Oddsfish!

g left it seven years before in company with my

k fields and, at the top of a little eminence in the ground sa

efore. Then there had still been left great open spaces where there should have been none; now it was a city once more; and even the Cathedral shewed its walls and a few roofs above the houses. The steeples too of Sir Christopher Wren's new churches pricked everywhere; though I

ointing to it, "is the monument no

with an inscription upon it saying that the Fire had been c

Bridge, just before we set foot on it, the rest of the City was plain enough; and, indeed, it was a splendid sight to see the river, all, as it seemed, of molten gold with the barges and the wherries plying upon it, and the great houses on the banks and their gardens coming down to the water-gates, and the forest of chimneys and roofs and steeples behind, and all of a translucent blu

et me, and where he too would lie that night. It was with him that I was to present my letters at Whitehall in a day or two, after I had bought my clothes and other necessaries; in short h

*

Secretary was in one sense a very light one, and in another a v

eventeen years before, as to send to Rome a scheme by which the Church of England was to be reunited to Rome under certain conditions, as that the mass, or parts of it, should be read in English, that the Protestant clergy who would submit to ordination should be allowed to keep their wives, and other matters of that kind. His answer from Rome, sent by word of mouth only, was that no scheme could be nearer to the heart of His Holiness; but that he must not be too preci

ong the most important of them too, in the House of Lords and elsewhere, to exclude the Duke of York from the succession; and they advanced amongst themselves in support of this the fear that a French army might be brought in to subdue England to the Church. And, worst of all, as I had learned privately in Rome, there was some substance in their fear, though few else knew it; since the King was in private treaty with Louis for this very purpose. Again, a further embroilment lay in the propositions that had been made privately to the King that he should rid himself of his Queen-Catherine-on the prete

mission on which I

. So much the King was told, and the Duke. But on my side I was told a little more-that I was to do my utmost, if the King were pleased with me, to further his conversion and his declaration of himself as a Catholic; that I was to mix with all kinds of folks, and observe what men really thought of all

ht a pleasant fellow, that is to say, who could make himself agreeable; and I certainly had too-and I am not ashamed to say this-but one single ambition in the world, and that was to serve God's cause: and these things do not always go together in this world. Last of all, it must be observed, that no very weighty secrets were entrusted to me: I bore no letters; and I had been told no more of affairs

mes my man-a servant found for me in Rome, who had once been in the service of my Lord Staffo

*

e. The houses of great folk were for the most part on my left-Italianate in design, with the river seen between them, and lesser houses, of the architecture that is called "magpie," on the right. The way was very foul, for there

pavement. To the east of St. Paul's Church stood the greater houses, built on arcades, where many fashionable people of the Court lived or had their lodgings, and it was in one

to one of the doorways to inquire, a gentleman ra

Roger, are you not?" h

my Cousin Tom

ied back; and ran dow

nburnt face from living in the country; and he wore his own hair. He was still in riding-dress; and he told me, befor

lady of quality now, aged no less than sixteen; and is come up to renew her fal-lals for her

yes and black lashes and black hair; but she too was greatly sunburnt, with the haymaking (as her father presently told me again; for she spoke very little after we had saluted one another). She was in a green skirt and a skirted doublet of the same colour, and wore a green hat with a white feather; but those things I did not remember till I was gone to bed and was thinking of her. It is a hard business for a lover to speak as he should of the maid who first taught him his lessons in that art; but I think it was her silence, and the look in her eyes, th

had first come from the stairs was hung in green damask, with candles in sconces between the panels of the stuff; the door on the left opened into the room where

had set her heart on it and would take no denial. (This I presently discovered to be wholly false.) For a week, he said, and no mor

was too boisterous, I thought, on a first meeting; and too hearty in his expressions of goodwill

hear. Well, no man loves a monk more than I do-in their monasteries; but I am

n he spoke; yet as soon as he was gone out to fe

r leave; I think it best no

errupt

hion these days. Why, there is Mr. Huddleston that goes about in his pri

uld be better

at is in the wind, is it? Wh

he began upon the other tack, and talked of Prince this and the Duke of that, with whom I might be supposed to be on terms of intimacy, winking on me all the while, so that my man saw it. However, I answered him

mother having died ten years before, and she herself being the only child. She did not look at me at all, or shew any displeasure; and yet it seemed to me that she was not best pleased with her father's m

ndow-seat where he sat; while I sat still in my chair wheeled away from the table, and my Cousin Dorothy went in and out of the rooms, bestowing the luggage that she and he

d. I take it that when you have kissed His Majesty's hand and paid your d

t him; but he was n

that, no doubt, that brings you to England." (He said this with an evident irony that even a child would have understood.) "Not that you have not a very pretty fortune

ndered that he should take

thereabout

nty-eight years is a s

poor father fix up

, and that every man was a boy till he was twenty-one, a fool t

tretching his legs yet further. "I ha

ve run a good deal upon my fortunes; but

door of her room, and my man was gone down aga

I knew that as soon as I clapped eyes on you. Come, tell me what your

an. Was not my letter explicit enough? I am come to live here

ed agai

too. I know very well that a man who comes from a Roman monastery, with letters from the French ambassad

imself might not have read. I had been in two minds about it; but had determine

ld such missions be kept secret at all? It would be a secretum commissum in any case; as the theologians would say. I can but repeat what I said in my le

ed that to appeal to the experience and wisd

and there as the King gave her houses-in Pall Mall, and in Sandford House in Chelsea, and at first at the "Cock and Pie" in Drury Lane; and how her hair was of a reddish brown, and how, when she laughed her eyes disappeared in her head; and of the Duchess of Cleveland, that was once Mrs. Palmer and then my Lady Castlemaine, now in France; and of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and her son created Duke of Richmond three years ago; and of the mock marriage that was celebrated, in my Lord Arlington's house at Euston, seve

ince James had the grace of the Sacraments to help him and the light of the Faith to guide him. But I judged it better not to shew my anger, since I was, as the Holy Father had told me, to be "in the worl

asleep," I said. "I a

you saying

as if to draw attention t

e said, "when you fell asleep-matters too high for

er on the forehead, and not upo

d my Cousin Tom. "Why, we can teac

ttle anxiously and then at the table where the

d best both go. I do not want to lie awake half the night; and

nk a little more; but I would not: and

rriages go by, and the chairs; and saw the light of the links on the ceiling at the end of my bed; and I heard a brawl once and the clash of swords and the scream of a woman; as well as t

but as a messenger from the Holy See, with work both to find and to do. To-morrow I must set out, to buy, as I may say, the munitions of war-my clothes and my new periwigs and my swords and my horses; and then after that my holy war was to begin. I had my letters not only to the Court, but to the Jesuits

ood or bad) that Catholics should again almost be in the fashion, as my cousin had said. There were still those old bloody laws against us; was it so sure that they wou

orothy-that little maid, as I feigned to myself to think of her. Yes; I would go down to Hare Street in Hertfordshire so soon as I con