第 45 页

and hoped to see you here, seeing that there was, as it seemed to me,

nothing to keep you in London after your wounds had healed. I have

spoken often to the King of the brave deed by which you saved us all,

and he declared that, had it not been that you were already a

baronet, he would knight you as soon as you appeared, as many of the

captains and others have already received that honour; and he agreed

with me that none deserved it better than yourself. Now, what has

become of you all this time?"

Cyril related how he had stayed in London, had had the Plague, and

had recovered from it.

"I must see about getting you a commission at once in the Navy," the

Prince said, "though I fear you will have to wait until we fit out

again. There will be no difficulty then, for of course there were

many officers killed in the action."

Cyril expressed his thanks, adding,--

"There is no further occasion for me to take a commission, Prince,

for, strangely enough, the owner of my father's property has just

made it over to me. He is a good man, and, considering that he has

already reaped large benefits by his purchase, and has been repaid

his money with good interest, his conscience will no longer suffer

him to retain it."

"Then he is a Prince of Roundheads," the Prince said, "and I most

heartily congratulate you; and I believe that the King will be as

pleased as I am. He said but the other day, when I was speaking to

him of you, that it grieved him sorely that he was powerless to do

anything for so many that had suffered in his cause, and that, after

the bravery you had shown, he was determined to do something, and

would insist with his ministers that some office should be found for

you,--though it is not an easy matter, when each of them has special

friends of his own among whom to divide any good things that fall

vacant. He holds a Court this evening, and I will take you with me."

The King was most gracious when the Prince again presented Cyril to

him and told him of the good fortune that had befallen him.

"By my faith, Sir Cyril, you were born under a lucky star. First of

all you saved my Lord of Wisbech's daughters; then, as Prince Rupert

tells me, you saved him and all on board his ship from being burned;

and now a miracle has well-nigh happened in your favour. I see, too,

that you have the use of your arm, which the Prince doubted would

ever altogether recover."

"More still, Your Majesty," the Prince said. "He had the Plague in

August and recovered from it."

"I shall have to keep you about me, Sir Cyril," the King said, "as a

sort of amulet to guard me against ill luck."

"I am going to take him to sea first," Prince Rupert broke in, seeing

that Cyril was about to disclaim the idea of coming to Court. "I may

want him to save my ship again, and I suppose he will be going down

to visit his estate till I want him. You have never seen it, have

you, Sir Cyril?"

"No, sir; at least not to have any remembrance of it. I naturally

long to see Upmead, of which I have heard much from my father. I

should have gone down at once, but I thought it my duty to come

hither and report myself to you as being ready to sail again as soon

as you put to sea."

"Duty first and pleasure afterwards," the King said. "I am afraid

that is a little beyond me--eh, Rupert?"

"Very much so, I should say, Cousin Charles," the Prince replied,

with a smile. "However, I have no doubt Sir Cyril will not grudge us

a few days before he leaves. There are several of the gentlemen who

were his comrades on the _Henrietta_ here, and they will be glad to

renew their acquaintance with him, knowing, as they all do, that they

owe their lives to him."

As Cyril was walking down the High Street, he saw a student coming

along whose face seemed familiar to him. He looked hard at him.

"Surely you must be Harry Parton?" he said.

"That is my name, sir; though I cannot recall where I have met you.

Yet there seems something familiar in your face, and still more in

your voice."

"I am Cyril Shenstone."

"Why, what has become of you, Cyril?" Harry said, shaking him warmly

by the hand. "I searched for you a year ago when I was in London, but

could obtain no tidings whatever of you, save that you had lost your

father. We are alike there, for my father died a few months after

yours did."

"I am sorry indeed, Harry. I had not heard of it before. I was not,

indeed, in the way of doing so, as I was working in the City and knew

nothing of what was passing elsewhere."

"This is my college, Cyril. Come up to my room; there we can talk

comfortably, and we have much to tell each other. How is it that you

have never been near us?" he went on, when they were seated in front

of a blazing fire in his room. "I know that there was some quarrel

between our fathers, but when we heard of Sir Aubrey's death, both my

father and mother thought that you would come to see us or would have

written--for indeed it was not until after my father's death that we

paid a visit to London. It was then my mother asked me to search for

you; and after great difficulty I found the quarter in which you had

lived, and then from the parish register learned where your father

had died. Going there, I learned that you had left the lodging

directly after his death, but more than that the people could not

tell me."

"I should have come to see your mother and Sir John, Harry. I know

how deeply I am indebted to them, and as long as I live shall never

cease to be grateful for Lady Parton's kindness to me. But I had

received so much kindness that I shrank from seeming to wish to

presume upon it further. I had, of course, to work for my living, and

I wanted, before I recalled myself to them, to be able to say that I

had not come as a beggar for further favours, but that I was making

my way independently. Sooner or later I should have come, for your

father once promised me that if I followed out what you remember was

my plan, of entering foreign service, he would give me letters of

introduction that would be useful to me. Had I that favour still to

ask I could do it without shame. But more than that I would not have

asked, even had I wanted bread, which, thank God! was never the

case."

"I can understand your feeling, Cyril, but my mother assuredly would

always have been pleased to see you. You know you were a favourite of

hers."

"Had you been near town, Harry, I should certainly have come to see

her and you as soon as I had fairly established myself, but I heard

from my father that you had all gone away into the country soon after

the unfortunate quarrel he had with Sir John, and therefore delayed

taking any step for the time, and indeed did not know in what part of

the country your father's estates lay. I know that he recovered them

as soon as he returned."

"They had never been forfeited," Harry said. "My father retired from

the struggle after Naseby, and as he had influential friends among

the Puritans, there was no forfeiture of his estates, and we were

therefore able, as you know, to live in comfort at Dunkirk, his

steward sending over such monies as were required. And now about

yourself. Your brains must have served you rarely somehow, for you

are dressed in the latest fashion, and indeed I took you for a Court

gallant when you accosted me."

"I have been truly fortunate, Harry, and indeed everything has turned

out as if specially designed for my good, and, in a most strange and

unlooked-for manner, I have just come into my father's estates

again."

"I am glad indeed to hear it, Cyril. Tell me how it has all come

about."

Cyril told the story of his life since he had come to London.

"You have, indeed, had strange adventures, Cyril, and, though you say

little about it, you must have done something special to have gained

Prince Rupert's patronage and introduction to Court; but I shall worm

all that out of you some day, or get it from other lips. What a

contrast your life has been to mine! Here have you been earning your

living bravely, fighting in the great battle against the Dutch, going

through that terrible Plague, and winning your way back to fortune,

while I have been living the life of a school-boy. Our estates lie in

Shropshire, and as soon as we went down there my father placed me at

a school at Shrewsbury. There I remained till his death, and then, as

was his special wish, entered here. I have still a year of my course

to complete. I only came up into residence last week. When the summer

comes I hope that you will come down to Ardleigh and stay with us; it

will give my mother great pleasure to see you again, for I never see

her but she speaks of you, and wonders what has become of you, and if

you are still alive."

"Assuredly I will come, and that with the greatest pleasure," Cyril

said, "providing only that I am not then at sea, which is, I fear,

likely, as I rejoin the ship as soon as Prince Rupert takes the sea

against the Dutch. However, directly we return I will write to you."

"If you do so, let it be to Ardleigh, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Should I be here when your letter arrives, my mother will forward it

to me."

CHAPTER XIX

TAKING POSSESSION

Cyril stayed a week at Oxford. He greatly enjoyed the visit; and not

only was he most warmly received by his former comrades on board the

_Henrietta_, but Prince Rupert spoke so strongly in his favour to

other gentlemen to whom he introduced him that he no longer felt a

stranger at Court. Much of his spare time he spent with Harry Parton,

and in his rooms saw something of college life, which seemed to him a

very pleasant and merry one. He had ascertained, as soon as he

arrived, that the Earl of Wisbech and his family were down at his

estate, near the place from which he took his title, and had at once

written to Sydney, from whom he received an answer on the last day of

his stay at Oxford. It contained a warm invitation for him to come

down to Wisbech.

"You say you will be going to Norwich to take possession of your

estate. If you ride direct from Oxford, our place will be but little

out of your way, therefore we shall take no excuse for your not

coming to see us, and shall look for you within a week or so from the

date of this. We were all delighted to get your missive, for although

what you say about infection carried by letters is true enough, and,

indeed there was no post out of London for months, we had begun to

fear that the worst must have befallen you when no letter arrived

from you in December. Still, we thought that you might not know where

we were, and so hoped that you might be waiting until you could find

that out. My father bids me say that he will take no refusal. Since

my return he more than ever regards you as being the good genius of

the family, and it is certainly passing strange that, after saving my

sisters' lives from fire you should, though in so different a way,

have saved me from a similar death. So set off as soon as you get

this--that is, if you can tear yourself away from the gaieties of

Oxford."

Cyril had, indeed, been specially waiting for Sydney's answer, having

told him that he should remain at Oxford until he received it, and on

the following morning he packed his valise and rode for Wisbech,

where he arrived three days' later. His welcome at the Earl's was a

most cordial one. He spent a week there, at the end of which time

Sydney, at his earnest request, started for Norwich with him. The

Earl had insisted on Cyril's accepting a splendid horse, and behind

him, on his other animal, rode a young fellow, the son of a small

tenant on the Earl's estate, whom he had engaged as a servant. He had

written, three days before, to Mr. Popham, telling him that he would

shortly arrive, and begging him to order the two old servants of his

father, whom he had, at his request, engaged to take care of the

house to get two or three chambers in readiness for him, which could

doubtless be easily done, as he had learnt from the deed that the

furniture and all contents of the house had been included in the

gift. After putting up at the inn, he went to the lawyer's. Mr.

Popham, he found, had had a room prepared in readiness for him at his

house, but Cyril, while thanking him for so doing, said that, as Lord

Oliphant was with him, he would stay at the inn for the night.

The next morning they rode over with Mr. Popham to Upmead, which was

six miles distant from the town.

"That is the house," the lawyer said, as a fine old mansion came in

sight. "There are larger residences in the county, but few more

handsome. Indeed, it is almost too large for the estate, but, as

perhaps you know, that was at one time a good deal larger than it is

at present, for it was diminished by one of your ancestors in the

days of Elizabeth."

At the gate where they turned into the Park an arch of evergreens had

been erected.

"You don't mean to say you let them know that I was coming home?"

Cyril said, in a tone of such alarm that Lord Oliphant laughed and

Mr. Popham said apologetically,--

"I certainly wrote to the tenants, sir, when I received your letter,

and sent off a message saying that you would be here this morning.

Most of them or their fathers were here in the old time, for Mr.

Harvey made no changes, and I am sure they would have been very

disappointed if they had not had notice that Sir Aubrey's son was

coming home."

"Of course it was quite right for you to do so, Mr. Popham, but you

see I am quite unaccustomed to such things, and would personally have

been much more pleased to have come home quietly. Still, as you say,

it is only right that the tenants should have been informed, and at