Royston

“ It provoked her though, sometimes, and one day she ventured to say, “I wish you would learn to treat me like a grown-up woman!” Royston’s eyes darkened strangely; and one glance flashed out of the gloom that made her shrink away from him then, and blush painfully when she thought of it afterward alone. He was frowning, too, as he answered, in a voice unusually harsh and constrained, “It seems to me we go on very well as it is. But women never will leave well alone.” ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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 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." ”

“ 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." ”

“ Royston, in Cambridgeshire, consisted only of a few houses beyond the old Palace, the house now occupied by Dr. Archer, then a boarding school kept by Mrs. Raynes, being the last house in Royston, Cambs. Now almost a town has sprung up beyond this spot, upon what were then open fields. This house occupies part of an old burial site around which centres a little mystery and a solid part of the history of our old town. ”

“ 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 ”

“ His clear-cut features, something too sharply defined for absolute regularity, with the unassertive effect of his straight auburn hair, his deliberate, contemplative glance, his reserved, high-bred look, the quiet decorum of his manner, were not suggestive of the tumult of his inner consciousness, and the unresponsiveness of his aspect baffled Briscoe. With some inapposite, impulsive warmth he protested: "But she has had bitter cause for repentance, Julian. Royston was a brute. The only decent thing he ever did was dying! She has been an awfully unhappy woman. ”

“ 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." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Innes' shop, having been removed from the Cross a few years before; the market place could only be approached from the High Street, through the inn yards. Of the ponds of Royston, Gatward's Pond, on the Barkway Road, was open and unenclosed. It was not a very savoury bath, but in its turbid depths so many boys used to disport themselves, that it was commonly remarked in the district that Royston had no water, and yet more boys learned to swim here than anywhere else in the district. ”

“ Had he really called himself Lord Bethune; or was it not far more likely that some ignorant colonial folk, impressed by his talk of high lineage and by his personal dignity, had bestowed on him that title? The young man—guessing and wondering—began to recall the various counts of that sinister indictment; and at last he said to his companion, in a musing kind of way——
"Maisrie, you know that motto your grandfather is so proud of: 'Stand Fast, Craig-Royston!' Have you any idea where Craig-Royston is?" ”

“ 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. ”

“ Let us take one well authenticated case—the best authenticated perhaps now known in England—in which a member of a respectable family in Royston turned highwayman—an amateur highwayman one would fain hope and believe—and paid the full penalty of the law, and was made to illustrate the horrible custom of those times by hanging in chains on the public highway! ”

“ Whether through lack of interest, or from a lingering dislike to revisit the spot where he was seized with illness, he did not, I believe, once enter the picture-gallery before he left Royston.
I cannot say as much for myself. The picture of Adrian Temple exerted a curious fascination over me, and I constantly took an opportunity of studying it. It was, indeed, a beautiful work ”

“ Beyond the town, the way continues to run south-westwards, along the foot of the East Anglian heights, which here form the watershed between the basin of the Ouse and that of the Thames. Their northern escarpment is, at this point, still in its primæval condition, a steep slope of virgin turf, known as Royston Heath, the common property of the township. The Heath has a far-reaching view and delicious air, and the Royston folk do well in jealously guarding against any usurpation of their rights in it. ”

“ In 1798 an item in the accounts for the same parish is charged for "the new iron for the whipping post."
{84} The stocks for Royston, Cambs., stood in the middle of the broad part of Kneesworth Street, nearly opposite the yard entrance of King James' Palace, and just in front of some dilapidated cottages then occupying the site of Mr. J. R. Farrow's shop. Here they remained as a warning to evil doers till about 1830 or 1840. ”

“ Why does he still seem to seek my presence? At any rate, he shall see that I am no heartless coquette; and when this Mr. Royston presents himself, as I’m sure he will (seeing ROYSTON, who enters from R. H.) — I thought so!
ROYS. (aside) . She’s alone! She’s decidedly handsome. Yet, as I said before, there’s something about the other that—that— (Aloud, and bowing to JULIA.) Miss Templeton!
JULIA (courtesying) . Sir! the business matter in which you are engaged is, I presume, settled?
ROYS. Yes; the signatures alone are required.
JULIA. In that case perhaps I had better— (About to retire.) ”

“ I abase myself before no one. I hold my head erect. I look the world in the face; and ask which of us has the greater cause to complain of the other. 'Stand fast, Craig-Royston!'—that has been my motto; and so, thank God, it shall be to the end!"
Maisrie lit the gas, and attended to her grandfather's other wants—in a mechanical sort of way. But she did not take up the violin again. There was a strangely absent look on the pale and beautiful and pensive face.
CHAPTER II.
NEIGHBOURS.
The young man whom Lord Musselburgh had hailed came into the middle of the room. ”

“ Royston said, meditatively. “Has that any thing to do with his brotherly affection? Every body who is fond of Miss Tresilyan seems to take to liquor. Annesley was pretty sober till he knew her. It’s rather odd. I don’t suppose she encourages them?”
“Certainly not; at least, I know she has tried to stint Dick in his brandy very often. It’s the only point she has never been able to carry.”
“A man must be firm about some one thing,” 13 the other remarked, “or there’s an end of free-agency altogether. He has no intellects to be affected by it apparently ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is you who have to show whether you have the courage of honest judgment, or are the mere slave of social custom and forms." For perhaps he, too, had imbibed a little of the "Stand Fast, Craig Royston!" spirit? Bravado may be catching—especially where an innocent and interesting young creature of eighteen or so is in danger of being exposed to some deadly approach.
Of course this carelessly defiant attitude did not prevent his being secretly pleased when, as seven o'clock drew near, he perceived that Maisrie Bethune had arranged herself in an extremely pretty, if clearly inexpensive, costume ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”