r who was
inquiring for Mistress Deane, and Jack had actually entered the parlour,
where his mother was sitting with her knitting in hand, and been desired
to take a seat, when he wonderfully astonished the old lady by springing
up and throwing his arms round her neck. She knew him then well enough;
and after giving him a maternal embrace in return, holding him by both
hands, she looked again and again into his honest countenance, as if to
trace his well-known features.

"Yes, Jack," she exclaimed, "you are my boy! I would not believe any
one who told me otherwise, though the sun and the sea air have given you
a more brazen face than I ever expected you would wear, and you have
grown into a big, sturdy young man, well able to fight the king's
enemies."

Old Mr Deane soon afterwards entered, hearing that a stranger had been
inquiring for him. He confessed that if Mistress Deane had not been
there to swear to him he should scarcely have known his own son.

Jack did not allow any thoughts which would mar his happiness to intrude
while he sat between his kind parents, each of them holding one of his
hands in theirs, while he gave them an account of his various
proceedings since he had last written, among which he described his
rescue of the Dutch gentleman, and his visit to Mr Gournay. His mother
told him of Mr Harwood's supposed death abroad.

"Yes, dame. It was not so unfortunate, however," observed Mr Deane;
"the poor gentleman was so deeply implicated in the Jacobite plots, that
he would have lost his property if he had come back; but through the
interest of many friends, and I may say I was one of them, we contrived
to preserve his estates for Alethea. Poor man! his last days were very
sad. He went to James's court at Saint Germain's, where he expected to
be received with respect, as having suffered in the cause of the king.
He wrote me an account of his visit. The palace in which James resided
was magnificent. A handsome pension was allowed him by the French king,
and he had guards, and a large establishment of hounds and huntsmen, and
every means of amusing himself. He was, however, surrounded by
ecclesiastics who ruled every thing, including the king himself.
Nothing indeed could be more dull than the life spent by the courtiers,
their sole employment appearing to be backbiting each other. Mr
Harwood soon found also that he himself had committed a great crime in
the eyes of those by whom he was surrou