ather give them to me,
since I am the King," his politeness leaves him; he gets away to London
to warn the police as fast as his horse will take him. Thus it was with
the Duke's friends scattered about along the main-road from Lyme to
Bristol.

I know not who persuaded the Duke to march; probably it was Grey; it may
have been Venner; it may have been a momentary mad resolution caused
by a glass of wine. They say that he was solemn about it, as though he
expected to fail. Perhaps he would have gone back to Holland if the ship
had been still in the harbour, but of course she had gone away. He would
not go in La Reina; for she was sluggish from barnacles, having been
long un-careened. The Channel at this time was full of ships looking for
him; how he escaped them when he sailed from Holland I cannot think. He
hesitated for a long time, poor man, before deciding; no man could have
acted more like a Stuart, at such a time. When the decision was made he
gave word to start early on the following morning. But this I did not
know till one A.M, when Lord Grey routed me out from my berth on the
hearth-rug, so that I might go from house to house, calling up our
officers.

I suppose that all our officers were out of bed by two o'clock, yet
it took them eight hours to get their men together, into some sort of
order. We were hardly ready for the road at ten A.M. when the drums
beat up to play us out of the town. As I was the Duke's servant, I was
allowed to ride by my master; I daresay people thought that I was the
young Prince. We marched up the hill gaily, with a multitude flocking
all about us, but there were many of that crowd who looked doubtfully
at my master's sad face, thinking that he looked over-melancholy for a
conquering king.

We marched out of Lyme into a valley, through a sort of suburb called
Uplyme. After that we marched steadily up hill, a long climb of two
miles, having a great view of the countryside on our left hand. Our
right was shut from us by a wooded hill. It was a warm, sunny June day:
the grass just ripe for hay harvest; the country at its best; everything
at its full flower, so that you wondered at the world's abundance. We
sent out scouts, when we were about a mile from Lyme; but when we were
at the top of the hill we could see for ourselves, without putting
scouts abroad. We could see horsemen on the high ground away to the
left, two or three hundred of them. Besides these there were some
companies o