the army in Holland.
And then ... I say, Harry, you won't tell, now?"

Harry again made a vow of secrecy.

"Well, there used to be all sorts of fun, you know: my Lady Marlborough
was very fond of us, and she said I was to be her page; and she got 'Trix
to be a maid of honour, and while she was up in her room crying, we used
to be always having fun, you know; and the duchess used to kiss me, and so
did her daughters, and Blandford fell tremendous in love with 'Trix, and
she liked him; and one day he--he kissed her behind a door--he did
though,--and the duchess caught him, and she banged such a box of the ear
both to 'Trix and Blandford--you should have seen it! And then she said
that we must leave directly, and abused my mamma, who was cognizant of the
business; but she wasn't--never thinking about anything but father. And so
we came down to Walcote. Blandford being locked up, and not allowed to see
'Trix. But _I_ got at him. I climbed along the gutter, and in through the
window, where he was crying.

" 'Marquis,' says I, when he had opened it and helped me in, 'you know I
wear a sword,' for I had brought it.

" 'Oh, viscount,' says he--'oh, my dearest Frank!' and he threw himself
into my arms and burst out a-crying. 'I do love Mistress Beatrix so, that
I shall die if I don't have her.'

" 'My dear Blandford,' says I, 'you are young to think of marrying;' for
he was but fifteen, and a young fellow of that age can scarce do so, you
know.

" 'But I'll wait twenty years, if she'll have me,' says he. 'I'll never
marry--no never, never, never, marry anybody but her. No, not a princess,
though they would have me do it ever so. If Beatrix will wait for me, her
Blandford swears he will be faithful.' And he wrote a paper (it wasn't
spelt right, for he wrote: 'I'm ready to _sine with my blode_', which you
know, Harry, isn't the way of spelling it), and vowing that he would marry
none other but the Honourable Mistress Gertrude Beatrix Esmond, only
sister of his dearest friend Francis James, fourth Viscount Esmond. And so
I gave him a locket of her hair."

"A locket of her hair!" cries Esmond.

"Yes. 'Trix gave me one after the fight with the duchess that very day. I
am sure I didn't want it; and so I gave it him, and we kissed at parting,
and said--'Good-bye, brother.' And I got back through the gutter; and we
set off home that very evening. And he went to King's College, in
Cambridge, and _I'm_ going to Cambridge soon; a