That he should, then, be in secret communication with a servant at
Lynnwood, struck him as a very serious matter, indeed. Charlie was
not yet sixteen, but his close companionship with his father had
rendered him older than most lads of his age. He was as warm a
Jacobite as his father, but the manner in which William, with his
Dutch troops, had crushed the great Jacobite rebellion in Ireland,
seemed to him a lesson that the prospects of success, in England,
were much less certain than his father believed them to be.
John Dormay, as an adherent of William, would be interested in
thwarting the proposed movement, with the satisfaction of, at the
same time, bringing Sir Marmaduke into disgrace. Charlie could
hardly believe that his cousin would be guilty of setting a spy to
watch his father, but it was certainly possible, and as he thought
the matter over, as he rode back after escorting Ciceley to her
home, he resolved to keep a sharp watch over the doings of this man
Nicholson.
"It would never do to tell my father what Ciceley said. He would
bundle the fellow out, neck and crop, and perhaps break some of his
bones, and then it would be traced to her. She has not a happy
home, as it is, and it would be far worse if her father knew that
it was she who had put us on our guard.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33