Roger Willoughby

Roger Willoughby
A Story of the Times of Benbow
by W.H.G. Kingston
CHAPTER ONE.
"Hillo, Roger! glad to find you at last. I have been hunting up and down
along the cliffs for the last hour or more, till I began to fear that you
must have been carried off by a Barbary corsair, or spirited away on the
end of Mother Shipton's broomstick."
The speaker was a fine-looking lad of sixteen, dressed in the costume
worn by Puritans in the time of the second Charles--a long cloth coat of
unobtrusive hue, knee-breeches, high-heeled shoes with large buckles,
a thick neckcloth tied in a bow, and a high-crowned, broad-brimmed
hat; but the brim of the lad's hat was looped up on one side by a rosette
of silver lace, his shoe-buckles were of massive silver, his neckcloth
was of silk, and his coat of fine cloth, betokening that he was of the
rank of a gentleman, and that, if a Puritan, he had taken no small pains
to set his person off to the best advantage.
"Faith! I had no idea that I had been so long hidden away in my cosy
nook, and if you had not ferreted me out, Stephen, I should likely
enough have lain perdu for another hour or more," answered Roger, a
sturdy blue-eyed boy, apparently a year or two younger than Stephen
Battiscombe, and of the same station in life; but his dress, though of
gayer colours and less precise cut than that of his friend, was somewhat
threadbare, and put on as if he had not troubled himself much about the
matter. "See, I have been studying the art of navigation, and begin to
hope that I shall be able to sail a ship through distant seas as well as
Drake or Cavendish, or Sir Martin Frobisher, or Sir Richard Grenville,
or the great Christopher Columbus himself,--ay, and maybe to imitate
their gallant deeds," he continued, holding up a small well-thumbed

volume. "I have not made as much progress this morning as I expected
to do, for I have ever and anon been watching yonder fine ship, which
has long been in sight, striving to beat down Channel against this light
westerly breeze, but for some time past she has made no progress, or
rather has been drifting back to the eastward."
"It seems to me that she is standing in this way," observed Stephen,
shading his eyes with his hand from the noonday sun. "Certes, she is a
goodly craft, and light as is the wind slips swiftly through the water."
"Would that I were on board of her!" exclaimed Roger. "She is
doubtless bound out to some of those strange lands of which I have
read in Master Purchas Pilgrims, and many another book of voyages.
How I long to visit those regions, and to behold with mine own eyes
the wonderful sights they present!"
"Many, you should understand, are mere travellers' tales--lying fables--
such as Sir John de Mandeville would make us believe about monsters,
half man and half beast, and people walking about with their heads
under their arms, and cities of marble, the windows of precious stones,
and the streets paved with gold, and such like extravagances," observed
Stephen. "I much doubt also whether your father will readily accede to
your wishes. Think how he would grieve should any of the many
mishaps befall you which so often overtake those who voyage on the
treacherous ocean."
"My father knows that I must seek my fortune in some calling or other,
and he would be well pleased were I to come back with a goodly store
of the gold of Golconda to restore the impoverished fortunes of our
house," answered Roger, still looking eagerly towards the approaching
ship.
"Day-dreams, my friend, day-dreams,--natural enough, but very
unlikely to come true," said Stephen in a somewhat sententious tone,
such as he considered became one of his mature years. If the truth were
to have been known, however, Master Stephen Battiscombe was apt to
indulge in day-dreams himself, though of a different character--a
judge's wig and robes, or even a seat on the Woolsack, were not beyond

his aspirations. He now added, "But we must stop talking here longer.
See, the sun is already at his height in the heavens; an we delay the
Colonel and Madam Pauline will be justly chiding us for being late to
dinner."
"I am ready," answered Roger, still, however, lingering and watching
the ship in the offing. "But tell me, what cause brought you to Eversden
this morning?"
"I came over to ask you to return with me to Langton, that you might
join us in making war on the young rooks, which have increased too
greatly in our woods of late. Not finding you, I would fain,