Beau Brocade | Page 7

cottage and forge at the cross-roads, and
honest Stich felt that as everything that was good in life had come from
my lord and his family, so everything he could give should be theirs in
return.
"Ah! I fear me!" sighed the young man, "that it is your life you risk
now by sheltering me."
Yet it was all such a horrible mistake.
Philip James Cascoyne, eleventh Earl of Stretton was at this time not
twenty-one years of age. There is that fine portrait of him at Brassing
Hall painted by Hogarth just before this time. The artist has well caught
the proud features, the fine blue eyes, the boyish, curly head, which
have been the characteristics of the Gascoynes for many generations.
He has also succeeded in indicating the sensitiveness of the mouth, that
somewhat feminine turn of the lips, that all too-round curve of the chin
and jaw, which perhaps robs the handsome face of its virile manliness.
There certainly is a look of indecision, of weakness of will about the
lower part of the face, but it is so frank, so young, so insouciant, that it
wins all hearts, even if it does not captivate the judgment.
Of course, when he was very young, his sympathies went out to the
Stuart cause. Had not the Gascoynes suffered and died for Charles
Stuart but a hundred years ago? Why the change? Why this allegiance
to an alien dynasty, to a king who spoke the language of his subjects
with a foreign accent?
His father, the late Lord Stretton, a contented, unargumentative British
nobleman of the eighteenth century, had not thought it worth his while
to explain to the growing lad the religious and political questions
involved in the upholding of this foreign dynasty. Perhaps he did not
understand them altogether himself. The family motto is "Pour le Roi."
So the Gascoynes fought for a Stuart when he was King, and against
him when he was a Pretender, and old Lord Stretton expected his
children to reverence the family motto, and have no opinions of their
own.

And yet to the hearts of many the Staurt cause made a strong appeal.
From Scotland came the fame of the "bonnie Prince" who won all
hearts where'er he went. Philip was young, his father's discipline was
irksome, he had some friends among the Highland lords: and while his
father lived there had as yet been no occasion in the English Midlands
to do anything very daring for the Stuart Pretender.
When the Earl of Stretton died, Philip, a mere boy then, succeeded to
title and estates. In the first flush of new duties and new responsibilities
his old enthusiasm remained half forgotten. As a peer of the realm he
had registered his allegiance to King George, and with his youthful
romantic nature all afire, he clung to that new oath of his, idealized it
and loyally resisted the blandishments and lures held out to him from
Scotland and from France.
Then came the news that Charles Edward, backed by French money
and French influence, would march upon London and would stop at
Derby to rally round his standard his friends in the Midlands.
Young Lord Stretton, torn between memories of his boyhood and the
duties of his new position, feared to be inveigled into breaking his
allegiance to King George. The malevolent fairy who at his birth had
given him that weak mouth and softly rounded chin, had stamped his
worst characteristic on the young handsome face. Philip's one hope at
this juncture was to flee from temptation; he knew that Charles Edward,
remembering his past ardour, would demand his help and his adherence,
and that he, Philip, might be powerless to resist.
So he fled from the county: despising himself as a coward, yet boyishly
clinging to the idea that he would keep the oath he had sworn to King
George. He wished to put miles of country between himself and the
possible breaking
of that oath, the possible yielding to the "bonnie Prince" whom none
could resist. He left his sister, Lady Patience, at Stretton Hall, well
cared for by old retainers, and he, a loyal subject to his King, became a
fugitive.

Then came the catastrophe: that miserable retreat from Derby, the
bedraggled remains of a disappointed army; finally Culloden and
complete disaster; King George's soldiers scouring the country for
rebels, the bills of attainder, the quick trials and swift executions.
Soon the suspicion grew into certainty that the fugitive Earl of Stretton
was one of the Pretender's foremost adherents. On his weary way from
Derby Prince Charles Edward had asked and obtained a night's shelter
at Stretton Hall. When Philip tried to communicate with his sister, and
to return to his home, he found that she was watched, and