beautiful you
+appear this morning!  One would think some great good thing had
+befallen you yesterday, rather than a great fatigue.  You are vastly
+changed, madam."
+
+"Nay, Prudence, be not so fanciful," I cried, marking, nevertheless,
+in the mirror how the color rose in my face.  "Pray, child, what
+difference do you find?"
+
+"It is hard to name," she answered, "but 't is there.  Your regard is
+large and tender.  Your eyes, madam--your eyes hold some secret of
+joy."
+
+Here she paused a while, turning her gaze from the mirror to my face
+itself.  Then at length: "Why, madam, I have it," she cried; "you are
+in one night grown to be a woman!"
+
+To hide my cheeks, that would soon, I knew, most furiously glow, I
+turned to the wardrobe to take from it the gown I proposed wearing.
+But when she saw that it was the finest in stuff, and latest in
+fashion of all my slender stock, her curiosity broke out afresh.
+Receiving no reply to her many questions, she watched me in dumb
+displeasure, while I shaped a piece of black plaister, and applied it
+to the little wound that Ned's sword had made on my bosom, for the
+gown, being cut somewhat more freely open than I mostly used, would
+have left the scratch uncovered from the air.  All this was more than
+Prue could bear.
+
+"I do perceive," she said, with pale cheeks and tilted chin, "that in
+some manner I have offended madam, since she no longer gives me her
+confidence; I fear it is no time to ask her advice in a matter that
+gives much distress and anxiety to one that she was wont to hold her
+very faithful servant."  Whereupon she left the chamber very quickly,
+giving me no space to appease her anger.
+
+Finishing my toilet alone, I began to wonder what was this mighty
+secret with which she had now twice threatened me; and, doubtless,
+nothing but my great preoccupation of thought saved Mistress
+Prudence, privileged person although she was become, from a mighty
+smart reprimand on our next encountering for her petulant conduct.
+
+That excellent dignity of bearing which I believed myself to have
+endued, as well as my finest gown, was destined to be spent (if
+indeed it were not altogether thrown away) upon old Emmet and a
+single waiting-maid.  From Simon I learned that it had been thought
+well not to disturb the three gentlemen, whom he supposed still
+sleeping.  Lady Mary, he added, had been much shaken by her
+adventures of the previous day, and found herself unable to leave her
+bed.  So I sat me down alone, and made a meal of most unblushing
+amplitude.  Since I was a child, I may say, I had never known myself
+to lack good appetite, and I now found that so far from weakening my
+desire and enjoyment of my victuals, as would seem most fitting in a
+young woman of sentiment, the fatigues, emotions, and excitements of
+the day before had but set a keener edge to my relish of these, as of
+all other good things in what I could but think, despite all
+drawbacks, was a very engaging and gladsome world.
+
+Now it was a custom with me to have Prudence wait upon me at
+breakfast, arising, I suppose, from a certain loneliness I did use to
+feel when my dear father's ailments would keep him for days together
+in his chamber.  She being this morning absent, and I asking where
+she was, Simon soon made it plain that he was not pleased with his
+granddaughter.
+
+"Faith, madam," he said, "I cannot tell where she is.  The little
+baggage grows past my holding.  She is as full of mysteries as an egg
+is full of meat."
+
+"Nay, Simon," I answered, "'t is no mystery.  She spoke very boldly
+to me but now, and fled to avoid correction.  I make no doubt she is
+gone for comfort to Christopher Kidd."
+
+"There 's more in it, madam, than Farmer Kidd," answered Simon, his
+old head shaking with the ominous relish of him that justifies
+suspicion of evil.  "A loaf, a cheese, and a great piece of salted
+beef are this morning missed from the larder, and, as I live," he
+cried, peering into the great beer jack that stood upon the table,
+"who but the hussy should have taken more than the half of the ale
+that I drew for breakfast?  She did pass through the hall on leaving
+your chamber, madam; Christopher and all his men are well fed in the
+kitchen, and have but to ask for what they lack."
+
+And here I was scarce able to hold back my laughter.  The picture of
+little Prudence, so dainty and modest, for all that something of
+coquetry was part of her nature, so feeding a secret lover did
+mightily tickle my fancy.
+
+"Do not fret for the ale, Simon," I said gaily.  "Please Heaven, it
+will find its way down a thirsty throat.  If Prue be the thief
+indeed, I shall know the drinker before sunset.  She is a good maid,
+and will not long keep a secret from a mistress that holds her in
+much affection and esteem."  These last words were as much for the
+other serving-woman that was by as for Prue's censorious grandfather.
+
+Sending word to Lady Royston that I would gladly know when her
+ladyship was willing I should wait upon her, I now retired to my
+garden, finding more company in its few remaining flowers, and in the
+fresh and sunny autumn air, than in a house but yet half awake.  And
+I had within me, whether carried from the house, or gathered from the
+sweet odors drawn by the sun from the sodden earth, I know not, a
+sense that some great thing was coming; that this was but the lull
+before our wits and tongues should be again engaged in a conflict for
+love, for honor, and perhaps for life.
+
+And I knelt on a little stone bench, warmed with the sun, and prayed
+to Him who did make these three best things, that wit might be keen,
+and tongue eloquent, to set them high above doubt and question
+hereafter.
+
+To me, after it might be half an hour, came Prudence, bearing in a
+very innocent countenance an expression of injury most Christianly
+endured.  Madam Royston, she said, would be vastly obliged by a visit
+from me, but she was bidden by Captain Royston to say he had matter
+for my ear that was of moment, to be delivered before I should speak
+with madam his mother.
+
+"And where is Captain Royston to be found?" I asked.
+
+"He is now taking his breakfast in the hall," answered the little
+minx, vastly demure.
+
+"And why was I not informed that he was risen?" I demanded.
+
+"If madam gave order to that effect," she replied, "it came not to my
+ear."
+
+This petty vantage of feminine fence had not long remained hers, had
+I not been more concerned to reach the great hall than to open a
+general attack in the matter of the missing beef and beer.  The
+better part of the way to the house I ran rather than walked--that
+part, I mean, that is not in sight of the hall windows.  Within I
+found Ned alone, eating his breakfast.  A cloud of gloom was over his
+face, and, though he rose with great courtesy and alacrity to meet
+me, his greeting seemed rather a submission to my embrace than the
+clasp of an ardent lover.
+
+It is not unlikely that in a happier hour I had taken this reception
+ill, but, thinking I could read his thought, I let it pass, which I
+was soon very glad to have done, when his words made it plain that I
+had not read him amiss.  For a while I pressed him with food, with
+questions of what rest he had taken, of his mother's health, and with
+other talk indifferent to the issue that yet, as I plainly saw, did
+lie between us.  But, do what I might, I could bring no smile to his
+face; I could see the man held a tight rein upon himself, for all he
+could not keep his eyes from taking full account of my person on this
+his first seeing me after so many years in the full light of day, and
+in my proper garb.  And there was great holiday in my heart, for I
+knew that I pleased him well; had I not the word both of mirror and
+handmaid that I was not ill to look upon?  Moreover, those eyes of
+his, restrained though they were from all expressive admiration,
+could not conceal something that I took to be a kind of hunger.
+
+At length, finding that his discomfort was in no way diminished, I
+asked him, speaking mighty small and meek, what it was he wished to
+say to me, before I should pay my respects to my Lady Mary.
+
+"I would pray you," he answered, "by no means at this present to make
+mention to my mother of--of the matter--I mean, of my disgrace with
+His Highness of Orange."
+
+It was only by an effort, it seemed, that the last words could be
+uttered.  I arose from the seat whence I had confronted him at the
+table, dropped him a little courtesy, and walked toward the door.
+But, passing behind his chair as I went, I felt my heart so filled
+with pity and sorrow that I knew I must either fall into a passion of
+tears or speak more fully and closely with him who now bore such
+things for me and mine.  So behind him I stayed, and, casting an arm
+about his neck, "Ned," I whispered, "dear Ned, wilt in no manner be
+comforted?'"
+
+His voice shook a little, in spite of that curbing rein, as he
+answered me.  "Where lies the comfort that I should take, sweet
+Phil?" he said.
+
+"'T is unkind in you, dear, to make me speak unmaidenly," I replied.
+"I know your woes, but is it, then, nothing that I also share them?
+Am I perhaps of no account, for that my love is no new thing?"
+
+"Your love, Philippa," he said, in a voice that was now become very
+tender and solemn, "is a pearl of price so great that but yesterday
+it was all I asked of Heaven.  But shall this jewel be set in a
+filthy copper ring?  I know, sweetheart," he went on, "that you have
+found me churlish this morning.  But since I awoke I have one only
+thought in my mind, that I did wrong last night, with my honor thus
+overshadowed, to tell you of my love."
+
+"Nay," I said, "there was no telling; and there needed none."
+
+"Did I not tell you--" he began.
+
+But from over his shoulder I gently clapped hand upon his mouth,
+crying: "Hush, dear Ned!  'T was this way that it befell.  Listen,
+for all else is what you have dreamed."  And I took here the tone and
+manner of one that tells to a child the sweetest fairy-tale he knows.
+"Two did ride in the night.  The two had each a heart, and the heart
+of one was sore hurt.  Now of the other the heart was well and safely
+lodged behind a little secret door.  And this door was never opened,
+though there was one did know the way to it, and at his knock it had
+been wont of old to move somewhat ajar on the hinge.  But in that
+dark night the heart that was hurt did cry aloud, and--and that small
+door did fly open, and now, Ned----"
+
+"Ay, sweetheart?" he said, as I paused; and he tried to look round at
+me: but I would not let him.
+
+"And now, Ned," I continued, "the door is closed forever; but the
+heart is abroad, and hath no home but here."  And here I slipped to
+my knees by his side, leaning with hands tight clasped in
+supplication against his breast.  "My lord," I said, "must even keep
+his promise to his handmaid, who will gladly bear all that she may
+share with him.  But, without his presence and his love, the sun will
+be darkened to her eyes all the days of her life."
+
+And so there was an end; for his arms came about me and ended all
+strife between us even to this moment of writing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+And thus my father surprised us, by which accident we were not a
+little taken aback.  My lover, however, rose bravely to the occasion,
+and very plainly and without any mincing of the matter asked him for
+my hand in marriage; saying in conclusion, however, that he was aware
+his present state and condition might well justify Sir Michael's
+refusing to grant his request: "Which, sir," said he, "I had not made
+until cleared of all suspicion of treason to His Highness, but for
+you knowing me innocent, and the recent avowal of my affection being
+by surprise, as it were, wrung from me."
+
+"Indeed, sir," I broke in, hoping by a little boldness to cover my
+confusion the better, "there was no surprise but this same gad-about
+daughter of yours.  It was through no fault of his, for none but I
+did wring from Captain Royston that offer of alliance he now seems
+minded to repent."
+
+"Be silent, child," said my father; "Captain Royston stands in need
+of no champion with me."  Whereat I was abashed to a blushing hotter
+than before.  "My lad," said Sir Michael, "I have twofold reason to
+be glad.  It would go hard with me to refuse the man who has done for
+my name what you have done, even were he not the husband I have this
+many a day desired for my child.  And, if we cannot put you right
+with the Prince, we must together endure.  But I hope for better
+things."  And with these words my father drew me to him, and put my
+hand in that of Captain Royston.
+
+There is no need to rehearse all that was said and felt on this
+occasion of my betrothal.  There was among us regard so reverent,
+friendship so strong, and acquaintance so well tested of time, that
+the dark shadow hanging over could not, even while it chastened, in
+any way jar with nor distort the joy of the two who saw the future
+each in the other's countenance; nor of him that saw in the faces of
+us both a vision of the past that was ever green and poignant in the
+young heart of the old man.
+
+And as I left them to visit Lady Mary, now too long neglected, my
+father told me that I had gained a husband such as is not had every
+day.
+
+So I went to my lady's door, and there, very proud in the thought
+that out of all the world Captain Royston had chosen me, I loitered a
+little; for I hoped that my cheeks would presently lose something of
+the telltale color that still seemed to burn in them.  And after I
+entered her chamber the time for a while went so exceedingly heavily
+that I think it but charity to take my reader elsewhere.
+
+Sir Michael and Captain Royston were now for a space engaged in
+discussion of the future.  But, as they neither knew that Philip, in
+the obstinacy of his opinion, had escaped them, nor that events now
+in preparation should very shortly change the complexion of the whole
+matter, their animadversions and reflections upon this occasion are
+become of little moment.
+
+Now my father, on his coming which did so mightily abash me, was
+carrying under his arm in its sheath the sword which, in its day and
+his, had been so terrible to many a man of the Parliament's forces.
+It was indeed many years that he had not worn steel at his side; but
+it was ever a custom with him, upon any occasion of state, danger, or
+solemnity, to fetch with him in the morning this sword from his
+chamber.  More than once or twice, when I was a little maid with a
+conscience not seldom ill at ease, has the sight of that honorable
+blade, tucked slantwise beneath his arm as he painfully descended the
+great stair of a morning, driven me to hasty repentance and
+confession of yesterday's prank or peccadillo.
+
+My father, then proposing that they should take the air a little,
+since the sun continued bravely to shine, remarked, as he laid this
+sword upon his chair by the hearth, that his companion had but an
+empty scabbard dangling at his sword-belt.  To Sir Michael's civil
+offer of his own good weapon to replace that so unhappily lost, Ned
+replied that he thanked him, but would make shift for a while with
+the scabbard, having a mind to fill it again with the only blade that
+fitted it, if haply it might be done.  And as he spoke his face was
+suffused with a flush of deep crimson; the only blush, my father
+said, that he had ever seen on the lad's goodly countenance.
+
+And so they walked a turn in the park, amongst the trees and the
+deer, Sir Michael supported, until a pleasant bench was reached, by
+an arm that is, I have found, very good and comfortable to lean upon;
+where I, having from my lady's window seen them pass, made shift
+after a little to join them.  Ned rose to meet me, and I was glad to
+see the shadow driven from his face by the smile of his welcome.
+
+"My lady is very instant and pressing that you should go to her," I
+said, as I seized in both mine the hand he stretched to me.
+
+"What, what!" says my father merrily.  "Was all this bird-like haste
+of swooping down upon us but to drive the man again from your side?
+'T is early days, little Phil--early days!"
+
+"Indeed, sir," I replied, panting a little yet for the speed I had
+used, "I would not have the man leave me, and so ran to husband the
+minutes with him.  Nor I would not have him go to Madam Royston, who
+will, without doubt, very quickly draw from him our morning's doings."
+
+"And wherefore should she not know them?" said Ned, smiling gently on
+me the while he still clung to my hand, as finding comfort in the
+touch of it.
+
+"Because," said I, "we have trouble enough, and she will surely make
+more when she knows.  'T is now three years past that she told me I
+must look for no such greatness as to be your--" and there my
+boldness had an end.
+
+"Is it indeed as you say?" cried poor Ned; and his eyes went in
+question from mine to Sir Michael's.
+
+And then that little devil of mischief was in me again.
+
+"I vow 't is very true," I said.  "Nor I do not quarrel at that.  But
+in this same matter she had a promise of me, that--that----"
+
+"What promise was it?" he asked, in some distress.  "I do hope it was
+nothing foolish, nor hard to keep."
+
+"I had almost forgot it," I answered, lingering over my words, "but
+now I do perceive I have to the letter kept it.  Yet indeed, dear
+Ned, it was for some hours hard to observe that pledge, for I did
+promise her that I would wait until I was asked."  And, if my jest
+was of more boldness than wit, the laughter that greeted it, being
+compounded of love, merriment, and confidence, lacked nothing of the
+finest quality.
+
+Conversation more sober ensuing, it appeared that Ned, who already,
+before he broke his fast, had visited her, was neither now willing to
+leave me, nor, with the present load of care upon him, to submit
+again so soon to the searching scrutiny of his mother's eyes a
+countenance that was, he well knew, of a very treacherous honesty.
+For, if he saw little need to conceal our betrothal from her, he had
+no mind she should get wind of his disfavor with His Highness of
+Orange.  Whereupon my father, who seemed, indeed, to preside at the
+feast of our joy with a tenderness almost feminine, undertook an
+embassage to my Lady Mary, hoping, he said, by discovery of the
+betrothal, to close her eyes for a while to all other troubles.
+
+He stoutly refused every offer of assistance to his walking, saying
+it were best with all the pains of a penitent to approach so awful a
+shrine; and so, cheerily waving one hand and leaning with the other
+upon his stick, made his way limping to the house.
+
+It was not long after his leaving us that, although deep in
+discussion of matters vastly entertaining at least to those engaged,
+I heard the rapid approach of a horse, of which, with his rider, I
+very soon had a glimpse as they passed the open space between the
+last trees of the avenue and the southeastern corner of the house.
+
+Now, while Ned spoke many things most sweet to hear, and I, though
+finding my power of words strangely contracted since my father's
+leaving us, now and again made shift to answer him; and while he was
+about opening that question, to this day not with conclusion to be
+answered, of when first each did begin to love the other, some part
+of me was all the time with secret clamor asking who this mounted
+visitor should be.  What if he were from the Prince?  And so, though
+I heard most of his words, and held them all dear, I was at length in
+such a fever of desire to know more of what was toward within doors,
+that I told Ned my presence was needed in the house, as much in his
+own interest as of the visitor, and my father that must entertain
+him.  And I would not let him conduct me, for I wished (though to him
+I said nothing of this), in case of news, ill or good, in the matter
+of his standing with His Highness, to know it first myself; so begged
+him where he was to await me a while, and left him, I doubt not, in
+much amaze at the contradictions of the feminine nature.  At least it
+was so that I was fain to hope he explained a behavior that may well
+have appeared whimsical in me; having not infrequently observed that
+this is with some of our masters a means much favored to avoid the
+pains of understanding our vagaries even the most reasonable.
+
+Sir Michael, being admitted to Lady Mary's presence, had come no
+nearer his purpose than some prefatory compliments and good wishes,
+when he was hastily called away to meet a gentleman that was come on
+urgent business from His Highness of Orange.  Repairing at once to
+the great hall, he found before him M. de Rondiniacque, just
+dismounted and entered, looking with a wryness of countenance
+ill-concealed upon the tankard of ale held out to him by little Prue.
+
+Perceiving his host, the French officer politely waved aside the
+refreshment, and bowed to Sir Michael with great reverence and all
+the grace of the Paris manner.  Now his name, as was but natural,
+when it reached my father's ears, was become twisted out of all shape.
+
+"You are welcome," says Sir Michael, returning his obeisance.  "I
+address, I believe, M. le Lieutenant--" and there stuck.
+
+"Jean-Marie Godemar de Rondiniacque, at your service," replied that
+gentleman.  "My poor name, Sir Michael, has great terror for unwonted
+tongues!"
+
+"'T is then a fit companion to your sword, M. de Rondiniacque," says
+Sir Michael, in the older fashion of courtly compliment.
+
+M. de Rondiniacque bowed again.  "It is well if they agree, sir," he
+said, "for they are my whole estate."
+
+"I can wish you, M. de Rondiniacque, no better," replied my father.
+"You come, I believe, from His Highness of Orange."
+
+And M. de Rondiniacque, saying that he had indeed that honor,
+presented a letter from the Prince, in which it was set forth that
+His Highness, being in the neighborhood, was fain to do himself the
+pleasure of a visit, of necessity short, to so distinguished a
+soldier and gentleman, and so stanch a supporter of that cause which
+the Prince had made his own, as Sir Michael Drayton; and would not in
+his coming lag far behind the bearer of the letter.
+
+Having read, Sir Michael was at once for calling out his little
+company of armed men and putting himself at their head, in order to
+meeting His Highness in the village, and escorting him to the house,
+but M. de Rondiniacque very respectfully opposed this course, saying
+that His Highness was particular in his instructions that Sir
+Michael's age and infirmities should be disturbed by no pomp nor
+ceremony of reception.
+
+"His Highness does me great honor," said Sir Michael.
+
+"His Highness is little likely to forget," replied M. de
+Rondiniacque, "that, in an hour when he almost despaired of that help
+and countenance he was led to look for on his coming into England
+from gentlemen of condition, Sir Michael Drayton was the first to
+come forward and set a noble pattern to the rest.  There are,
+moreover, other matters, I believe, in which the Prince holds himself
+your debtor, sir.  But of these, being most curiously entangled with
+some of another sort, I am not to speak; being straitly enjoined to
+leave them for your meeting with His Highness."
+
+Now these words did mightily please my father, filling him with hope
+by his own influence and arguments of setting all things right
+between Captain Royston and the Prince of Orange.  So, most
+courteously praying M. de Rondiniacque that until His Highness's
+arrival he would consider the house his own, begging excuse of his
+absence on the ground of fit preparation to be made for the Prince,
+and bidding Prudence attend the gentleman's wants, he took himself
+off to find Philip, and with him concert a plan of action.
+
+Alone with Prue, M. de Rondiniacque was not long in marking,
+according to his habit, the dainty person and pretty face of her that
+waited upon him.  Now Prudence was never slow to observe when she had
+made a conquest, however slight, and soon responded to his flattery
+by bringing him in a flagon something better than the ale she had
+observed him to look upon so sourly.
+
+"Perhaps, sir," says Prue, "being out of France, you will have more
+thirst for good Burgundy than for our ale."
+
+"Pour it to me yourself, fair Hebe," cried De Rondiniacque; and as
+she obeyed he smiled upon her freely, and twisted in very gallant
+fashion the little black mustachios that adorned his lip.  "Nay," he
+continued: "but you must put those pretty lips to the cup before I
+drink."
+
+"Oh! la, no, sir!" cries Prue; "indeed I could n't," and straightway
+sipped, making, I doubt not, as she cried "I' fecks, 't is good!" a
+little grimace of satisfaction, with lips pursed up, as I have seen
+her often, like a bird uplifting his bill in dumb thanksgiving to the
+clouds for water in a thirsty land.  Indeed, M. de Rondiniacque has
+told me, in these days of nearer acquaintance, that things had fallen
+far otherwise than they did but for the pretty coquetry of Prudence
+and his own too inflammable temper.
+
+If the wine was red, he remarked, her lips were no less rich in
+color; which led him incontinently to swear the wine was but the
+second refreshment for his tasting; and if her coyness persuaded him
+to change the order of succession, a great draught of that generous
+wine of Burgundy did by no means lessen his desire to taste the red
+velvet of her now pouting lips.
+
+And so it was that I, nearing the door, was by a scream from my
+handmaid drawn with such haste into the hall that I found her in the
+arms of M. de Rondiniacque, whose mouth was pressed with much force
+and no little enjoyment to the lips he had of late compared with the
+wine.
+
+At once recognizing the gallant officer for my friend of yesterday, I
+wished indeed that I had stayed with Ned; but in the brief time spent
+by Prudence in freeing herself (for she had immediately seen me), and
+by M. de Rondiniacque in perceiving me, and letting her free, I had
+called to my assistance all that dignity and state of bearing which
+is seldom far to seek by the woman, however young and unversed in the
+world, who has faith in her gown and her cause.
+
+"Prudence!" I cried, standing half-way between them and the door, and
+speaking with great severity, while she, red as fire, fumbled
+piteously with her apron, and the gentleman sought to cover the
+foolishness of his face with the hand that pulled at the hair upon
+his upper lip; "Prudence, what means this noise and outcry?  Who are
+you, sir?"
+
+"A poor gentleman of France, mistress," he replied, "but now arrived
+with word of the coming of His Highness of Orange."
+
+"And does that good news fetch cries for help from my serving-woman?"
+I demanded, bending my brows in a frown that I would have had very
+awful.
+
+"Nay, be not so moved, fair mistress," said M. de Rondiniacque, in a
+voice very gentle and soothing.  "The outcry was for another matter,
+and, _foi de gentilhomme!_ the fault was mine alone.  It was but
+for--for a kiss that I did give the maid in jest."
+
+"Such jests, good sir, are fitter for the camp," I answered, a little
+relaxing my sternness.  Then, observing that he began with more
+intentness to regard me, I sent Prudence at once from the hall.  When
+she was gone, I prayed him, with a courtesy very frigid, to let me
+know, ere I left him, if there were aught in which I could serve him,
+or provide for his comfort, ending, as I thought very artfully, with,
+"M. de--de--" as if I knew not his name.
+
+"My name is De Rondiniacque," he said, smiling on me with an
+expression of much cunning.  "I do perceive that you are at least
+aware of my claim to noble family.  One thing, madam, there is, in
+which you can oblige me,--to tell me, I mean, where I have before
+encountered you."
+
+"I cry you mercy, sir," I said, "for I know not what you mean."  For
+somehow I had little mind to discuss with him the affair of last
+night, and was abashed, moreover, at the thought of how I had then
+appeared.  So I spoke with a great haughtiness and disdain, and made
+to leave him.
+
+But he came quickly between me and the door, and--"_Mon Dieu!_" he
+cried, "'t is the pretty boy of yesterday!"
+
+"You grow in mystery, M. de Rondiniacque," I said.  "Prithee, let me
+pass!"
+
+"Nay, nay," he answered, "this loftiness shall not bugbear me, pretty
+one.  Thou dost know thy way to a camp and out again as well as
+another.  Faith, I did ponder wherefore those bright eyes did draw me
+so."
+
+"If you continue these matters with me, sir, I must leave you," I
+cried, and so made attempt to pass him.
+
+But he seized me gently by the arm.  "You shall not so," he
+exclaimed.  "Nay, do not fear I will hurt you.  I do not handle a
+woman as I grasped that ruffling youth.  How fare the pretty wrists?"
+
+My anger here prevailing over my prudence, I declared roundly that I
+would take these injuries to those that should exact account of them.
+Whereupon he seized me very firmly by the hand, so that I could not
+withdraw it.
+
+"And tell them, too," he said, "of last night's masquerade.  I will
+not be denied.  Your secret is safe with me.  Do I not know?  Have I
+not many such in keeping?  But none, I swear, for so lovely a partner
+in guilt.  But it must be a bargain between us."  And as I struggled
+to free my hand he wound his arm about my waist, holding me with a
+wonderful gentleness of strength.  "Nay, do not fret," he went on, "I
+will not hurt you, and the bargain is soon struck.  A tender glance
+of your eye will pay for much, as I doubt not you have been told
+before.  Come, strife is folly with those that love us; and verily
+you are so beautiful that I love you already.  What! still stubborn?"
+
+"Loose me," I panted, now mad with rage and struggling.
+
+"I vow," said he, "I am beside myself with love of you.  Oh, why so
+easy but one day past, and now so proud?"
+
+"I will call," said I, drawing breath for a loud cry.
+
+"And not twice," said a harsh voice from the door, whither turning my
+eyes I beheld Edward Royston.  He had followed me as I my father,
+and, even as I, was arrived in a moment for M. de Rondiniacque most
+unhappy.  To prove this, the mere sight of his countenance was
+enough; I had often seen it stern, but never before so terrible.
+
+Now, upon my entrance some few minutes before, M. de Rondiniacque had
+very promptly and civilly loosed his hold of little Prue; but,
+whether because he considered he now held a nobler prey, or because
+he would grant to the presence of a woman what he must refuse to the
+dictation of a man, certain it is that this time intrusion brought no
+release.  With his eyes fixed upon my captor Captain Royston strode
+slowly up the hall till close upon us; then, pointing with his finger
+to M. de Rondiniacque's hand that was still about my waist: "You will
+need that hand for your sword, Lieutenant de Rondiniacque," he said.
+"Do you not take my meaning?  This, at least, is as French as it is
+English."  And with that he struck him across the face with the glove
+he carried in his hand.
+
+And then at length I was free, and quickly out of reach of my
+persecutor.  The Frenchman stepped back, and drew slowly and with
+seeming reluctance; astonished no more by the blow than by this new
+complexion put upon the matter.  I marked, moreover, with a great
+pain of compassion in me, how poor Ned's hand went also to his side,
+to find but the scabbard; and to me that watched his face the while
+it was plain the emptiness of that sheath did not a little exacerbate
+the bitterness of his spirits; so that I fell into a great fear of
+what he should do.
+
+Finding, then, that he had no sword, Ned went, still with the same
+awful and deliberate calmness, to Sir Michael's great chair by the
+hearth, and brought thence naked the sword my father had offered a
+while since for his use.  But, as the two men faced each other, M. de
+Rondiniacque lowered his point to the floor.
+
+"Royston," he said with much gentleness, "I would not hurt you."
+
+"You had best try," replied his opponent, "for I shall kill you else."
+
+"I will explain the matter," said De Rondiniacque, still patient.
+
+"You may do so," Ned replied unmoved, "afterwards--in hell."
+
+"I do think, indeed, Ned," I here interrupted, "he did not know me
+for what I am, but did mistake me for some runagate hussy."
+
+"Then for that I will kill him!" said Ned, never turning my way, nor
+taking his baleful eye from the other's face.  "If you would not see
+it done, go, bid your father come to see it is no murder."
+
+And somehow I could not altogether disobey his word; yet I made my
+passage to the door as slow as foot can go.
+
+"And now, sir," my champion continued, "I will show you how in
+England we do serve him that affronts the daughter of his host."
+
+"Sir Michael's daughter!" exclaimed the poor man, so wholly careless
+of covering himself that Ned's intended attack upon him was perforce
+again delayed.  "I knew her but for a pretty piece that did ride the
+country as a lad, and that passed yesterday many hours among us.
+Meeting her now in female attire, I did think----"
+
+"For that thought alone I will kill you!" said Ned, and their swords
+crossed.
+
+And so I fled to find my father, having for my lover, indeed, no fear
+at all, but much for the gentleman who was, when all was said, our
+guest, and taken, as I thought, rather in a very luckless error than
+in any wilful offence.
+
+Now, as I passed through the lobby of entrance, the great door stood
+wide to the sweet noontide air of that shining autumn day; and I,
+glancing forth to see if Sir Michael were abroad and within hail,
+beheld coming up the avenue a great number of horsemen, their steel
+harness gleaming in the sun beneath the leafless trees.  So I knew
+the Prince was come, and hastened the more to advise my father of all
+that was toward.  Him I found very soon (though my inquietude did
+lend great length to the search) in the stable-yard.  He was angry in
+face and words, and vexed at soul, for he had just learned that
+Philip was gone.  He was come to the stable to know what horse had
+borne his son from the house, and it was therefore upon Christopher
+Kidd that his wrath now fell.  The poor fellow had of this sort in
+the past twenty hours received more than was by any means earned, and
+turned upon me the eager countenance of one that looks for succor.
+
+"Dear sir," I cried to my father, "His Highness is arrived."
+
+"What!" cried he in answer.  "Why, then, was I not advised?"
+
+"I come to tell you," I replied.  "His Highness is not yet
+dismounted, and with haste you may yet receive him at the door."
+
+Now, as we spoke, Christopher had been heavily searching for
+something in the pocket of his breeches, which found, he hurried
+after us, as my father with the help of my arm made painful haste to
+the house.
+
+"If the Prince be indeed come, Sir Michael," said Kidd, intercepting
+us at the side door of the house, "I keep my word to Master Philip,
+and rid myself of the plaguy thing at once."  And he thrust into Sir
+Michael's hand a twisted and crumpled paper, and beat a rapid
+retreat, vanishing in the stable before my father had deciphered the
+last words of Philip's message.
+
+When this was done we read it again together, and my father, after a
+few words of the great need there was like to be of Philip's presence
+among us during His Highness's visit to Drayton, despatched me in hot
+haste to see to the hoisting of the banner, which fluttering from the
+turret should bring back in the nick of time, if it pleased God, him
+that had, through little fault of his own, been the cause of all
+these troubles.
+
+Meantime, in the hall, Ned's attack had been both skilful and bitter;
+so fiercely indeed did he push his opponent that M. de Rondiniacque
+has since taken, by his own account, no little credit to himself for
+the swordmanship that enabled him for a while, at least, to resist
+the onslaught, without, in his turn, attempting the injury of his
+adversary.  At length, what with the fury of the attack and some
+carelessness on the Frenchman's part in shifting his ground, Ned had
+him so hemmed in and penned up in that corner of the hall that is
+opposite to the chief door of entrance that De Rondiniacque seemed
+wholly at his mercy.  But, even in that passion of anger with which
+the despite of fortune had overwhelmed the habitual temper of his
+spirit, it was quite foreign to Ned's nature to take his enemy thus
+at an advantage.  Almost in the act of delivering his point in a
+manner that for one in De Rondiniacque's constrained and
+circumscribed position would have been more than difficult to parry,
+he checked himself, and, retreating to the middle of the floor, cried
+to him to come out, for he would not willingly nail him like a stoat
+or weasel to the wall.
+
+"Enough, Royston! 't is enough!" he cried, coming forward.  "I did
+never know you bloodthirsty."
+
+So saying, he raised his eyes and saw what Ned from his position
+could not see, that within the doorway stood a small and silent
+group, spectators of the duel.  These were His Highness of Orange and
+some four or five others.  Dismounting, they had found no sign of
+hospitality but the openness of the great door, and all hesitation to
+enter unannounced was banished by the sound of the sword-play in the
+hall.  The Prince stepped at once into the lobby; he then stood a
+moment listening to the ring of meeting blades, and to the tearing,
+striding hiss of their parting.
+
+"This is no fencing bout," said he, and entered the hall.
+
+"Bloodthirsty, forsooth!" cried Ned, in answer to De Rondiniacque's
+essay at peacemaking.  "Bloodthirsty!  I have borne enough of late to
+make me so, in all conscience.  Look to yourself, man, for I would
+kill you, were you William and all his troops."  And with that he
+fell upon him again with much fury, so that the other was beginning
+of necessity a more aggressive defence, when the Prince stepped
+between them, striking up their swords with his riding-whip.
+
+"Since when, Mr. Royston," he said, "do you carry a sword?  And for
+whom?"
+
+But Royston, balked of his prey, and feeling the whole world in
+league against him, was too full of anger to show either surprise or
+reverence.  "Captain Royston," he said, with great and bitter
+emphasis on the military title, "has left his sword in miserly hands,
+Your Highness."
+
+"How so?" demanded William, the frown growing deeper on his face.
+
+"Hands that grasp what they do not need," replied Ned boldly.  "But
+_Master_ Royston takes a sword where he finds it, uses it against
+whom he pleases, and wields it for himself."
+
+"The fault, Monseigneur, of this broil is wholly mine," interposed M.
+de Rondiniacque.
+
+"Lieutenant de Rondiniacque," replied the Prince, "I know your
+generous nature, and for once mistrust it.  What is the occasion of
+the broil, as you name it?"
+
+With some hesitation M. de Rondiniacque answered that it was a
+quarrel--about a woman.
+
+His Highness laughed drily.  "I fear, Lieutenant," he said, "that to
+protect a man that was once your friend, you play very nobly upon our
+knowledge of your weakness."
+
+"Indeed, sire," said De Rondiniacque, "it is as I say.  I did wrong a
+lady, mistaking her for another kind."
+
+"And did 'William and all his army' likewise wrong this lady?" asked
+the Prince.
+
+"Indeed, no, Your Highness," replied De Rondiniacque.
+
+"Then I must believe, Lieutenant," the Prince continued, "that it is
+for no kiss to a pretty girl, but for holding my commission, that you
+were even now in danger of your life.  We have it from his own lips
+that he had as lief kill me as you."  Then, as the generous fellow
+would again have spoken in endeavor to put the matter in a better
+aspect, "No more, sir," said His Highness; "stand aside."  He then
+proceeded to address Captain Royston.
+
+"Sir," he said, "I spared your life of late.  But I did warn you that
+if found again in our neighborhood, or raising hand against us, were
+it never so little, you were like to get such treatment as we give to
+spies."  And, turning to the officers and gentlemen that had entered
+the hall in his company, he added: "How think you, gentlemen?"
+
+To this question Mr. Bentinck contented himself with replying that
+His Highness had indeed promised as much, and that it was for him to
+judge whether his conditions had been infringed; Count Schomberg, who
+was still of the party, said, speaking in the French language, that
+an example would not come amiss at this juncture, for he believed
+these raw English levies were proving not a little turbulent and
+likely to give trouble.  The rest, much, I think, to their honor,
+kept silence, having perhaps the greatest difficulty in believing the
+matters alleged against Captain Royston, that his confession of the
+night before came to them but at second-hand.
+
+There is little doubt in my mind that the silence of these two
+younger gentlemen, taking sides, as it seemed to do, with the small
+doubt or hesitation that still lurked in the Prince's mind, added for
+the moment fuel to his anger.  He bade the junior of them go to the
+escort, and send in a file of men; this gentleman, as he went,
+encountering Sir Michael in the doorway, after one glance in his
+face, stood back, giving way to him with a natural and involuntary
+respect.  For M. de Rondiniacque has told me that my father entered
+the hall with that pure and noble dignity of bearing to which age,
+infirmity, and even lameness can but add distinction.
+
+"Your Highness is welcome," he said, at once singling out and
+approaching his chief guest.  "I regret my failure to welcome his
+arrival, and could wish I had better entertainment to give."
+
+"I am wholly of your mind, Sir Michael Drayton," replied the Prince.
+"I like it so little that I take my leave of you."  And with that he
+turned his back upon his host, addressing some words in a low voice
+to Mr. Bentinck.
+
+The insult was plain, and, although he was in a measure prepared for
+trouble by the few words he had heard before he entered the hall,
+such an attack upon himself was wholly beyond Sir Michael's
+expectation.  He was, however, a man to resent discourtesy most
+readily from the highest source.
+
+"I will ask Your Highness," said he, in a voice very clear and
+steady, "how we have incurred his displeasure."  Then the old man
+drew himself to his full height, and his voice recovered for a space
+some of the fuller and rounder tones of earlier days.  "Ay, but it
+is," he said very solemnly, "a matter very weighty.  Since Your
+Highness has so spoken, and within my walls, I may ask the reason of
+it."
+
+The Prince turned upon him with a great suddenness.  "Then know,
+sir," he answered, almost fiercely, "that I was yesterday received
+under pretence of loyalty and friendship into the house of an English
+gentleman that has served me beyond the seas.  But the house, sir,
+was a trap, and I the rat for whom the bait was set."  At this point
+it was that two troopers, preceded by the young officer, entered the
+hall.  His Highness regarded them for a moment, and then continued to
+Sir Michael his explanation, which rapidly unfolded itself as a
+charge against more than Edward Royston.  "Well, Sir Michael, I
+spared that man's life, moved to clemency, I believe, in chief by the
+persuasion of a young fellow that did bring me warning of my danger.
+For this treacherous host, I dismissed him my service, and, if proof
+that I then erred was lacking last night, it is not far to seek this
+morning.  For I now find the man here, with my messenger to you at
+his sword's point, and threats against me and mine mingling with his
+sword-play.  How shall I know this is not yet another hotbed of false
+friends?  In truth, I do believe it such.  Therefore, I say again,
+sir, I do not like my entertainment."
+
+"Your Highness is much abused," said Sir Michael, mighty calmly.
+
+"Indeed," replied the Prince, with a harsh and unkindly laugh, "I do
+believe I am."
+
+"For this is a matter," continued my father, loftily passing over the
+twisting of his word, "of which I do know the rights."
+
+"'T is like enough, sir," said the Prince.  "But I do not look to
+hear them from you."  Then, turning to the two troopers, he bade them
+arrest Captain Royston, saying to them and the officer that he should
+hold them responsible for the prisoner's person till Exeter was
+reached.  Now, Ned had stood all this while with my father's sword
+still naked in his hand, the point resting upon the floor.
+
+"Take his sword," said His Highness.
+
+And poor Ned, by this caring little what he did, flung the borrowed
+weapon on the ground.
+
+"The sword is mine!" said Sir Michael.
+
+"I ask your pardon, Sir Michael," cried Ned, and stooped to raise it,
+saying, as he reverently presented the hilt to its owner: "I did use
+it for your daughter, sir."
+
+For which Sir Michael thanked him very civilly, and then addressed
+the future King of England in words that I think he has not to this
+day forgot.
+
+"William, Prince of Orange," he said, "this sword had been raised
+against King Charles the Martyr himself in defence of the friend
+beneath my roof.  But now my hand can barely fetch it from the
+sheath.  Yet is my tongue not rusted, and the old man's voice must be
+heard."  And then, as a silence fell heavy upon the room, he added,
+"Ay, and heard it shall be."
+
+The Prince turned his aquiline gaze upon him, but the man who had met
+and endured unflinching the eyes of the Lord Protector Cromwell was
+no whit abashed.  I have heard old men say that thirty years ago my
+father's glance could be terrible as his sword; and even now there
+were moments when from the dimmed azure of that deep-set eye the mist
+of its many years was lifted, and the color grew cerulean round the
+keen and glowing spark that lit up, it seemed, not only the orb, but
+the whole countenance of the man, while it pierced the heart of the
+wicked, and not seldom affected even the innocent with a great fear.
+The Prince, like the brave man he ever was, met the old man's eye
+with courage.
+
+"Be brief, sir," said he, "and I will hear you."  And although it was
+at this moment that without we heard the clamorous arrival of a
+despatch-rider who shortly after entered, with bloody spurs and
+bespattered to the eyes with mud, and presented a sealed packet to
+Mr. Bentinck, yet, throughout the little commotion thus made, His
+Highness never once turned his attention from Sir Michael.
+
+"I do here solemnly declare," said my father, "that Edward Royston
+hath done no treason to you."
+
+"He has refused all account of his action," replied the Prince, very
+coldly.
+
+"And so doing," retorted the old man, "he intended the sacrificing
+his own honor to mine."
+
+"Said I not you were in league with him?" cried the Prince.
+
+"Indeed, I am so," answered Sir Michael; "but in no treason."
+
+"If the truth will clear his name," said His Highness, "the truth
+must be said."
+
+"And shall be, if Your Highness grant us breathing time of one short
+half-hour."  And here Ned's valiant advocate paused a little, waiting
+a reply that came not, for this concession of time he was determined
+to win, if it were by any means to be gained; having no mind to tell
+Philip's story without his son's knowledge of the telling, and his
+presence to bear witness, if need were, to the truth of the tale.
+And all this while, from the coming of the courier, Mr. Bentinck had
+perused the papers he had taken from the packet placed in his hands.
+He now raised his head, and eyed keenly the two speakers, as one that
+had not missed a word of their talk.  "How saith the great Prince,"
+my father continued, "that is come to set free a land enslaved?
+Thirty little minutes on the dial's face?  It is surely no great boon
+to ask."
+
+And Mr. Bentinck stepped up to the Prince, saying privately, but not
+so low as to be unheard of all: "Grant it.  I have here news that do
+affect the matter."
+
+And so it came about that the Prince, with a growth of courtesy
+forced upon him by Sir Michael's bearing, did promise in half an
+hour's time to hear his story in defence of the accused, asking very
+civilly his host's permission to walk with his suite in the garden
+that he spied from the windows until the time were past.  So--the
+Prince and his following walking abroad; my father despatching Simon
+and others not only with refreshment for the gentlemen, but also
+great tankards of ale and other good things to the soldiers of the
+escort; Ned with his guard, moreover, being quartered for this
+momentous half-hour in my father's little chamber on the ground
+floor; and I, like Sister Anne in the tale of Bluebeard and his many
+wives, being posted on the roof of the turret, and, beneath a flag
+that would not at all, in the light breeze that there was, spread
+itself to my liking, watching with an old spy-glass to my eye for the
+horseman that should by his coming make us all happy again--there was
+left in the hall none but the luckless cause of this present phase of
+our troubles.  M. de Rondiniacque at least thought himself alone; and
+since he is of a nature very generous and candid, who so unhappy as
+he?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+M. de Rondiniacque had little reason to hope for anything better than
+a second rebuff if he pursued the Prince to plead Royston's cause in
+the garden.  He therefore sat him down in the hall where they had
+left him, to ponder miserably enough the mischief he had done.  But
+scarce, being wont at times to speak to himself aloud, had he cried:
+"_Mort de ma vie!_ but if poor Royston suffer for this, I will
+forswear all and turn monk" (wholly forgetting, as he was at times
+not a little used, the grave cause of his expatriation), when there
+ran lightly out from the shelter formed by the hanging that was
+before the door that leads to the kitchens, who but little Prue?
+
+Now, it was not far from this door that Mr. Bentinck had stood while
+he read the letters brought by the courier, and it was at this point
+that Prudence now paused, and stooping, raised from the floor a sheet
+of thin paper, twice folded, which it soon appeared she had from her
+cover observed that gentleman to let fall.  Holding this behind her
+back, she addressed M. de Rondiniacque.
+
+"'T is a mighty fine business, Master Foreigner," she said.  "See how
+you have embroiled everything with this love of kissing!  It is like
+enough you have by this means cost an honest man his life."
+
+"'T is all true that you say," replied he; "yet I cannot tell how you
+should know it, if you have not wilfully listened since ever your
+mistress sent you from this place."
+
+"I came between that door and its curtain," she replied, "in the same
+moment that Sir Michael did ask the Prince the reason of his
+churlishness.  So it was not long before I heard good Mr. Royston
+tell how he did use the sword for Sir Michael's daughter.  And I were
+a ninnyhammer indeed, if I could not from that tell the rest of the
+tale.  Therefore, I say again, that 't is all your fault, ill man
+that you are!"
+
+"It is mine, indeed," said De Rondiniacque sadly.
+
+Then did Prudence pull a very long and solemn face.
+
+"Do you repent of your sins?" she asked.
+
+"Most heartily I do," he answered.
+
+"And would you atone?" she continued.
+
+"Most gladly--but how?" he asked.
+
+"Will you leave kissing forever," she demanded with great severity,
+"if I do put you in the way to make amends?"
+
+"Ay, that, and more!" he cried, in reckless penitence, "do but show
+me the way."
+
+"Nay, softly," she answered.  "'T will take three at least, and one
+of them a woman of a very pretty wit, even if I be not mistaken, to
+undo the mischief one witless man can work with this same foolish
+kissing."
+
+"Have done with your gibes!" said De Rondiniacque angrily.  "I would
+not kiss you again if you asked it."  For which discourtesy Mistress
+Prue deferred her revenge, thinking, as she has told me, that it was
+but his sorrow and zeal of penitence made the gentleman speak so
+unmannerly.
+
+"Hark then to me," she said.  "As I stood there by the door, where I
+could hear all and see not a little, after that the Prince had said
+they would walk a turn in the garden, and while they were taking away
+poor Mr. Royston a prisoner, the sour-faced man in black drew the
+Prince aside so that they almost touched the curtain that hid me.
+And there for a little space they stood, talking soft and low.  What
+is he--the surly one, I mean, that had the papers?"
+
+"That is Mr. Bentinck," replied De Rondiniacque, with some
+impatience.  "Well, what said they?"
+
+"The Prince was minded that Sir Michael spoke truth, but the man in
+black that they must use all means to lay hands on the priest; he
+said, too, that in his letter was a paper with every mark of this
+priest's person, so as it might be his very portrait cunningly
+painted; and he said that he cared not a groat for Sir Michael, nor
+for poor Mr. Royston, so he might come at the priest.  They are
+mightily in love with this priest, Mr. Mar-all, and I do think----"
+
+"Did you hear his description?" interrupted De Rondiniacque.  "Did
+Bentinck read it to the Prince?"
+
+"They should do that in the air, said the Prince.  And as they went I
+saw how this Mr. _Benting_, as you call him, did search among the
+papers in his hands as if he had lost one of them.  And 't is little
+wonder," added she, "that he could not find it, for His Highness's
+great boot had it fast under heel the while they talked; and to that
+heel it stuck for three good strides of their passage to the other
+door.  See the mark of his tread."  And she showed him the paper she
+had found, with its impress of a muddy heel.  "And I do think," said
+Prudence, "that it is, perhaps, by the grace of God, that same paper
+that tells of this priest's person."
+
+"I see little good in it for us, even if it be so," said he; "but let
+me read."  And, leaning over her as she unfolded the paper, he put an
+arm round her waist.  But Prue twisted sinuously from his grasp.
+
+"Nay, Mr. Mar-all," she cried, "I will read it myself.  I can read a
+bold hand o' write near as well as print."  And then, after peering
+closely for a while at the crabbed, slanting, and unfamiliar
+characters upon the paper, she said dolefully: "Alack-aday! 't is an
+outlandish thing, and will not be read.  I vow 't is French lingo!"
+
+M. de Rondiniacque snatched the paper from her hand.
+
+"I will read it for you, my pretty one," he said.
+
+"I am not that, thank Heaven!" says Prue, bridling, as he hastily
+scanned the writing.
+
+"What! not pretty?" he asked, toying with her as it were by rote of
+habit, while eyes and mind were both upon his reading.
+
+"That I hope I am," replied Prue, "but not yours.  Your love is
+unlucky."  Then, as she saw that she was like to get little sport
+while he still would read: "Can you read French, sir?" she asked.
+
+"What else?" he answered.  "Do I not speak it since I was weaned?"
+
+"Ay, to speak it," said she; "that I can understand, being
+natural-like to a poor thing hearing no better from a child.  But to
+read it--'t is wonderful indeed.  Come, do it into English for me."
+Then, hearing a footstep without, she cried: "Have you mastered it?
+For I think he returns," and as M. de Rondiniacque looked up from
+reading the last words, she snatched from him the paper and hid it in
+her bosom.
+
+The next moment Mr. William Bentinck entered the hall, walking slowly
+and casting his eyes from side to side in anxious search of the floor
+for the very thing she had hidden.  When he perceived that he was not
+alone, he asked with some eagerness whether by chance Lieutenant de
+Rondiniacque had seen him drop a paper.  That gentleman replying that
+he had seen no paper fall, and proceeding with great appearance of
+innocent good nature to peer about in the same search, Mr. Bentinck
+turned his regard upon Prudence, who was about leaving the room.
+
+She seemed, however, on a sudden to change her purpose, for, turning
+again into the hall, she approached Mr. Bentinck, and, speaking with
+a very fine assumption of timidity: "If it please your honor," she
+said, "was it a very thin paper that you mislaid, and twice folded?"
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Bentinck very sharply.  "Where is it?"
+
+"La, now," cries Prue, "where did I lay it?  I did think perhaps it
+was of import, and know I did put it in safety."
+
+"Then find it," growled he so angrily that poor Prue appeared much
+frightened.
+
+"Nay, sir," she pleaded very piteously, "do not so frown upon a poor
+maid."
+
+She looked around a little, as in great puzzlement; then, feeling
+daintily beneath her stomacher, she produced the paper, crying
+triumphantly that she had said it was safe, and here it was.  Mr.
+Bentinck was at once upon the paper like a hungry hawk, asking, so
+soon as it was safe in his hand, whether she had read what was there
+written.  At which Prudence opened wide her blue eyes in an amazement
+vastly childlike.
+
+"And how does your honor think I should read French?" she asked.
+
+"And how know 't was French," retorted her inquisitor, with bitter
+keenness, "if you did not read?"  But Prue was too strong for the
+great statesman.
+
+"Mercy on us, sir," she cried, clasping her hands most prayerfully,
+"do not hang me!  I' fecks I did try to read, and making nothing of
+it, did know it for French."
+
+When Mr. Bentinck, for all reply, had tushed, pshawed, and growled a
+few words wholly inaudible, he turned sharply upon his heel and left
+them.
+
+And when he was well away M. de Rondiniacque, forgetful alike of
+pious vow and petulant threat, seized Prudence in his arms and very
+heartily embraced her.
+
+"By all my Huguenot ancestors!" he cried, kissing her vigorously to
+punctuate his oath, "but I do love thee, good wench."  And 't is
+enough proof that she forgave him this breach of decorum that she
+said never a word of threat nor promise broken.
+
+"Was it not purely done?" she said, pushing him away.  "Now tell me
+what was writ in the paper.  Pray Heaven you did read enough."
+
+"All," replied M. de Rondiniacque.  "But, though I put much faith in
+you, I know not yet what is your scheme, nor for what reason, if it
+be of use to us, you have returned to the Dutchman his lost paper."
+
+"'T is as needful he should know what there is written as we, if it
+is as I guess," said Prue.  "And that I cannot tell until you give me
+its purport."
+
+"Somewhat in this way it ran, then," rejoined M. de Rondiniacque:
+
+
+"'Father Francis, otherwise and at present known as "James Marston,
+of the City of Oxford," fat, short, red periwig, his own hair
+tonsured----'"
+
+
+Prue's head had so far nodded to each particular, but at this she
+checked her pretty chin in mid-air.  "Tonsured!" she cried; "and what
+is that?"
+
+"Shaven so," he replied, describing with his finger a ring upon the
+top of his head.  "There is much more in the paper, however."
+
+"You have told me enough," said Prue, much elated.  "Come with me,
+and I will show you the man."
+
+"But this is not the man that escaped our hands last night," said M.
+de Rondiniacque, thoughtfully.
+
+"What matter, Mr. Mar-plot?  Can you not see it is the man they would
+have?  Come."  And she seized him by the hand and ran for the door,
+almost dragging him after her.  But at that turn of the gallery that
+leads to the stable-yard she paused a moment.  "But in truth," she
+said, "it does hurt me to betray the poor man."
+
+"Betray!" cried M. de Rondiniacque.
+
+"To be sure," answered Prue; "it will be nothing else.  Since last
+evening have I hid him in the barn loft.  He told me he was a poor
+soldier of His Highness that was to be hanged for stealing an old
+hen.  Now 't is a wicked thing indeed to steal a hen, but since the
+hen was, he says, very tough and bad eating, I think it a worse thing
+to hang the poor man for it.  Moreover, I did once save my
+grandfather when Kirke's men would have hanged him, and the mere name
+of a rope would make me pity a very Judas."
+
+"But what made you think him a soldier, and yet know him for a
+priest?" asked M. de Rondiniacque, not a little puzzled.
+
+"He has a sword and other vile things for killing," replied the
+tender-hearted little fool, "and also a great cloak like those of the
+Prince's guard."
+
+"I begin to smoke the man," said the Lieutenant, remembering the
+escape, after the affair in the orchard at Royston, of one of the
+conspirators.
+
+"But this morning, when I privily took him food," continued Prudence,
+"the thing of steel, which is for all the world like those of your
+men, was no longer upon his head.  For he lay sleeping, and before I
+had him awake I had well marked the little round spot atop of his
+head, which had not long since certainly been shaven, having now but
+a very short and stubby growth of hair upon it.  And he made me
+think, too, of a bad man that Farmer Kidd did tell me of.  So I
+thought he was perhaps the priest your Mr. _Benting_ hunts."
+
+"'T is very like," said M. de Rondiniacque.  "So lead me where he is,
+child.  In any case, he is a bad man."
+
+"You would not have me betray a man for no reason but his badness,"
+said the girl piteously.
+
+"I would have you spend your pity first upon the good and innocent,"
+replied M. de Rondiniacque, with some sternness; and then added:
+"Moreover, the man is a Papist."
+
+"A Papist!  Ah!  I do forget," cried Prue.  "He must even make way
+for better men."  And with that she led him at once the same road
+that the ale and beef had taken.  From which it is clear that M. de
+Rondiniacque's dealings with her kind had at least taught him the
+dexterous art of matching a bad reason with a worse upon the other
+side.
+
+Such, then, was my little handmaid's great secret, which nothing,
+perhaps, but her pique at her mistress's reticence could have induced
+her so long to maintain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+Meantime, upon the turret roof I was enduring very tediously the
+flight of these anxious minutes.  The spot we used to call the Crow's
+Nest is marked plain to the unaided eye by a gap in the woods that
+cover the low ridge of hills along which runs the road Exeter way
+from Holroyd Grange.  This break in the line of trees did I watch, it
+may be, for no more than ten minutes; but if it be remembered that I
+knew not yet what was the end of the struggle in the hall, that a
+thousand accidents suggested by the active mind to the unwilling
+heart might delay or prevent Philip's keeping of his promise, and
+that even if his coming availed to restore Ned to the favor of His
+Highness, my brother must himself run great risk at his enemies'
+hands, it will be found little surprising that those minutes were to
+me tense, full, and slow-footed as so many hours.
+
+At length in the gap appeared something--a horse was it, or a cow?
+Certainly there was no man upon its back.  But it stopped in the open
+space.  For at least the fiftieth time I raised to my eye the old
+spy-glass Ned had given so many years ago to his little friend, and
+with its aid I could now see that it was indeed a horse, with a man
+that led it by the bridle, and seemed, I thought, to be gazing toward
+me.  I laid down the glass, and in a passionate desire by some means
+to signify to him the need there was that he should with haste cover
+the three miles that lay between us of broken country, I seized the
+cords that held the flag aloft, and, loosing that which passes
+through the little pulley atop from the pin to which it was fast, I
+pulled first on the one and then on the other cord in such wise that
+I made the banner run down and up the mast again and again like a
+flag gone mad.
+
+And then once more through the glass I saw the man leap upon the back
+of his horse, wave his hat to my signal, and disappear behind the
+trees the way he had come.
+
+And I knew then that he would not be long; for he had gone the way to
+take the shortest track to Drayton, and Philip, though he had no love
+of horses, could, like all his family, ride when he pleased both
+fearlessly and well.  I left the flag flying, and descended the
+winding stair with heart much lightened, to meet at its foot my
+father.
+
+"He is coming, sir," I cried.  "Philip is coming!  I have seen him."
+
+And then I learned from him all that had happened below; and, hearing
+that Ned was arrested for his attack on M. de Rondiniacque, was for
+going forthwith to find him and to give him what comfort I was able.
+This, however, my father would not permit, but led me to his own
+chamber, where from the window we watched for Philip's coming.  And
+although he made his return with a quickness truly wonderful, when
+the nature not only of the country he traversed, but also of the
+horse that carried him, come to be considered, so that we saw him
+close at hand before the Prince's half-hour was expired, yet the time
+seemed long indeed that he was coming, and the space left for
+conference when he was come appeared all too short.  Having seen us
+waving signals to him as he forced his jaded nag up the grassy hill
+behind the house, he came at once to my father's chamber, where a few
+words told him how the matter stood.  But when it was now time to
+descend and meet His Highness in the hall, the half-hour being
+expired, Sir Michael would by no means consent that his son should
+accompany him, having perhaps but little hope that his surrender
+might be avoided, yet keeping it, as it were, a last piece to move in
+the game.  But it was good to stand by and hear these two men, so
+diverse in purpose, in honor so alike, and to feel in my heart so
+sweet a glow of pride in my own people.  For I, with most at stake,
+could say no word to urge Philip's sacrificing himself.  But they
+were agreed that no claim nor duty must be counted so great as that
+of shielding, and even, if it might be done, of restoring the man who
+had held his own honor second to theirs.
+
+And so Sir Michael went to meet the enemy, telling me, as together we
+descended the stair, that I was his second line of support, and that
+Philip, waiting above, was his reserve, in case the struggle should
+begin to go against him.
+
+In the hall we found awaiting us the Prince and Mr. Bentinck.  In His
+Highness's countenance I thought were signs of a humor more kindly
+than my father would have had me to expect; for his aspect recalled
+rather the man that gave me his sword than him that took from me the
+broken blade.  I had but one glance at him, however, for as Sir
+Michael passed on to address the Prince, there came over me a very
+hot and comfortless sense of shame, along with a wish--vastly
+unreasonable--that they should not recognize my features.  So I
+turned aside from my father, and rested my arm upon the mantel, while
+I gazed blankly upon the glowing logs that filled the hearth.  And
+behind me I heard my father tell, in phrases now judicial, now
+eloquent, and at times even impassioned, the tale of those accidents
+and troubles which had brought, as he said, his old friend, young
+Royston, into this bog of His Highness's disfavor.
+
+But before it was all told a hand touched me upon the shoulder, and a
+dry and guttural voice with the one word--"Mistress," made me turn
+and confront Mr. Bentinck.  His keen eyes seemed to search my
+countenance for the answer to some doubt or question in his mind.
+"Pray tell me," he said at length, "where is the latter part of His
+Highness's sword?"
+
+"It is here, Mr. Bentinck," I answered, laying my hand where I had
+concealed that pointed fragment of steel; "here; near the heart it
+shall surely pierce if Edward Royston come to harm amongst you."
+
+"I did think," he said, "that you were that boy that braved us all.
+And I believe, moreover, that you had great part in the escape of the
+priest."
+
+"I had indeed the greatest part of all," I answered, being now
+resolved to cast myself upon his mercy; "for without my share the man
+had been still fast in your hands.  But oh, Mr. Bentinck," I
+continued, "why are you his enemy?"
+
+"Enemy!  Whose enemy?" cried Mr. Bentinck.  "Is it Captain Royston's
+you mean?"
+
+"Ay, his," I answered.  "Oh! he told me that you loved him not, but
+withal has no ill word for you, declaring you always the most honest
+of His Highness's servants."
+
+Mr. Bentinck here seemed to muse a little.  And then--"I thank him,"
+he said.  "If he be the same, I were sorry to be his enemy."
+
+"He is honest as the daylight!" I cried.  "He has but wronged the
+seeming of his honor for another--and that other without fault but in
+appearance--as my father now makes plain to His Highness."
+
+"Indeed, Mistress Drayton," he replied, speaking with a gentleness
+well-nigh tender, "I do hope he may."  And with that he turned from
+me as if to rejoin His Highness.  But I summoned all my daring to
+make a plea yet more fully feminine, being much emboldened thereto by
+the softness of his last words.
+
+"Mr. Bentinck, Mr. Bentinck," I whispered eagerly, and he turned
+again.  "Captain Royston and I were to be wed, if--if--" said I, and
+could say no more.
+
+"Ah," said he, "if what?"
+
+"If you--if His Highness destroy us not utterly," I replied.  "Grant
+us your aid, Mr. Bentinck."  And into these words I put, I do
+suppose, much prayerfulness of face, voice, and gesture.  For he
+looked a moment very kindly on the clasped hands and streaming eyes
+that begged his help.
+
+"Do not weep, mistress," he said.  "You shall have all I may give,"
+and so turned his back upon me.
+
+And here the Prince came a little toward me.  "It is truly a tale of
+romance, Sir Michael," he said.  "Here was I vainly seeking the
+serpent, and, lo! there is none but Eve."  And then to me: "Come
+hither, Mistress Eve," he said.  So I went over to him, and made
+before him a courtesy very deep and humble.  "I do like you better
+thus, child," he went on, "than booted and spurred.  Is this a true
+history that I hear?"
+
+"So please Your Highness," I answered, "'t is true as the Gospel."
+
+"How so?" he asked, smiling.  "You have not heard it."
+
+"But it was my father," said I, "that told it."
+
+At which reply the Prince appeared much pleased, for, addressing
+himself to Mr. Bentinck: "'T is indeed a pious family," he remarked,
+"and such mutual faith can hardly go with treason.  And, on my
+conscience, William," he went on, "the tale has an appearance."
+Then, to my father: "If all this be true, Sir Michael, you are much
+abused."
+
+"How that, Your Highness?" asked the old man.
+
+"By a son," said the Prince, "departing from the faith of his
+fathers."
+
+"It is between him and his Maker," replied Sir Michael, with a touch
+of pride.
+
+"And by me," continued His Highness, "departing from the courtesy
+incumbent upon princes.  Does that stand in the same awful
+arbitrament, Sir Michael?"
+
+"If Your Highness do me right," said my father, "'t is between us
+two, and shall go no further."
+
+"That is kindly said, sir," answered the Prince.  "So, if this be all
+true--as it must be, if you have not all the art of deceiving the
+most naturally in the world--I must needs fling pardon broadcast, eh?"
+
+"I do not see what other course is open to Your Highness," said my
+father.
+
+But here the Prince's face grew vastly stern: "Except to this
+priest," he said, "who, if he has not aimed at my life, is at least
+my enemy, however honorable."
+
+"My son?" asked Sir Michael; and my heart was sore to see the pallor
+of his cheek.
+
+"Ay, sir, your son--I must have your son.  Captain Royston's deed may
+become the man of heart, however ill it fits the office of the
+soldier.  But your son is my open enemy.  Must I lose both culprits?"
+
+And so a shadow fell again upon us all, and with it a solemn silence,
+which endured, I believe, all the time that I was absent from the
+hall.  Certain it is that when I returned in my brother's company not
+one of the three looked as if he had spoken.
+
+When Philip stood before him, the Prince for a while eyed him with
+great keenness, which rejoiced me to see; for surely no man had ever
+words so eloquent to speak in his own defence as was my brother's
+pure and noble countenance.
+
+"Do you come of your own will to see me?" His Highness at length
+enquired.
+
+"I do," said my brother.
+
+"And wherefore?" demanded the Prince.
+
+"To take what blame I may from my friends," Philip answered.
+
+"I have heard your story, sir," said the Prince.  "If you would
+escape the fate that comes of ill company, describe to me now him
+that constrained you in this matter."
+
+"I may not," replied Philip.
+
+"Tell me, then," said His Highness, "what power he held over you."
+
+"I must not," said Philip.
+
+This reply seemed not a little to vex the Prince.  "Must not!" he
+cried.
+
+"Nay, then," said the priest gently, "an Your Highness like it
+better, I will not."
+
+"'May not, must not, will not,'" said William, bitterly quoting his
+words; "by the rule of war, Sir Priest, I may hang you to that tree.
+Deny me not, for may can wax greater in other mouths."
+
+"Hanging," says Philip very coolly, "is little likely to rob me of
+the power to hold my tongue."
+
+Now during this strife, while I both trembled and admired, I had yet
+eyes to remark that Mr. Bentinck's gaze did wander to and fro between
+a paper he held in his hand and the countenance of this stanch
+brother of mine.  At the time I knew not what it meant, but have
+since reason to believe it that same description of a priest that had
+been trodden by the heel of a prince, hid in a maiden's bosom, and
+feloniously perused by a gentleman of France.  Finding in it little
+likeness to the man before him, he proceeded to the execution of a
+small but vastly cunning _ruse_, to discover if the man whose
+description he held in his hand were indeed the plotter of the late
+murderous attack upon His Highness.
+
+"Your Highness," said he sourly, "this subtile fellow does well know
+that this Francis,"--and here Mr. Bentinck glanced with some
+ostentation at the paper that was in his hand,--"or 'Marston,' as he
+is here named, with his round body and red periwig, is already in our
+hands.  This aping of constancy is but a means to keep from himself
+the blame of a complicity that the other confesses."
+
+"Nay, faith!" cried Philip, with an eagerness wholly innocent, "I
+knew not that he was taken."
+
+At this His Highness laughed loud and right merrily.  "Cunning
+William!" he said, as he patted Mr. Bentinck upon the shoulder, "your
+politic tricks are better than my threatenings."  He then addressed
+Philip in a voice much softened: "Mr. Drayton," he said, "I ask your
+pardon for my rough soldier ways.  We have taken no such person, but
+you have most innocently told us what we much desired to know.
+Wherefore did you scorn our hospitality last evening?  Was that also
+of compulsion?"
+
+"Nay," says Philip, "but to keep my father's name clear of a most
+foul reproach.  From the bottom of my heart I am Your Highness's
+enemy.  I never cease to pray that all your purpose may miscarry.
+But you will not hang a Drayton and a cutthroat in one noose."
+
+"I vow," cried the Prince, "you are all of one mould, you Draytons."
+
+He seemed here to muse a while, and then begged Mr. Bentinck to give
+order that Mr. Royston be brought before him.  And my heart very
+miserably sank in my bosom, for I remembered how, but a little while
+back, he had, in speaking of poor Ned, used the military title,
+saying "Captain," as if restoration to rank and honor were already in
+sight.
+
+Mr. Bentinck soon returned, and not long after him came Ned with his
+guard, which, in obedience to a sign from the Prince, halted at the
+door, where they stood impassive with drawn swords.
+
+"Come hither, sir," said His Highness; and Ned approaching, I saw
+that, although the passion was burnt out of him, and his face was
+worn and haggard, he still met with an eye unsubdued the glance of
+the man on whom his fate depended.
+
+"Mr. Royston," said the Prince, "I have heard all this midnight
+mystery.  'T is a brave tale, which, in my thinking, clears all
+therein involved of wicked design.  But no tale, be it never so true,
+clears you, Mr. Royston, from the great fault of aiding my enemy
+there to escape.  You know what in war-time is the law of military
+discipline.  Have you anything to say, Mr. Royston, before this
+matter be ended?"
+
+And Ned looked him straight in the eyes, and answered him with a very
+gentle fearlessness.
+
+"I have little to say, Your Highness," he said; "and nothing of
+contention.  One thing only I ask, if Your Highness mean to push the
+matter to extremity.  Since I have never shown fear, I would die, if
+it please you, rather by bullet than the--the cord.  Then, sire," he
+went on,--and this was the sole occasion upon which I did hear
+Captain Royston use to the Prince before his coronation the regal
+form of address,--"then, sire, shall I take with me no grudging to
+you."
+
+Here following a little silence, I had much ado, for all my growing
+belief that the Prince did mean well by us all, to keep back the sobs
+that rose in my throat and caught at my breathing.  And then came my
+lover's voice again.  "I have failed in my duty.  I had just drawn on
+the seeming lad that was the companion of my watch, because he would
+not let me follow the priest.  He crossed swords with me, and I
+struck him in the neck,"--and here, I thought, His Highness's eyes
+lighted curiously upon me, and I grew warm with blushing as I thought
+of the black patch of plaister upon my bosom,--"and then I learned
+that it was no blood of man that I had drawn, but the drops fell from
+the soft flesh of a woman.  And more I found that fatal night--that
+the woman was she that I did love well when she was but a little maid
+no higher than my sword-hilt,"--and here the man's hand went to his
+side, but found nothing,--"the sword, God's truth! that I must not
+wear!  And then I learned why she would have the popish fellow
+escape.  He was her brother, and she loved him, even as both did love
+the great old name.  And I?  I loved the maid, even the more that I
+had hurt her.  And the man swore--not by his order, nor by his
+heretic bishop of Rome, but on his honorable lineage as a gentleman
+of England, to do you nor yours further hurt of any kind till his
+foot was set once more in France.  It was hard to see so pretty a
+maid weep; harder, when the tears fell from eyes that had already
+forgiven the wound.  Moreover, Your Highness, I did put faith in the
+man.  Papist that he was, yet did he bear himself so as none could
+doubt his worth.  I do but ask that, before I bear my punishment, the
+master I have ever served in a love hedged about with reverence and
+awe will put faith in my word that I had no will to wrong him, or to
+fail, as it seems fail I did, in the service that was due."
+
+"For that I do believe you, sir," said the Prince; "yet can it not
+undo what is done."
+
+While Ned was speaking, His Highness had seemed to my jealously
+watching eye not unmoved.  He now laid his hand on Mr. Bentinck's
+arm, and drew that gentleman apart into the window which is nearest
+the door where Prue had played the eavesdropper.  I had no intent to
+do the like, and it was more His Highness's fault than mine if he did
+not perceive that I stood so much nearer than the rest of the company
+that some words of his discourse with Mr. Bentinck were plainly
+audible to me.  And, while their voices rose and fell in that
+murmured conference, the curtain that hangs before that little door
+was brushed aside, and M. de Rondiniacque, with his hat in his hand
+and a smile upon his lips at once merry, mocking, and triumphant,
+stood beside me.
+
+"This is no plot, William," said the Prince,--"but a matter of one
+family."  And there followed much that escaped my ear, until His
+Highness's voice rose with the words, "How think you, William?  If we
+had this Francis--" and then dropped into the former murmuring.
+
+"Had we the fat one," says Mr. Bentinck; "for this priest"--and at
+the word he twisted his head a little toward Philip, who stood by the
+hearth with Ned and my father--"this priest is too spare to make a
+meal of."
+
+"Ay," said the Prince, "if we could but find this 'Marston,' and if
+it were made plain he had no ties here with these good people, we
+might well treat these late adventures with the largeness that safety
+can use."
+
+And then much more from Mr. Bentinck that I did not hear, until he
+said that the good-will of such men as these was of much value, and
+ended with some words of Captain Royston's difficult dilemma of the
+past night.
+
+"Look on her but once, Your Highness," said he, "and weigh the
+temptation."  So I knew he had kept faith with me.
+
+But it was not to my ears alone that these last words were audible;
+for no sooner were they uttered than M. de Rondiniacque stepped
+forward some paces and, speaking in tones of much levity: "'T is very
+true, Your Highness," said he, "as Mr. Bentinck has observed: the
+women of these parts are the very devil for the seducing a man from
+his duty."
+
+The Prince turned upon him very sharply.  "Peace, Lieutenant!" he
+said harshly; "such levity becomes neither my presence nor the
+occasion."  He then turned his back upon the interrupter, and
+continued, addressing Mr. Bentinck: "But then--this Francis--we have
+not taken him.  What then?"
+
+Again the dauntless and merry Frenchman interrupted; he well knew, I
+think, that the import of what he was to say would cover a measure of
+insolence, and could not resist the inclination to practise his
+raillery a little upon the ponderous gravity of Mr. Bentinck's
+statecraft.  "Nay, but, Your Highness," he said gaily, "we have taken
+him.  Had not Your Highness so sharply snubbed my ardor for his
+service, I was even now to remark that these fair ones do also at
+times render notable aid to his cause.  Of late one did save Your
+Highness's life, and now a rustic Eve has put in my hands a morsel of
+Adam's flesh much coveted, if I mistake not, of Mr. William Bentinck
+here."
+
+"What is he?" cried Bentinck.
+
+"Very fat, an it please you, Mr. Bentinck," says De Rondiniacque,
+laughing.  Then, pushing aside the curtain, he opened the door and
+beckoned with his hand.  His signal was answered by the entrance of a
+company vastly comical to behold.  For little Prue's prisoner was
+very roughly thrust into the hall by Christopher Kidd, whose tall and
+burly person towered above and behind the little, fat, evil-visaged
+priest, the yeoman grasping in one of his huge hands both wrists of
+his captive.  They were followed by Prudence, beaming with smiles at
+the thought of the importance brought upon her by her act of
+compassion.  And there came upon the bearing of Mr. Bentinck, at
+sight of the prisoner, a wonderful change.  For his face flushed and
+his eye gleamed; he forgot the impertinences of M. de Rondiniacque,
+he passed over the lack of ceremony evinced by this sudden intrusion,
+and pounced, as it were, at once upon his prey.
+
+From his own lips I have since heard the cause of Mr. Bentinck's
+emotion.  He had for many months endeavored to instil into his prince
+and master what he held to be a fitting and wholesome dread of the
+secret assassin.  He had indeed in those days and during many years
+to come good reason enough for his own fears, yet none could he
+contrive to arouse in that most fearless of men that is now our most
+gracious sovereign; who, after some abortive attempt upon his person,
+or upon the news of some fresh and subtile plot discovered and
+prevented, would jest lightly of the matter, or turn aside from it
+with a few sharp words.
+
+"As for assassins, William," he would say, "I hold it wholly beneath
+me to speak of them, and much more to give them serious thought."
+
+Now, in this case, not only did Mr. Bentinck hope by means of this
+fat rascal to come at the source and instigation of the attempted
+crime, but also, through discoveries the captive should be compelled
+to make, to arouse in His Highness's mind a more sensible conviction
+of the dangers to which his careless magnanimity so frequently
+exposed his person.  Successful, however, as Mr. Bentinck ultimately
+was in proving to his own satisfaction the guilt of greater persons
+than the shaking wretch before him, I have never heard that His
+Highness was prevailed upon by this or any other means to give one
+serious thought to perils of this nature.
+
+"Bring him here," cried Mr. Bentinck very sharply to Kidd, who pushed
+his helpless prisoner forward until the light from the window fell
+upon his ill-favored countenance.  "H'm---h'm--h'm!" grunted Mr.
+Bentinck, as his eyes rose and fell between his paper of description
+and the face of the fellow that trembled and sweated before him.
+"H'm!  But the red periwig is wanting."
+
+Whereupon Prue whips out that tangled wig from beneath her apron,
+vowing she had found it in the straw where the fellow had slept.
+
+"'T is enough," says Mr. Bentinck: then in a voice very terrible and
+sudden he cried to the culprit: "Your name is Francis."
+
+"'T is not," stammered the poor wretch, "nor no such name."  And his
+gaze went round the room very despairfully till it lighted upon
+Philip.  "For the love of God, Mr. Philip Drayton," he cried, "tell
+them how I am called."
+
+Philip regarded him with a disgust that he tried in vain to conceal.
+
+"I have met you once," he said, "as James Marston, of Oxford."
+
+"Did I not tell you?" said Francis, his face lighting with hope.
+
+And Mr. Bentinck laughed.  "Truly you did," he replied, "and more
+than you purposed telling.  These trappings," he continued, turning
+to the Prince, "are the same that were stolen from Your Highness's
+guard in the affair of the orchard.  I think we have proof enough."
+
+His Highness approached at once the window and the prisoner.
+
+"Would Your Holiness hang from that elm?" he asked, pointing to the
+great tree that stands over against the stable.  "If not, a true
+account of all these matters will save the tree so foul a fruit.  I
+hear it is thought you abuse your masters as much as ourselves,
+forging written powers beyond their intent.  You shall have some
+hours to make choice between confession and the rope."  And he bade
+the guard that stood at the great door to take him away.  "And look
+to it," said His Highness to the young officer, as he was about
+following after his men and their prisoner, "that no woman come near
+him."  He then laughed a little at his jest, which by the direction
+of his glance I took to be aimed at myself, and, turning to M. de
+Rondiniacque, asked how he came to lay hands upon the fellow.
+
+"I owe him to Mistress Prudence here, Your Highness," replied the
+Frenchman.  Whereupon the Prince would have Prudence to tell him of
+the matter.
+
+Little Prue, as she did afterwards tell me, was "all of a twitter"
+betwixt pride and bashfulness, and it was only with much blushing and
+stammering that she at length found her voice.
+
+"I' fecks, Your High and Great Mightiness, sir," she said at last, "I
+have been fatting him like a great pullet in the loft of our barn.  I
+did take him for a soldier you would have hanged for thieving."
+
+"How chanced it," said the Prince, "that you knew our need of him?"
+
+Now this was for Prue a very distressful question, and, since she
+would not tell the truth, nor could readily think upon a fiction of
+any appearance, she felt herself in sorry plight, which she made no
+better by showing very plainly in her face the distress that she
+felt.  Her rescue came quickly from a source whence it was little
+expected.  For her piteous glance of appeal was cast in vain on M. de
+Rondiniacque, who himself was not a little taken aback by the
+Prince's question, and then in a very helpless fashion she passed it
+on to me.  And I, all in the dark as I was, strove blindly for the
+means to come to her aid, when Mr. Bentinck, with a little laugh that
+was very dry and yet vastly humorous, interfered.
+
+"It were best, Your Highness," he said, "to pass that point."
+
+The Prince looked upon him for a moment, and seemed to lay the matter
+aside in his mind for future enlightening.
+
+"Well, my pretty maid," said he to Prudence, who now regarded Mr.
+Bentinck as if she would willingly have kissed his feet, "we owe you
+some return.  How shall we render it?"
+
+"What I did, sir," says Prue, "was done for my dear mistress there.
+If you will but add my debt to her prayers, sir, I shall be overpaid."
+
+"That is well said.  Even the servants, William," said His Highness,
+turning to Mr. Bentinck, "in this terrible family are at one with
+their masters.  'T is a tribe we had best have on our side."  And
+then he went over to the knot of men that stood against the hearth.
+"Mr. Royston," he said, "this matter shall rest as it stood
+yesternight, when you left your house.  You are free."  And then to
+Philip: "Mr. Drayton, you are an honest foe, from a camp whence I
+have least reason to expect such.  Will you give me a promise to add
+to that which Mr. Royston holds of you?"
+
+"Most willingly, Your Highness," replied Philip, "if I may with
+honor."
+
+"Then I ask you," said His Highness, "to abide six months from this
+day with your good father.  After, do what and go where you will.  He
+is worth the time that will be so spent, sir.  To ease your
+conscience on the Roman side, Sir Priest, I give you leave to effect
+his conversion"--and here His Highness laughed very drily--"if you
+prove able.  Is it agreed?"
+
+"The punishment is not a hard one," answered Philip.  "I will observe
+your conditions.  You have my word."
+
+"I shall always regard a Drayton's word," said His Highness, with a
+very grave and sweet courtesy, "as _par excellence_ the oath of
+honor.  And you, Mistress Drayton," he continued, "must I go fight my
+enemies with a sword that cannot thrust?  I do perceive I did you
+wrong, and now once more I thank you for that you did yesterday.  But
+my sword does lack its point."  And the Prince drew from a scabbard
+that was never made for it the shortened blade whose other part I
+guarded so close.
+
+"Ay, it lacks yet its point," I answered, "even as Your Highness's
+clemency does still lack its crowning grace.  The sword's latter half
+is not yet redeemed."
+
+"What, what! fair enemy?" cried the Prince, in tones of raillery.
+
+"More fair I do hope than enemy, Your Highness," I replied.
+
+"Well, pretty friend," he continued, seeming not ill pleased,
+"wouldst have me thus armed?  'T is true--in your ear--I purpose
+using English swords against such good English fellows as come not
+over to our side.  But what of these hordes of Irish kerns, with
+Tyrconnel and Sarsfield at their head?  Surely on these we poor
+Dutchmen may flesh our blades; and when the time comes, is it with
+this you would have me fight?"
+
+Now, while the Prince did tease me with the sight of his broken
+blade, and while I felt for words to clothe the thought in me, I
+marked that M. de Rondiniacque, as one taking time by the forelock
+upon a signal long expected, went hurriedly out from the hall, a
+circumstance that I had speedily forgot but for its sequel.  Meantime
+I had inwardly breathed a little prayer to God for the gift of a
+prevailing tongue, and now drew from my bosom that seven inches of
+pointed steel that I purposed selling at so great a price.
+
+"Your Highness," I said, "this kind of iron is sold mighty dear.  Ah,
+will a great Prince have a poor maid that is his true servant wed
+with a man unhappy all his days?  And yet a man so true, did Your
+Highness know him as I have known him for many, many years?  As he
+and I rode hither in the smallest hours of this very day, it was a
+broken man at my side--a man whose one half would rejoice for his
+company, while the other part of him cried out for his Leader, his
+Prince, his King.  And, woman-like, I upbraided you sore, finding in
+my passion of pity no word too bitter for you, sir.  But from him
+there fell no word of blame, for no hard thought of you did cross his
+mind.  Your Highness, he tried to serve two masters, indeed, but
+himself was never one of them.  If he did ill, it was for me--me that
+he loved since his arms were my childhood's harbor of refuge, his
+shoulder my horse that tired not.  For that part of your sword that
+you hold, you gave me his life.  For this part that I have kept,
+where I hope all the days of my life to keep his honor, give me his
+old rank in your service--and ever, during his desert, his old favor
+in those eyes that, when they will, can read so deep."
+
+The Prince gazed at me a while, and his face grew somehow to a
+softness that is seldom, I think, observed upon it.  And, as we
+looked upon each other, there was a little bustle at the door, made,
+I doubt not, by M. de Rondiniacque's return.
+
+"Give it me, child," said William, and I handed him, without further
+doubt of his purpose, the remnant of his pledge.
+
+"Why so ready, mistress?" asked His Highness.  "I have granted
+naught."
+
+"Nay," I replied, "but love can read deep, even as the eyes of a
+prince."
+
+"In this world, my child," he said, speaking still with that
+gentleness I had marked in his face, "there is no going back.  But,
+if Mr. Bentinck will fill us out a major's brevet for Mr. Edward
+Royston, will that serve to balance the uneven division of last
+night, sir, or madam?"
+
+Upon which the joy in my heart was so near to seeking its relief in
+tears that I had much ado to answer him.
+
+"I do thank Your Highness," I murmured, "beyond all telling."  And
+then, finding a better voice, I continued: "And, if it please Your
+Highness, I will be always madam."
+
+"Then must you begin soon," he answered; "to which end I shall impose
+a condition on this settlement."  But here the Prince checked
+himself, turning suddenly upon M. de Rondiniacque, by which action he
+was able to detect that pleasant gentleman in the act of restoring to
+Ned the sword taken from him the night before.
+
+To my ear he has since declared that he had some inward premonition
+on his arising that morning that the matter of poor Royston's
+disgrace was by no means concluded; and this feeling, whether
+foresight or presentiment, had waxed in him so strong, that he had
+brought with him that weapon, as well as his own, in spite of his
+previous intent to leave it privily in its owner's house.
+
+As His Highness turned from me to observe him, De Rondiniacque
+uttered these words: "Your sword, Major Royston," with so much of
+kindly triumph in voice and countenance that even the visage turned
+on him with enquiry so stern broke into a smile very responsive.
+
+"How now, Lieutenant," said His Highness, "what is this?"
+
+"When Mistress Drayton did begin to adjure Your Highness so
+movingly," said the Frenchman, "holding in her hand that fragment of
+Your Highness's sword, I made sure she would ask and obtain her
+price; and so, Your Highness, I went straightway to fetch it.  And,
+knowing Your Highness has need not only of swords, but also of men
+that wield them as few but Major Royston can, I do trust I have done
+no wrong."
+
+"'T is well, sir," replied the Prince.  "As it seems your nature to
+take much upon yourself, let it always, as now, be the discharge of
+my wishes."
+
+At which M. de Rondiniacque appeared not a little disconcerted; but,
+since he has done His Highness many a notable service in these latter
+days, it cannot be said that the mildness of the reproof was
+ill-advised.
+
+"But what was that, sweet child," the Prince now continued,
+addressing me anew, "of which I was to speak?"
+
+"I think, Your Highness," I replied, "that it was of some condition
+to be set upon us in regard to--to----"
+
+"Faith, I do remember," said he.  "It is that Major Royston do wed
+you within the week, and thereafter join us at Salisbury.  And
+quarters shall be found for the pair of you," he continued, "for if
+the steel be near the magnet it will not wander again."  And so
+saying he laid his hand very kindly upon Ned's shoulder.  And Ned
+Royston looked him in the face with that look that an hour agone I
+had given my life to bring into his face.
+
+"My life is yours, sir," said he, with a blunt heartiness; and,
+taking my hand very firmly and tenderly in his, he added: "and Your
+Highness will now have from me two services in one."
+
+And here Simon Emmet, who, upon a word of his master, had been for
+some minutes mighty full of a kind of bustling greatness, did give
+into Sir Michael's hands that great silver drinking bowl that no lip
+for over forty years had touched.  And Sir Michael held the bowl
+high, and gave it then into the hands of the Prince of Orange.
+
+"From this cup," said my father, "the last to drink was Your
+Highness's grandfather, King Charles the Martyr."
+
+"Then in his name, and in the name of England, I drink first of a
+loving-cup," cried the Prince; which when he had done he passed the
+vessel to me, and from me it went the round of every living soul
+there present, leaving, I suppose, in the bottom of the bowl but a
+few drops of wine to wet the lips of Prudence, who, as luck would
+have it, came last of all in the drinking; for, after she had tipped
+it high to catch the last, she gazed beseechingly around, daintily
+licking her lips the while, as if she would know whether she might
+truly say she had drunk that toast.  His Highness, marking with the
+rest her pretty gesture, could not forbear smiling.
+
+"Ah, my pretty maid," he said, "it was you that did bring us that fat
+rooster in the nick of time.  Do you then ask no reward?"
+
+And Prue, as a woman can, asked of me in two movements of her eyes a
+question.  Once most indicatively they went to His Highness's belt
+and sword, and once, with interrogation as plain, to my face,
+catching thence the answer before one man in the room, I truly think,
+had fully gathered the sense of the Prince's question.
+
+"There is a thing, if it please Your Mightiness," she said, "that I
+would have."
+
+"What is it, then?" said His Highness.  "For it seems I must spend
+this day in giving."
+
+"The fragments, Your Honor," says Prue, "of that same blessed sword."
+
+And he gave her the broken pieces of the sword, which in triumph she
+straightway brought to me; and I hung them then and there above the
+hearth, standing upon the table most comfortably thrust into place by
+many willing hands.
+
+And when it was done, I cried, facing them all in my joy before I
+descended: "And there it shall stay: and hereafter they shall say
+whose it was."
+
+"'They,' Mistress Drayton?" cried the Prince.  "Who are 'they'?  Thy
+children?"
+
+And I wished heartily then for a more lowly station.  But princes
+will be answered, and, for all the shame I felt, I answered the
+Prince of Orange.
+
+"Yes, Your Highness," I said.  "The children of Royston and Drayton
+shall say--shall say that it is--
+
+"The sword of the Prince of Orange?" says His Highness, willing to
+help me in my confusion.
+
+"Not so, I hope and pray to God," I answered.  "May He grant that it
+then be the sword of their King."
+
+And this is the story of the sword that was his that is the King.
+For my own, it did not end there, nor is it ended yet.
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Sword of the King, by Ronald Macdonald
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59873 ***