de Solivet gravely answered that our brother was detained by a
suit with the Poligny family respecting the estate of Ribaumont, and,
besides, that the rapidity of the journey would not have agreed with
his state of health. I only then fully understood the matter, for
our letter had been few, and had to be carefully written and made
short; and though I knew that, at the battle of Naseby, Eustace had
been wounded and made prisoner, he had written to me that his hurt
was not severe, and that he had been kindly treated, through the
intervention of our cousin Harry Merrycourt, who, to our great
regret, was among the rebels, but who had become surety for Eustace
and procured his release.
I now heard that my brother had been kept with the other prisoners in
a miserable damp barn, letting in the weather on al sides, and with
no bedding or other comforts, so that when Harry Merrycourt sought
him out, he had taken a violent chill, and had nearly died, not from
the wound, but from pleurisy. He had never entirely recovered,
though my mother thought him much stronger and better since he had
been in France, out of sight of all that was so sad and grievous to a
loyal cavalier in England.
'They must come to me,' I cried. 'He will soon be well in this
beautiful air; I will feed him with goat's mild and whey, and
Tryphena shall nurse him well.'
M. de Solivet made no answer to this, but told me how delighted the
Queen of England had to welcome my mother, whom she had at once
appointed as one of her ladies of the bedchamber; and then we spoke
of King Charles, who was at Hampton Court, trying to make terms with
the Parliament, and my brother spoke with regret and alarm of the
like spirit of resistance in our own Parliament of Paris, backed by
the mob.
Pages:
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108