apon, larded with preserved lemons, the
sauce of which was exquisite, as he well knew, from experience. Cyprien,
however, took care he should get none of the turkey poults, or the
florentines, but whipped off both dishes from under his very nose; and a
like fate would have attended a lumbar pie but for the interference of
his good-natured neighbour, who again came to his aid, and rescued it
from the clutches of the saucy Gascon, just as it was being borne away.

CHAPTER IV.

A Star-Chamber victim.

His hunger being somewhat stayed, Sir Francis now found leisure to
consider the young man who had so greatly befriended him, and, as a
means of promoting conversation between them, began by filling his glass
from a flask of excellent Bordeaux, of which, in spite of Cyprien's
efforts to prevent him, he had contrived to gain possession. The young
man acknowledged his courtesy with a smile, praised the wine, and
expressed his astonishment at the wonderful variety and excellence of
the repast, for which he said he was quite unprepared. It was not Sir
Francis's way to feel or express much interest in strangers, and he
disliked young men, especially when they were handsome, as was the case
with his new acquaintance; but there was something in the youth that
riveted his attention.

From the plainness of his attire, and a certain not unpleasing rusticity
of air, Sir Francis comprehended at once that he was fresh from the
country; but he also felt satisfied, from his bearing and deportment,
that he was a gentleman: a term not quite so vaguely applied then, as it
is now-a-days. The youth had a fine frank countenance, remarkable for
manly beauty and intelligence, and a figure perfectly proportioned and
athletic. Sir Francis set him down as well skilled in all exercises;
vaulting, leaping, riding, and tossing the pike; nor was he mistaken. He
also concluded him to be fond of country sports; and he was right in the
supposition. He further imagined the young man had come to town to
better his fortune, and seek a place at Court; and he was not far wrong
in the notion. As the wily knight scanned the handsome features of his
companion, his clean-made limbs, and symmetrical figure, he thought that
success must infallibly attend the production of such a fair youth at a
Court where personal advantages were the first consideration.

"A likely gallant," he reflected, "to take the fancy of the king; and if
I aid him with means to purch