eceived us with great civility;
and looked at me with much interest, being a tall and fine young
man himself, but not to compare with me in size, although far better
favoured. I liked his face well enough, but thought there was something
false about it. He put me a few keen questions, such as a man not
assured of honesty might have found hard to answer; and he stood in a
very upright attitude, making the most of his figure.

I saw nothing to be proud of, at the moment, in this interview; but
since the great Duke of Marlborough rose to the top of glory, I have
tried to remember more about him than my conscience quite backs up.
How should I know that this man would be foremost of our kingdom in
five-and-twenty years or so; and not knowing, why should I heed
him, except for my own pocket? Nevertheless, I have been so
cross-questioned--far worse than by young Lord Churchill--about His
Grace the Duke of Marlborough, and what he said to me, and what I said
then, and how His Grace replied to that, and whether he smiled like
another man, or screwed up his lips like a button (as our parish tailor
said of him), and whether I knew from the turn of his nose that no
Frenchman could stand before him: all these inquiries have worried me
so, ever since the Battle of Blenheim, that if tailors would only print
upon waistcoats, I would give double price for a vest bearing
this inscription, 'No information can be given about the Duke of
Marlborough.'

Now this good Lord Churchill--for one might call him good, by comparison
with the very bad people around him--granted without any long hesitation
the order for my safe deliverance to the Court of King's Bench at
Westminster; and Stickles, who had to report in London, was empowered to
convey me, and made answerable for producing me. This arrangement would
have been entirely to my liking, although the time of year was bad for
leaving Plover's Barrows so; but no man may quite choose his times,
and on the while I would have been quite content to visit London, if my
mother could be warned that nothing was amiss with me, only a mild, and
as one might say, nominal captivity. And to prevent her anxiety, I did
my best to send a letter through good Sergeant Bloxham, of whom I heard
as quartered with Dumbarton's regiment at Chedzuy. But that regiment was
away in pursuit; and I was forced to entrust my letter to a man who said
that he knew him, and accepted a shilling to see to it.

For fear of any un