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until we sail."

"You did perfectly right, lad. It will cut short your stay here but a

week, and it would be madness to refuse the opportunity of getting to

know him and his family better. The Countess died three years ago, I

hear, and he has shown no disposition to take another wife, as he

might well do, seeing he is but a year or two past forty, and has as

pleasant a face and manner as I have ever seen. He is not the sort of

man to promise what he will not perform, Cyril, and more than ever do

I think that it was a fortunate thing for you that John Wilkes

fetched you to that fire in the Savoy. And now, lad, you have no time

to lose. You must come with me at once to Master Woods, the tailor,

in Eastcheap, who makes clothes not only for the citizens but for

many of the nobles and gallants of the Court. In the first place, you

will need a fitting dress for the King's _levee_; then you will need

at least one more suit similar to that you now wear, and three for on

board ship and for ordinary occasions, made of stout cloth, but in

the fashion; then you must have helmet, and breast- and back-pieces

for the fighting, and for these we will go to Master Lawrence, the

armourer, in Cheapside. All these we will order to-day in my name,

and put them down in your account to me. As to arms, you have your

sword, and there is but a brace of pistols to be bought. You will

want a few things such as thick cloaks for sea service; for though I

suppose that Volunteers do not keep their watch, you may meet with

rains and heavy weather, and you will need something to keep you

dry."

They sallied out at once. So the clothes were ordered, and the Court

suit, with the best of the others promised by the end of the week;

the armour was fitted on and bought, and a stock of fine shirts with

ruffles, hose, and shoes, was also purchased. The next day Sydney

Oliphant, the Earl's son, called upon Cyril. He was a frank, pleasant

young fellow, about a year older than Cyril. He was very fond of his

sisters, and expressed in lively terms his gratitude for their

rescue.

"This expedition has happened in the nick of time for me," he said,

when, in accordance with his invitation, Cyril and he embarked in the

Earl's boat in which he had been rowed to the City, "for I was in bad

odour with the authorities, and was like, erelong, to have been sent

home far less pleasantly; and although the Earl, my father, is very

indulgent, he would have been terribly angry with me had it been so.

To tell you the truth, at the University we are divided into two

sets--those who read and those who don't--and on joining I found

myself very soon among the latter. I don't think it was quite my

fault, for I naturally fell in with companions whom I had known

before, and it chanced that some of these were among the wildest

spirits in the University.

"Of course I had my horses, and, being fond of riding, I was more

often in the saddle than in my seat in the college schools. Then

there were constant complaints against us for sitting up late and

disturbing the college with our melodies, and altogether we stood in

bad odour with the Dons; and when they punished us we took our

revenge by playing them pranks, until lately it became almost open

war, and would certainly have ended before long in a score or more of

us being sent down. I should not have minded that myself, but it

would have grieved the Earl, and I am not one of the new-fashioned

ones who care naught for what their fathers may say. He has been

praising you up to the skies this morning, I can tell you--I don't

mean only as to the fire but about other things--and says he hopes we

shall be great friends, and I am sure I hope so too, and think so. He

had been telling me about your finding out about their robbing that

good old sea-captain you live with, and how you were kidnapped

afterwards, and sent to Holland; and how, in another adventure,

although he did not tell me how that came about, you pricked a

ruffling gallant through the shoulder; so that you have had a larger

share of adventure, by a great deal, than I have. I had expected to

see you rather a solemn personage, for the Earl told me you had more

sense in your little finger than I had in my whole body, which was

not complimentary to me, though I dare say it is true."

"Now, as a rule, they say that sensible people are very disagreeable;

but I hope I shall not be disagreeable," Cyril laughed, "and I am

certainly not aware that I am particularly sensible."

"No, I am sure you won't be disagreeable, but I should have been

quite nervous about coming to see you if it had not been for the

girls. Little Beatrice told me she thought you were a prince in

disguise, and had evidently a private idea that the good fairies had

sent you to her rescue. Bertha said that you were a very proper young

gentleman, and that she was sure you were nice. Dorothy didn't say

much, but she evidently approved of the younger girls' sentiments, so

I felt that you must be all right, for the girls are generally pretty

severe critics, and very few of my friends stand at all high in their

good graces. What amusement are you most fond of?"

"I am afraid I have had very little time for amusements," Cyril said.

"I was very fond of fencing when I was in France, but have had no

opportunity of practising since I came to England. I went to a

bull-bait once, but thought it a cruel sport."

"I suppose you go to a play-house sometimes?"

"No; I have never been inside one. A good deal of my work has been

done in the evening, and I don't know that the thought ever occurred

to me to go. I know nothing of your English sports, and neither ride

nor shoot, except with a pistol, with which I used to be a good shot

when I was in France."

They rowed down as low as Greenwich, then, as the tide turned, made

their way back; and by the time Cyril alighted from the boat at

London Bridge stairs the two young fellows had become quite intimate

with each other.

Nellie looked with great approval at Cyril as he came downstairs in a

full Court dress. Since the avowal she had made of her fault she had

recovered much of her brightness. She bustled about the house, intent

upon the duties she had newly taken up, to the gratification of Mrs.

Dowsett, who protested that her occupation was gone.

"Not at all, mother. It is only that you are now captain of the ship,

and have got to give your orders instead of carrying them out

yourself. Father did not pull up the ropes or go aloft to furl the

sails, while I have no doubt he had plenty to do in seeing that his

orders were carried out. You will be worse off than he was, for he

had John Wilkes, and others, who knew their duty, while I have got

almost everything to learn."

Although her cheerfulness had returned, and she could again be heard

singing snatches of song about the house, her voice and manner were

gentler and softer, and Captain Dave said to Cyril,--

"It has all turned out for the best, lad. The ship was very near

wrecked, but the lesson has been a useful one, and there is no fear

of her being lost from want of care or good seamanship in future. I

feel, too, that I have been largely to blame in the matter. I spoilt

her as a child, and I spoilt her all along. Her mother would have

kept a firmer hand upon the helm if I had not always spoken up for

the lass, and said, 'Let her have her head; don't check the sheets in

too tautly.' I see I was wrong now. Why, lad, what a blessing it is

to us all that it happened when it did! for if that fire had been but

a month earlier, you would probably have gone away with the Earl, and

we should have known nothing of Nellie's peril until we found that

she was gone."

"Sir Cyril--no, I really cannot call you Cyril now," Nellie said,

curtseying almost to the ground after taking a survey of the lad,

"your costume becomes you rarely; and I am filled with wonder at the

thought of my own stupidity in not seeing all along that you were a

prince in disguise. It is like the fairy tales my old nurse used to

tell me of the king's son who went out to look for a beautiful wife,

and who worked as a scullion in the king's palace without anyone

suspecting his rank. I think fortune has been very hard upon me, in

that I was born five years too soon. Had I been but fourteen instead

of nineteen, your Royal Highness might have cast favourable eyes upon

me."

"But then, Mistress Nellie," Cyril said, laughing, "you would be

filled with grief now at the thought that I am going away to the

wars."

The girl's face changed. She dropped her saucy manner and said

earnestly,--

"I am grieved, Cyril; and if it would do any good I would sit down

and have a hearty cry. The Dutchmen are brave fighters, and their

fleet will be stronger than ours; and there will be many who sail

away to sea who will never come back again. I have never had a

brother; but it seems to me that if I had had one who was wise, and

thoughtful, and brave, I should have loved him as I love you. I think

the princess must always have felt somehow that the scullion was not

what he seemed; and though I have always laughed at you and scolded

you, I have known all along that you were not really a clerk. I don't

know that I thought you were a prince; but I somehow felt a little

afraid of you. You never said that you thought me vain and giddy, but

I knew you did think so, and I used to feel a little malice against

you; and yet, somehow, I respected and liked you all the more, and

now it seems to me that you are still in disguise, and that, though

you seem to be but a boy, you are really a man to whom some good

fairy has given a boy's face. Methinks no boy could be as thoughtful

and considerate, and as kind as you are."

"You are exaggerating altogether," Cyril said; "and yet, in what you

say about my age, I think you are partly right. I have lived most of

my life alone; I have had much care always on my shoulders, and grave

responsibility; thus it is that I am older in many ways than I should

be at my years. I would it were not so. I have not had any boyhood,

as other boys have, and I think it has been a great misfortune for

me."

"It has not been a misfortune for us, Cyril; it has been a blessing

indeed to us all that you have not been quite like other boys, and I

think that all your life it will be a satisfaction for you to know

that you have saved one house from ruin, one woman from misery, and

disgrace. Now it is time for you to be going; but although you are

leaving us tomorrow, Cyril, I hope that you are not going quite out

of our lives."

"That you may be sure I am not, Nellie. If you have reason to be

grateful to me, truly I have much reason to be grateful to your

father. I have never been so happy as since I have been in this

house, and I shall always return to it as to a home where I am sure

of a welcome--as the place to which I chiefly owe any good fortune

that may ever befall me."

The _levee_ was a brilliant one, and was attended, in addition to

the usual throng of courtiers, by most of the officers and gentlemen

who were going with the Fleet. Cyril was glad indeed that he was with

the Earl of Wisbech and his son, for he would have felt lonely and

out of place in the brilliant throng, in which Prince Rupert's face

would have been the only one with which he was familiar. The Earl

introduced him to several of the gentlemen who would be his

shipmates, and by all he was cordially received when the Earl named

him as the gentleman who had rescued his daughters from death.

At times, when the Earl was chatting with his friends, Cyril moved

about through the rooms with Sydney, who knew by appearance a great

number of those present, and was able to point out all the

distinguished persons of the Court to him.

"There is the Prince," he said, "talking with the Earl of Rochester.

What a grave face he has now! It is difficult to believe that he is

the Rupert of the wars, and the headstrong prince whose very bravery

helped to lose well-nigh as many battles as he won. We may be sure

that he will take us into the very thick of the fight, Cyril. Even

now his wrist is as firm, and, I doubt not, his arm as strong as when

he led the Cavaliers. I have seen him in the tennis-court; there is

not one at the Court, though many are well-nigh young enough to be

his sons, who is his match at tennis. There is the Duke of York. They

say he is a Catholic, but I own that makes no difference to me. He is

fond of the sea, and is never so happy as when he is on board ship,

though you would hardly think it by his grave face. The King is fond

of it, too. He has a pleasure vessel that is called a yacht, and so

has the Duke of York, and they have races one against the other; but

the King generally wins. He is making it a fashionable pastime. Some

day I will have one myself--that is, if I find I like the sea; for it

must be pleasant to sail about in your own vessel, and to go

wheresoever one may fancy without asking leave from any man."

When it came to his turn Cyril passed before the King with the Earl

and his son. The Earl presented Sydney, who had not before been at

Court, to the King, mentioning that he was going out as a Volunteer

in Prince Rupert's vessel.

"That is as it should be, my Lord," the King said. "England need

never fear so long as her nobles and gentlemen are ready themselves

to go out to fight her battles, and to set an example to the seamen.

You need not present this young gentleman to me; my cousin Rupert has

already done so, and told me of the service he has rendered to your

daughters. He, too, sails with the Prince, and after what happened

there can be no doubt that he can stand fire well. I would that this

tiresome dignity did not prevent my being of the party. I would