, take the boy and give him a kiss to show that he has
been a good lad. He has done his duty, as a Stukely ought to do,
and that should be enough for all of us. But let us have no
nonsense talked. What will the country come to if everyone who does
his duty as it should be done expects to be called a hero, and I
know not what besides? The prince is safe, and the boy likewise.
Now off to bed with him, and no more nonsense to be talked in my
hearing.

"God bless you, child! You'll live yet to be a credit to the name
you bear."

And Paul was made happier by that one word from his stern though
loving sire than by all the praises he had heard lavished upon
himself during the past hours. For there was no one in the wide
world that the child so reverenced as his dark-browed father, who
seldom praised his children, and was inflexible in his punishments
whenever they were deserved. To be told by him that he had done his
duty, and would be a credit to his house, was happiness far beyond
his deserts, he thought; and he registered a mental vow, deep down
in his brave little heart, that he would never in time to come give
the world cause to say he had not lived up to the promise of his
boyhood.

The loving sympathy with which his mother listened to his story,
the caresses she showered upon him in thought of the deadly peril
in which he had stood, and the hearty approbation of his brothers
and the retainers and servants in his father's halls, were a small
pleasure as compared with those few brief, almost stern, words from
that father himself. Even the notification that he was to present
himself on the Monday before the king and queen added little to his
happiness, although the idea of seeing once again his admired
little prince could not but fill him with gratification.

His father led him to the royal presence, and bowed low on hearing
himself thanked for having brought up sons who so well demonstrated
the loyalty and devotion which had been born and bred in them. But
Paul scarce heard what passed, for the little prince dashed forward
to take him round the neck, kissing him with all the natural grace
of childhood, whilst half rebuking him for having denied him his
own legitimate share in the adventure.

"If we had but been together we would have achieved our own
liberty," he said, his bright eyes flashing with the spirit of his
ancestors. "We would have shown them what Plantagenet blood could
do. I would I had been there. I w