The Last Hope

Last Hope, The

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Hope, by Henry Seton
Merriman Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to
check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or
redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Last Hope
Author: Henry Seton Merriman
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8493] [This file was first posted on
July 16, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LAST
HOPE ***

This etext was prepared by Les Bowler, St. Ives, Dorset.

THE LAST HOPE
BY HENRY SETON MERRIMAN.

"What is it thou knowest, sweet voice?" I cried. "A hidden hope," the
voice replied.

CONTENTS
I. LE ROI EST MORT II. VIVE LE ROI III. THE RETURN OF "THE
LAST HOPE" IV. THE MARQUIS'S CREED V. ON THE DYKE VI.
THE STORY OF THE CASTAWAYS VII. ON THE SCENT VIII.
THE LITTLE BOY WHO WAS A KING IX. A MISTAKE X. IN THE
ITALIAN HOUSE XI. A BEGINNING XII. THE SECRET OF
GEMOSAC XIII. WITHIN THE GATES XIV. THE LIFTED VEIL
XV. THE TURN OF THE TIDE XVI. THE GAMBLERS XVII. ON
THE PONT ROYAL XVIII. THE CITY THAT SOON FORGETS
XIX. IN THE BREACH XX. "NINETEEN" XXI. NO. 8 RUELLE ST.
JACOB XXII. DROPPING THE PILOT XXIII. A SIMPLE BANKER
XXIV. THE LANE OF MANY TURNINGS XXV. SANS RANCUNE
XXVI. RETURNED EMPTY XXVII. OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF
BABES XXVIII. BAREBONE'S PRICE XXIX. IN THE DARK XXX.
IN THE FURROW AGAIN XXXI. THE THURSDAY OF MADAME
DE CHANTONNAY XXXII. PRIMROSES XXXIII. DORMER
COLVILLE IS BLIND XXXIV. A SORDID MATTER XXXV. A

SQUARE MAN XXXVI. MRS. ST. PIERRE LAWRENCE DOES
NOT UNDERSTAND XXXVII. AN UNDERSTANDING XXXVIII.
A COUP-D'ETAT XXXIX. "JOHN DARBY" XL. FARLINGFORD
ONCE MORE
CHAPTER I.
LE ROI EST MORT

"There; that's it. That's where they buried Frenchman," said
Andrew--known as River Andrew. For there was another Andrew who
earned his living on the sea.
River Andrew had conducted the two gentlemen from "The Black
Sailor" to the churchyard by their own request. A message had been
sent to him in the morning that this service would be required of him,
to which he had returned the answer that they would have to wait until
the evening. It was his day to go round Marshford way with dried fish,
he said; but in the evening they could see the church if they still set
their minds on it.
River Andrew combined the light duties of grave-digger and clerk to
the parish of Farlingford in Suffolk with a small but steady business in
fish of his own drying, nets of his own netting, and pork slain and
dressed by his own weather-beaten hands.
For Farlingford lies in that part of England which reaches seaward
toward the Fatherland, and seems to have acquired from that proximity
an insatiable appetite for sausages and pork. On these coasts the killing
of pigs and the manufacture of sausages would appear to employ the
leisure of the few, who for one reason or another have been deemed
unfit for the sea. It is not our business to inquire why River Andrew
had never used the fickle element. All that lay in the past. And in a
degree he was saved from the disgrace of being a landsman by the
smell of tar and bloaters that heralded his coming, by the blue jersey
and the brown homespun trousers which he wore all the week, and by

the saving word which distinguished him from the poor inland lubbers
who had no dealings with water at all.
He had this evening laid aside his old sou'wester--worn in fair and foul
weather alike--for his Sunday hat. His head-part was therefore official
and lent additional value to the words recorded. He spoke them,
moreover, with a dim note of aggressiveness which might only have
been racy of a soil breeding men who are curt and clear of speech. But
there was more than an East Anglian bluffness in the statement and the
manner of its delivery, as his next