The Quest of the 'Golden Hope': A Seventeenth Century Story of Adventure

Jeremy's

the threshold of the house. "Ye are both as pale as ghosts, and you

hysterically, while my father, stopping abruptly his t

us," I announced. "They were

hurt you?

ords I related the incidents that had terminated in

asked. "Hath he g

me by the Beauli

in succouring rebels. Yet, especially as he did befriend you, I'll do my

do so," said I. "He is

mile of this part of the coast, and at every little port a watch is set, so that no strangers dare set foot on shipboard without b

y for silence as to what had occurred, my father, taking a mattock in his hand, set out to

ing from Lyndhurst?" he asked, as w

t success, though I was certain that the ar

llen out on the

re of impatience. "How can I--but there! if 't comes to the worst,

t of the cross-roads, and Captain Miles was s

med as we approached. "'Tis a sad business

aid, my children were saved fr

Yet I thank you, sir, for coming to my assistance, though 'tis to the advantage of this part of the co

er of an hour a shallow trench was dug sufficiently

father, leaning on his mattock as the

in Miles, wiping his heated brow. "You see, we're not

ought not my flask of cor

remy; "but though I did make three good attempts at it, 'twas more than I could stomach. It smells aright

t to my father, who gave an exclamation of s

stonished Captain, as my father

said my sire mysteriously.

elf-preservation, were next interred; while, to make doubly sure, the m

surprise, I found the wrappings of the package for which

your packet," I exclaimed, hol

know it. Say no mo

e contained, I now felt certain that 'twas the sa

ton nor Pitt's Deep offers an asylum for you. To go to either place is to set your head in a trap.

rendered your children does not warrant such a generous payment. I'll accept your hospitality for this night, and at sun

archy will change again, though, mark you, I'd far rather have James Stuart as my lawful sovereign than James Walters. No,

ut this matter. True, I had been told of the existence of the hiding-place, but even Constance was kept in ignorance of it. The person who contrived the sliding panel must have done his work well, for no one unacquainted with its mechanism could cause it to move. But I've said enough conc

arch for rebels. Neither did the disappearance of two of Cornbury's Dragoons cause any trouble, for we learnt that they were set down as deserters

er to be regaled with stories of his voyage to the Indies and his adventures in foreign parts, till my young blood coursed madly th

particular day, my father entered, hav

ews for you,"

in Hammond," replied Jeremy com

your house, and it and all its content

for it ere I left for Monmouth's camp. What money I possess, beyond what I require for my present disbursements, I have stowed away in the hold of the good

could buy

s by a rascally Neapolitan, for which he charged me five ducats, though he did

andlubber," said my parent. "

y," continued Jeremy; "but there

ot unde

ld ill become me were I not to repay you to the utmost of

ve them, but, perceiving the ge

dvantage to hear. That picture contains the true an

r, 1628, the Mayor of Portsmouth reported to the Admiralty that "The The Gift