ly was persecuted
and destitute at home!"

"Colonel Boynton!" cried Charles, as the old woman concluded; "surely
not the brave Boynton who served so nobly at Edge Hill, Naseby, and
Worcester, and who came to relieve his royal master's wants when he
was a wanderer and an outcast among strangers? This cannot be his
child, nor can he be living. They told me years since, when I caused
inquiry to be made for him, that he was dead."

"He knew not that his king had ever sought for him," the old woman
said; "he thought his services and his sacrifices in the past had been
willfully forgotten, and his proud spirit scorned to thrust unpleasant
recollections upon you."

"Poor Boynton! poor Boynton!" exclaimed Charles, "this has, indeed,
been ingratitude to one of the most deserving and faithful of my
subjects. Said you, my good woman, that he is now in a prison, and
for debt?"

"Ay, my good lord."

"There, there!" said Charles, hastily handing her a weighty purse,
"see that he is relieved at once--this night, if it be possible--and
bid him in the morning wait upon his king, whose greatest regret is
that he has not met with him sooner."

"Will your majesty _write_ your request for him to come to the palace?
he may be somewhat skeptical of your royal solicitude."

"Assuredly," replied the king, as he took up a pen from the table and
drew a sheet of paper toward him; "and do you also bear him company."

"Add, then, if your majesty pleases, that you desire the _bearer_ also
to appear."

The king looked at her an instant, then did as she suggested.

"And now, dame," said he, "relieve me from my durance, and allow me to
depart."

She hastily unfastened the door, and the king passed out. "Be sure,"
said he, as he lingered a moment at the threshold, "that you bring my
pretty Margaret with you; her fortunes, too, must be advanced at
court."

The old woman, after carefully fastening the door, threw herself into
a chair, and gave vent to a hearty burst of laughter.

"There, Nancy, you can come down," exclaimed the familiar voice of
Rochester, as the figure of the quondam Margaret appeared again upon
the stairs. "Thou art a good girl, and I will make thee a capital
actress yet. Old Rowley has again been outwitted!"

CHAPTER VII.

The next morning three strangers--two old men and a young girl--were
admitted to the palace of Whitehall, on showing the king's order to
that effect, but only one of the men was immediately cond