A March on London | Page 2

MATTERS OVER WITH THE PRIOR OF ST.
ALWYTH.
"IN A MOMENT EDGAR'S SWORD FELL ON THE RUFFIAN'S
WRIST."
THE LORD MAYOR STABS WAT THE TYLER IN PRESENCE OF
THE BOY-KING.
EDGAR AND ALBERT ARE KNIGHTED BY KING RICHARD.
THE TWO YOUNG KNIGHTS CHARGE DOWN UPON THE
PANIC-STRICKEN CROWD.
SIR EDGAR AT LAST SURRENDERS TO SIR ROBERT DE
BEAULIEU.
THE PRISONERS MAKE THEIR ESCAPE OVER THE ROOFS OF
YPRES.

A MARCH ON LONDON

CHAPTER I
TROUBLED TIMES
"And what do you think of it all, good Father?"
"'Tis a difficult question, my son, and I am glad that it is one that wiser
heads than mine will have to solve."
"But they don't seem to try to solve it; things get worse and worse. The
king is but a lad, no older than myself, and he is in the hands of others.
It seems to me a sin and a shame that things should go on as they are at
present. My father also thinks so."

The speaker was a boy of some sixteen years old. He was walking with
the prior in the garden of the little convent of St. Alwyth, four miles
from the town of Dartford. Edgar Ormskirk was the son of a scholar.
The latter, a man of independent means, who had always had a
preference for study and investigation rather than for taking part in
active pursuits, had, since the death of his young wife, a year after the
birth of his son, retired altogether from the world and devoted himself
to study. He had given up his comfortable home, standing on the
heights of Highgate--that being in too close proximity to London to
enable him to enjoy the seclusion that he desired--and had retired to a
small estate near Dartford.
Educated at Oxford, he had gone to Padua at his father's death, which
happened just as he left the university, and had remained at that seat of
learning for five years. There he had spent the whole of his income in
the purchase of manuscripts. The next two years were passed at
Bologna and Pisa, and he there collected a library such as few
gentlemen of his time possessed. Then Mr. Ormskirk had returned to
England and settled at Highgate, and two years later married the
daughter of a neighbouring gentleman, choosing her rather because he
felt that he needed someone to keep his house in order, than from any
of the feeling that usually accompanies such unions. In time, however,
he had come to love her, and her loss was a very heavy blow to him. It
was the void that he felt in his home as much as his desire for solitude,
that induced him to leave Highgate and settle in the country.
Here, at least, he had no fear of intrusive neighbours, or other
interruptions to his studies. The news from London seldom reached his
ears, and he was enabled to devote himself entirely to his experiments.
Like many other learned men of his age, it was to chemistry that he
chiefly turned his attention. His library comprised the works of almost
every known writer on the subject, and he hoped that he might gain an
immortal reputation by discovering one or both of the great secrets then
sought for--the elixir of life, or the philosopher's stone that would
convert all things into gold. It was not that he himself had any desire
for a long life, still less did he yearn for more wealth than he possessed,
but he fondly believed that these discoveries would ameliorate the

condition of mankind.
He did not see that if gold was as plentiful as the commonest metal it
would cease to be more valuable than others, or that the boon of a long
life would not add to the happiness of mankind. For some years he gave
little thought to his son, who was left to such care as the old
housekeeper and the still older man-servant chose to bestow upon him,
and who, in consequence, was left altogether to follow the dictates of
his own fancy. The child, therefore, lived almost entirely in the open air,
played, tussled, and fought with boys of his own age in the village, and
grew up healthy, sturdy, and active. His father scarcely took any heed
of his existence until the prior of the Convent of St. Alwyth one day
called upon him.
"What are you going to do with your boy, Mr. Ormskirk?" he asked.
"My boy?" the student repeated in tones of surprise. "Oh, yes; Edgar, of
course. What am I going to do with him? Well, I have never thought
about it. Does he want anything? My housekeeper always sees to that.
Do you think that he wants a nurse?"
"A nurse, Mr. Ormskirk!"