"
Which advice Charlie, at that time thirteen years old, gravely
promised to follow. He had naturally inherited his father's
sentiments, and believed the Jacobite cause to be a sacred one. He
had fought and vanquished Alured Dormay, his second cousin, and two
years his senior, for speaking of King James' son as the Pretender,
and was ready, at any time, to do battle with any boy of his own
age, in the same cause. Alured's father, John Dormay, had ridden
over to Lynnwood, to complain of the violence of which his son had
been the victim, but he obtained no redress from Sir Marmaduke.
"The boy is a chip of the old block, cousin, and he did right. I
myself struck a blow at the king's enemies, when I was but eight
years old, and got my skull well-nigh cracked for my pains. It is
well that the lads were not four years older, for then, instead of
taking to fisticuffs, their swords would have been out, and as my
boy has, for the last four years, been exercised daily in the use
of his weapon, it might happen that, instead of Alured coming home
with a black eye, and, as you say, a missing tooth, he might have
been carried home with a sword thrust through his body.
"It was, to my mind, entirely the fault of your son. I should have
blamed Charlie, had he called the king at Westminster Dutch
William, for, although each man has a right to his own opinions, he
has no right to offend those of others--besides, at present it is
as well to keep a quiet tongue as to a matter that words cannot set
right.
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