Captain Royston's troop was of that portion of the army which, after the pomp of entry into Exeter, had been quartered at Honiton. There, waiting at an equal distance from his own home and the city of Exeter, and unable to get so much as an hour's leave of absence, he fretted not a little at his situation, seeing that the further advance might be undertaken at any moment, and he be carried on the martial tide past both those havens his soul was longing after (but it was one in especial, if what he now saith must be believed). Upon the afternoon of that same Sunday whereon Dr. Burnet preached in the cathedral Captain Royston was surprised by a summons to report himself without delay before His Highness at headquarters. The order was brought by M. de Rondiniacque, a young Huguenot gentleman who had been transferred from a lieutenancy in Ginkel's Regiment to the personal staff of the Prince, on account not only of the charm of his manners and the quickness of his parts, but also, it seems, for the esteem in which his family was held by the veteran Count Schomberg, who, with hundreds of other French gentlemen of high birth and the proscribed religion, had left his country and attached himself to His Highness of Orange. M. de Rondiniacque and Captain Royston had long been fast friends, and both were glad of the ride together, and of such conversation as could be had in fifteen miles of wet and mud, travelled with the hard riding M. de Rondiniacque's orders enjoined. Arrived at the Deanery about seven o'clock of the evening, they were summoned at once to His Highness's presence, where they found beside the Prince none but Mr. William Bentinck.
In regard to the conversation that here took place, I am the better able to give some account of it that I have two narrations to draw upon—Captain Royston's, namely, and M. de Rondiniacque's.
As they entered the room, His Highness, seated at the table, was uttering the last words of a conversation, apparently of some earnestness, with Mr. Bentinck, of which, however, the only words that reached their ears were these: "No, William, no! Where I must trust so much I will trust all. The lad is true, and my interests are his."
These words, spoken in the French language, which the Prince used always with greater fluency and a nearer approach to exactness than the English, showed to Captain Royston with some clearness not only that the talk had been of him, but also that Mr. Bentinck's words, which he had not heard, had been in the nature of a warning. Knowing well that this faithful friend and servant of His Highness had never looked on him with the same favor shown him by the Prince, Captain Royston was as little surprised by the slight he guessed as troubled by the antipathy he knew. And he, being too proud of nature to seek its reason, I was moved one day many months after, and in happier times, to enquire it myself of Mr. Bentinck, who very freely and kindly told me that they had been in Holland no little troubled with an inroad of gallows-birds and broken men seeking asylum under the cloak of persecution suffered for opinions political or religious. Hearing some talk of a man slain in anger, he had rashly (as he said to me he now perceived) classed Mr. Royston with these, and had on two occasions declared himself opposed to his advancement; all which, I can well see, had in it the makings of a very pretty quarrel but for the haughty indifference of Captain Royston, leading him, as it would often do, to contemn and eschew explanation in his own behalf.
The Prince now turned sharply to Captain Royston, and at once informed him that he was chosen for a service of great secrecy. "And I believe, sir," said His Highness, "that I have chosen well. For I know you, Captain Royston, to be a brave man, a bold horseman, and acquainted with this countryside, and believe you a gentleman of honor."
His Highness here pausing as one that asks a question, Captain Royston said very simply that the last head of His Highness's opinion was as true as the two former, as he would know if he saw fit to use him in a matter of delicacy.
On which the Prince continued: "I do not doubt, Captain Royston, that something at least of the difficulty of my position in this disturbed country has been long clear to you. Victory in a pitched field over a proud and unconquered people, to whom I come as a friend invited, will hurt my cause no less than defeat. It is not every man that will act as this old Sir Michael Drayton, who, his mind once determined, is eager to take risk among the first." And here, perceiving the pleasure in Captain Royston's countenance to hear his old friend thus singled out for praise, His Highness enquired did he know that gentleman, and, being answered eagerly that he did, cast upon Mr. Bentinck a little glance of triumph, as a man looks who says, "I told you so." Then, "You have friends of the best, Captain," he continued. "And as it is not given to all to act with the courage of your friend, while there is scarce one but wishes me success in some measure, 't is a plain duty laid upon me to use all means to draw them to me, and so secure a peaceful issue. I have this night received a letter from one high in King James's favor, ennobled by his master, and holding in his army high rank, while he also exercises through his wife much influence upon our sister, the Princess Anne; and so, indirectly, upon her uncles, my Lords Clarendon and Rochester, her cousin-german, Viscount Cornbury—and—and—is it possible," he added, with an odd smile, "that I forget her husband, Prince George of Denmark? Now, in this letter," said His Highness, tapping upon the table with a paper he held folded in his hand, "in which there is much of his attachment to the Protestant religion, but more between the lines, as I read it, of the high price he would have for a firm continuance in that faith, this noble officer proposes coming to terms with us. We shall doubtless have him sooner or later, but sooner is my purpose, for the sake of his following. He has left the royal army, now stationed at Salisbury, and while his escort in two divisions, each of which supposes my Lord C—— to be with the other, is on the way to the capital, he himself with one companion has by this," said the Prince, glancing at the clock, "with forced riding, reached the town of Sherborne, where, under the style of 'Captain Jennings,' he will lie this night at 'The King's Head.' How far, Captain Royston, is this town of Sherborne from our present position?"
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."
"And how far is this house of yours, Captain?" asked the Prince.
"Royston Chase and the hamlet of Royston, Your Highness," he answered, "lie midway between Chard and Crewkerne: as the crow flies, some three and thirty miles from Exeter, and half as much, or thereabout, from Sherborne."
"Is it at present inhabited?" says His Highness.
"By my mother and a few old servants," said Royston.
"Is the lady of your mind in politics?" continued His Highness; and being answered that she was, he then asked Captain Royston to do him the honor to be his host on the following day. "I shall go to Chard with Count Schomberg and a troop of cavalry," he said, "to inspect the outposts that lie there, and ostensibly to take notice of the country for purpose of strategy. About two hours after noon we shall arrive and ask hospitality of madam your mother—it may be for the night. Meantime you, Captain Royston, will have conducted Colonel my Lord C——, with all secrecy and discretion, and by hidden paths and byways when possible, to your house, where we can privily accomplish that personal meeting he so much desires, and contrive, I doubt not, to fix the price of his treachery. Mr. Bentinck, sir, considers that I err to trust you so far with my secret purposes. But I intend employing an English gentleman in a service as muc............